The Alien: Earth series has finally arrived on the Disney+ streaming service, featuring an all-new cast of surely hapless victims just waiting to be chestbursted and tenderised. This time, the horror reaches Earth in 2120, two years before the calamitous events of the first Alien movie, and it looks like the galaxy’s most lethal adversary is eyeing up our planet like an all-you-can-slaughter buffet.
But before fans give everyone’s favourite xenomorphs a big facehug, there’s plenty of Alien lore to explore and brush up on at the silver screen. No fewer than nine movies, including prequels and crossovers, await the most daring, and while some admittedly are all over the place in terms of quality, there’s plenty of scares and bodily claret to go around.
However, which films are best left in hypersleep, and which are worth delving into again? To answer that, let’s rank all the Alien films on the Company’s time.
9. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
This Alien crossover sequel has the dubious honour of being seen by no one, just because it’s so ruddy dark. Seriously, you’ll be wondering if your TV’s contrast has gone off-piste in this hyper-violent but ultimately tedious extraterrestrial outing.
When a Predator ship crashlands near a town in Colorado, hundreds of civvies are caught in the crossfire between two alien terrors: the hybrid Predalien and the Predator sent to investigate its brethren’s distress call. Sadly, it’s full of characters you don’t care about getting mangled in the ensuing kerfuffle, involving horrific pregnancy scenes and good ol’ evil army suits nuking a township of innocent people. It’s also catastrophically edited, with scenes never lingering on the senses to register any impact — no bad thing, then.
8. Alien Resurrection (1997)
Entrap the director of Amelie and the writer of Avengers Assemble within the confines of a traditional sci-fi horror franchise, and the results go as well as you might expect in this tonally inconsistent and unmemorable sci-fi romp that feels strangely hollow.
Set 200 years after Ripley’s self-sacrifice, her clone, Ripley 8, now spliced with Alien Queen DNA, awakens on a space research vessel and discovers grim experiments are taking place to grow xenomorphs as bioweapons (seriously, read the memo, guys).
Perhaps a guilty pleasure to some, Resurrection is devoid of the tension and stakes of its forebears, ultimately harming the franchise with its melting pot of forced humour, lousy pacing, campy performances and very brown colour palette. Not even a genetically-modded Ripley can save this tragic picture, where the aliens are over-shown and the grotesque but ridiculous-looking abomination that is the Newborn still haunts cinema execs to this day. Leave Alien Resurrection in cryostasis for all eternity.
7. Alien: Covenant (2017)
Prometheus’s sequel, Covenant, is a technically competent but flawed hybrid of the original Alien movies that tries to include its prequel’s grandiose themes of creation and Greek mythology. However, this mishmash strays far from touching Mount Olympus.
Though the action is viscerally intense, and the xenomorphs are as aggressive and intimidating as ever, it’s the story and characters that once again fall flat, with entirely predictable yet overly pompous dialogue that consigns them to the den of anonymity once their number is up. There are also some tonally off scenes, like a lander craft neomorph scuffle that becomes unintentionally hilarious and some freaky Fassbender on Fassbender flute playing. It also did Noomi Rapace’s Dr Elizabeth Shaw dirty, unceremoniously killing her off between the events of this installment and Prometheus.
6. Alien 3 (1992)
Following Alien and its action-packed sequel must have felt like filling Herculean boots, but Alien 3 sadly languished in development hell with a multitude of attached writers and directors. Eventually finding its way into the lap of David Fincher (who has since then disowned the movie), the result is an underwhelming follow-up that tones down the action and frights.
Ripley finds herself on Fiorina 161, a prison foundry planet, with an alien loose and stalking her and every inmate. Worse still, there’s the threat of another Alien Queen, and evil megacorp Weyland-Yutani is on its way to secure the potential bioweapons.
Though Alien 3 resolves Ripley’s final adventure in a fairly satisfying conclusion with slightly more memorable characters, the story beats and the xenomorph threat lack substance. Replaced with a ropey-looking composited puppet, the monster is devoid of heft and presence, instead looking dated and unnatural in those repetitive corridor scenes. Still, alien aficionados can seek out The Assembly Cut, an extended, unpolished work that many regard as superior to the theatrical release.
5. Alien vs. Predator (2004)
We know, we know, a Paul W.S. Anderson that doesn’t sit at the bottom of this ranking. However, kudos to AVP for at least swinging for the fences in this crossover.
When an expedition team scours an ancient Antarctic ruin, they discover that they are the sacrificial lambs in a hunt between the titular Alien and Predator.
