Challenging gender, not to mention genre stereotypes, warrant officer Ellen Ripley is one of the strongest ever female characters to take to the sci-fi stage. Outsmarting the xenomorphs and out-muscling most of her male cohorts, Ripley spends much of her life in hypersleep, emerging occasionally to spill green blood and save young girls in distress. The character of Ripley was never intended for a woman, it was written with a man in mind, but we’re certainly thankful that Ridley Scott had other ideas or else we would have been robbed of one of science fiction’s strongest leading ladies, who paved the way for a slew of future female protagonists.