Shrieking Violets: 25 Butt-kicking TV/Movie Babes

NO. 25: SUMMER GLAU
as Cameron in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2007-2009)

WHO IS SHE? The über-cute cyborg sent back from the future to guard John Connor (Thomas Dekker) and make sure he lives to save humanity another day

SKILLS While she's super-fast and wicked strong — and nigh-invulnerable — she's not too much of a people-robot.

MALE ADMIRER John has taken a shine to her, but romance doesn't appear to be part of her programming.

NO. 24: YVONNE STRAHOVSKI
as Sarah Walker in Chuck (2007-present)

WHO IS SHE? The CIA operative assigned to protect Chuck (Zachary Levi), the tech-store wage slave who accidentally downloaded all of the government's secrets into his brain.

SKILLS She's an expert in hand-to-hand combat, advanced driving, and hot-dog preparation. Also: really good at concealing weapons on her person...and using them.

MALE ADMIRER You remember that Chuck guy, right? She's pretending to be his girlfriend. He doesn't want her to pretend.

NO. 23: GABRIELLE ANWAR
as Fiona Glenanne on Burn Notice (2007-present)

WHO IS SHE A fiery ex-IRA bomber who wound up in Miami just in time to help her ex-boyfriend, ex-spy Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), right wrongs and get his life back.

SKILLS Mean with a firearm and meaner with a detonator, Fiona likes it when things go boom.

MALE ADMIRER The aforementioned Michael, who balances his hopes of getting back into the legally sanctioned espionage business with his desire to build a life with Fiona

NO. 22: HILARY SWANK
as Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby (2004)

WHO IS SHE? A 32-year-old waitress who, despite her age and inexperience, dreams of a welterweight women's boxing title.

SKILLS Persistence, discipline, iron will, and a killer right hook that knocks out most opponents in the first round.

MALE ADMIRER Crusty old trainer Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood), who comes to see Maggie as a surrogate daughter; he gives her a robe with an Irish phrase meaning ''my darling'' emblazoned on the back.

NO. 21: ALI LARTER
as Tracy Strauss/Niki Sanders in Heroes (2006-present)

WHO IS SHE? Niki and Tracy are two of three identical blondes. Niki, now deceased, was a former Internet porn star and mother of a kid who talks to machines. Tracy used to be a political operative aiding Sen. Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) but now she's the mistress of all things watery.

SKILLS Niki had a second personality, Jessica, who was incredibly strong and brutal. Tracy can freeze objects — and people — with her touch.

MALE ADMIRER Niki is survived by her tech-savant son, Micah (Noah Gray-Cabey), while Tracy seems to be teaming up with Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman).

NO. 20: LUCY LIU, CAMERON DIAZ, AND DREW BARRYMORE
as Alex Munday, Natalie Cook, and Dylan Sanders in Charlie's Angels (2000) and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)

WHO ARE THEY? A trio of sexy supersleuths who work for the unseen Charles Townsend.

SKILLS Disguises, computers, martial arts, motor vehicles, archery, foreign languages, and mechanical-bull riding. (But they never use guns.)

MALE ADMIRERS Mariner Chad (Tom Green) wooed Dylan; Soul Train aficionado Pete (Luke Wilson) is Natalie's dim-witted beau; Alex runs lines with Hollywood actor Jason (Matt LeBlanc).

NO. 19: JOAN CRAWFORD
as Vienna in Johnny Guitar (1954)

WHO IS SHE? In this rare cowgirl-centered Western, she's a saloonkeeper who's persecuted by townsfolk whipped into a frenzy by her nemesis, prim Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge).

SKILLS Shootin', brawlin,' eyebrow-archin'. Also, she's a shrewd businesswoman.

MALE ADMIRER Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), a reformed gunfighter

NO. 18: MIRANDA OTTO
as Eowyn in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

WHO IS SHE? The niece of King Theoden of Rohan (Bernard Hill), Eowyn disobeys her uncle's orders and rides into battle against the armies of Mordor. And she does what it was prophesied that no man could accomplish: kill the leader of the Nazgul. (Trust me, if you've seen the movies, that all makes sense.)

SKILLS As a shieldmaiden of Rohan, she can wield a mean sword, and do so on horseback.

