25 of Horror’s Best Final Girls – A Definitive Countdown of Horror’s Toughest Heroines - *Spoilers*

Welcome to Knockout Horror. It’s spooky month right now and I imagine a lot of you are already knee-deep into your 31 Days of Halloween movie marathons. One thing you have probably noticed popping up repeatedly in your horror viewing is iconic final girls. That unforgettable survivor who refuses to go down without a fight. That’s why I decided today would be a great opportunity to bring you this list of 25 of Horror’s Best Final Girls. Buckle up, this is a long one.

Our Favourite Final Girls

Final Girls is a term coined by scholar Carol J. Clover to describe the last character left standing to confront the killer, monster, or threat. She is resourceful, resilient, and forever changed by her ordeal. Over the years, the archetype has shifted from that of your picture perfect good-girl into something altogether more gritty and complex. One thing has never changed, though. The final girl is the character we are all rooting for and the reason we watch horror in the first place.

In this list, we are celebrating 25 of horror’s best final girls. I don’t want to just look at the usual suspects, though; that’s not how we do things at Knockout Horror. I want to include some slightly more obscure ladies who just don’t get enough love. We also have a few rules to follow, namely only one character per-series and the character must be alive at the end of the film in at least one version of the film.

We are going to go through the list from the beginnings of the final girl trope right through to its modern evolution before looking at our Final Girl Mount Rushmore. From slasher survivors to scream-queens who turned the idea of predator and prey upside down, these are 25 of of my favourite final girls. Before we begin, keep in mind, there will be spoilers below. Let’s take a look.

The Proto-Final Girls

Let’s kick things off with the proto-final girls and a few early horror icons. These are the characters that would go on to define the trope for years to come. They might not be the most obvious examples but each has an important place in horror history.

25. Suzy Bannion (Suspiria, 1977)

Dario Argento’s Suspiria is a sort-of-but-not-quite Giallo masterpiece and it definitely features a character worthy of kicking of this final girls list. American ballet dancer Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) doesn’t face a masked killer like a lot of the ladies on this list, but an ancient evil of a coven of witches is nothing to sniff at.

Navigating a surreal, nightmarish world of techno-colour and violence. Suzy uses her intellect to uncover the conspiracy and confront the coven’s leader, emerging from the fiery remains of the dance academy alone and probably just a tad disturbed for the experience. I think Suzy is a great candidate to kick things off.

What Makes Suzy Such a Great Final Girl: Suzy’s strength lies in her inquisitiveness and absolute refusal to be gaslit or pacified. While not really a physical powerhouse, she won’t accept the weird happenings as pure coincidence and, in doing so, uncovers a supernatural mystery that has claimed a bunch of lives. She survives not with a weapon, but with her perception and intelligence.

24. Melanie Daniels (The Birds, 1963)

The protagonist of Hitchcock’s nature-run-amok masterpiece, The Birds, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) is a bit of a different breed of final girl. She doesn’t fight a killer, but an inexplicable, overwhelming force. I am sure this entry is a bit confusing because… well, you know.. the ending. But I really wanted to include Melanie because she is, in my opinion, a true proto-final-girl and here’s why.

While she starts off as a cool, poised socialite, under the constant barrage of relentless bird attacks, she goes into survival mode. Despite her fear, she still pushes herself aside to comfort others and bravely marches into danger even when absolutely terrified. Sure, eventually the attacks succeed in stripping away her composure, leaving her a traumatised, catatonic shell, but up until that point she was the anti-Hitchcock girl. Hitchcock loved to frame his blonde stars as victims which explains the ending. But Melanie bucked the trend and went through a personal evolution that was just not seen at the time.

What Makes Melanie Such a Great Final Girl: Melanie is great because she isn’t a hero who triumphs, but a character that does everything she can to overcome something genuinely terrifying. Her survival in a catatonic state is one of the most haunting depictions of trauma in horror but it can’t undermine her place as a proto-final-girl.

23. Marti Gaines (Hell Night, 1981)

When Linda Blair was done turning heads (lol!) in The Exorcist, she went on to star in Hell Night, an underrated gem from the golden age of slashers. Pledged to a fraternity, Marti must spend the night in a supposedly haunted mansion. Little realising that she will soon be in a fight for her life against a figure from the home’s sordid past.

