Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton)
Seen in The Terminator & T2 (1984 & 1991)

Sarah begins the Terminator series as a mild-mannered, easily-walked-over waitress. But when she discovers that her unborn son will lead a revolution against evil robots – and one of them has been sent back to, erm, terminate her – she begins an incredible transformation into nails-hard, no-nonsense mercenary. By the time we get to Terminator 2, she has teamed with a T-1000 Terminator (a good guy this time around) to battle the shape-shifting T-1000.

Most Badass Moment: With the T-800 out of commission, Sarah protects her son Jon by pumping the T-1000’s liquid-metal body with shotgun blasts.

Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson)
Seen in the Avengers franchise (2010-present)

Hulk has his strength, Captain America has his shield, Thor has thunder and lightning, Hawkeye has his bow, and Iron Man has his suit. So what does Black Widow AKA Natasha Romanova have? Double-hard fighting skills and serious smarts, that’s what. She doesn’t need powers or magic weapons. Black Widow can handle it all by herself. Which is why she has been the backbone of the Avengers team from the very start.

Most Badass Moment: Tied to a chair and interrogated by a Russian mobster, it becomes clear that it’s a clever ruse – a way to infiltrate the mobsters (and then beat them up for good measure).