9 Amazing Female Action Heroes

If strong women battling injustice makes you cheer, like what happens in the ‘Divergent’ sequel, ‘Insurgent’, then you are going to love this list of the fiercest young female heroes to ever duke it out the silver screen. 

Buffy (Kristy Swanson) is your everyday high school cheerleader. She’s popular, attractive and the chosen Slayer of vampires. Before Joss Whedon made her popular on television, he brought his unique alpha female hero to the big screen in this cult favorite. 

Even though she made her first appearance in the MCU in ‘Iron Man 2,’ ‘The Avengers’ gave Ms. Romanov a chance to put her unique personality and skillset to better use. When she’s not single-handedly taking down an alien force and stealing one of their flying jet skis, this trained assassin keeps earning her status as one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Rebecca ‘Newt’ Jorden (Carrie Henn) may only be seven, but she survived the aliens with zero weapons and no training. She learned the hard way that monsters are real, and with help from Ripley, she also learned that heroes exist, too.

Before Jaden Smith’s ‘Karate Kid’ remake, but after the original, future Oscar-winner Hilary Swank headlined this installment of the franchise, learning kung fu with the help of Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita).

Leon (Jean Reno) is one of the few contract assassins with a heart of gold. He takes in Natalie Portman’s 12-year-old Mathilda after she is orphaned, and turns her into a kid with a score to settle.

Adept in all forms of weaponry and CQC, no gangster or super villain is safe as long as Hit-Girl is on the beat. Raised by her father, a former cop-turned-self-made superhero, Hit-Girl juggles vigilantism at night with living a normal-ish life as a teen by day.

Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is a beautiful teenage drug addict who gets turned into a government assassin. She’s a hot mess, sure, but worthy of redemption – one her strong ethical code helps her with as she embarks on a career as a trained assassin with a conscience.

District 12’s most famous -- and infamous -- resident, Ms. Everdeen is the number one cause of stress for guys named “President Snow.” She’s also the number one source of hope for anyone wanting to get out from under Snow’s control. She offered to battle in the Games in place of her younger sister, so add “selfless” to her skillset – right up there with some scary-good archery prowess.

Tris is Divergent, sharing traits with the Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite factions. She joined Dauntless, but her Divergent status saved her from being brainwashed into an Erudite-backed, Dauntless-led massacre of Abnegation. Now she’s on the run, targeted for death by Erudite, and on her way to become a hero of Katniss-level proportions.