Unlike many of her peers, Marti is intelligent, capable, and mechanically skilled. She actively works to outsmart the killers, using her wits to set traps and survive the night. Marti didn’t feel at all like your typical horror victim from this era and that made a refreshing change.

What Makes Marti Such a Great Final Girl: Marti stands out due to her competence. She isn’t just a terrified victim who suddenly finds an overwhelming desire to survive. She’s a capable mechanic and problem-solver right from the very beginning. She is one of the few final girls of her era who is defined by her practical skills to overcome the killer.

22. Wendy Torrance (The Shining, 1980)

Let’s be honest, Shelley Duvall’s Wendy has taken some abuse over the years. Not just from Kubrick’s extreme style of directing but from horror fans the world over. Despite that, she is the terrified heart of The Shining. Doing everything she can to survive after her alcoholic husband turns into a violent maniac.

It’s the way Wendy does it that deserves some serious respect, too. She isn’t a knife-wielding warrior or even all that physically capable. She’s just a mother pushed to the absolute brink who does whatever it takes, including trying to crack a baseball bat over her husband’s bonce, to protect her child from the literal and figurative ghosts of the Overlook Hotel.

What Makes Wendy Such a Great Final Girl: Wendy’s power is her emotional realism and fierce maternal instinct. She represents survival through sheer endurance and love. She doesn’t quip or set elaborate traps; she mostly just screams a whole hell of a lot but she still finds the strength to drag her child through a frozen labyrinth to safety. Her survival feels painful, desperate, and entirely earned.

21. Jess Bradford (Black Christmas, 1974)

Before Laurie Strode, there was Jess Bradford. It’s important to discuss characters that were, what you might call, proto-final-girls and Jess is definitely one of them. The key thing to remember is that she was subverting the rules about the final girl archetype before they were even made.

The protagonist of one of my all time favourite slashers, Black Christmas. Jess is a sorority sister dealing with an unwanted pregnancy and a series of terrifying, obscene phone calls. She is thoughtful, independent, relentlessly brave, and refuses to be shamed for her choices. There were no assertions that she was a virginal character and her fierce independence would be a hint of some of the more fascinating final girls that would come in later years. Check out our review of Black Christmas right here.

What Makes Jess Such a Great Final Girl: Jess is the foundational blueprint of the Final Girl, even if the archetype would change rather rapidly. Her greatness comes from her quiet strength and remarkable autonomy in an era where female characters were often written to be passive. She is intelligent, morally complex, and refuses to be controlled by her boyfriend. She also rushes head first into danger when one of her friend’s lives is at stake.

The Complex and Unconventional

These final girls did things a little differently. Whether they defeated the odds in unexpected ways, used their wits to get ahead, or even embraced darkness to come out on the other side of a bad situation. All of these characters represented an unconventional approach to the trope.

20. Max Cartwright (The Final Girls, 2015)

A final girl in the most literal sense but definitely not the only protagonist from a self-aware meta horror movie on this list. After being transported into the 80s slasher film that starred her late mother, Max (Taissa Farmiga) must use her knowledge of horror tropes to help the film’s characters survive.

Final Girls is part spoof, part satire, and part legitimate slasher movie that works incredibly well. In fact, you could go as far as saying it has inspired a wave of similar movies such as Totally Killer. Another flick with a great final girl. The movie’s focus on grief, legacy, and what it truly means to be a survivor actually hit pretty deep.

What Makes Max Such a Great Final Girl: Max’s strength is in her emotional intelligence. While she uses her meta-knowledge of the genre to her advantage, the real enemy she needs to overcome is her own grief. Her journey is about saving her mother as much as saving herself, making her one of the few final girls whose primary motivation is love.

19. Jay Height (It Follows, 2014)

How about a final girl that is a little bit less obvious in the form of Jay Height from It Follows? Jay’s monster isn’t a man in a mask or a demented killer, but a sexually transmitted, slow-moving, shapeshifting entity. Continuously pursuing her and forcing her into a fight for survival against all odds.

Her struggle is a modern allegory for inescapable anxiety and trauma. As well as being a horror based depiction of a very real issue that impacts young people. Jay feels incredibly real, as well. She doesn’t have any special powers, she just has a relentless desire to survive and utilises her closest friends to help her do just that. Check out our review of It Follows right here.

What Makes Jay Such a Great Final Girl: Jay redefines survival for a modern age. Her enemy is a concept as much as a creature, and she defeats it an entirely different way than you might expect, by sharing the burden. Her quiet resilience and willingness to trust her friends in the face of something truly terrifying make her a powerful and relatable figure. She proves survival isn’t always a solo act.

