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 * Here's How to Watch the 'Alien' Movies in Order (Chronologically and by
   Release Date)


HERE'S HOW TO WATCH THE 'ALIEN' MOVIES IN ORDER (CHRONOLOGICALLY AND BY RELEASE
DATE)

By Drake Lupton Published Aug 07, 2021
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The franchise's structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.



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 Bladerunner,
Thelma and Louise, G.I. Jane, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, and many, many more.
Perhaps most influential of them all—in contention with Bladerunner—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.

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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 sequels to prequels, the Alien films can get
slightly complicated. Here’s a look at the films in production and in
chronological order.



RELATED: Why Watching ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Alien’ Back-to-Back Shows the Range of
the ‘Alien’ Franchise and Ridley Scott


ALIEN FILMS IN ORDER OF RELEASE

Image via 20th Century Fox

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 performance by an actress in a leading role
thanks to Signourney’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 as to whether or not 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.


Image via 20th Century Fox

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—no way—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 meetups, 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.



.

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 Strause, 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 appreciate.

Image via 20th Century Fox

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 of.




ALIEN FILMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

Image via 20th Century Fox


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 2000 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

Following a crash landing on a mysterious planet, Ripley is imprisoned following
the events of Aliens on a 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.

For fans looking for more xenomorph action, but that can’t wait for the new
movie, show, or video game, Alien: Isolation is available to download for free
with an Xbox Game Pass membership, available for $1 to sign up and $9.99 a month
after that on PC or console. Both Alien vs Predator movies are streaming on
HBOMax this month, and Alien is available for streaming in HD and in 4K UHD on
Amazon Prime.

KEEP READING: David Fincher Put a Dog in a Costume For 'Alien 3'; He Should've
Kept Trying That



Two New ‘South Park’ Specials Coming to Paramount+ in 2022

Because we can't get enough of the show.

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Related Topics
 * Features
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 * Alien
 * Ridley Scott
 * Prometheus
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About The Author
Drake Lupton (29 Articles Published)


Drake Lupton is new to the Collider team. He's a features writer who loves
movies, games, music, comic books, sports, and esports. He has had the privilege
to write about games and esports for separate publications, but he's thrilled to
contribute to the conversations surrounding film and television happening at
Collider. He encourages anyone looking for something to watch to follow his
Twitter account for near-constant chronicling of recently visited cinema.

More From Drake Lupton

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