Ever since 1979, moviegoers have been terrified by the nameless xenomorph introduced inAlien. And the success of that movie ensured that this franchise expanded even quicker than a chestburster popping out of an unsuspecting victim.
As the newest installment in theAlienfranchise arrives on August 12 in the form of the new Hulu series,Alien: Earth, we thought we’d take a discerning look back at how we got here. It’s an open secret that some of theAlienfilms are worth checking out and others can (and should be) skipped altogether. How can you tell which of these movies is worth your time? Simple: grab your pulse rifle and shotgun (for close encounters) and check out my ranked list of everyAlienmovie, all of which are currently available onHulu!
2007
Runtime
1 hour, 42 minutes
The firstAliens vs. Predatordelivered on a clash of the extraterrestrial titans first hinted at back inPredator 2. It also paid off the expectations of those who had been reading the awesome Dark Horse comics in which these very different aliens fought to the death. Sure, the whole thing felt like a sloppy video game, but it delivered the grudge match promised by the title in a borderline competent way. Unfortunately,Aliens vs. Predator: Requiemis worse in every way.
This sequel picks up immediately where the first film left off. The Predalien from the first film is just trying to survive, but the arrival of a Predator severely reduces his chances of survival. Once more, there are basic thrills to be had, including some serviceable fights and the novelty of once more seeing xenomorphs on Earth. But the film as a whole is poorly edited, and the lighting is so poor that you can’t really see all that much of the tepid action happening onscreen.
This franchise’s tagline is “whoever wins, we lose.” And nothing feels like losing quite as much as watchingRequiem, the worst of theAlienfilms.
2004
1 hour, 49 minutes
Aliens vs. Predatoris basically “fan service, the film.” It delivers plenty of fighting between these cinematic villains, and those fights are appropriately fast and brutal. It also offers some fascinating franchise lore, including Charles Weyland’s first brush with the xenomorphs. Unfortunately, the deep lore has been rendered non-canonical by Ridley Scott’s later films in the franchise. That means that the this fan service carries about as much narrative weight as badly written fan fiction.
Obviously, it’s easy to criticize this movie’s exceedingly basic plot, especially because it’s just a flimsy excuse to pit the Alien and Predator against each other. But let’s be real: nobody came into this movie expecting it to be the nextCitizen Kane. Rather, they expected it to deliver lots of meaty (if meaningless) melees between villainous visitors from another world. If you’re a franchise fan who has enjoyed other cinematic beatdown films (likeBatman v. SupermanorGodzilla vs. Kong), you’re likely to enjoy the action inAliens vs. Predator.
1997
In its own way,Alien Resurrectionis the most surreal film in the entire Alien franchise. That’s because it tries to broadly emulate all the action ofAlienswith a plot about colorful mercenaries who must fight xenomorphs that have gotten loose aboard a military vessel. But it was written by Joss Whedon, so much of the dialogue is overly too clever by half. The script is basically what you’d get if you asked ChatGPT to rewrite James Cameron’sAliensin the style of Whedon’s firstAvengersfilm.
If you’re able to get past Whedon’s “aren’t I a clever boy” writing style, there’s a lot of fun to be had inResurrection. Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley oozes ominous menace while costars like Ron Perlman and Brad Dourif chew the scenery in the most hilarious ways. Oh, and Winona Ryder’s character might be the best addition to this franchise since the Colonial Marines. These performances and some inventive action scenes help elevate a movie that is ultimately just a pale imitation ofAliens.
But let’s face it: you could do a lot worse than a film modeled after one of the greatest action movies in Hollywood history.
1992
1 hour, 54 minutes
Alien 3is, to put it mildly, a hard film to love. It was legendary director David Fincher’s first feature film, but he faced so much studio interference that he later disowned the movie altogether. Certainly, the movie gets points for trying something different. It takes place on a prison planet filled entirely with violent male convicts. Ripley is the only survivor after her ship crashes (RIP Newt and Hicks), and she has to worry about what will kill her first—an angry prisoner or the xenomorph, which is busy doing a little prison reform, one murder at a time.
There are flashes of brilliance here, and it was a bold move to follow up the xenomorph-heavyAlienswith a film in which there’s only a single critter to worry about. But the movie’s characters mostly lack the charisma of the original Nostromo crew and the big personalities of the Colonial Marines. We are left with a horror movie that offers solid scares and genuine surprises. But finding those diamonds means navigating a movie whose esthetics are just as depressing and gloomy as its characters and dialogue.
2017
2 hours, 2 minutes
Alien: Covenantis directed by Ridley Scott, the famous director who brought us the first film in this freaky franchise. His veteran presence ensures that this film is just as beautiful as it is scary. For better or for worse, though, the script feels like it was written as a deliberate course correction made to please those who hatedPrometheus. That film asked plenty of thought-provoking questions but barely felt like anAlienfilm.Covenant, meanwhile, puts all that philosophy in the backseat in favor of providing a movie focusing on atmospheric creepiness.