18. Tree Gelbman (Happy Death Day, 2017)

Happy Death Day is a seriously underappreciated slasher movie and Tree Gelbman is one of horror’s best final girls. Trapped in a time loop that forces her to relive her murder over and over again until she can solve the mystery of her killer is. This movie sees our protagonist going through a lot more suffering than most.

Sorority girl Tree Gelbman evolves from a self-absorbed, arrogant stereotype into a resourceful survivor and a far better person to boot. Her journey is one of hilarious trial and error as each failed attempt she accumulates more knowledge but, also, more injuries. Tree is definitely one of the most developed final girls in modern horror. Check out our review of Happy Death Day right here.

What Makes Tree Such a Great Final Girl: Tree’s greatness comes from her evolution. The horror premise is not just an ordeal to be survived but also the jump off point for her personal self improvement. She uses each death to learn, adapt, and grow. Transforming from a selfish person into a genuine hero.

17. Dani Ardor (Midsommar, 2019)

Perhaps the most unconventional final girl but, let’s be honest, plenty of people still cheered for her at the end of Midsommar. After suffering an immense family tragedy, Dani (Florence Pugh) travels to a Swedish midsummer festival that is about to put the strength of her relationship to the ultimate test.

Dani “survives” not by escaping the cult, but by being emotionally broken down by life and effectively turning to the dark side. Not all final girls need to overcome some tremendous physical threat. Some stand out purely for surviving against overwhelming odds when life dumps a ton of shit on their plates. Dan’s iconic smile at the end pretty much says it all.

What Makes Dani Such a Great Final Girl: Dani is a deconstruction of the final girl archetype. Her “survival” isn’t an escape from horror, but an acceptance of it. She finds a strange type of catharsis and a new family in the community that orchestrates the nightmare. Dani reminds us that, sometimes, survival is a matter of psychological transformation rather than physical escape.

16. Thomasin (The Witch, 2015)

The Witch was one of the most noteworthy horror movies of the 2010s. It was also a breakout performance for Anya Taylor Joy in the role of Thomasin, the family’s teen daughter. Thomasin’s journey is one of a, perhaps, strange type of liberation. She becomes a survivor through acceptance of her dark fate.

Cast out by her fanatically religious family and blamed for their every misfortune in 17th-century New England, she endures a ton of loss. Her “final girl” status is cemented when, with her family gone and her world in tatters, she chooses to embrace the very evil she was accused of. After all, if you can’t beat them, join them. Check out our review of The Witch right here.

What Makes Thomasin Such a Great Final Girl: Thomasin represents survival through the acceptance of something otherwise horrifying. After being relentlessly persecuted and stripped of everything she loves, she finds power by embracing darkness. Her choice to “live deliciously” is a noteworthy act of agency, making her a final girl who actually turns to the dark side and is all the better for it.

Slasher Queens

This section is dedicated to some of our favourite slasher final girls. These ladies were faced with relentless evil and still came out swinging. None of them were built to fight back but did so regardless, earning them a privileged status among the greatest horror legends.

15. Sally Hardesty (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, 1974)

I’m not sure too many of the final girls on this list had the odds stacked against them quite like Sally Hardesty. Sally is the embodiment of raw, abject terror. She doesn’t outsmart or overpower Leatherface and his family; she simply screams a hell of a lot, runs like a maniac, and somehow endures.

Her survival is a miracle of stamina and an unrelenting will to live. The film’s final shot is one of the most iconic in horror and a great example of a final girl literally having the last laugh. Sally hysterical in the back of a pickup truck, covered in blood, having escaped a literal hell on earth, is still one of the most haunting images in horror. Check out our review of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre right here.

What Makes Sally Such a Great Final Girl: Sally’s greatness is in her sheer, unyielding will to live. She possesses no special skills or weapons; her only tool is her refusal to quit. She survives one of the most relentless and psychologically punishing assaults in horror history through pure endurance. How could she not count as one of the best final girls of all time?

14. Kirsty Cotton (Hellraiser, 1987)

Hellraiser’s Kirsty Cotton doesn’t get enough love when it comes to the 80’s final girl discussion. Perhaps because she doesn’t do anything with a lot of noise and flash, it’s more just a quiet sense of calm resolve. Kirsty doesn’t just face a masked killer; she faces the interdimensional sadomasochistic leather-clad demons The Cenobites.

