Alien Anthology: A Chronological Walkthrough of the Legendary Franchise

In anticipation of the upcoming Alien: Romulus, we’d like to revisit all the classics that came before. Here’s a list of all the Alien movies a fan might want to watch to get familiar with this universe. This list represents the movies chronologically as they were released, which means the timeline will be a bit all over the place.

Alien (1979)
In deep space, the crew of the commercial starship Nostromo is awakened from their cryo-sleep capsules halfway through their journey home to investigate a distress call from an alien vessel. The terror begins when the crew encounters a nest of eggs inside the alien ship. An organism from inside an egg leaps out and attaches itself to one of the crew, causing him to fall into a coma.

1. Aliens (1986)
   After floating in space for 57 years, Lt. Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) shuttle is found by a deep-space salvage team. Upon arriving at LV-426, the Marines find only one survivor, a nine-year-old girl named Newt (Carrie Henn). But even these battle-hardened marines with all the latest weaponry are no match for the hundreds of aliens that have invaded the colony.
2. Alien 3 (1992)
   Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is the only survivor when she crash-lands on Fiorina 161, a bleak wasteland inhabited by former inmates of the planet’s maximum security prison. Once again, Ripley must face scepticism and the alien as it hunts down the prisoners and guards. Without weapons or modern technology of any kind, Ripley leads the men into battle against the terrifying creature.
3. Alien: Resurrection (1997)
   The saga continues 200 years after Ripley sacrificed herself for the sake of humanity. Her erstwhile employers are long gone; this time, it is the military that resurrects the one-woman killing machine through genetic cloning to extract the alien from within her. However, during the process, her DNA is fused with the queen’s, and then the aliens escape. Now Ripley must decide where her allegiance lies.

1. Alien vs. Predator (2004)
   When the wealthy and ambitious Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) funds an expedition to Antarctica, he hopes to find a mysterious source of heat that has been detected. Led by guide, Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan), Weyland and his team uncover a pyramid, but they also find malevolent parasitic aliens. Making matters worse, another extraterrestrial species, known as Predators, arrives to hunt the other aliens, with the humans caught in the middle of the conflict.
2. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
   Following the events of the previous film, a Predator ship leaves Earth carrying Xenomorph facehuggers and Scar’s body before a chestburster with traits of both species emerges. It quickly matures into an adult Predalien and starts killing the Predators on board.
3. Prometheus (2012)
   The discovery of a clue to mankind’s origins on Earth leads a team of explorers to the darkest parts of the universe. Two brilliant young scientists lead the expedition. Shaw (Noomi Rapace) hopes that they will meet a race of benevolent, godlike beings who will, in some way, verify her religious beliefs, while Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) aims to debunk any spiritual notions. However, neither the scientists nor their shipmates are prepared for the unimaginable terrors that await them.
4. Alien: Covenant (2017)
   Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, members (Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup) of the colony ship Covenant discover what they think to be an uncharted paradise. While there, they meet David (Michael Fassbender), the synthetic survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. The mysterious world soon turns dark and dangerous when a hostile alien life-form forces the crew into a deadly fight for survival.

And now, we are all caught up and looking forward to Alien: Romulus, coming out on the 16th of August. So far, the production team has been very secretive about the plot, but the trailer reveals the following: A group of young space colonists who, while scavenging a derelict space station, come face-to-face with the most terrifying life form in their universe.

We’re looking forward to watching it and getting the review out to you!