MALE ADMIRER Faramir (David Wenham) takes a shine to Eowyn after meeting her in the House of Healing. (Sexual healing, if you catch my drift....)

NO. 17: EVANGELINE LILLY
as Kate Austen in Lost (2004-present)

WHO IS SHE? A fugitive from the law (for arson-related murder), Kate is one of the doomed passengers of Oceanic flight 815, crashed on a desert island chockablock with the freaky.

SKILLS Throws a pretty mean punch, not bad with a gun, and now has a decent amount of on-the-job survival training.

MALE ADMIRER Oh, we need to add an ''s'' to that. Because there are two men playing kiss me, Kate. There's handsome, troubled surgeon Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) and dashing Southern con man Sawyer (Josh Holloway). Right now, she's unattached, but time (travel) will tell.

NO. 16: MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ
as Diana Guzman in Girlfight (2000)

WHO IS SHE? Aspiring Brooklyn boxer who challenges herself, her pugilist beau, and the macho ways of her upbringing.

SKILLS She's a knockout in more ways than one.

MALE ADMIRER Adrian (Santiago Douglas), a fellow fighter

NO. 15: TURA SATANA
as Varla in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

WHO IS SHE? In Russ Meyer's boobsploitation classic, Varla and two go-go dancer pals drive out to the desert, looking for kicks and a hidden treasure, and they'll roll over anyone who gets in their way.

SKILLS One of the baddest bad girls ever, Varla can out-drag-race any man, and she can kill with a single karate chop to the back.

MALE ADMIRER Kirk (Paul Trinka), whose family's ranch is the rumored site of the cash Varla wants to grab

NO. 14: LUCY LAWLESS
as Xena on Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001)

WHO IS SHE Once a villainous warlord, Xena changed her evil ways after a series of battles with Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) and devoted her life to doing good deeds and kicking ass.

SKILLS Fleet with her feet, lethal with a blade — and wicked with a razor-sharp frisbee.

MALE ADMIRER Though Hercules wouldn't have minded a bit of ''sparring time'' with her, Borias (Martin Csokas), a warlord with whom Xena conquered much of Asia, was the man who stole her heart and fathered her child

NO. 13: ANNE PARILLAUD
as Nikita in La Femme Nikita (1990)

WHO IS SHE? Feral street punk retrained as chic assassin

SKILLS Disguises, hand-to-hand combat, and long-range sniper rifles. Burdened, however, by too much conscience.

MALE ADMIRER Marco (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a supermarket cashier

NO. 12: SUMMER GLAU
as River Tam in Serenity (2005)

WHO IS SHE? A little rich girl who gets kidnapped by the futuristic Alliance, experimented on, and then liberated by her brother, Simon (Sean Maher). Together, they're on the run from the government which wants its prize specimen back.

SKILLS That experimentation we talked about? Yeah, it turned this ''creature of extraordinary grace'' into a killing machine...of extraordinary grace. She's fast, strong, and lethal with almost anything she gets her hands on.

MALE ADMIRER Her aforementioned brother, a promising young doctor who scuttled his career and his family ties to rescue his mentally unstable sister.

NO. 11: JENNIFER GARNER
as Sydney Bristow in Alias (2001-2006)

WHO IS SHE? A college coed recruited into a shadow branch of the CIA, Sydney saved the world on a weekly basis while keeping her double (and sometimes triple) life from her closest friends.

SKILLS Name it and she can do it, including changing outfits about as fast as humanly possible.

MALE ADMIRER Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan), fellow agent

NO. 10: MICHELLE PFEIFFER
as Catwoman, a.k.a. Selina Kyle in Batman Returns (1992)

WHO IS SHE? Having survived an attempt on her life, mousy Selina uses her remaining eight lives to transform herself into Catwoman, purring prowler of Gotham City.

SKILLS Even with heels, the acrobatic Catwoman always lands on her feet.

MALE ADMIRER Batman/Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton)

NO. 9: HONOR BLACKMAN
as Pussy Galore in Goldfinger (1964)

WHO IS SHE? With apologies to Halle Berry's Jinx, Blackman's Pussy Galore is the baddest Bond babe ever. (She certainly has the best name.) She's a fetching henchwoman to the villainous Goldfinger and a pilot who runs an all-female air show.

