One of the most unique aspects of the Friday the 13th franchise is that, with exception of Jason X and the 2009 remake (which have none), each entry features a different Final Girl that outlasts or defeats Jason Voorhees' gory reign of terror. While Halloween has Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and A Nightmare on Elm Street has Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), Friday the 13th has no such recurring female protagonist.
However, the Final Girls in the F13 franchise drastically vary in their will, strength, courage, independence, physical force, and sheer intelligence to evade and/or inflict harm on Jason Voorhees while surviving in the end.
Pam Roberts - Friday The 13th Part V
The fact that Pam Roberts (Melanie Kinnaman) survives an inferior Jason Voorhees copycat killer and not the genuine article in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, relying on Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) in the process, makes her the least impressive Final Girl in the franchise.
While Pam is technically the last female character to survive a grisly massacre inspired by Jason's homicidal handiwork, she over relies on Tommy to save her from copycat killer Roy Burns, who throws him onto a bed of spikes from a window. Pam is agile enough to avoid chases, but the story is really Tommy's to tell.
Jessica Kimble - Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday
In a Halloween-like wrinkle, Jason goes after his niece Jessica Kimble in The Final Friday. While Voorhees switches bodies throughout the film, Jessica manages to avoid death, but she needs express assistance from her husband Steven (John D. LeMay) to defeat the evil slasher.
As Jason stalks Jessica, she is saved by several male characters such as the diner owner and bounty hunter Creighton Duke (Steven Williams), without showing much of a fighting spirit until the end. However, at the moment of truth, Jessica stabs Jason in the chest with the sacred dagger and saves Steven in the process, allowing them to ride off into the sunset with their healthy baby.
Trish Jarvis - Friday The 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter
While The Final Chapter is often hailed as the greatest in the franchise, it's not necessarily for the strength of its Final Girl Trish Jarvis (Kimberly Beck). Like its two successors, the film is more about Trish's little brother, Tommy (Corey Feldman).
While Trish is ultimately rescued by Tommy in the end, who hacks Jason up with a machete, she manages to stay alive up to that point by avoiding the party she is invited to, refraining from drugs and sex, befriending the hitchhiker Rob (Erich Anderson), and looking after her mother.
Lori Campbell - Freddy Vs. Jason
While Lori Campbell (Monica Keena) deserves extra credit for surviving both Freddy and Jason, she sort of needed the latter's assistance to avoid the former's death claw.
Even still, Lori sides with Jason in order to defeat Freddy, pulling him out of her dreams into the real world. As Freddy attempts to kill Lori and her friend Will, Jason stabs him and allows Lori to behead Freddy with his machete and save Will in the process. However, Freddy's survival is hinted at in the final shot, which means Lori didn't finish the job.
Rennie - Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Much like Pam and Jessica, Rennie (Jensen Daggett) is also a Final Girl who depends on the assistance of a male character to survive Jason's violent onslaught. However, she shows much more gumption and agency by overcoming her aquaphobia, refraining from drugs, surviving an NYC kidnapping, rescuing her pet dog, and foiling Jason in tandem with Sean (Scott Reeves).
Rennie musters the strength to launch a vat of steamy toxic waste at Jason's face after being chased through the sewer, which stuns the killer, knocks off his hockey mask, melts the flesh from his hideously deformed visage, and allows her and Sean to survive.
Megan Garris - Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
While Megan Garris (Jennifer Cooke) and Tommy Jarvis (Thom Matthews) both survive Voorhees' massacre in Jason Lives, she does slightly more than he does to defeat the relentless killer and avoid Jason's brutal murders. Megan manages to break Tommy out of jail before saving his life from Jason's vicious aquatic attack.
First, Tommy saves Megan just as Jason is about to kill her at Camp Crystal Lake. Jason attacks and overpowers Tommy in a boat, prompting Megan to think fast and steer the propellers at Jason as he grabs her leg, sending Jason to the bottom of the lake. Megan then not only subdues Jason, but she also revives Tommy via CPR back onshore.
Alice Hardy - Friday The 13th (1980)
As the only Final Girl to appear in two films in the franchise, Alice Hardy (Adrienne King) deserves a decent ranking. While many of her rivals face Jason Voorhees at various stages of male maturity, Alice is the only one to square off with the frightening Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), Jason's vengeful mother.
As her fellow camp counselors are slaughtered, one by one, Alice remains sympathetic in her ability to survive the massacre and decapitate Mrs. Voorhees in the end. As the film's lone survivor who gets killed off in the prologue of the sequel, Alice helped define the tropes of 80s slasher films.
Chris Higgins - Friday The 13th Part III
What makes Chris Higgins such a formidable Final Girl in Friday the 13th Part III is the personal redemption she has over Jason. Traumatized by being attacked by a mysteriously deformed man two years prior, Chris survives a new killing spree and exacts revenge in the process as one of Jason's strongest enemies.
Inviting her friends to Higgins Haven on Camp Crystal Lake, Chris' friends are brutally murdered, including her older and supposedly protective boyfriend Rick. Chris manages to become the sole survivor by bashing Jason with a shovel, hanging him with a noose, and finally axing him in the head.
Ginny Field - Friday The 13th Part 2
Amy Steel plays Ginny Field in Friday the 13th Part 2, one of the smartest, bravest, and most compassionate franchise Final Girls. Throughout the film, Ginny expresses concern for Jason Voorhees' torment as much as his threat, allowing her to get inside his head and defeat him in the end.
During the climax, Ginny outlasts her fellow counselors by rushing into Jason's dingy cabin. When Jason storms in, Ginny puts on his deceased mother's sweater and tricks the killer into thinking he is Mrs. Voorhees. The psychological trick works long enough for Ginny to slash Jason with his machete and save her boyfriend Paul in the process.
Tina Shepard - Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Armed with Carrie-like telekinetic superpowers, Tina Shepard (Lar Park Lincoln) is the best and most uniquely qualified F13 Final Girls. The grief-stricken and bullied teenager overcomes the PTSD of her father's death to become the film's ultra-badass lone heroine.
Tina overcomes verbal abuse from her psychiatrist and the stuck-up teenager Melissa to channel the memory of her deceased father and thwart Jason's death march. Tina electrocutes Jason and collapses the house onto his body, and when her friend Nick fails to save her in the end, she uses her powers to shatter Jason's mask, set the cabin on fire with him inside, and summon her father's spirit, who drags Jason's body underwater. Tina relies on nobody but herself to triumph.