Anyone who knows anything about horror movies knows about the final girl. This is the young woman who, at the end of the film, has managed to survive (and sometimes even successfully kills the bad guy). In fact, many books have been written about this figure and her role in the gender politics of the horror film.
However, there’s another question that not many people have thought to ask and that is: which of these powerful women would be able to withstand an attack from the Terminator and which ones would be terminated? The answers are a bit surprising, especially since not all final girls are made equal.
Survive: Ellen Ripley
Sigourney Weaver deserves all of the credit for bringing this character to life and making her such a memorable part of the popular culture landscape. This is the woman, after all, who managed to survive numerous encounters with the xenomorphs and lived to tell about it, becoming the perfect hero in the process.
If there is anyone in the canon of the horror film who would be able to not just withstand and survive a terminator attack but actually take down the Terminator, it would be her.
Terminated: Laurie Strode
Look, there’s no question that Jamie Lee Curtis is an absolutely brilliant actress, and she deserves a lot of credit for bringing Laurie Strode to vivid life for several decades running (including very recently).
However, one can’t escape the fact that a lot of her ability to survive her encounters with Michael Myers stems from being saved by others (and from the fact that Myers really isn’t that powerful of a villain when one gets right down to it). Sadly, in a fight with a Terminator, she almost certainly wouldn't last.
Survive: Ginny Field
In some ways, Ginny Field is the perfect paradigm of the final girl. After all, it’s not everyone who could have survived an encounter with the likes of Jason. She shows that she not only has a lot of strength in her character; she’s also incredibly intelligent.
Though she might not be able to overcome a Terminator based on physical stamina alone, there’s no doubt that she would have the mental acuity to outwit the Terminator and not only manage to survive but also defeat it.
Terminated: Julie James
In the pantheon of horror movies, it has to be said that I Know What You Did Last Summer isn’t high up there. Still, it has its fair share of thrills and chills, and it has its very own final girl in the form of Julie James.
While she does manage to survive the tortures and taunting of the film’s villain, one has to admit that she’s not a particularly compelling character, and her survival seems to be more out of chance than anything that she does specifically. It’s highly unlikely that she would survive her encounter with the terminator.
Survive: Dana Polk
The Cabin in the Woods deserves a lot of praise for the ways in which it plays with the tropes of horror, and in particular with the way that Dana Polk, its very own final girl, doesn’t always follow the rules of the genre.
In particular, her decision to basically sacrifice the earth to demons is a pretty subversive thing for a final girl to do. Anyone who would be willing to make that choice would almost certainly be able to survive an attack from the Terminator.
Terminated: Sally Hardesty
There’s a lot to love about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and there’s no doubt that Sally Hardesty is one of the better final girls. It’s not everyone, after all, who could survive the likes of the cannibals that are the film’s primary antagonists.
However, there’s a big difference between being able to survive encounters with humans and being able to survive an encounter with a murderous robot that happens to be hyper-intelligent. Sadly, she just wouldn’t make the cut.
Survive: Jess Bradford
Jess Bradford of Black Christmas is one of those characters who deserve a lot of credit for doing things with the idea of the final girl that not every horror film thinks to do. It would have been easy for her to just accept her fate, but she fought for her life every step of the way.
While she might have some trouble when confronted with the likes of the terminator, it still seems more likely than not that she’d find a way to survive and, perhaps, even manage to destroy it.
Terminated: Lila Crane
Though Marion Crane is the more famous female character from Psycho (a movie that remains scary today), her sister Vera is in many ways the final girl, since she manages to survive an attack from Norman Bates (while her sister doesn’t).
That’s no small accomplishment, but it has to be said that she only does so because she’s rescued by a man. In the event that she came into a confrontation with a terminator, it’s sadly not very likely that she’d survive the event.
Survive: Nancy Thompson
Look, anyone who is able to emerge from one of the movies with Freddy Krueger alive deserves some sort of medal. After all, he’s the kind of killer that not only affects one’s dreams but also what happens in the real world.
Poor Nancy has to see most of the people that she cares about slaughtered, and yet she still somehow manages to survive and becomes a powerful enemy of Freddy. If there’s any final girl that would find a way to survive a Terminator attack, despite all of the odds, it would have to be her.
Terminated: Sidney Prescott
There’s much to love about the character of Sidney Prescott, and it’s hard not to both admire and feel sorry for her. Who wouldn’t feel terrible, learning that their boyfriend was responsible for the murder of their mother and many others in the town?
Despite the fact that she survives through several films (and should probably return for the fifth one), it has to be said that Sidney isn’t a particularly strong final girl, meaning that she almost certainly wouldn’t survive any kind of encounter with a being like the Terminator.