Alien movies, ranked worst to best

We're on an express elevator to Hell, goin' down as we rank the best Alien movies.

Diehard fanatics of the Alien movies are, by and large, still celebrating Alien: Romulus getting the franchise 'back on track' (as in focusing on the Xenomorph again). Up next, we've got Alien: Earth, FX's ambitious Alien T.V. series lined up, so... now's a good time to revisit our ranked list of all the Alien movies released so far, including the Alien vs. Predator (AvP) crossovers.

The most interesting thing about the decades-long sci-fi horror Alien movie franchise is how unique and distinct each entry has felt. Sure, Romulus was kind of a giant love letter to the entire series to recapture the 'soul' that many fans felt was missing from Ridley Scott's largely offbeat prequels (well, depending on who you ask).

The beauty of this particular ranking list is the everyone has their own completely valid understandings of the universe, the Xenomorph, and which themes should be explored.

Once you've finished checking our this Alien movies ranked list, round out your Alien knowledge and maybe find a new Xenomorph-filled obsession, we highly recommend our lists of the best Alien video games and comic books released so far. Are you a Predator fan too? We've got all the Predator movies ranked right here.

9. AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator Requiem

• Release date: December 25, 2007
• Cast: Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, John Ortiz

20th Century Fox's second AvP movie received abysmal reviews and a cold shoulder from most fans. However, we can't deny it delivered enough gore and unrestrained nastiness (it really takes no prisoners) to catch the attention of an entire generation of teenagers whose first contact with both sci-fi franchises was 2004's Alien vs. Predator and some of the more modern video games.

Xenomorphs led by a menacing "Predalien" terrorizing a small American town felt like a recipe for success, even before the lead battle-hardened Predator came into the picture. Alas, the half-baked script and uninteresting roster of characters fail to hold the movie together.

Moreover, the final color grading of this one was a complete botch job that rendered it almost unwatchable to the point you'll need to up the brightness to make sense of entire scenes. Years later, a proper regrade could be happening, so fingers crossed.

8. Alien Resurrection

• Release date: November 26, 1997
• Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman

Written by a young Joss Whedon – who sure took big swings – and full of Jeunet's visual and tonal quirks, it's hard to say Resurrection is 'bland' or 'safe' beyond Ripley's forced return as a superpowered clone. In fact, it really has a bunch of memorable sequences. However, it's a movie that feels adrift for much of its runtime and overcooked behind the scenes; we believe a fresh restart would've worked better.

Many felt that Alien 3 missed the mark when it came to expanding the Alien universe and toying with the Xenomorph's possibilities as an unpredictable lifeform. Likewise, Ellen Ripley died by the end of David Fincher's threequel, yet Sigourney Weaver was still considered a must for the franchise. Enter Jean-Pierre Jeunet's bold and often zany take on the series.

7. AVP: Alien vs. Predator

• Release date: August 13, 2004
• Cast: Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova, Lance Henriksen

After a failed AvP movie which was in development during the 90s, the long-awaited crossover between Xenomorphs and Yautjas (the Predator race) finally happened in the early 2000s. This was the first on-screen clash between the two legendary alien species (if we leave out the video games). While it was incredibly fun, it's a bit hard to embrace as an actually good flick.

At the helm was trashy (but reliable) director Paul W. S. Anderson, a hot name following Event Horizon and Resident Evil. Shane Salerno penned the script (and the sequel) which is full of disposable characters, with the exception of Sanaa Lathan's riff on Ellen Ripley and Machiko Noguchi (female heroine of the original AvP comics) and Lance Henriksen's attention-grabbing Charles Weyland (founder of the infamous Weyland-Yutani company from the future-set Alien movies).

If we couple that with jumpy pacing and watered-down violence, the end result isn't very convincing. That said, Alien vs. Predator packs some solid action scenes and visual beats, and, after a long hiatus, it had a key role in defrosting both franchises on the big screen.

6. Prometheus

• Release date: June 8, 2012
• Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce

Prometheus had a lot going for it. After all, it was Ridley Scott's long-awaited return to the Alien franchise after staying in the shadows and toying with a number of ideas for years. Ultimately, he returned to the universe he partially created with a bunch of new ideas to push the envelope. Sadly, few of them directly tied into the Xenomorph, and much of the original movie's heart-racing mystery was blown up, sort of.

Many fans utterly hate Prometheus for shining too much light on the franchise's genesis and overexplaining its cosmic mythology. The movie's biggest issue is that it actually didn't do a whole lot with the pieces it shifted around. While we got to meet the Engineers, and its exploration of AI was intriguing, the Xenomorph itself and its implied origins only became more confusing. This movie is a sci-fi looker (that opening credit scene has the most beautiful landscape cinematography) and has a fantastic cast though, so we get why it's built up a bit of a cult following.

