How to Watch Chronologically and by Release Date
It’s hard to overstate the profound impact of Ridley Scott on modern visual media. His style and techniques permeate genres and mediums beyond quantification. They’re backed into the identity of popular culture. In his near 60-year tenure directing cinema, he’s created classics including Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, G.I. Jane, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, and many, many more. Perhaps most influential of them all — in contention with Blade Runner — is his 1979 sci-fi film, Alien. Everything about the movie is iconic, including the title card. Despite art direction in part by Leslie Dilley, one of the art directors who worked on Star Wars just a few years before, it was the antithesis of the melodramatic space opera. The contemporary cinematic presentation, inspired special effects, and stellar cast made a movie in a class of its own. H.R. Geiger’s xenomorph endured alongside the film itself against the progress of visual effects thanks to its eerie, chitinous body and excellent facial animatronics. Sigourney Weaver’s role of Ripley, a miner aboard a corporate interstellar shipping vessel, would unlock a franchise she’d lead for nearly 20 years.
The six mainline Alien movies, in addition to the two Alien vs. Predator entries, have raked in a whopping $1.6 billion at the box office — not bad for a science fiction horror franchise. It’s thrived for more than 40 years and still has a new TV series and new co-op videogame on the way. An announced and axed Alien 5 sequel by District-9 auteur Neil Blomkamp would’ve seen the franchise return to Ripley’s story, but the success of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant excited Scott enough to wrestle back control of the series. With sequels, prequels, sequels to prequels, and announced sequels to prequels, the Alien films can get slightly complicated. Here’s a look at the films in production and in chronological order.
Alien Films in Order of Release
Alien - June 22, 1979
A cabin fever-style horror film aboard a spaceship, Alien supersedes good genre films as a standard-setting technical masterpiece. Stellar production design and Oscar-winning special effects flesh out the corporate-dominated world and create a functional setting for the cast to play in. Creepy creatures and eclectic orchestration heighten tension in the cramped halls of the Nostromo mining vessel as the crew is picked off one by one. It’s the series introduction of Ripley, face-huggers, and the xenomorph, as well as the first look at the ship and species featured in the prequel installments released over 30 years later.
Aliens - July 18, 1986
Seven years after Alien was released, a sequel was brought to life by young gun James Cameron. Fresh off his success with The Terminator, Cameron rebooted Alien as an action film centered around the same protagonist. Similar story beats unfold under different circumstances following Ripley’s awakening decades after the events aboard the Nostromo. The adaptable xenomorphs find themselves up against colonial marines armed to the teeth including Bill Paxton (Apollo 13), Michael Biehn (The Terminator), and Al Matthews. Production design and special effects are again at the forefront of the film’s strengths, and it won Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing. It was nominated for seven awards in total, including Best Actress in a Leading Role, thanks to Sigourney Weaver’s versatile and cunning performance as Ripley. It’s a classic Empire Strikes Back vs. Return of the Jedi—or Infinity War vs. Endgame, to update that reference—debate whether Aliens surpasses its progenitor, but Aliens is at the very least a worthy sequel to its predecessor.
Alien 3 - May 22, 1992
After years of experience directing music videos, young director David Fincher was gifted an opportunity to direct the third installment of the Oscar-winning Alien franchise. The movie kills off everyone but Ripley from Aliens, and strands her in a prison. Fincher’s entry continued the tradition of winning the Academy Award for Best Special Effects but failed to capture the praise of audiences like Alien or Aliens before it. Tumultuous production saw Fincher exit the project near its completion, resulting in an obviously mixed final product. The growing chorus of support for Fincher’s film has swelled slowly over the decades since its release, in part thanks to the release of the Alien 3: The Assembly Cut — a version of the film more in line with David Fincher’s vision for the story.
Alien: Resurrection - November 26, 1997
Another five years later and Alien returned with the final entry in Weaver’s saga, Alien: Resurrection. Written by Joss Whedon (The Avengers), and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie), Alien: Resurrection resurrects Ripley after her fiery sacrifice at the end of Alien 3 in the form of a clone hundreds of years after her death. The same scientists that made her have been farming xenomorphs, which turns out to be a bad idea when they all break free. It’s over the top and packed to the gills with action, but lacks the intensity or dramatic weight that made the franchise a household name.
AVP: Alien vs. Predator - August 13, 2004
Following years of discussion, allusion in films, and comic book meet-ups, Alien vs Predator was finally brought to the big screen by Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil, Event Horizon). A group of scientists travels under the ice of Antarctica to explore a newly discovered archeological site. There, they awaken a xenomorph queen who begins producing xenomorphs and, soon after, predator aliens show up to clean house. The PG-13 adaptation merging two R-rated franchises struggled to capture the thrilling action of the Predator franchise or the chilling intensity of the Alien franchise, resulting in an underwhelming flagship entry.
