10. Panic Room - Meg Altman (Jodie Foster)
It isn't too often we see the esteemed Jodie Foster in action mode, so when she does play tough she really makes it count. Trapped in her new home with her daughter (a young Kristen Stewart) when criminals break in to steal the contents of the previous owner's vault, Foster's Meg is an ordinary woman pushed by one night of extraordinary circumstance to fight back. You could almost call her a female John McClane; she's got the vest, after all. Having been something of a last-minute replacement when the originally cast Nicole Kidman was forced to drop out, Foster's involvement in Panic Room reportedly saw the character of Meg revised to be tougher and more proactive than she'd been in David Koepp's script. And as her daughter is a diabetic in need of her insulin, the stakes are that bit higher.