1. Hanna - Hanna
Hanna has lived with her father, Erik, in a remote cabin in Finland, a few whiskers shy of the Arctic circle, since she was two. Much like Fresh, Hanna starts the movie on hard mode: Erik is an ex-C.I.A. operative and has trained her to be a stone cold (figuratively and literally, in this case) badass, keeping her entirely isolated from the outside world and in grueling physical, mental, and emotional training every day of her life. The two of them live entirely off the land without any modern conveniences; if they f*ck up, they're screwed. "Adapt or die." When Hanna decides she wants to return to this "civilization" she's heard stories of, things gets even harder. In the space of a few days, she has to contend with things like making friends, electricity, and would-be assassins: all things she's never had any experience with (except maybe, thanks to her dad, the assassins). Yet Hanna's kill count in this movie is rivalled only by Hit Girl's (at least as far as this list is concerned), and her improvisational skills are second to none. Adapt or die. What makes Hanna really creepy, though, is how otherworldly and bizarre she is. Saoirse Ronan does a great job with a character that could easily be kind of gimmicky; the makeup and lighting people do a great job of making her
look plain unsettling. Hanna is as pale and drained of color as the Finish landscape she called home for thirteen years. The thing that makes Hanna the most badass, however, is that it's not ever really an effort on her part. It's become who she is. Everyone else on the list has to go on an adventure, or perform an heroic act, or separate their inner, true selves from a badass persona. At the least, they are a raging berserker who needs provocation to unlock their violent tendencies. In other words: they know how to be normal. Hanna is beyond that. She sweats, breathes, and bleeds badassery; to her, normal
is badassery. When she finds herself in the protection of a British family vacationing in Morocco, Hanna decides to show her thankfulness by getting breakfast for them. Most people would fry a couple eggs or make waffles. Hanna gleefully announces that she's fetched breakfast and slams a couple of skinned rabbit carcasses on the table. Of course, maybe Hanna has an unfair advantage over the competition. Like a Lady Gaga song, Hanna was born this way: she is the product of an American program with aims to genetically modify fetuses to be super-soldiers. But who's going to quibble about that when she's got a knife to your throat?
Think you're tougher than these kids? Let us know in the comments section below.