5. Lisbeth Salander - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Though Lisbeth Salander packs a lot of physical strength (yet so thin!) and deftness, it is her no-nonsense personality that most makes her a force to be reckoned with. She is sharply observant and blunt, which makes her intimidating from the start. However, the intricacies and the dangers lie not in her investigated cases alone. Lisbeth as a fiercely complex, talented mastermind also follows through with her vengeances with such intensity that her retaliations against a rapist character, for one, could literally scare audiences sick. She is deceptive, highly mysterious, effective, intimidating, and clearly the best in her career field. She is unrelenting but not brutal; instead fair, disciplined, and respected. Perhaps what makes this woman of a book series one who is so fearsome is the fact that she is so unapologetically herself, nobly genuine in a way that presents not as vulnerable but as frighteningly unshakable. Considering the daunting awesomeness of the Lisbeth of the Swedish series of movies released prior to David Fincher's American adaptation, the fear does not stop with Rooney Mara's Academy Award-nominaed performance.