What makes her a brilliant final girl is her intelligence. When faced with unspeakable horrors, she doesn’t just run. She negotiates, makes deals, and uses the puzzle box to outwit not only her monstrous uncle but Pinhead himself. Check out our review of Hellraiser right here.

What Makes Kirsty Such a Great Final Girl: Kirsty survives through intellectual bargaining and some serious balls. Pitted against god-like beings of pain and pleasure, she realises brute force is useless so succeeds by turning the Cenobites’ own infernal logic against them. She is the ultimate horror diplomat, proving a sharp mind is more effective than any weapon.

13. Ginny Field (Friday the 13th Part 2, 1981)

I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the Friday the 13th series. With that being said, the best final girl of the Friday the 13th franchise, in my opinion, is Ginny Field. Ginny is a child psychology major who uses her smarts to gain a psychological edge over Jason Voorhees.

In the film’s iconic climax, she famously puts on Pamela Voorhees’s sweater and convinces Jason she is his mother. It’s a clever ending that really swerves expectation and demonstrates Ginny’s incredible ability to be focused while under some serious pressure.

What Makes Ginny Such a Great Final Girl: Ginny is the thinking person’s final girl. In a genre often defined by running and screaming, she was one of the first to use her brains. Her decision to use her knowledge of child psychology to manipulate Jason was a master stroke of genius. Showing that there was more than one way to escape a hideous masked killer.

Prey Turned Predator

All of these final girls flipped the trope completely on its head. These ladies transformed from prey into predators. Taking the fight to their attackers and becoming nightmares in their own right.

12. Justine (Kristy, 2014)

Spoiler alert, I don’t actually think that this Thanksgiving-set thriller is all that good. With that being said, it’s impossible to deny what a great final girl Kristy’s Justine (Haley Bennett) is. Going from quiet college girl to ruthless killer, Justine is a perfect example of a final girl forged in fire.

Left alone on a deserted campus over the holiday, she is targeted by a murderous cyber-cult and forced into a fight for her life. Justine’s transformation from a terrified, cornered victim into a cunning and ruthless survivor is quite a lot of fun. She uses her knowledge of the campus as a weapon, turning swimming pools and chemistry labs into deadly traps just waiting to snare some unsuspecting asshole. Check out our review of Kristy right here.

What Makes Justine Such a Great Final Girl: Justine’s awesomeness lies in her fun character arc. She starts as genuinely terrified prey but makes a conscious decision to stop running and start fighting back. By embracing the “Kristy” moniker the cult uses for its victims, she appropriates their power, turns their mythology against them, and becomes the very monster they were trying to create.

11. Anna Peterson (The Guest, 2014)

Guess who’s back? Maika Monroe makes her second appearance on this list, and for good reason. Quite honestly, she could probably make a few more with a couple of movies I am not including. While The Guest blends action and thriller elements with its horror, Anna Peterson is a final girl for the modern age.

She’s not a victim at all; she’s an investigator. When the ridiculously charming soldier ‘David’ enters her family’s life, Anna is the only one who isn’t fooled. She trusts her instincts that something is deeply wrong and sets about uncovering the mystery.

What Makes Anna Such a Great Final Girl: Anna’s power is her intellectual scepticism. In a world where everyone else is charmed by David, she is the only one who listens to her gut. She actively uncovers the threat through observation long before the violence erupts. A great example of a final girl using brains over brawn.

10. Maddie Young (Hush, 2016)

A deaf-mute writer living in isolation must fight for her life when a masked killer appears at her window. Hush caused a whole lot of noise back when it released on Netflix in 2016 and for good reason. Maddie is one of the easiest final girls to root for and the movie is a good example of tight, tense, quiet horror.

Maddie is a masterclass in resourcefulness and doesn’t feel remotely as incapable as her disability might initially suggest. Hush goes out of its way to make sure that all your assumptions are going to be completely wrong. Her inability to hear becomes an actual strength, forcing her to rely on her other heightened senses and a keen intellect to turn the tables on her attacker.

What Makes Maddie Such a Great Final Girl: Maddie’s strength comes in how she adapts to her obvious weaknesses. The film brilliantly establishes the rules of her world, and she uses every single one to her advantage. Using her deafness, her environment, and even her imagination to anticipate her attacker’s moves and take the fight to them on her own terms.

