Alien Movies in Order: Time to catch up on some long overdue sci-fi, so here’s our handy guide to what’s on! An Alien always makes for a terrific movie hook, whether it’s a world where they’re running rampant like in Guardians of the Galaxy or a world where they’re literally hunting us out one by one, like in the entire Predator film Series.
“The Alien franchise is one of the most influential science fiction horror series of all time, captivating audiences with its terrifying extraterrestrial creatures and intense action sequences. Spanning multiple decades, the series revolves around Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) and her encounters with the deadly Xenomorph species, as well as the sinister agendas of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
Beginning with Alien (1979), directed by Ridley Scott, the saga expanded with Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien: Resurrection (1997), each offering a unique take on the battle between humans and these nightmarish creatures. The prequel films Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017) delve into the origins of both the Xenomorphs and the enigmatic Engineers. The latest entry, Alien: Romulus (2024), bridges the gap between the first two films.
For those eager to experience the saga in its entirety, understanding the Alien Movies in Order—both by release date and chronological timeline—offers the best way to appreciate the franchise’s evolution, intricate storytelling, and groundbreaking visual effects.
Also See: Men in Black Movies in Order
How to Watch Alien Movies in Chronological Order
[Includes Short films]
The Alien movie chronology unfolds through corporate ambition, deep-space exploration, and horrifying encounters. Starting with Prometheus (2012), Peter Weyland funds an expedition to uncover humanity’s origins, leading to deadly xenomorph mutations. Alien: Covenant (2017) follows, where synthetic David manipulates biology to create the perfect organism. Alien (1979) introduces Ellen Ripley battling the xenomorph on the Nostromo. Aliens (1986) escalates with Colonial Marines facing a xenomorph hive. Alien3 (1992) and Alien Resurrection (1997) continue Ripley’s struggle. Expanding the lore, spin-offs like Alien: Isolation (2014) and Alien: Romulus (2024) bridge gaps, reinforcing the terrifying legacy of extraterrestrial horror. This chronology covers the main Alien timeline, excluding crossovers, spin-offs and Short films. Let me know if you’d like more details about any specific film!
Alien story chronology:
- TED 2023 (2012)
- Happy Birthday, David (2012)
- Quiet Eye, Elizabeth Shaw (2012)
- Prometheus Transmission (2012)
- Project Prometheus: Mission (2012)
- Weyland Industries Testimonial (2012)
- Prometheus (2012)
- Alien: Covenant — Meet Walter (2017)
- Alien: Covenant — Prologue: The Crossing (2017)
- Alien: Covenant — Phobos (2017)
- Alien: Covenant — Crew Messages (2017)
- Alien: Covenant — Prologue: Last Supper (2017)
- Alien: Covenant × Audi Lunar Quattro (2017)
- Alien: Covenant — She Won’t Go Quietly (2017)
- Alien: Covenant (2017)
- Alien: Covenant — Advent (2017)
- Alien: Covenant — David’s Lab: Last Signs of Life (2019)
- Alien: Harvest (2019)
- Alien: Earth (2025)
- Alien (1979)
- Alien: Ore (2019)
- Alien: Containment (2019)
- Alien: Specimen (2019)
- Alien: Alone (2019)
- Alien: Isolation (2014)
- Alien: Romulus (2024)
- Alien: Out of the Shadows (2014)
- Aliens (1986)
- Alien: Night Shift (2019)
- Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013)
- Alien3 (1992)
- Aliens: Dark Descent (2023)
- Aliens: Fireteam Elite (2021)
- Alien Resurrection (1997)
Alien Film Series in Order to Watch
[Short films are not Included]
1. Prometheus (2012)
Sets some 30 years before the events of Alien, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus (2012) is a thought-provoking sci-fi horror film that expands the Alien universe while exploring profound themes of creation, existentialism, and cosmic horror. Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, and Idris Elba, the story follows the crew of the spaceship Prometheus, who embark on a mission to a distant moon, LV-223, in search of humanity’s origins. Their discovery of the mysterious “Engineers” and a deadly black liquid quickly turns the expedition into a nightmare. Visually stunning and conceptually ambitious, Prometheus blends cutting-edge effects with philosophical undertones, paving the way for its sequel, Alien: Covenant (2017).
