All Alien Movies Ranked

Back in 1979, Ridley Scott introduced the world to one of the most iconic sci-fi, and horror, franchises of all time. The Alien franchise has been through a lot over the years, but it remains one of the only horror franchises to retain popularity for this long, with its latest movie releasing in August 2024, with Alien: Romulus topping the box office, and becoming the highest-grossing horror film to release in global IMAX. Clearly, the Xenomorph has not lost its charm over the years, and with the recent conclusion of FX’s Alien: Earth, we decided it was time to revisit the movies that made this extra-terrestrial terror what it is today.

Today, we’re ranking all seven of the mainline Alien films from worst to best. While I will not be including the two Alien vs. Predator movies, if they were included here, they would be taking the bottom two spots, so I don’t think their presence will be missed all that much. While making this list, I realised that there’s no Alien movie that I truly hate, though some I certainly have problems with. With that being said, let’s dive into one of the greatest horror franchises of all time, and rank some Alien movies – spoilers ahead!

---

7. Alien 3 (1992)

Image by 20th Century Fox

Whether it’s Halloween, Child’s Play, or now, Alien, horror franchises can never seem to nail their third entry for me. Now, some parts of 1992’s Alien 3 work – Ripley is truly not to be messed with this time around, and the film’s visuals are pretty top-notch. The latter, however, is to be expected when it comes to the director of this movie, David Fincher, who has gone on to make some incredible movies in his career. With movies in his repertoire like Fight Club, Seven, and The Social Network, Alien 3 sticks out like a sore thumb on Fincher’s resumé – so much so that the director himself has actually disowned the movie entirely.

So what makes Alien 3 the worst in the franchise? Well, for one, it’s just boring. It has a cast of relatively bland side characters supporting Ripley, and the film clearly has no idea what to do with them. The most interesting of these characters, by far, is Clemens, who is unceremoniously killed-off without much consequence around halfway through the movie. Alien 3 is also an incredibly mean-spirited movie, with the opening sequence confirming that all of the work Ripley did to protect Newt and Bishop in Aliens was wasted, because they all died anyway. Making a bland movie is one thing, but making a movie that directly damages the reputation of a film that is widely considered the franchise’s best? For shame, Alien 3, for shame.

---

6. Alien: Covenant (2017)

Image by 20th Century Fox

Alien: Covenant released in 2017, so as you might imagine, it is easily the most gory and horror-focused entry in the Alien franchise. If you’re a horror fan, as I am, there are certain things about Alien: Covenant that are going to appeal to you, and you’ll likely find yourself having a better time than when the series dives deep into its sci-fi aspects. However, when Alien: Covenant isn’t just focused on being a creature-feature, it consistently collapses under the weight of the huge, philosophical story that it’s trying to shove in between scenes of the Xenomorph chomping on necks.

By the time you get to Alien: Covenant in the franchise, the whole thing is starting to feel a little too conventional, which is likely why they tried to shove all of the Prometheus philosophy into this film. Everything that happens in Alien: Covenant has happened in an Alien film that came long before it, except this time, it’s far gorier. We also need to talk about the characters in this movie, or rather, the absence of characters in this movie. Michael Fassbender is easily the most compelling part of this movie, and considering his presence is what ties Alien: Covenant to Prometheus, Fassbender is both this movie’s greatest strength, and its greatest weakness. Overall, this film is a fun time, but it fails to succeed in most of the areas it wants to, particularly when it comes to David. The scene revealing what he’s done to Elizabeth Shaw remains my least favourite in the entire franchise.

---

5. Prometheus (2012)

Image by 20th Century Fox

I’ve done a lot of talking about how Prometheus affected Alien: Covenant for the worse, but now, let’s talk about the film itself, a movie that doesn’t succeed much more than its successor did. First off, I think the issue with Prometheus lies in the fact that it answers questions that we didn’t really need answered. Personally, I don’t need to know where the Xenomorph came from. In fact, the mystery of the creature is partially what made the original movies feel so menacing. It doesn’t help that the lore of Prometheus is also incredibly complicated, meaning that it not only strips the Alien mythology of its mystery, but it reveals that the truth is a convoluted mess.

The characters in this movie are also, for the most part, very accident-prone people, which counteracts the film’s otherwise intelligence-reliant premise. I do really enjoy Elizabeth Shaw as a character in this movie, and aside from Michael Fassbender, I think she’s Prometheus’ greatest strength, managing to re-capture some of the grit and determination that made Ripley such an important character in the original trilogy. Prometheus is also pretty strong from a horror perspective, even if it does lean more into the sci-fi side of the franchise. There are some truly grisly scenes in this film, meaning that even though the movie has an incredibly slow start, once things pick up in the back half, it’s an all-out rollercoaster until the end. Ultimately, I think Prometheus suffers from having a muddled vision of what it wants to be, but when it does occasionally find its footing, it works extremely well.

