Forget about damsels in distress waiting for a knight to rescue them. Here's a list of women who can take care of themselves and don't need a man to save or complete them. These women take matters into their own hands and take care of business. They're confident in their sexuality and can use it to make fools of men; are smart but if brains alone don't do the trick they're more than capable of using brawn. I'm leaving out the kick ass anime heroines of Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa) and sticking to flesh and blood actresses who've blazed a trail and left it strewn with bodies.

1. Tura Satana in 'Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!' (1965)

Tura Satana made only a handful of films but she only needed to make one to put her at the top of this list as the most badass, kick-ass woman of all time. The film is Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Satana cuts a striking figure as Varla. Dressed all in black with a plunging neckline that reveals awe-inspiring cleavage, and with long black hair and severe bangs framing her face, Varla is not to be messed with. One character describes her like this: "She’s a cold one all right. More a stallion than a mare. Too much for one man to handle. But then you never can tell, she might just gentle down real nice with the right halter.”But no one ever put a halter on Satana's Varla because she couldn't be tamed. She's breathtaking to watch because she oozes danger and you never know what she might do. No one before or after her has kicked ass with such ferocious intensity.

Best line:"I never try anything. I just do it. And I don't beat clocks, just people! Wanna try me?"

2. Pam Grier in 'Coffy' (1973)

Pam Grier is right up there with Tura Satana as a kick-ass female icon. Unlike Satana, though, Grier kicks ass in quite a few films starting with her second film and first collaboration with Jack Hill, The Big Doll House. Their best film together is Coffy in which Grier plays a woman hell-bent on revenge. Grier holds her own in bar fights, cat fights, and one-woman assaults on the mob. (In Foxy Brown she notes after taking someone out in a bar brawl, "I've got MY black belt in barstools!") Nothing seems to scare her as she relies on wits and physical strength in equal parts to take care of anyone who gets in her way. She talks tough and backs it up with action. In Coffy she even pulls a gun out of her afro to take out some baddies. Grier is at her best in Coffy, but Foxy Brown had some of her best lines like this one, "You pink-ass corrupt honky judge, take your little wet noodle outta here and if you see a man anywhere send him in because I do need a MAN!" Grier kicks major ass and looks damn fine doing it.

Best (Coffy) line: "You want to spit on me and make me crawl? I'm gonna piss on your grave tomorrow."

3. Michelle Yeoh in 'Yes Madam' (1985)

Michelle Yeoh takes top prize as Asia's most impressive female action star. She doesn't have the attitude of Satana or Grier but she more than makes up for it with her physical prowess. She started as a ballerina and became action star with only on-the-set martial arts training. She's elegant and classy but absolutely lethal. Don't bother with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (which waters down the action and slows it to a pace that Americans can handle) and instead check out her starring role in Yes Madam (where she pairs up with the also amazing Cynthia Rothrock) and her work with Jackie Chan in Supercop (check out her killer motorcycle stunt and what she can do with chopsticks in a fight). She also choreographed her own stunts/fights as the Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies.

4. Sigourney Weaver in 'Aliens' (1986)

Sigourney Weaver has a knack for getting roles designed for men. Ripley in Alien is one of those roles and she knocks it out of the park. She then reprises the character three more times in the franchise, one of those times as a clone of the original Ripley. She is her most badass in Aliens, the sequel directed by James Cameron. She might have had some soft edges in the first Alien film but she fully earns her badass credentials when she forced to face an alien horde in Aliens. She toughens up significantly and has a final showdown with the mother of all aliens to prove she's the most kick-ass woman in space.

Best line: [to the alien queen mum] "Get away from her, you bitch!"

5. Michelle Rodriguez in 'Girl Fight' (2000)

With the very first frame of her very first film, Michelle Rodriguez announces in no uncertain terms that she is here to kick some ass and not take crap from anyone. That first shot of her has her slowly lift her hooded eyes to stare down the camera and the audience. Rodriguez plays a female boxer who takes hard knocks in and out of the ring but never gives an inch and never surrenders. The promise she displays in this film comes to full fruition in Robert Rodriguez' grindhouse homage Machete, where she plays a one-eyed rebel fighter. She's hot and badass.