2. Alien: Covenant (2017)
Sets eleven years after the events of Prometheus, “Alien: Covenant” (2017), directed by Ridley Scott, is a gripping sci-fi horror film that continues the themes of Prometheus while bridging the gap to the original Alien franchise. The story follows the crew of the colony ship Covenant as they divert their mission to an uncharted planet after detecting a mysterious human transmission. What begins as a hopeful exploration quickly descends into terror as the crew encounters the deadly neomorphs and the sinister android David, who has been conducting horrific genetic experiments. With stunning visual effects, intense horror sequences, and philosophical undertones on creation and destruction, the film deepens the Alien mythos.
3. Alien: Earth (2025)
Alien: Earth is an upcoming sci-fi horror television series from FX on Hulu, written and directed by Noah Hawley and set two years before the events of Alien (1979). Expanding on the iconic franchise’s deep lore, the series follows Wendy (Sydney Chandler), a genetically engineered woman with the mind of a child, guided by her synthetic mentor Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant). When a crashed spacecraft on Earth reveals a horrifying secret, Wendy and a team of soldiers confront an evolving extraterrestrial threat. With an ensemble cast and Ridley Scott as an executive producer, Alien: Earth promises a chilling, suspense-filled return to the saga’s origins.
4. Alien (1979)
Set 19 years the events of Alien: Covenant (2017), Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) is a landmark in science fiction horror, blending psychological terror with stunning visual effects. Written by Dan O’Bannon and based on a story by O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, the film follows the crew of the Nostromo, who encounter a deadly extraterrestrial being after investigating a distress signal. Starring Sigourney Weaver in her breakthrough role as Ripley, Alien won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and has since become a genre-defining classic. H.R. Giger’s eerie creature designs added to its chilling atmosphere, influencing decades of sci-fi horror.
5. Alien: Romulus (2024)
Directed by Fede Álvarez, Alien: Romulus is a gripping sci-fi horror film set between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). The story follows six desperate space colonists who uncover a sinister Weyland-Yutani experiment aboard the derelict space station Renaissance. As they struggle to escape, they battle deadly xenomorphs, face betrayal, and uncover dark secrets about genetic experimentation. The film was praised for its intense atmosphere, stunning visual effects, and suspenseful storytelling. Grossing $350.9 million worldwide, it became a critical and commercial success, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects and solidifying its place in the Alien saga.
6. Alien: Isolation (2019) [Web series]
Alien: Isolation takes place 15 years after the original film and follows Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, as she accompanies a Weyland-Yutani team being sent to retrieve the flight recorder of her mother’s ship, the Nostromo, recently located by the crew of a salvage vessel Anesidora and being held aboard the Seegson corporation remote Sevastopol space station in orbit around the KG-348 gas giant, on request of Christopher Samuels, an android working for the Weyland-Yutani corporation, so that Ripley can have closure regarding the fate of her missing mother.
Ripley, Samuels, and Weyland-Yutani executive Nina Taylor travel to Sevastopol on board the Torrens courier ship, only to find the station damaged and its communications offline. After attempting to spacewalk over to the station to investigate, their EVA line is severed by debris, and Ripley is separated from the others and forced to enter the station on her own, encountering hostile androids, humans, and an unknown alien organism.
7. Aliens (1986)
The terror continues in this chilling, critically acclaimed sequel as Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the sole survivor of the Nostromo’s deadly encounter with the monstrous Alien, returns to Earth after drifting through space in hypersleep for 57 years.
After 57 years in hypersleep, Ripley awakens aboard a medical space station orbiting Earth. She recounts the events of the Nostromo but is disbelieved by her superiors in the Weyland Yutani corporation, which has now begun to terraform and colonize the planetoid from the first film. When contact with the colony is lost, Ripley is persuaded to accompany a squad of Marines to investigate. They discover the colonists have been wiped out after being directed by the company to secure the derelict ship reported by Ripley. There is only one survivor, a girl named Newt. The aliens vastly outnumber and quickly overwhelm the Marines, who fight for survival. Only a handful, including Ripley and Newt, escape.
