While it is currently up in the air just when fans will get a new Friday the 13th, there are still 12 installments—of admittedly varying quality—to enjoy. Each of these featured one, two, even three, central protagonists. The first three installments stuck with the final girl trope, while later installments found new ways to branch out.
What never changed was that one person lives, and, usually, they don't return for any sequels. Jason, however, always does, and some of these lead characters gave Jason more of a run for his money than most.
Rennie & Shawn - Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
Rennie is really the only primary protagonist from the franchise's run to never undergo any true form of change; she's just as shaken and lost in the beginning as she is in the film's final minutes.
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan doesn't spend much time in the titular city, but, even when it does, Rennie is just running. In the end, Rennie is just like Sean, the other survivor of the film, in that her agency when taking on Jason is limited.
Steven Freeman & Jessica Kimble - Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Taking a page from Halloween's book, Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday gave the villain a niece, Jessica Kimble. It also gave him the ability to body swap. After swiftly murdering his also heretofore unmentioned half-sister, Jason targets Jessica.
Steven Freeman, the spurned father to Jessica's baby, leads most of the film, but Jessica gets the shining moment. When Jason returns to human form, Jessica bravely goes toe to toe with him, and she's why Jason goes to Hell.
Rowan LaFontaine - Jason X (2002)
Jason takes on quite a few adversaries throughout the runtime of Jason X. These include space marines, a gun-wielding cyborg, a confusing holographic recreation of Camp Crystal Lake, and government scientist Rowan LaFontaine.
Rowan was brave enough to lure Jason into the cryogenic pod. She ends up sacrificing her life, in a way, because she ends up frozen alongside him. Still, Rowan LaFontaine kept Jason off the streets for 445 years. However, once aboard the Grendel, Rowan LaFontaine is ignored more than anything else.
Tommy Jarvis, Pam Roberts & Reggie Winter - Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
After The Final Chapter introduced the concept of having a child in a Friday the 13th film, Part V: A New Beginning kept it going. Tommy Jarvis is back, but he's very different from the incarnation that proceeded him—or the one that followed. The child this time comes in the form of Reggie "the Reckless," an energetic and kind boy who displays the necessary bravery to save not himself, but another.
In fact, Reggie is the reason why not only Pam Roberts is alive, but Tommy Jarvis himself, as well. Not to mention, Reggie knows how to drive a forklift, and he uses it to severely weaken the imposter Jason.
Lori Campbell & Will Rollins - Freddy Vs. Jason (2003)
Lori Campbell and Will Rollins are both well-fleshed-out throughout Freddy vs. Jason. Both, especially Lori, display a surplus of agency in taking on the slasher icons. The issue is that they really don't stand much of a chance against Jason.
Both characters have a far more personal connection to Freddy Krueger than Jason Voorhees. In terms of combatting Jason, the two do distract the hockey-masked killer enough for him to be sedated. Better yet, they're the only characters to actually use Jason to accomplish a larger goal.
Alice Hardy - Friday The 13th (1980)
Frequently honored with the title of best summer camp horror movie of all time, Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th has a great number of assets in its corner. Amongst them is a fairly strong central protagonist, artist/begrudging camp counselor Alice Hardy.
The pacing of the film is so tight that it's fully logical for Alice to not know about the murders until the end. As soon as she does, though, she jumps into action. Alice's only real slip-up was opening the door and approaching Mrs. Voorhees to begin with. Even still, she bested the killer and cut off her head.
Tommy Jarvis & Megan Garris - Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
After the original classic movie Friday the 13th created a cinematic universe, there was a string of sequels that more or less recreated the original. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives commented on the series' tendency to repeat itself—occasionally outright, via dialogue. Part VI feels like going down the same tracks in a different train, and the film's tweaked approach to Tommy Jarvis is the conductor.
He's more the strong little boy he was in Part IV than he was the silent, traumatized young man in Part V. But now, Tommy Jarvis is effectively the world's foremost Jason expert.
Whitney Miller - Friday The 13th (2009)
Whitney Miller makes a large impression in a small amount of time. Essentially relegated to the great opening scene and the third act, she's seemingly not given much to do. But, it's what the audience doesn't know about Whitney in Marcus Nispel's Friday the 13th reboot that makes her so strong.
The reboot took a new path, essentially building off of a plot point from Friday the 13th Part 2, and had Jason kidnap an intended victim. It's uncharted territory, but it builds off of Jason's one real weak spot, that being his mother. Even still, the audience gets the gist that Whitney is alive for more reasons than her physical resemblance to Pamela Voorhees.
Tina Shephard & Nick Rogers - Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
Part V went the imposter route, Part VI went the meta route, and then the somewhat underrated Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood went a step further and introduced telekinesis. The penultimate film of the Paramount years was gutted by the censors, so a little more pressure was placed on the two dual performances.
This is particularly true of Lar Park Lincoln as Tina, a young woman with the ability to move objects with her mind. When Tina manages to telekinetically swing a dangling light fixture towards Jason, sending him plummeting back and through a staircase, it's clear that Jason's well-matched.
Chris Higgins - Friday The 13th Part III (1982)
Steve Miner's second and final directorial effort with the franchise, Friday the 13th Part III, featured a big cosmetic change for Jason. This was when he gets his mask, courtesy of Shelley, a Friday the 13th character who deserved their fate if ever there was one.
Chris Higgins survives to the end, even if she doesn't survive unscathed. Even still, Chris one-ups the scariest Jason over and over. This includes what is arguably the series most iconic scene: Chris slams an axe in Jason's head—breaking into the mask, as well—there's a pause, then Jason forcefully raises his arms towards her.
Tommy & Trish Jarvis - Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
The introduction of Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman) is one major reason why The Final Chapter is usually seen as one of the best Friday the 13th movies. He's more fleshed out than the majority of the series' characters, and his wit is a factor.
Tommy and his sister, Trish, both fare well against Jason. She defends her little brother at all costs, a dynamic that works in the movie's favor, going so far as to slam Jason's machete into his hand. But, it's Tommy who gets into Jason's head—and then does something similar with the aforementioned machete—by mimicking his appearance.
Ginny Field - Friday The 13th Part II (1981)
The Friday the 13th films were critically lambasted throughout the 1980s for any number of reasons. While the earlier installments have seen their reputations rise a bit in the ensuing years, there's still a fair amount of derision towards the casts' acting prowess. Even for those who hold little reverence for the series and its comfortable familiarity, praise has to be given to Amy Steel.
Steel saturates her character with kindness, strength, independence, and agency. It's the caliber of performance given by other actors who were then skyrocketed to stardom. While Ginny isn't the most physically intimidating adversary in Jason's history, the viewer gets the feeling that she's one of the smartest.