Every Alien Movie, Ranked

Despite the Alien franchise having the most generic title conceivable, its titular aliens are truly singular creatures. There’s nothing else quite like the H. R. Giger-designed Xenomorphs, biomechanical-looking nightmares who hijack our bodies to transform themselves in unforgettable, sexually coded bits of body horror. And the franchise has proved to be as versatile and ever-changing as the Xenomorphs themselves. 

Beginning with Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror masterpiece, the Aliens franchise has spanned different genres and tones. There was James Cameron’s action sequel, two ‘90s sci-fi adventures, Scott’s ambitious, intellectual prequels in the ‘10s, and even some pulpy crossover fun with another big-screen alien species. The latest installment, Alien: Romulus, is in theaters now. 

With everything the Alien franchise is—and everything it can be—ranking the movies becomes something of a challenging exercise. What do we want out of an Alien movie? Is it just efficient playing of the hits, with Facehuggers hugging faces and Chestbursters bursting? Or do we want these films to speak to something greater, something that might go beyond the aliens themselves and threaten to make them irrelevant in their own franchise? There’s not really a wrong or right answer, which speaks to the power of the series. Nevertheless, we’ve tried to look past personal preference and view the franchise as holistically as possible for our attempt to put them all in order, from worst to best. In space, no one can hear you scream, but hopefully down on Earth, you can read this ranking.

Read more: The Best Sci-Fi TV Shows of All Time

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

The ceiling was always going to be pretty low for the sequel to a crossover spin-off. The first Alien vs. Predator was much better than it had any right to be, but even with AvP’s surprisingly high starting point and lowered expectations for the sequel, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem is an utter catastrophe. If there’s anything worthwhile in Requiem, you can’t see it—literally. One of the biggest problems with the movie, which has a Xenomorph-Predator hybrid terrorizing a Colorado suburb, is that it pretty much all takes place in the black of night. The lighting is non-existent, making it nearly impossible to make out any of the action. The concept of Xenomorphs attacking an average community rather than a futuristic starship or colony full of space marines might be worth exploring, though it’s entirely possible that Xenomorphs in familiar territory don’t work as well as they do in the dank, industrial sci-fi aesthetic of the mainline series. Requiem is so abysmal that it doesn’t feel like a fair test of that theory. 

Alien Resurrection (2007)

One of the reasons why Alien is so enduring is how timeless the franchise feels. The original film was made in the ‘70s and is set in the far future, and yet the Nostromo’s leaks and janky chains, not to mention the bizarre pseudo-mechanical design of the Xenomorph, make the film feel old and new at once. Resurrection, the fourth installment in the series, does not feel timeless. It feels like it was made in 1997 and written by Joss Whedon—because it was. Set two centuries after the previous installment, Resurrection has a quippy group of mercenaries teaming up with a clone of Ellen Ripley when things go south at a secret Military Xenomorph research station and they have to fight their way out. Although there’s plenty of violence and an earnestly upsetting human-alien hybrid, Resurrection can’t help but feel like any number of generic, gnarly millennium-era sci-fi efforts. Sigourney Weaver returns as the clone, and while she gives the role her all, she lacks the soul of the Ripley audiences got to know in the past three movies, leaving Resurrection feeling like a cheap copy, too. 

ALIEN³ (1992)

David Fincher has disowned ALIEN³, his directorial debut, citing studio interference and behind-the-scenes troubles that resulted in a vision that was not his own. He’s perhaps being too hard on himself, as there’s still a lot to appreciate in the movie, which places Ripley, the ultimate action movie heroine, in one of the most horribly macho environments imaginable: a futuristic space prison colony. Ripley, rudely deprived of the happy ending she seemed headed towards at the end of Aliens, has entered yet another level of extra-terrestrial hell. She rises to the occasion, as do Sigourney Weaver and Fincher with his already keen sense of direction, but ALIEN³‘s issues can be traced back to where it sits in the franchise's History. It’s the entry in a franchise tasked with following up a perfect horror movie and a perfect action movie. It’s no wonder it struggled to live up to its predecessors when trying to establish its own identity. Maybe that’s OK. It’s a visceral, mean little movie all the same.

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

If ALIEN³ is an ambitious but flawed movie, Alien vs. Predator is trash, but perfectly executed trash. Delivering on a crossover that was first teased when a Predator had a Xenomorph skull on its trophy wall at the end of Predator 2, AvP nails the deceptively difficult balance of dumb fun and high stakes. Director Paul W. S. Anderson, who is no stranger to schlock, pits the two icons of sci-fi cinema against each other in an ancient pyramid buried deep beneath the Antarctic, and the human team of researchers sent down to investigate it are nicely developed fodder for the fight. Alien vs. Predator doesn’t have a lot to say, but it says it loudly and clearly—it can’t be denied that AvP fully delivers on its title in much the same way the first two simply-named movies in the franchise did. (The tagline, it must be said, is inaccurate. “Whoever wins, we lose” is a great line, though the plot of the movie makes it very clear the Predators need to win otherwise Xenomorphs will overrun the entire Earth.)