Best line: "Now that I've got school covered, I only have the world outside these walls to f--k up."More »

6. Honor Blackman in 'Goldfinger' (1964)

Honor Blackman had already established her badassery in the British TV show The Avengers before taking on the role of the Bond girl in Goldfinger. She introduces herself to a groggy Bond by saying quite simply, "I'm Pussy Galore." To which 007 says, "I must be dreaming." But don't be misled by her porn star name. Pussy is no mere sex object. She can use her sexuality to distract Bond AND she can knock him to the ground without even breaking a nail. Bond films have a reputation for being sexist and misogynistic but Pussy Galore stands out as a woman who's supremely confident in her abilities, runs her own business, and can karate chop secret agents without batting a lovely eyelash. That sounds pretty kick ass to me, and she sort of lays the groundwork for Varla."

Best line: [to Sean Connery's James Bond] "You can turn off the charm. I'm immune."

7. Uma Thurman in 'Kill Bill Vol. 1' and '2'

Quentin Tarantino's revenge opus pays homage to at least two iconic but somewhat forgotten foreign female badasses: Meiko Kaji in Lady Snowblood (1973) and Christina Lindberg in Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1974). Uma Thurman's The Bride riffs on these women as she takes off on a "roaring rampage of revenge." The film also boasts some additional badass women as her adversaries: Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A. Fox. Thruman not only goes mano-a-mano (or is that wo-mano?) with each of these women and soundly kicks their butts but she also takes on the Crazy 88s in a spectacular orgy of swordplay action. The Bride and the film basically try to cram the entire history of kick-ass women into one convenient place.

Best line: "Those of you lucky enough to have your lives, take them with you. However, leave the limbs you've lost. They belong to me now."More »

8. Chloe Moretz in 'Kick-Ass' (2010)

Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl stands out as the youngest kick-ass female on the list. She caused an uproar by using the "C-word" in the film and the mostly male critics were outraged. More outraged by that than by the fact that a grown man tries to beat this little girl to death. Moretz' Hit Girl gets high kick-ass points for causing such controversy because kick-ass women always make men and society a bit uncomfortable for not conforming to feminine stereotypes. She also gets high marks for being smart, self-possessed, confident, lethal, and well versed in all forms of combat. Wonder what she'll be like when she grows up?

Best line: "You just contact the mayor's office. He has a special signal he shines in the sky; it's in the shape of a giant c*ck."More »

9. Linda Hamilton in 'T2: Judgment Day' (1991)

This line reveals a lot about Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor: "Men like you built the hydrogen bomb. Men like you thought it up. You think you're so creative. You don't know what it's like to really create something; to create a life; to feel it growing inside you." What drives Connor is a maternal instinct to protect her son. She will do anything, ANYTHING, to insure his safety. Hamilton was more the damsel in distress in the first The Terminator but she buffed up (impressively so!) and developed a steely determination for Judgment Day. This mother kicks cyborg ass like no one else.

Best line: (after breaking a man's arm) "There's 215 bones in the human body. That's one."

10. Noomi Rapace in 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' (2009)

A list of kick-ass women has to include Lisbeth Salander and I prefer her Swedish incarnation. Salander (who was created by author Stieg Larsson) is brought to life by Noomi Rapace and has become a kind of feminist icon for standing up against abuse and making men who abuse women pay a steep price. Salander had been victimized in the past but made a choice to never let that happen again. She's smart, capable, and not afraid of physical violence. She's a kick-ass feminist activist.

Best line: (as she tattoos "rapist" on a man's chest) "I've never done this before. Hold still, or it'll get messy."

Special Mention - Women Who Kick Ass in Films That Don't:
Kate Beckinsale in the Underworld franchise and Milla Jovovich in the Resident Evil films.