The Alien franchise consists of an iconic series of movies centered around the existence of life forms called “Xenomorphs” and the never-ending onslaught of Sigourney Weaver (who plays Ellen Ripley, the original series’ protagonist) clones.
Alien (1979)
As the first movie in the series, Alien introduces the existence of the alien species of “Xenomorphs,” which are virtually indestructible anthropomorphic creatures with sleek black bodies, elongated heads, insect-like armor, and claws. The movie’s protagonist, Ellen Ripley, and her cargo ship’s crew visit a planet on a distress call and are met by “Facehuggers,” which latch onto and imbed a member of her crew with Xenomorph eggs.
Once aboard the ship, the now fertilized eggs hatch from crew member, Kane (played by John Hurt), and terrorize the ship until Ripley is the only member left alive, minus her cat, Jones or “Jonesy.” Ripley and her cat escape on a pod unbeknownst to her, occupied by the now fully-grown Xenomorph, which Ripley eventually usurps by forcing it out of the pod’s airlock.
Aliens (1986)
After being stuck in stasis for 57 years to find the planet that she and her crew initially landed on has been turned into a terraforming colony, she is enlisted by her employers to venture back to the planet alongside the Colonial Marines, their android, Bishop (Lance Henriksen) and Carter Burke (Paul Reiser), a representative of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. When they arrive on planet LV-426, they meet a young girl named “Newt” (Carrie Henn), who helps guide her team of rescuers as they fight against and encounter the prospering Xenomorph population.
After losing the majority of their crew, Ripley, Bishop, Newt, and Corporal Dwayne Hicks (Michael Biehn), manage to defeat the Xenomorph Queen and flee on a course set back to the company.
Alien 3 (1992)
The film cold opens with the deaths of each of the remaining survivors, minus Ripley flashing onscreen. Ripley’s ship crashlands on Fiorina “Fury” 161, a maximum-security correctional facility solely inhabited by male inmates. A surviving Facehugger that has attached itself to her ship latches onto one of the dogs sent to search said ship, which kicks off the Xenomorph encounters of the third film. Meanwhile, the new Xenomorph has birthed itself and has begun attacking the planet’s inhabitants, prompting Ripley to inform her newfound companions of the nature of Xenomorphs. The creature ambushes Ripley but decides against killing her because Ripley later finds out that she is currently hosting the embryo of a Xenomorph Queen.
A Weyland–Yutani rescue team arrives and attempts to convince Ripley to have surgery to remove the embryo, hoping to preserve it, which Ripley refuses. Morse (Danny Webb), who is at this point the last surviving inmate, coaxes and aids Ripley to instead step inside a furnace, properly killing the Queen growing inside of her.
Alien: Resurrection (1997)
Set over 200 years after the death of Ripley and the last known Xenomorph, Alien: Resurrection is made possible by cloning and Viewers Like You! Scientists use previous blood samples of Ripley’s DNA to create Ripley 8 who, like her predecessor houses the next Xenomorph Queen. A mercenary crew called the Betty, brings abducted humans to said scientists with the hopes of furthering their Xenomorph-related experiments, which include using them as hosts. The Xenomorphs being bred in the labs eventually escape containment, eliciting an emergency command that includes releasing the Xenomorphs onto Earth.
Ripley, the mercenaries, Dr. Wren (J. E. Freeman), the soldier DiStephano (Raymond Cruz), and one of the Xenomorph hosts, Purvis (Leland Orser) head to destroy the research facility and in the process stumble upon all of the previous Ripley clone attempts. Dr. Wren eventually betrays the crew, shooting Call (Winona Ryder), and eventually takes Pruvis and Call hostage after Ripley 8 is captured by one of the Xenomorphs and dragged back to their nest. The Xenomorph eventually bursts from Purvis’ chest after Wren attacks him, killing them both, and Call manages to escape; Meanwhile, Ripley 8 discovers that the Xenomorph Queen has given birth to an offspring that imprints on Ripley 8 due to their genetic similarities and kills the Queen.
The hybrid offspring attacks call after heading to the ship and DiStephano dies trying to save her. Ripley intervenes, tearfully killing her surrogate Xenomorph child, and escapes alongside Call and two of the remaining mercenaries back to Earth.
Prometheus (2012)
Produced to further contextualize the original Alien movie, Prometheus begins when two archeologists, Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) and Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) discover a star map left by the “Engineers,” humanity’s supposed forerunners in the Alien universe. The founder of the Weyland Corporation funds their expedition to follow the map and the archeologists and a team and uncover a temple containing various alien bodies. Eventually, the crew is forced to leave on account of a storm, but not before David, the crew’s resident android smuggles a vile full of black liquid onto the ship and uncovers that the Engineers, whose corpses they believe they discovered, had matching DNA to humans.
The crew returns the next day to discover one out of two of their missing crew members, who had wandered off before they left, bodies. In that time, David discovers a control panel that has coordinates set for Earth and Halloway grows sick, having been poisoned the day prior by David when he tainted his drink with the mysterious black ooze they uncovered from the structure; However, the mission director and daughter of Weyland’s founder, Meredith Vickers ( Charlize Theron) does not let him back onto the ship, instead opting to burn him to death with a flamethrower. A medical scan of Shaw then reveals that she is pregnant from a previous encounter with Halloway and, terrified, extracts the squid-like baby growing in her womb.
The remaining member of the two crewmates who had been stuck in the temple, Sean Fifield (Sean Harris) who is now mutated, attacks their ship but is thankfully killed by the ship’s captain, Idris Janek (Idris Elba.) The rest of the team decides to journey back to the structure, now alongside Vicker’s father, Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) and David decides to awaken one of the engineers. Shaw flees on a lifeboat and encounters her previously aborted alien offspring, which distracts the Engineer enough for Shaw and David’s remains to escape, Shaw hoping to understand its reason for wanting to journey to and destroy Earth by reaching their homeworld.
Alien: Covenant (2017)
11-years after Prometheus, the sequel follows a group of colonists heading for the planet Origae-6; However, after a ship malfunction, the crew is enticed elsewhere by a transmission of someone’s voice. An expedition team is sent to the planet’s surface where they track the signal to an alien ship. Members of the crew Ben Ledward ( Benjamin Rigby) and Tom Hallet (Nathaniel Dean) become victims of spores occupying the ship. Katie Oram (Carmen Ejogo) helps Leward back to the ship where a creature bursts from him, kills both himself and Oram, and attacks the rest of the crew. David saves them and, after guiding them to a temple, reveals that Shaw from the last film had died and that the creatures that attacked them were of his own creation and tricks Oram’s husband, Chris, into being attacked and birthing a creature, the Praetomorph.
Alien movies in Chronological Order:
Alien vs. Predator
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
Prometheus
Alien: Covenant
Alien
Alien: Romulus
Aliens
Alien 3
Alien: Resurrection