SKILLS Along with her aviation skills, Pussy can hold her own with 007 in karate.

MALE ADMIRER Bond, James Bond (Sean Connery)

NO. 8: LINDA HAMILTON
as Sarah Connor in The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

WHO IS SHE? She learns in Terminator that she's to be the mother of John Connor, leader of the human resistance against the machines, knowledge that all but drives her around the bend in T2.

SKILLS In T2, she's armed with an arsenal of guns, sculpted arms that rival Madonna's, and a paranoid alertness.

MALE ADMIRER Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), her time-traveling protector in Terminator

NO. 7: CARRIE-ANNE MOSS
as Trinity in The Matrix (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), and The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

WHO IS SHE? Futuristic cyberwarrior helping to free humanity from the virtual-reality prison known as the Matrix

SKILLS Good with guns, kung fu, defying gravity, and that stop-time high kick. Plus, she can learn other skills, like piloting a helicopter, just by uploading them into her brain.

MALE ADMIRER Neo (Keanu Reeves), the hacker messiah

NO. 6: PAM GRIER
as Coffy in Coffy (1973)

WHO IS SHE? In Grier's archetypal blaxploitation role, she's a nurse out for revenge on the drug dealers who ruined her sister's life.

SKILLS Coffy's creative weaponry includes a sawed-off shotgun, a syringe with a lethal dose of heroin, a broken wine bottle, and an Afro packed with hidden razor blades.

MALE ADMIRER Rising politico Howard (Booker Bradshaw)

NO. 5: KATEE SACKHOFF
as Kara ''Starbuck'' Thrace in Battlestar Galactica(2003-2009)

WHO IS SHE? The rootin-est, tootin-est Viper pilot in the Colonial fleet, that's who. She's the girl who'll chew you up, spit you out, save your ass, and have you coming back for more.

SKILLS A wicked ''throttle jockey,'' Kara's also got a mean jab-hook combination. And, apparently, can come back from the dead.

NO. 4: MICHELLE YEOH AND ZHANG ZIYI
as Yu Shu Lien (Yeoh, left) and Jen Yu (Zhang, right) in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

WHO ARE THEY? Two of the fiercest martial-arts warriors ever to face off on film, in this case over a purloined sword called the Green Destiny

SKILLS Though Shu Lien is a veteran and Jen a rookie, they appear evenly matched at swordfighting, kung fu, and gravity-defying leaps between rooftops and tall trees.

MALE ADMIRERS Retiring warrior Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) raises Shu Lien's heart rate; Jen has a romp with desert bandit Lo (Chang Chen).

NO. 3: UMA THURMAN
as the Bride in Kill Bill — Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill — Vol. 2 (2004)

WHO IS SHE? She's Beatrix Kiddo, a.k.a. Black Mamba, a contract killer who emerges from a four-year coma seeking vengeance against her fellow members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DiVAS), who left the pregnant Bride for dead on her wedding day in a massacre at the altar.

SKILLS She's a world-class swordfighter and martial artist.

MALE ADMIRER Boss and old flame Bill (David Carradine), who admits he may have overreacted when he learned she was getting married

NO. 2: SIGOURNEY WEAVER
as Ellen Ripley in Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), AND Alien Resurrection (1997)

WHO IS SHE? Astronaut who, over the course of four movies to date, proves as resilient as the slimy, face-hugging, acid-blooded space parasites that pursue her

SKILLS Resourcefulness, iron will, a fierce maternal instinct

MALE ADMIRER Clemens (Charles Dance), the prison doctor in Alien 3

NO. 1: SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR
as Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

WHO IS SHE? The one girl in all the world who can stand against the demon hordes. The chosen one. And when she's not laying down the slayage, she's stumbling her way through grown-up-ness.

SKILLS Wicked with a stake, Buffy's a gifted martial artist, stronger than the average bear, and a world-class shopper.

MALE ADMIRER The great love of her life was Angel (David Boreanaz), the vampire-with-a-soul she could never be with. (Stupid gypsy curses.) And she had a wicked little fling with Spike (James Marsters).