5) SARAH CONNOR (Linda Hamilton, Terminator, T2)
When we first see Sarah Connor in The Terminator, she’s an everyday, slightly timid
waitress. But being pursued by an unstoppable cyborg from the future is enough to
alter anyone, and by T2 she’s very different: a muscle-bound, single-minded action
heroine trained in survivalist skills. Linda Hamilton keeps this transformation entirely believable, though Lena Headey also offered an interesting take on the character in The Sarah Connor Chronicles.