5. Alien 3

• Release date: May 22, 1992
• Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Lance Henriksen

Alien 3's theatrical cut is largely a mess you should skip in spite of its exquisitely depressing atmosphere and David Fincher's many nice touches behind the camera. Luckily for us, the 'assembly cut' is noticeably better and, more importantly, actually engaging.

Sure, it doesn't fix the threequel's base-level issues, such as being a worse version of the original movie (one claustrophobic setting with one Xeno on the loose), but Ellen Ripley's tragedy reaches a memorable conclusion. In addition, the script packs some engaging explorations of grief and faith.

This was also the movie which introduced a different sort of non-Queen Xenomorph, as the monster impregnated a quadruped mammal this time around. Mix all that with a solid direction, relentlessly grim and nihilistic vibes, and strong actors that hold their ground against (and alongside) Weaver. The result? You end up with a third installment which wasn't exactly what people were hoping for, but is still well worth defending.

4. Alien: Covenant

• Release date: May 19, 2017
• Cast: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride

This might be the most controversial entry in this ranked list, but hear us out. We really believe that the second of Scott's prequels landed closer to the modern Alien movie we wanted, while also retroactively fixing much of Prometheus and turning David into a fantastic modern sci-fi villain.

The thing about Covenant is that it repeated many of Prometheus' mistakes, such as a group of humans doing stupid things despite their preparation, some mystery threads that go nowhere, etc. But, when you take a good look at it, you'll eventually be able to admit it's a much more focused exploration of the ideas that Scott and the writers dabbled with in the 2012 movie. In fact, the most interesting chunk of the story is the one that focuses on David, the pathogen, and whatnot... to the point we almost wish the Xenomorph didn't show up at the end to make the movie more mundane.

3. Alien: Romulus

• Release date: August 16, 2024
• Cast: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux

The main reason Scott chose to put some distance between himself and the Xenomorph in the two prequels he directed is that he felt nothing new could be done with the original creature. In a way, the final act of Covenant proved him right, but 2024's Alien: Romulus – directed by Evil Dead's Fede Álvarez – proved him wrong big time. The creature simply needed a new guiding hand and a more brutal approach to the horror and action.

At times, Romulus' reverence for the original movies (all four of them) threatens to undo everything it nails a few times – please, no more CGI-powered resurrections of dead actors! Yet, it expertly mixes things up every few minutes whilst coming up with a number of all-new sequences that are both conceptually playful and well-executed on-screen. It looks and sounds excellent, delivering all the Xenomorph thrills you could ask for, and then some. And it also has a couple of well-placed aces up its sleeve that elevate it over being a too-safe retread.

2. Alien

• Release date: May 25, 1979
• Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright

Choosing between Alien and Aliens is like choosing between mommy and daddy, and it all comes down to personal preference of genres in the end. Truth is, the first two movies are equally excellent for very different reasons. The most shocking part is how well they work together despite going in opposite directions with the premise of mankind coming across something terrible in the depths of outer space.

When it comes to Scott's original descent to LV-426, it's one of the best-looking sci-fi movies of all time. Fact. This is thanks to killer set design, immaculate lighting work, and the filmmaker's patient but raw direction. Moreover, it's a big sci-fi movie where the leads were just blue-collar workers stuck in a job that doesn't look too rewarding even before the alien menace appeared. It all came together gorgeously and even had extra space for a strong commentary on robots and AI unlike anything that came before it, sci-fi horror or not.

1. Aliens

• Release date: July 18, 1986
• Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen

When tasked with directing a sequel to Alien, James Cameron rejected the notion of doing an "Alien 2," and instead went bigger and wilder. What about Space Vietnam with more of those ugly bugs? Against all expectations, it was exactly what the potential franchise needed to spread its wings and become more than a glorified slasher saga.

The series' biggest purists still don't vibe with the addition of an insectoid layer to the Xenomorphs' biology and life cycle. Yet, it's this idea that has stuck around, giving the aliens a sort of messed-up logic without sacrificing what made the monster unnerving in the first place. On top of that, the Colonial Marines quickly became nearly as iconic as the H. R. Giger-inspired creature (plus their spaceships were great).

To top it all off, Ripley went on the personal journey that no one expected, but resonated with mothers everywhere, all leading up to one of cinema's greatest final confrontations. Sci-fi doesn't get any better than this.

What about the Aliens expanded universe?

The Alien franchise goes way beyond the main and spin-off movies. There are a whole host of comics, novels, and video games, and even a digital web series to sink your teeth into. On top of that, there are collectible models, figurines, miniatures games, and board games, toys for the collectors amongst you.