species

It's been nearly unavoidable. Even if the movie doesn't live up to the hype, Jennifer's Body has burned a new image into our subconscious: the murderous Megan Fox in a bloody white blouse, eager for more boys to kill. In the sci-fi realm, it's much more common to encounter men who murder than their homicidal female counterparts. When women kill on screen, it tends to be downplayed.

Thus, we have Carrie-Anne Moss in The Matrix, who identifies more strongly as a great action fighter and/or great and cool intellectual, rather than a murderous vixen. Likewise with Famke Janssen in X-Men: The Last Stand, who only wants to kill when she is transformed into the Dark Phoenix, and even then her homicidal inclinations seem less important than the outfit she's wearing. In honor of the intentionally wanton murderers, here's a list of my top ten killer sci-fi chicks.

1. Mathilda May as Space Girl in Lifeforce
If you call her nothing more than a space vampire, you've only hinted at her power. First is her power to distract, which is a given when you're talking about a beautiful woman who has a great body and is always naked. Next, though, is her power to desiccate, sucking more than blood from everyone she meets, or, at least, everyone she manages to grab hold of to give them the shock of their lives. And she refuses to stop! Unlike normal vampires, who just want a pint or two of blood before heading back to their coffins, Space Girl wants nothing less than everything -- which is why she's the #1 killer sci-fi chick in my book.

I grew up reading science fiction, thinking my beloved genre was all about the possibilities of the infinite: advanced civilizations inhabiting distant star systems; men with brains so large and hearts so beneficent they could barely be contained within their bodies; women with beauty so magnificent and intellect so stunning they would leave bystanders breathless.

And they I started watching movies and eventually realized it's all about death, destruction ... and more death.

This week's release of The Final Destination, which is obsessed with staging elaborate 'kill scenes,' got me thinking about memorable scenes of demise in science fiction films. Sci-fi is notably short of serial killers, but offers a wider range of death scenes, beyond simple murder and mayhem. Here's my list of the top 10 sci-fi deaths. (Of necessity, this list is nothing but spoilers, so you have been warned.)

1. The Emperor (Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi)

Everyone knows where they were when they saw the Emperor get what was coming to him. Me, I was in the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, opening night, second showing, near 5:00 a.m., shouting (and ultimately cheering and applauding) along with the rest of the sold-out auditorium as Luke looked between his father and the Emperor, in pain, agonizing, understanding that the man he had hated was being tortured by the man who should be hated. And then he made the right call. Goosebumps still raise up in the glory of the memory.