1) Sydney Bristow. She combined intelligence, beauty, vulnerability, and fierce determination. Especially, in Seasons 1 & 2, I really liked her struggle to maintain a semblance of a normal life while saving the world.
2) Selene. She has a glacial beauty that works well with her role as vampire assassin. Also loved Kate Beckinsale in tight, tight black leather.
3) Sarah Conner. She was totally kickass in T2. But she also could be vulnerable in Beauty and the Beast. It's a shame that Linda Hamilton didn't get the captain's chair for ST:Voyager. She would've been awesome facing down the Borg. She already had experience in kicking mechanical ass.
4) Ellen Ripley. Another good example of combining toughness with femininity. I really like how Ripley's maternal instinct and basic human decency made her go back into the lion's den for Newt in Aliens.
6) Foxy Brown, Coffey (Pam Grier). Need I say more. Grier was the icon of an entire generation. She helped break down barriers, showing that a woman could be tough and sexy all at the same time.
7) Christy Love. Show had one of the coolest titles "Get Christy Love". If "SWAT" can be remade on the big screen, why not this?
8) Wilma Deering. Ace pilot, tough commander, and was dynamite in that white suit. Erin Gray is still hot.
9) Aeryn Sun. Claudia Black's accent, her look, and swagger gave off a bad ass coolness that made her as much of the ship's warrior as D'argo, maybe even more so.
10) Detective Benson (M. Hargitay). Love her on L & O: SVU. She's tough without being macho, sexy without even trying to be.
Honorary: Angela Bassett: Even though she hasn't really been cast in any genre heroic roles, perhaps you could count Alias, Strange Days or Supernova, Bassett just has that intensity that would work real well onscreen kicking somebody's ass. Like many others, I think she would've made a better Storm than Halle Berry, and a better Catwoman too. It is a dream of mine that she'll sit in a captain's chair for a Star Trek show or movie. She would make a perfect captain.