After several pointless prequels and spluttering spin-offs, the Alien series is back with a bang with Alien: Romulus.
Technically, the new film is an interquel, arriving between the events of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) – two of the greatest sci-fi films ever made. It further fleshes out the machinations of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation as this faceless, ruthless company deals with the discovery of a xenomorph that was blasted out of an airlock by warrant officer Ellen Ripley in the original Alien.
A fresh young cast injects new life into what has become a tiresome franchise, while the film’s director, Fede Álvarez, told an audience in London recently: “Abstract all the aliens, abstract all the horror – and there’s still a story there you’ll want to see until the end.”
Here, then, is our worst-to-best list of the Alien franchise – and where Alien: Romulus fits in.
9. Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007)
The real runt of the litter, this directorial debut by the Brothers Strause came with a second-rate script and a cast to match, led by Steven Pasquale and Johnny Lewis.
Set on Earth, in the US state of Colorado, the story sees a skilled Predator land on our planet to take down the “Predalien” – a fusion of the two creatures – from the 2004 movie Alien vs Predator.
Dubbed a “dull actioner that looks like a bad video game” by The Hollywood Reporter, the film somehow grossed US$130 million, but it was not enough. Plans for further entries in the franchise were abandoned.
8. Alien vs Predator (2004)
The idea for this crossover film originated in the 1989 Aliens Versus Predator comic book series, which led to an Easter egg in 1990’s Predator 2 when an Alien skull is glimpsed in a trophy case in the Predator’s ship.
As neat as this crossover seemed, the reality was less appealing, though British director Paul WS Anderson (Event Horizon) did introduce billionaire tycoon Charles Weyland into the story – neatly casting Lance Henriksen, who played the android Bishop in Aliens.
But largely, this battle between Aliens and Predators was a moribund experience. Even the sight of a Predalien could not save it.
7. Alien: Covenant (2017)
While it feels more tangentially connected to the Alien universe than its predecessor Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s third entry in the franchise is easily his weakest.
Set 11 years after Prometheus, the humdrum story follows the crew of the colony ship Covenant as they head to a new planet.
Katherine Waterson fills the Ripley role nicely as a resourceful female officer and an engaging Michael Fassbender returns – both as Walter, an upgrade on the android he played before, and as the original, David – but this never bares its silvery teeth in the way Scott’s first Alien did.
6. Prometheus (2012)
There was huge excitement 15 years after Alien Resurrection when Ridley Scott decided to return to the director’s chair to delve back into the franchise he started.
A prequel to his own Alien, Prometheus sets out to explore the origins of human life, as Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green’s scientists lead the spaceship Prometheus to meet our makers.
A fine cast that includes Idris Elba, Charlize Theron and a droll Michael Fassbender as the android David could not stop this from being a rather dry affair.
Visually it is splendid, but despite featuring proto-facehuggers and xenomorphs, it never truly felt like its tendrils were connected to the Alien franchise in any satisfying way.
5. Alien Resurrection (1997)
While Danny Boyle turned down the chance to direct, the signs were good for this fourth entry in the Alien series, with Buffy creator Joss Whedon on scripting duties and the imaginative French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen) at the helm.
Yet the film – set 200 years after the events of Alien 3, with Ripley cloned back into existence using a mix of human and Alien DNA – did not quite fly.
With the Aliens being bred for research – incubated in kidnapped human hosts, in a spaceship heading towards Earth – it was full of morbid ideas. But it also felt like a film designed to bridge us towards a fifth (never made) outing with the creatures running amok on our home planet.
4. Alien 3 (1992)
A calamitous production that already saw off directors Renny Harlin and Vincent Ward before a 27-year-old David Fincher, making his feature debut, signed on, Alien 3 was designed as a claustrophobic riposte to James Cameron’s gun-heavy Aliens.
Set on Fiorina 161, a planet dominated by a maximum-security prison, the film featured a raft of British actors including Brian Glover, Charles Dance, and Withnail and I co-stars Paul McGann and Ralph Brown.
For all its narrative flaws, the plot was one of the darkest in the franchise. Not only is Weaver’s Ripley impregnated with the Alien queen’s embryo, but she sacrifices herself by diving into a furnace.
3. Alien: Romulus (2024)
Set between Alien and Aliens, Fede Álvarez’s smart take captures the feel of the original movies quite superbly as a ragtag group of Weyland-Yutani employees look to steal some cryo-pods from a derelict space station.
While they hope to find pastures new, it just so happens that this space station, the Renaissance, is infested with xenomorphs.
Starring Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny as Rain – a young woman every bit as capable as Ripley – and David Jonsson as the “synthetic” Andy, the film features plenty of surprises from Álvarez (Don’t Breathe), who truly understands what makes the Alien franchise tick.
Acid blood in zero gravity is just one of its stupendous scenes.
2. Alien (1979)
It all started here. With a script by Dan O’Bannon, Alien designs by H.R. Giger and precise direction from Ridley Scott, a franchise exploded like a chestburster escaping its womb.
Introducing one of the great screen heroines, Ellen Ripley, it is the classic example of how to make a sci-fi/horror in a confined location, as the seven-member crew of the Nostromo faces the unknown horror of the “perfect organism”, an Alien with acid for blood.
The moment the gestating creature breaks out of John Hurt’s body remains one of the greatest surprises in cinema history.
“In space no one can hear you scream,” ran the tagline. But in cinemas, the screaming could be heard loud and clear.
1. Aliens (1986)
While it is nigh-on impossible to choose, James Cameron’s follow-up just pips Ridley Scott’s original.
One of the finest sequels ever made, Aliens saw Cameron double down on the H.R. Giger-created monster by steering the plot back to LV-426, the moon where the crew of the towing ship Nostromo first encountered the Alien.
With Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley accompanied by a platoon of gun-toting marines, Aliens amps up the fear factor, turning this survival story into an all-out war.
But the real stroke of genius is bringing out Ripley’s maternal instincts, as she finds Newt, the little girl on the colony who somehow evaded these terrifying extraterrestrials.
With Ripley ultimately facing off with the Alien queen (leading to the immortal line: “the b***h is back”), it becomes a twisted story of mothers and their offspring.
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