Much like a Xenomorph bursting through your chest, Alien first surprised audiences more than 45 years ago, and it hasn’t stopped growing since. With nine films (including the two Predator crossovers), video games, and now a TV series titled Alien: Earth, the franchise is as exciting today as it was in 1979. But to truly appreciate Alien‘s first hatching on the small screen, it’s important to sort out how we got here.
Our first encounter with the killer aliens from space began in the original Alien film, which starred Sigourney Weaver as an officer on a commercial spaceship. She’s roped into battle with the acid-blooded space scorpion after her crew brings some alien samples back to their ship. From there, an entire franchise was born out of humans playing in worlds beyond their control, robots betraying their creators in favour of dangerous science, and Xenomorphs absolutely tearing through humanity like paper.
If you want to brush up on your Alien knowledge before watching Alien: Earth—which we highly recommend—then join us on a space walk down memory lane.
Below we’ve rounded up all nine Alien films. Each is available to stream on Hulu, so you can watch the whole series without having to click in and out of different streamers. Note that this list presents them in the order of their release—not in chronological order. Still, we’ll help explain the timeline a bit throughout.
All right, enough technicalities. It’s time to embark on an adventure through time, space, and increasingly disturbing Xenomorphs.
Alien (1979)
Our saga begins in the year 2122—which is fast approaching, I might add—when the Nostromo crew detects a transmission from a nearby moon. The crew investigates and discovers an abandoned spaceship with a nest of alien eggs. When one of the organisms latches on to a crew member, the rest of the team is suddenly thrust into a fight for survival. Directed by Ridley Scott, the film stars Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, Ian Holm as an android named Ash, and the seven-foot Nigerian actor Bolaji Badejo as the titular alien. From chest-exploding alien babies to the killer monster’s secret second mouth, everything from the sound design to killer action is born here in this master class of sci-fi filmmaking.
Aliens (1986)
Aliens picks up with Ripley (Weaver) 57 years after surviving the Nostromo attack. Directed by James Cameron just two years after he helmed The Terminator, the sequel sees Ripley partner up with a child named Newt (Carrie Henn) to stop a Xenomorph queen and her brew from wiping out a medical space station circling Earth. Aliens is your blueprint sequel from the director who would perfect another sci-fi sequel in The Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The 1986 follow-up includes more aliens, bigger aliens, and even more action.
Alien 3 (1992)
Where Aliens ends with Ripley and Newt safe and on their way back to Earth, the next entry, by director David Fincher, reroutes Weaver’s space heroine once again. The Social Network director also immediately kills Newt and drops Ripley in the middle of a penal colony on a faraway planet. If the newly hatched Xenomorphs—who secretly boarded Ripley’s escape pod—don’t kill her, it’ll certainly be the prison full of violent inmates. Possibly due to the setting-and-director combo, Alien 3 is much grittier than the franchise’s two earlier films. Although the film received box-office success, it didn’t hit as much of a high note with critics.
Alien: Resurrection (1997)
After a five-year break, Alien returned with a new entry, helmed by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and with a script by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). The story takes place 200 years after the events of Alien 3, which—spoiler alert!—ended with Ripley’s death. In an effort to clone her body and resurrect Ripley all this time later, scientists are able to extract the Xenomorph’s eggs from Ripley’s body and kick off a whole new fight against the killer monsters. Despite receiving even less critical acclaim than Alien 3, the fourth entry is best known for the addition of Winona Ryder to the crew. Resurrection is also the furthest story in the Alien timeline. From here on out, it’s all prequels and spin-offs.
Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Alien vs. Predator is a crossover between two iconic sci-fi series. The story takes place in Antarctica, where wealthy explorer Charles Bishop Weyland finances an expedition to uncover a newly detected heat source. When he and his crew arrive, they find a pyramid—and, of course, aliens! To their surprise, the aliens aren’t the only foreign creatures out in the frozen wilderness. They also find extraterrestrial Predators. The Predators’ intent is to kill the aliens, but the humans are inevitably swept up in the madness. Let this be a lesson to always mind your business!
Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
The Xenomorphs and Predators go at it again in the sequel. This time, the extraterrestrial beings decide to duke it out in Gunnison, Colorado—with its residents caught in the cross fire. Alien vs. Predator: Requiem is the lowest-rated film in the Alien franchise, but if you want to see another massive showdown featuring the creepy ’80s sensations, then it’s worth a watch. Also important to note: These two crossovers are the least important additions to the overarching story of each franchise.
Prometheus (2012)
Set nearly 30 years before the events of Alien, Prometheus finds Ridley Scott returning to the franchise for the first time to tell a story about how his celebrated monsters came to exist. A new crew piloted by archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her android companion David (Michael Fassbender) arrive on the moon LV-223 to discover the origins of humanity. However, the crew is not alone. A violent alien awaits, with powers that could destroy mankind.
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Alien: Covenant is Ridley Scott’s direct sequel to Prometheus, set roughly 20 years after the events of the prior film. The spaceship Covenant responds to a distress signal on a nearby planet sent by David (Fassbender), who is using his new environment to cultivate and study a rare white Xenomorph. Covenant marks the end of Scott’s storyline. The director originally planned for Covenant to kick off a new trilogy that would lead back to Alien—much like Andor and Rogue One connected back to the first Star Wars movie—but he recently stated that he was finished with the Alien franchise for now. “Where it’s going now, I think I’ve done enough,” he told ScreenRant, “and I just hope it goes further.”
Alien: Romulus (2024)
Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead) pitched his own stand-alone Alien story to Disney—after the company acquired 20th Century Fox—that focused on a specific event between Alien and Aliens. The story follows the spaceships Romulus and Remus, which were abandoned following an attack from aliens who survived the original Nostromo disaster. The film also features a digitally recreated Ian Holm as Ash the robot, who ties the spin-off Alien thriller back to the original film. Many critics hailed Romulus as the best Alien films since Aliens, with a sequel currently in preproduction.
Alien: Earth (2025)
Set two years before Ripley wakes up on the Nostromo in Alien, a spaceship carrying organisms for research crash-lands on Earth and unleashes Xenomorph chaos. Created by Noah Hawley (Fargo), Disney’s Alien TV series follows a crew of children uploaded into adult robotic bodies who are sent to rescue survivors and collect the alien specimens for their trillionaire owner. Of course, it’s never a good idea to experiment on the Xenomorphs. We’ll see how it ends for our new crew on Earth when the season concludes later this autumn.
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