9. Marybeth Dunston (Hatchet franchise, 2006-)

Is the Hatchet series’ Marybeth the first final girl on this list to entirely turn the table on her attacker? The sole survivor of the first film’s bayou massacre, Marybeth Dunston is a final girl fueled by pure, unadulterated vengeance and rage. Even better, she is played by the diminutive but ultra tough scream-queen legend Danielle Harris of Halloween fame.

Unlike those who simply want to escape, Marybeth repeatedly returns to Honey Island Swamp to confront the seemingly immortal Victor Crowley. Even at the end of the fourth film where she isn’t a main character, she makes her presence felt to remind Crowley that she will be coming for him.

What Makes Marybeth Such a Great Final Girl: Marybeth is defined by her relentless aggression. She completely rejects the victim role and entirely subverts what you might expect from a final girl. While most final girls are fighting to get away, Marybeth is always fighting to go back and that’s because she is a hunter, not prey.

8. Crystal Creasey (The Hunt, 2020)

A quiet and observant veteran from Mississippi. Crystal is the ultimate wild card in a deadly game of cat and mouse after her and 11 others are dropped in the middle of nowhere and hunted like game. In fact, she turns the entire story of The Hunt on its head. Creating a character that feels far more like a predator than prey.

While the other captives panic, she immediately assesses the situation with a self assured calm and military precision. Played with a perfect blend of deadpan humour and brutal competence by Betty Gilpin, Crystal is less a survivor and more a vicious force of nature. One of the most capable final girls and amazingly overlooked.

What Makes Crystal Such a Great Final Girl: Crystal is a subversion born of pure competence and ability. She completely short-circuits the horror narrative because her skill set (tracking, combat, tactics) is vastly superior to that of her hunters. Flipping the narrative of the movie completely on its head.

7. Grace Le Domas (Ready or Not, 2019)

Grace Le Domas obviously had to be on this list of best final girls. After all, there aren’t too many characters in horror who turn the tables on their attackers so dramatically. What starts as a wedding night of fun turns into a deadly game of hide-and-seek where the victim has to deal with more than just losing.

Grace, in her now-tattered wedding dress, transforms from a shocked bride turned victim into a furious, shotgun-wielding survivor. Fueled by righteous anger and a desperate will to live, she fights her new, satanic in-laws with everything she has. Check out our review of Ready Or Not right here.

What Makes Grace Such a Great Final Girl: Grace’s power comes from her absolute fury and sense of betrayal at her wedding being ruined. The ripping of her wedding dress symbolises her shedding of tradition, becoming a battle-hardened warrior who survives not just on fear, but on pure, cathartic rage.

6. Sarah Carter (The Descent, 2005)

I was a little torn here on whether to include Juno. Technically, if you know the sequel, she does survive the events of The Descent. Still, Sarah is the undeniable final girl in this series.. Well, depending on which version you treat as canon, that is.

Forged through a combination of grief and betrayal, Sarah is plunged into the literal darkness of a cave system inhabited by feral creatures but she isn’t ready to continue being a victim. She goes from a traumatised character to a primal warrior, emerging from a pool of blood with a lot less of her humanity intact but a desire to succeed at all costs. Check out our review of The Descent right here.

What Makes Sarah Such a Great Final Girl: Sarah’s story is one of primal rebirth. The physical horror of the cave mirrors her internal, psychological torment as she deals with both loss and betrayal. She survives by stripping away every last vestige of her former self to become something as feral and formidable as the monsters hunting her.

5. Erin Harson (You’re Next, 2011)

The final girl who was never in danger; Erin is the ultimate subversion of expectations, turning the table on her attackers in the most visceral way possible. When a family dinner is attacked by masked killers, Erin, who grew up on a survivalist compound, reveals she is far more capable and deadly than the people attacking her.

She turns the tables with ruthless efficiency, setting brutal traps and dispatching the home invaders one by one. It’s such a cathartic example of a director doing something unexpected with an overly familiar horror trope. Erin proved that final girls could be just as violent as the people attacking them. If this list was ranked on just deadliness alone, she would be right near the top.

What Makes Erin Such a Great Final Girl: Erin represents the complete inversion of the “damsel in distress” trope. She is great because she is the real threat from the moment the film begins. Her survivalist background makes her a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Turning the entire home invasion subgenre completely on its head. Erin is a great reminder that it is okay to smile when bad stuff happens to bad people.

