The Xenomorph from the Alien film franchise is one of the coolest, most nefarious movie monsters ever hatched, with its acid blood, mouths-within-mouths, and diabolical claws. It pretty much single-handedly (and multi-teethily) invented the space horror genre and gave an entire generation a new boogeyman to fear.
We haven’t had a new Alien movie since 2017’s Alien: Covenant, though the most recent news has Fargo and Legion’s Noah Hawley developing an Alien TV series for FX – primed to be set in the not so distant future and set on Earth. With this in mind, you may be wanting to do a full rewatch of the Alien franchise (including the Alien/Predator films, which are set on Earth).
But what’s the correct order to watch them in? We’ve got you covered. Below you’ll find full listings for the Alien movies, in both chronological and theatrical release orders.
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The Alien Movies in Chronological Order
Alien Movies in (Chronological) Order
1. AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Where to Watch: Hulu, or rentable on most platforms.
The story of the Xenomorphs begins, time-wise, in the first of the two crossover films for the franchise, AVP. Set in 2004, Alien vs. Predator, from Resident Evil/Event Horizon’s Paul W. S. Anderson, brought to life a “battle of the titans” concept that first originated in a 1989 comic. In the film, humans discover that Predators (aka the “Yautja”) have been coming to Earth for thousands of years. Old cults worshipping them would sacrifice themselves to a Xenomorph Queen’s brood — the facehuggers — producing adult Xenomorphs, so the Predators could hunt the “ultimate prey.” Sufficed to say, things go badly during the Predators’ 2004 hunting trip.
2. Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007)
Where to Watch: Hulu, Cinemax Go, or rentable on most platforms.
Still set in our modern times, and therefore still happening before everything else in the Alien franchise, crossover sequel Aliens vs Predator: Requiem picks up right where AVP left off. An Alien-Predator hybrid — the “Predalien” — is now on the loose in a small Colorado town. A skilled, veteran Predator arrives to help clean up the mess and an ample amount of carnage ensues. This would be the final crossover film of the Alien franchise.
3. Prometheus (2012)
Where to Watch: Hulu, Freevee, or rentable on most platforms.
Oscar-winning director Ridley Scott returned to the franchise he created in 1979 with the star-studded prequel film, Prometheus. Here, in the late 21st Century, Peter Weyland (presumedly a descendant of AVP’s Charles Weyland) funds a cosmic trip into the unknown, following a star map left on Earth that might lead the crew of the Prometheus to the beings who created humankind. Sadly, the crew also stumbles across these creators’ bio-weapon — the Xenomorph. Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, and Charlize Theron star.
Read our review of Prometheus.
4. Alien: Covenant (2017)
Where to Watch: Rentable on most platforms.
Still in prequel mode here, as Alien: Covenant is a sequel to Prometheus, the story picks up 11 years later and follows a colonization ship. The crew gets pulled out of stasis years early and heads to a different target planet, a possible “utopia,” to track down a distress signal. The downed ship emitting the message, however, is connected to the previous movie and contains all sorts of sinister things — ranging from Xenomorphs to androids. The film doesn’t exactly take us up to the doorstep of 1979’s Alien, as there’s room for more story if deemed so, but it does get us close. Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, and a returning Michael Fassbender star.
Read our review of Alien: Covenent.
5. Alien (1979)
Where to Watch: Starz apps and add-ons, or rentable on most platforms.
Space would never feel the same after Ridley Scott’s landmark horror film, Alien, which featured the hardscrabble crew of a commercial space tug, the Nostromo, accidentally discovering a moon full of Xenomorph eggs. With no knowledge of what these creatures are or how they cocoon inside humans before bursting out and rapidly growing into killing machines, these underpaid workers — played by Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, and hero-in-the-making Sigourney Weaver — find themselves going toe-to-toe with a cosmic nightmare.
Aliens also made our list of one of the best Sci-Fi movies of all time.
6. Aliens (1986)
Where to Watch: Starz apps and add-ons, or rentable on most platforms.
Terminator director James Cameron, before creating his own landmark sequel with T2: Judgment Day, gifted us with Aliens, taking the slow-boil brutality of the Ridley Scott original and ramping it up into a full-tilt masterpiece. Sigourney Weaver, returning as Ellen Ripley, would solidify herself as an action hero icon in this thrilling, endlessly-quotable film that would introduce the world to idea of space marines AND space marines getting their asses kicked, pal! Aliens would handily feature more than one Xenomorph (hence the plural title) as well as stars Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen (who would play Charles Weyland decades later in AVP) and Carrie Henn.
7. Alien 3 (1992)
Where to Watch: Starz apps and add-ons, or rentable on most platforms.
An appreciation for Alien 3 eventually bubbled up over the past 30 years but at the time David Fincher’s directorial debut (three years before Se7en) would be deemed thin, grim, and, essentially, disappointing regarding Ripley’s story (despite it giving us one of the most iconic images from the franchise, seen above). Alien 3 picks up right where Aliens left off, as the Colonial Marine spaceship, the Sulaco, is destroyed from within by a Xenomorph and an escape pod carries Ripley to a planet housing a penal colony. There, she and the inmates must deal with a rampaging alien before it massacres them all.
8. Alien Resurrection (1997)
Where to Watch: Starz apps and add-ons, or rentable on most platforms.
The final film in the Ripley Saga, Alien Resurrection, hurls us 200 years beyond the events of Aliens and Alien 3 and into the inner workings of a military project aboard the USM Auriga that uses Ellen Ripley clones (and kidnapped humans) to try and successfully breed Xenomorphs. The City of Lost Children and Amélie’s Jean-Pierre Jeunet directs this bizarrely-horrific chapter with cartoonish flare, casting Ron Perlman, Dan Hedaya, J. E. Freeman, Brad Dourif, and Michael Wincott as the story’s new space grunts. The film ends with a possible tease of Xenomorphs headed to Earth, though we’d never get that story as a follow up (only in crossover prequel form with AVP).
How to Watch the Alien Movies by Release Date
If you’re looking to watch all the movies in theatrical release order, the correct list is below:
- Alien (1979)
- Aliens (1986)
- Alien 3 (1992)
- Alien Resurrection (1997)
- AVP: Alien vs Predator (2004)
- Aliens vs Predator – Requiem (2007)
- Prometheus (2012)
- Alien: Covenant (2017)