---

4. Alien Resurrection (1997)

Image by 20th Century Fox

I will never understand why people talk about Alien Resurrection like it killed their loved one. Sure, the premise of Ripley being cloned and resurrected is a little silly, and her snarky, comedic wit is a far cry from the stone-cold hero we came to know in the original trilogy, but despite all of the big leaps Alien Resurrection takes, most of them nail the landing for me. It’s a very strange Alien movie, but I think that that’s part of what makes it stick out in my mind, in a franchise that far too often stuck to what it knew would work.

There are some incredible sequences in Alien Resurrection, and I think that the cast of this movie, outside of Sigourney Weaver, hold their own against her presence. Winona Ryder is a fun addition to the franchise, and Ron Perlman makes himself stand out through his eccentric portrayal of Johner. The ending is hit-or-miss, depending on who you ask. More people will say it missed, but for me, the alien-human hybrid is not the disaster that everyone makes it out to be. We’ve seen far weirder in this franchise, and at least it’s something new. Sure, the tone of this movie is a little off, but to me, it’s easily one of the Alien franchise’s most thrilling, exciting, and confidently unique entries, which pushes it above the crowd for me.

---

3. Alien: Romulus (2024)

Image by 20th Century Fox

These top three movies are all incredible in their own way, and though I enjoy the Alien franchise as a whole, there’s a considerably large gap between the quality of Alien Resurrection and 2024’s Alien: Romulus, a movie that, unlike so many of the other movies in this franchise, knows exactly what it wants to do, what it wants to say, and pulls it off incredibly. Alien: Romulus immediately has the advantage of having a director in Fede Álvarez who didn’t want to messily shove his film into the current timeline of the film’s, and didn’t want to try on all of the franchise entries that came before it. Álvarez recognised the strengths of the franchise’s first two movies, and drew on those as his primary source of inspiration, and that solid inspiration shines throughout Alien: Romulus.

It also helps that Álvarez has a strong horror resumé behind him, working on 2013’s Evil Dead, and 2016’s Don’t Breathe. Thanks to this, Alien: Romulus is an unapologetically horror-centric film, which I think has always worked for this franchise more than its sci-fi side. As simple as the plot is, it is supported by an incredible cast, the standout of which is easily David Jonsson as Andy, who is my personal favourite android the franchise has ever introduced. The movie does have its flaws, the most glaring of which is the digital resurrection of Ian Holm. However, for the most part, it’s a very strong movie, which takes big swings in its final moments, and manages to hit a home-run. Easily the strongest Alien movie we’ve gotten in nearly 40 years.

---

2. Aliens (1986)

Image by 20th Century Fox

Well, I have now revealed my answer to a movie debate so iconic, it has been mentioned for years in Hollywood, perhaps most memorably in Scream 2. Ultimately, I think your personal preference between Alien and Aliens comes down to whether you prefer the action genre, or the horror genre. I think both films blend the two genres excellently, but Aliens leans heavier into action, while the original film leans into horror. I’m far more of a horror fan than an action fan, so Alien taking the top-spot was inevitable. However, that doesn’t mean that Aliens is not a phenomenal film, and in my personal opinion, I think it’s easily one of the greatest action movies ever made.

One of the ways in which Aliens actually beats out Alien is in its exploration of Ripley as a character, particularly when it comes to her protective nature with Newt, which develops Ripley into a mother figure, as opposed to the stone-cold survivalist she was in the first movie. The incredible dynamic that the two have is part of what makes Alien 3 such a terrible sequel – the movie has a far more emotionally gripping storyline to it than the original film, and whereas Alien was largely about stealth and tension, Aliens goes all-out in the action department, with an incredibly fun supporting cast, and not a moment of wasted screentime. James Cameron took the foundations laid by Ridley Scott, and built upon them in monumental fashion. However, for me, it was Scott’s foundations that inevitably have to take my top spot…

---

1. Alien (1979)

Image by 20th Century Fox

Over 40 years on from its release, there’s still no movie in the Alien franchise that has managed to top the original film. When it comes to a successful Alien movie, or really a successful creature movie in general, I think the key aspect is tension. Though later entries went all-out in showing off the Xenomorph’s design, throwing mystery to the wind, one of the greatest strengths of Alien is how it never flaunts the design of its monster, only allowing the camera to catch brief glimpses of the Xenomorph throughout the film. What a viewer can imagine is far more terrifying than anything any filmmaker could actually put to screen, so Alien’s enshrouding of its creature is one of its greatest strengths, adding an element of horror that elevates the movie above its 1986 sequel in my book.

The supporting cast of Alien is incredible – however, its greatest achievement is the introduction of Ellen Ripley to the world of horror protagonists. I think what makes Alien so special is that, on a rewatch, you realise how many scenes from the film have become iconic over the years, how many moviemaking strategies have been borrowed from its composition. From top to bottom, Alien is an iconic movie, and though I’m never going to side-eye anyone who gives their gold medal to Aliens, the original will always be the one to beat for me.

---

Conclusion

So that’s our ranking! Alien claims the throne for the best film in the Alien franchise! What’s your favourite Alien movie? Where does Alien: Earth fit in amongst your ranking of the franchise? Do you agree with our ranking, or were we completely off? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

See also: Top 10 Most Iconic Horror Franchises

• ShareCopied to clipboard
• X
• Facebook