Tough little kids.

Remember Newt? The lone survivor, looking all of 7 years who put some of those grown marines to shame?

I am not including D.A.R.Y.L. in this list, even though he escapes a pentagon program and flies a blackbird, blah, blah, blah... because he is a robot. But his friend "Turtle" is pretty spunky and on the ball (more than the adults in this movie, actually). Considering it's an 80s kids film made on a low budget, the character wasn't as annoyingly cheesy as you'd think.

I almost didn't include her because she can light fires with her mind, but little Charlie McGee is also pretty cool. She's on the run at the beginning of the movie with her psychic, fugitive father. She blames herself for the tragic death of her mother (which is actually unrelated to her...skills.) It's been a while since I saw this, but I don't remember her crying or acting too obnoxious. She is a good, tough kid with a huge burden (note: out and out psycho kids, even if they are "tough", such as Mikey from Mikey will not be included in this list).

The kid in this movie, Vito, is as slippery as a snake, which is good for his...safety. If you've ever had one of those dreams as a kid where you're being chased by monsters, this movie might resonate for you.

Jamie Lloyd, from Halloween 5 was pretty cool and definitely had her share of close encounters with Michael, including having Loomis use her as bait. Yeah, she was in Halloween 4, too, but she actually did more in this movie.

How many 12 year old girls could not only survive an abusive father and older sister (and a neglectful airhead of a stepmother) but also narrowly escape death and then befriend a hit man and manage to pull it off? That's what Mathilda in "The Professional" does (Thanks to Nova for reminding me!)

Ah, how could a 9 year old Tomboy who smokes and runs scams with a con man in the 1930s not get on this list?

Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O'Rourke) was a cute little kid in Poltergeist and Poltergeist 2, and compared to a lot of the kids on this list she didn't do that much in the third and final movie. But she did remain with it and didn't dissolve into clingy, cry baby behavior. And it was 1988 and she resisted the big hair monster, too.

Oleg really thinks on his toes in this movie. I won't give anything away, but there are a few scenes that had my skin crawling. The kid kicks ass, especially considering some of the events of this movie...

He stieals 300 bucks from a stolen credit card, tries to outrun the T-1000 on his crappy little dirt bike, loads guns and screams like a girl but doesn't seem embarrassed. That is how John Connor makes this list.

What else can be said for Mark Sway but that he's a kid that thinks on his toes and knows how to get out of tricky situations.

Maybe it's because this movie struck me as so emo and the main character ("The Crow") got on my nerves, but I liked how self-sufficient and laid back the kid in this movie was by comparison.

What's worse than being 11, having your mother die, being left for by your father while you grieve and blame yourself for her death (even if your father is coming back in a few weeks)? Being left with a psycho cousin of the same age with psychopathic tendencies whose violent streak increases ten-fold when you arrive, and not only not being believed, but trying to protect everyone else...

I don't know many adults that could get out of "Mommy" and "Daddy's" house alive, but "Fool" (aka "Pointdexter") does a pretty great job at kicking ass without crying or acting like a baby. Not realistic at all.



And a special shout out to "Alice" for living with these nut-jobs since birth and physically surviving...

He's supposed to be 5 in the movie, I believe (or at least in the book), but young Danny is one of the toughest kids on this list (Kubrick version, not ABC mini-series version). He hides, runs, saves his mother's life (or at least wakes her up in time), outwits his father in a gigantic hedge maze, manages not to pee his pants when going into room 2-3-7 or when seeing those creepy twins... I would be a ball of screaming meemies.







Well, he screamed a few times...but who blames him?