4. Ripley – Aliens
Badassdom is not the solitary domain of men. Of course not. Mallory in Haywire, Sarah Connor in T2, Neytiri in Avatar, Thelma & Louise, one could go on. For now, we’ll stick with Ripley, who is pretty Bad-Ass in all of the Alien films, but especially so here, facing down her fears, confronting once again the acid-blooded xenomorph that made such light work of the her fellow crew members on board the Nostromo.
Cameron intelligently inverts convention here and portrays most of the male characters as either hopelessly out of their depth or weak, venal and self-serving. Burke, Hudson and Gorman certainly fit that trend, with only Hicks really showing himself to be a “real man”. Ultimately the film boils down to a battle of maternal instincts – the Queen incensed at the destruction of her eggs, versus Ripley, surrogate mother to Newt. Newt’s family is dead and Ripley’s own daughter has grown old and died during Ripley’s prolonged hypersleep, so there is much at stake.
You could argue that a power loader is cheating, but going toe to toe with an Alien armed with nothing but harsh language had already shown itself to be something of a mis-match.
Most Bad-Ass Moment – Get away from her you bitch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSrcMaid0mg