As a horror movie,Covenantis largely successful. The misfit crew feels more in line with those of the originalAlien, and the impending dread of these characters hangs in the air like a persistent fog. As a sequel toPrometheus, the movie also works well in exploring what Michael Fassbender’s quirky android has been up to between films. Unless you’re really one forAlienlore, though, the film arguably spends too much time answering a question nobody was really asking, like where those pesky xenomorphs came from in the first place.
2012
2 hours 4 minutes
Even the biggest fans ofPrometheusreadily admit that the movie is nothing like what they thought it would be. This was the triumphant return of Ridley Scott to the franchise he created, so everyone expected a spooky xenomorph stalking helpless victims through space. Instead, we got a largely planet-based adventure in which explorers seek to find the Engineers, alien beings who created humanity and left enough clues to one day find them among the stars. In short, it’s ascience fiction movie that actually has science fictionas part of its plot.
As mentioned before, much of the plot involves major philosophical questions about why humanity was created and our inherent need to meet our makers in the most literal sense. Fortunately, this doesn’t keep the movie from delivering plenty of scares. The frights are even more intense because of the mysteries surrounding everything about this alien planet. We also get some goofy lore helping to set up a xenomorph origin story, but those parts fell flat. It’s best to enjoyPrometheusfor what it is: a beautifully frightening and frighteningly beautiful film.
2024
1 hour, 59 minutes
Alien: Romulusis a return to form for a franchise that Ridley Scott had taken in some wildly different directions. His laterAlienfilms were less about outright horror and more like cautionary sci-fi tales aboutthe search for extraterrestrial life.Romulus, however, focuses on this franchise’s core elements, including everything from unexpected xenomorph and facehugger attacks to the banal evil of futuristic corporations. The result is a film whose story plays things relatively safe rather than trying to innovate and do anything new.
That might sound like a bad thing, but it’s really not. Arguably, the key problems with maligned films likeAlien 3andResurrectionare that they took big swings and missed more often than they hit.Romulussucceeds because it focuses on giving the audience what they want, whether that’s pulse-pounding jump scares, unexpected betrayals, or epic final battles. It’s a remix of everything you love fromAlienandAliens; is it any wonder this movie resonated so much with the fandom?
1979
1 hour, 57 minutes
The firstAlienremains one of the most misunderstood films in horror history. You see, most people think of this as a sci-fi movie because of familiar tropes like space travel, planetary expeditions, and the discovery of new life. In reality, though,Alienis a sci-fi re-skin of the venerable “cabin in the woods” type of scary movie. In this case, though, the cabin is a spaceship, and the monster is what android Ash describes as “a perfect organism.” There is no easy escape for the crew of the Nostromo, and we must watch as each of them is hunted down by the scariest creature to ever grace the silver screen.
The scares in this film hold up remarkably well, and that first chest-burster scene is still as viscerally upsetting today as it was decades ago. But the film’s real strength is the eclectic characters. Sigourney Weaver’s final girl, Ripley, is the clear standout, but her space trucker colleagues and their pet android all help make this fictional world feel lived-in and real. Most importantly, director Ridley Scott forces us to care about this crew, making their eventual deaths all that much more heartbreaking.
1986
2 hours, 17 minutes
Thanks to director James Cameron,Aliensis a complete tone and genre shift from the earlier film.Alienwas a horror movie where unarmed, unprepared crewmates are stalked by a single xenomorph.Aliens, however, is an outright action movie where Ripley leads a group of well-armed Colonial Marines back to the planet from the firstAlienmovie. That planet has since been colonized, and it’s now crawling with enough xenomorphs to overpower even a small army of space marines armed with everything from shotguns to pulse rifles.
Compared to the Nostromo crew, these marines are cocky in the face of danger. That leads to some great bravado, and these soldiers generate some of the movie’s most memorable lines.
Additionally, seeing that bravado fade as they fall one by one is very chilling, and it’s tough not to empathize with Bill Paxton’s Hudson as he screams, “Game over, man, game over!” His words certainly didn’t apply to the franchise, though, and the success of this film led to a bevy of sequels, comics, video games, and more.
Fans often have trouble deciding which of the first two films in this franchise is better. But for this action junkie who grew up playing with those insane Kenner action figures, it doesn’t get any better thanAliens.
In space, no one can hear you stream! All of these movies helped shape one of the most influential franchises in horror history. By watching every terrifying film for yourself, you can decide for yourself which ones are best and which ones are worth taking off and nuking from orbit (it’s the only way to be sure).
Hulu
The Alien franchise redefined the horror genre. Which one is your fave? You won’t know until you stream them all on Hulu!
