Lisbeth Salander

Lisbeth runs a background check on Mikael Blomkvist for Henrik Vanger and ends up on the Harriet case with him. A message from her cracks the numbers in Harriet's diary, and Mikael tracks her down. Meanwhile her new guardian, Bjurman, abuses her, and she gets revenge by recording it all and tattooing what he is on his body. She saves Mikael from Martin Vanger's basement and lets Martin die in his car. At the end, in a blonde wig, she empties Wennerström's accounts.

Back in Stockholm, Lisbeth becomes the prime suspect in the deaths of Dag Svensson, Mia and Bjurman. Her friend Miriam Wu is kidnapped by Niedermann, and boxer Paolo Roberto jumps in to save her. On the run, she follows the trail of "Zala" and finds out he is Zalachenko, her father, the man she tried to burn as a child. The giant Niedermann is her half-brother. At Gosseberga, her father shoots her and buries her alive; she climbs out of the grave and hits him with an axe.

Hospitalized in Gothenburg, Lisbeth survives a murder attempt by the Section, which kills her father. With a phone Mikael gets smuggled into her room, she helps build her own defense. She goes to trial in a mohawk and black leather. With lawyer Annika Giannini, she takes apart psychiatrist Teleborian and is acquitted. Then she finds Niedermann in a warehouse, nails his feet to the floor and leaves the rest to the bikers and the police.

In Fincher's film, Lisbeth works the same Vanger case but grows closer to Mikael, and she even asks permission to kill Martin before his car explodes. She helps find Harriet in London and brings down Wennerström. At Christmas she brings Mikael a gift, sees him with Erika and dumps it in the trash before riding off.

In Claire Foy's version, Lisbeth punishes violent men around Stockholm, with remote help from fellow hacker Plague. Hired by Frans Balder to steal Firefall, she loses the program and starts protecting his son, August. She learns the Spiders are led by Camilla, the sister she left behind as a child. She faces Camilla on a clifftop, destroys Firefall and burns down the house where they grew up.

Larsson based her on Pippi Longstocking; the "V. Kulla" nameplate on Lisbeth's door nods to Villa Villekulla. Noomi Rapace got a BAFTA nomination for the role, and Rooney Mara an Oscar nomination.