20 Most Badass Female Horror Characters Ever

The original Alien really is as much horror as it is sci-fi, and Ellen Ripley completely fits the formula of the “final girl." The last half hour is one of the tensest sequences in horror history, and it's made all the more effective by the fact that you’re totally on board with Ripley as a character. She isn’t a slasher victim running through the ship screaming and making dumb decisions. You get the sense that she’s the most capable person from the start, and so when the creature is a huge threat to even her, that makes it even scarier.

In a completely unforgettable ending, Ripley has the alien cornered, so she quickly opens the latch so it can be sucked out. But when it hangs on at the last moment, she doesn’t even hesitate before shooting it and launching the thing out into space. It tries to make it back in, but nope, Ripley fires up the engine and blasts the creature into a million pieces. Amazing.

She’s just as incredible all throughout the franchise, fighting Xenomorphs inside a power loader in Aliens and shouting, “Get away from her you bitch!” Ripley really is one of the greatest protagonists of all time in any genre, a character so unstoppable that not even death would be the end for her.