The Final Girl Mount Rushmore

This is it! If you are going to carve the greatest final girls of all time into a mountain, this is who it would be. They aren’t just great examples of the trope, they are legendary horror figures in their own right.

4. Sidney Prescott (Scream franchise, 1996-)

Sidney Prescott is one of only two characters in this list that is actually aware of the fact that she is the quintessential final girl. Scream’s meta-horror concept forces her to use her knowledge of the genre to outwit her killers. She’s the ultimate deconstruction and reconstruction of the final girl trope.

Haunted by her past and targeted by killers who are obsessed with horror movie rules, Sidney refuses to be a stereotype or a victim. Over five films, she grows from a terrified damsel into a hardened veteran who meets each new Ghostface not with a scream, but with the weary and determined question, “What’s your favourite scary movie?”

What Makes Sidney Such a Great Final Girl: Sidney’s greatness is in her meta-textual resilience. She is a final girl who is explicitly aware of the tropes that are supposed to define her but continuously fights against them. Her multi-film arc is an exploration of trauma, strength, and survival in a world where horror is a self-referential, repeating cycle. She doesn’t just survive the killer; she survives the entire horror genre itself.

3. Nancy Thompson (A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984)

Hands up if you crushed hard on Nancy Thomson back when you first watched A Nightmare on Elm Street? While other final girls fought killers in the physical world, Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) took the fight to the dream world and whupped Freddy’s heavily scarred ass.

She is the ultimate proactive final girl who wasn’t about to lie down and let herself become another victim. After watching her friends die, she decides to fight back, studying up on survival traps and pulling Freddy Krueger into reality to face him on her own terms. It’s a great ending and definitely quite unexpected. Check out our review right here.

What Makes Nancy Such a Great Final Girl: Nancy embodies proactive ingenuity and horror movie smarts. She is the antithesis of a passive victim, even when faced with a supernatural killer nobody believes in. She trusts herself, researches her enemy, and formulates a brilliant, multi-layered plan to drag him out of his world and into hers where she becomes the predator.

2. Laurie Strode (Halloween, 1978)

You knew that Laurie was going to be high up on this list, right? She is the blueprint and the original. Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie Strode is the quintessential final girl: the quiet, intelligent babysitter, who isn’t willing to be a victim and, when faced with pure, motiveless evil in Michael Myers, discovers a deep well of strength she never knew she had.

Her use of knitting needles, coat hangers, and her wits to protect the children she’s watching defined the trope for generations. Laurie was a great example of not just heading into danger, but confronting it face to face and stabbing at it relentlessly for decades to follow. Check out our review of Halloween right here.

What Makes Laurie Such a Great Final Girl: Laurie is the perfect archetype. Her power lies in her relatability, she is like all of us, in a way. She isn’t a warrior or a survivalist; she is just an ordinary, intelligent teenager who rises to an extraordinary occasion. Her transformation from a shy, bookish girl into a fierce protector is actually believable. She really embodies the core principle of the final girl: the discovery of your own immense inner strength when faced with pure evil.

1. Ellen Ripley (Alien, 1979)

Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley is not just a final girl; she’s a final woman and one of cinema’s greatest heroes, period. When it comes to flipping the trope on its head, Ripley does it with panache and reminds us that hell hath no fury like a woman with a flamethrower. Sigourney Weaver’s fierce performance only adds to what a fantastic and iconic character she is.

On the Nostromo, she is the only crew member who consistently follows protocol and recognizes the true threat of the Xenomorph. She is defined by her competence, her empathy (risking everything to save Jones the cat), and her ability to go toe to toe even when the threat is an otherworldly relentless killer. Final girls don’t come any better than Ripley. She is the bridge between the typical hallmarks of the trope and the true evolution of it into something far more mature and far more effective.

What Makes Ripley Such a Great Final Girl: Ripley elevated the archetype and proved that women could be just as effective in a lead role as any man. Her greatness comes from her unwavering professionalism, competence, and relentless bravery. She is not a victim of circumstance but a capable officer fighting for survival because her colleagues failed to listen to her sound, and accurate, judgment. Ripley faces cosmic horror not with screams, but with intelligence, procedure, and a flamethrower. She proved that a final girl could be the most capable person in the room from the very beginning and is completely deserving of topping this list.

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