As American military engagements in the MIddle East plod along with little or no progress, the New York Times tried to drum up some hopefulness with their epic feature on women in the military this weekend. In movies, of course, female soldiers are nothing new. In fact, some of our best cinematic soldiers have been female, as evidenced by this listicle of 6 Women in the Military in Film.

Jordan O’Neill (Demi Moore) in G.I. Jane

The trailer alone is better than G.I. Joe. Plus, this movie actually had real actors in it.

Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from the Alien Series

The strongest and most strangely adaptive of the women in this listicle, Ripley is like a modern movie Amazon.

The Women of the Starship Troopers series

As evidenced by this mock military ad, this movie franchise (though it’s never regained the awesomeness of its first installment) has always done a good job of having a more sexually balanced military.

Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) in Willow

Sure, she starts off with the bad guys and her mother is a crazy evil sorcerer, but Sorsha is killer cool and bad-ass.

Karen Walden (Meg Ryan) in Courage Under Fire

A little over the top, perhaps, in its foregrounding of the “issue” of women in the military, but Meg Ryan still manages to be awesome in that capacity.

Franky Cook (Angelina Jolie) in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

With her groovy eyepatch and a fleet of blimps at her command, Captain Cook is probably the coolest thing about this overproduced retro sci-fi war movie.