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Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem - December 25, 2007
Despite a lackluster first installment, Fox recommitted to AVP with its sequel, AVPR. They tapped visual effects artists and directing duo the Strause brothers, Colin Strause and Greg Stratuse, to follow up Anderson’s entry. The story of a town beset by xenomorphs and face-huggers off of a crashed predator ship lacks the all-star cast or sci-fi setting that made the Alien franchise visually captivating. Further, the picture is marred by darkness — possibly in an attempt to compensate for the reduced budget — making most of the film a battle to observe. The faithful depictions of the efficiency of the predator up against the vicious scourge of xenomorphs, and a script with references to both franchises help make this a movie fans can appreciate, but general audiences may struggle to connect to the material.
Prometheus - June 8, 2012
Ridley Scott returned to the Alien franchise 33 years later with a prequel, Prometheus. The movie about a group of scientists in search of humanity’s creators is depicted with wonder and horror. It’s a story of exploration and identity that’s at its best when it’s exploring those concepts. Thematics feel sacrificed in favor of large-scale set pieces in the latter half, but the special effects, script, and characters are captivating until the credits. It may lack the technical innovation of Alien before it, but there's a magical quality to watching Ridley Scott work with modern tools in the universe he established during a different era of filmmaking.
Alien: Covenant - May 19, 2017
A customary five years later, Ridley Scott returned with a sequel to Prometheus that was a strong merging of the events from Prometheus with the world of Alien. Focused around Micahel Fassbender’s David, an automaton akin to Ash or Bishop from the previous Alien installments, Alien: Covenant furthers the questions surrounding humanity and identity introduced in previous entries while delivering plenty of heart-pounding xenomorph action. It’s CGI-heavy, but the sights and story create a worthy follow-up that strengthens and dwarfs its immediate predecessor. It opts for more philosophical and metaphorical thematic exploration than corporate criticism, and, like Prometheus, it's at its best when it escapes the boundaries the franchise was established inside.
Alien 9 - August 16, 2024
While the film is currently still in development, the upcoming Alien film is set to be a standalone film following a cast of younger characters. The movie will even be set on another planet, hopefully giving us a unique spin on the popular franchise.
Alien Films in Chronological Order
AVP: Alien vs. Predator
21st century humanity encounters the xenomorph for the first time when exploring an unearthed ancient ziggurat miles under the Antarctic ice. Predator aliens arrive to clean up the outbreak before they lose their hunting grounds to the rapidly growing horde.
AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem
Immediately following the events of AVP, a predator alien ship transporting face-huggers crash lands outside a small, wooded town. As the xenomorphs multiply, a single predator alien is dispatched to stem the growing tide of xenomorphs crashing over the town.
Prometheus
Nearly 90 years after the events of both AVP films, Prometheus follows a team of scientists on their journey across space to find an alien race they believe to be responsible for the creation of the human race. This film is the visual representation of being too busy asking if you could that you never stopped to ask if you should.
Alien: Covenant
A colony ship transporting 2,000 sleeping colonists is diverted from course by an emergency transmission from an Earth-like planet. It takes place a decade after the events of Prometheus, but flashbacks and dialogue fill the gaps and further the themes introduced in the prequel.
Alien
In 2122, the crew of the Nostromo, a corporate-owned hauling and mining vessel, is awoken from cryo-sleep and diverted from their course home to a repeating radio signal on a remote planet. They encounter an unknown life form that invades the ship via a parasitic relationship with one of the crew members.
Aliens
Decades after the events of Alien, Ripley’s life pod is discovered adrift in space, and she’s reintroduced to a galaxy, not unlike the one she knew. Corporate greed leads to the alien invasion of a colony on LV. 426, the same rocky moon the crew of the Nostromo encountered the face-hugger on in Alien.
Alien 3
After a crash landing on a mysterious planet, Ripley is imprisoned following the events of Aliens on prison planet Fiora 161. The only other survivor of the crash is a stow-away xenomorph that finds captive prey in the form of prisoners.
Alien: Resurrection
Hundreds of years after the end of Alien 3, Ripley is resurrected via a clone in a research center. Aliens, bred for experimentation, break free and customary carnage ensues.
Alien 9
In this ninth entry in the immensely popular and enduring film series, a group of young people on a distant world find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe. With Alien 9 being a standalone story, it's hard to say when the film takes place in the timeline, but we estimate that it is the most recent events in the franchise.
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