Despite its low aim, Alien vs. Predator features impressive practical and monster effects for a 2000s movie, and the action at least has gravitas and effort. Plus, the finale battle, where heroine Lex teams up with veteran Predator Scar, is a neat little touch that harkens back to the original AVP comic book and offers up something fresh to this cinematic universe.
Aside from a few janky scenes, some so-so scripting and a criminal lack of blood, Alien vs. Predator is a strictly by-the-numbers affair that looks half decent and good for lazy Sunday viewing without the need for your neurons firing, even if you’ll forget most of it at curtain up.
4. Prometheus (2012)
Many have been unjustly kind to Prometheus upon release. Its visuals and art direction were stunning, from the gorgeous planetary scenes to the ominous Engineer set designs. Its leads also have good chemistry, with Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba and Charlize Theron all playing with magnets. In particular, Michael Fassbender lends a creepy yet captivating performance as the enigmatic android David.
Sadly, Prometheus may be remembered more for its truly bizarre character decisions — scientists jabbing at wild xenofauna, and other perfectly competent characters running alongside the path of a downed spaceship, instead of to the side.
It remains a solid sci-fi horror movie, yet its place in the Alien franchise is often questioned, and while deep themes are touched upon, it lazily dumps the heavy lifting onto its eventual sequel, leaving more shrugs and question marks than before. Still, that birthing scene is something else…
3. Alien: Romulus (2024)
Alien: Romulus takes the troubled franchise back to its roots with horror auteur Fede Álvarez, who creates an effective, claustrophobic and focused thrill ride through another xeno-haunted house.
Colonist Rain dreams of escaping her dreary life on a mining planet. She and a motley team venture to an abandoned Weyland-Yutani station to secure the cryostasis gear needed for the long trip to a fresh start, though things inevitably go very wrong.
There are some inventive ideas here alongside terrifying sequences, which include a pursuit against a facehugger horde and a hybrid monstrosity that will haunt your dreams. Notably, the cinematography is excellent, creating a palpable tension and atmosphere reminiscent of the best of the Alien filmography. It also offers up an exciting new heroine in the form of Cailee Spaeny’s steely-eyed yet vulnerable Rain, while Industry star David Jonsson is enthralling as the persona-flipping android Andy.
Romulus is an enjoyable victory tour of the Alien films’ greatest hits, even if one or two callbacks are a little too on the nose.
2. Alien (1979)
When the crew of the freighter Nostromo is ordered to investigate a transmission from a nearby planetoid, they encounter a lethal extraterrestrial adversary that hunts them one by one.
Even before the xenomorph famously chestbursts onto the scene, Alien creates a cold, claustrophobic and intense atmosphere with its set and sound design right from the outset. This blend of sci-fi and horror from helmer Sir Ridley Scott feels deliberate and slow-paced, instilling you with dread throughout as you breathe in the icy monochromatic screens and dark, undulating hallways wrapped in death and silence.
It helps that the creature blends so well into the set, appearing only in minimal fashion to carry out its next horrific kill. It’s also one of the best-designed movie monsters ever, with its grotesque aesthetic and MO that carries more than one connotation of extreme sexual violence.
And though the cast does a fantastic job of making the Nostromo and alien part of a lived-in universe of corporate greed and people as expendable assets, it’s the emergence of warrant officer Ellen Ripley, one of the greatest heroes ever committed to celluloid, that propels Alien into legendary status.
1. Aliens (1986)
You can count the number of sequels that best their original on a cartoon hand, and Aliens is one of them. Director James Cameron takes the franchise down an action-oriented approach, dropping Ripley and a squad of badass marines onto a colony on LV-426 after it goes radio silent. What follows is a bombastic and thrilling movie full of mesmerising characters, practical effects and some of the most electric dialogue and zingers people are still spouting nearly four decades on. And despite its age, Aliens is timeless as one of the best movies ever made. Special note goes to the late, great composer James Horner for his electric score that perfectly elevates the heart-pounding action.
All the main players are given their chance to shine and serve as the blueprint for countless ensemble actioners in its wake, while Ripley’s character is further fleshed out and given emotional clout with the introduction of Newt, a young girl and one of the last surviving colonists.
With close allegories to the Vietnam War, the macho marines are hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, but it takes Ripley’s maternal drive and sheer will to take on the Alien Queen, a whole town of xenos and a terrifying nope-basket of alien eggs.
And yes, the sound of that motion tracker still scares the bejesus out of us.