Alien: Covenant (2017)

Prometheus has enjoyed a pretty widespread reappraisal since its release, but back in the ‘10s, the film was viewed as something of a misfire, especially from fans who wanted, well, aliens in their Alien movie. You can feel that tension in Alien: Covenant, which name-drops the traditionally titular aliens again following Prometheus’ omission. In terms of sheer terror, Covenant might be where the franchise peaks. The Xenomorph’s attacks are violent, extremely gory, and disorientingly hectic. Yet there’s a central tension in the film that Covenant can’t quite overcome. Sure the Xenomorph attacks are thrilling, but the movie has so much exposition that the nature of the horror is different. On some level, a thing that goes bump in the night is scarier than an elaborate origin story for what the thing is. There’s also a huge chunk of the movie that stops dead in its tracks when Michael Fassbender’s evil android David reappears, and it becomes clear that Ridley Scott is more interested in robots than he is in aliens. The individual parts of Covenant are all good—some are even great. It's just torn between being an Alien movie and a Prometheus sequel in a way that disservices both.

Alien: Romulus (2024)

Early trailers for Alien: Romulus, which was directed by Don’t Breathe and the 2013 Evil Dead’s Fede Álvarez, made it look like it would be a return to the straight horror of the original film. Turns out Romulus is more than that—it’s a collection of Alien’s greatest hits that manages to bring aspects of the various subgenres of the franchise together in one surprisingly cohesive (if inherently derivative) whole. Cailee Spaeny stars as a young woman who tries to scavenge a derelict Weyland-Yutani space station to escape her hellish life on a mining planet. Things go wrong, as they are wont to do, when they encounter Xenomorphs, who attack in some of the series’ most exciting setpieces yet. The haunted house horror of Alien is there, but so too is the action of Aliens, and Romulus subtly brings Prometheus’ Engineers into the fold more organically than Covenant. There’s even a human-alien hybrid that outshines one of Resurrection’s few high points. It’s a down-the-middle crowd-pleaser that Alien fans of all stripes can enjoy, though it could be dinged for being a jack of all trades and master of none. (And also one truly egregious bit of fan service referencing the franchise’s most famous quote.) 

Prometheus (2012)

Ridley Scott’s return to the series for the first time since the 1979 original also marked a notable departure for the franchise. The title of this visually stunning film is a dead giveaway—this is the only Alien without “Alien” in the name, and the Xenomorphs are not part of the action in their final form as audiences have come to know them. There are proto-Chestbursters and star Noomi Rapace endures a new level of body horror when she has an alien removed from her insides in a nightmarish cesarean procedure, but these trappings of classic Alien motifs are secondary to Prometheus’s true, headier scares. An alien monster that can kill you is a danger. Going into the vastness of space to meet your makers only to find out that your creator views you as an afterthought at best and outright hostility at worst, is an existential terror. Criticisms that Prometheus isn’t really “an Alien” movie aren’t totally without merit. They also miss the point. Prometheus is about something much more awful, in both senses of the word.   

Aliens (1986)

James Cameron sold the producers on this sequel by writing “Alien” on a piece of paper, then adding an “S” and striking a line through it so it read “Alien$”—effortlessly conveying the film’s presence and the massive amount of money it would make at the box office. It was an incredible flex, and one that would open up a world of possibilities for what Alien could be. Aliens traded the original film’s claustrophobic horror and hapless victims for open combat as gung-ho space marines charge to fight a foe that only Ripley understands. It’s an absolute blast, ratcheting up the tension and unleashing it in a hail of gunfire and spray after spray of acid blood. It’s a total genre switch-up that still feels fully of a piece with what came before.

It’s what Aliens does for Ripley, though, that makes it so exceptional. Whereas in the first movie she’s an exemplary “final girl,” to use the horror term, in the sequel she takes charge, outdoing the manly space marines when it comes to fighting aliens and out-mothering the Xenomorph queen as she takes the orphaned Newt under her wing. “Get away from her you bitch!,” which Ripley screams from inside a makeshift mech-suit as she prepares to physically brawl with the queen, is not just a cool line but a triumphant culmination of character. Sigourney Weaver was nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars for her part in Aliens—and given how the Academy is typically loath to honor genre movies, that says something about how undeniable she was.  

Alien (1979)

Try to take yourself back to 1979, before eight subsequent Alien movies made the Xenomorph’s transformation from Facehugger to Chestburster to full-grown monster a well-known, clockwork lifecycle. The Alien movies since then have faced an innate pacing issue because once a Facehugger impregnates a victim, the audience knows what’s going to happen next even if the characters don’t. The films can only sit with that suspense for so long before the audience gets antsy, meaning there’s a sudden, drastic spike in the action in most of the sequels when they aren’t already veering into painting by the numbers. 

But back in ‘79, when Ridley Scott first unleashed Alien on the world, nobody had any idea what to expect when John Hurt’s character suddenly doubled over at dinner and a bloody, toothy phallus exploded from his rib cage. Alien is so, well, alien in a way that few other sci-fi or horror movies have managed. H. R. Giger’s instantly iconic creature design blended seamlessly into an upsettingly industrial vision of the future, as the Xenomorph hid among the Nostromo’s machinery as it picked off the crew one by one until only Ripley remained. Alien is a masterpiece of terror and the unknown, and while several of the sequels that burst from it are exceptional in their own right, nothing can top the original.