8. Alien 3 (1992)
Sets right after the events of Aliens, the military ship USS Sulaco, carrying the survivors, catches fire. The occupants are ejected in an escape pod, which crash-lands on the refinery/prison planet Fiorina “Fury” 161. All onboard except Ripley are killed. Ripley, the sole survivor of the spaceship Nostromo’s encounter with a deadly extraterrestrial in Alien, and subsequent victor over the Alien Queen after an epic battle in the cargo hold of the military transport ship Sulaco in Aliens.
After escaping from the alien planet, the ship carrying Ripley crashes onto a remote and inhabited ore refinery. While living in the ore refinery until she is rescued by her employers, Ripley discovers the horrifying reason for her crash: An alien stowaway. As the alien matures and begins to kill off the inhabitants, Ripley discovers that her true enemy is more than just the killer alien.
9. Alien Resurrection (1997)
Sets 200 years after the preceding installment Alien 3, after her last adventure, a group of scientists has cloned Ellen Ripley along with the alien queen inside her, hoping to breed the ultimate weapon. But the resurrected Ripley is full of surprises for her resurrectors–as are the aliens they’ve attempted to imprison.
The United Systems Military hopes to breed Aliens to study and research on the spaceship USM Auriga, using human hosts kidnapped and delivered to them by a group of mercenaries. The Aliens escape their enclosures, while Ripley and the mercenaries attempt to escape and destroy the Auriga before it reaches its destination: Earth.
Alien vs Predator Movies in Order [Crossover series]
“It may be our planet, but it?s their war!” The deadliest creatures from the scariest sci-fi movies ever made face off for the first time on film. Whoever wins…we lose.
Inspired by the Dark Horse Comics series, the filmmakers of Predator 2 (1990) incorporated an easter egg in which an Alien skull was seen in a Predator trophy case. Expansions upon this shared universe between the Alien and Predator franchises followed through comics and video games, leading up to the launch of a film franchise with the release of Alien vs. Predator in 2004, followed by Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem in 2007.
The franchise depict a series of deadly conflicts between humans and two alien races: the ferocious, endoparasitoid Aliens, and the technologically advanced warriors who hunt for personal sport and honor, the Predators. Spin-off to both the Alien and Predator franchises, primarily set in the present day of the 21st century, the show depicts humankind’s encounters with alien species and how they influenced human civilization and weaponry, including the Colonel Marines, the United America, and those involved with the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, as seen in the Alien franchise of the future. So given below are the Alien and Predator movies in order to watch.
1. Alien vs. Predator (2004)
“Alien vs. Predator” (2004), directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, brings two legendary extraterrestrial species—the Xenomorphs and the Predators—into a thrilling battle on Earth. Set in Antarctica, the film follows a team of explorers led by billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland, who stumbles upon an ancient pyramid buried beneath the ice. Inside, they discover that the Predators use the Xenomorphs for a deadly hunting ritual. As the humans become trapped between the warring species, chaos ensues in a brutal survival struggle. Blending action, horror, and sci-fi, “AVP” expands both franchises, revealing connections between human history and extraterrestrial warfare.
2. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
“Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” (2007) is a sci-fi horror action film and the second installment in the Alien vs. Predator franchise. Directed by The Brothers Strause, the film continues from Alien vs. Predator (2004), depicting the chaos unleashed when a Predator ship crashes in Gunnison, Colorado. A deadly Predalien hybrid emerges, triggering a brutal battle between Xenomorphs, a lone Predator “cleaner,” and unsuspecting townspeople caught in the crossfire. Despite its dark tone and intense action, the film was criticized for poor lighting and editing. It grossed $130.2 million globally but ended plans for further
How many Alien movies are there?
There are ten Alien films, including the original series (Alien to Alien: Resurrection), crossover (Alien vs. Predator series), prequels (Prometheus, Alien: Covenant), and the 2024 spin-off Alien: Romulus.
All Alien Movies in Order of Release Date
Here is the list of Alien films in order, they were released.
Original series:
1. Alien — May 25, 1979
2. Aliens — July 18, 1986
3. Alien 3 — May 22, 1992
4. Alien Resurrection — November 26, 1997
Crossover series:
1. Alien vs. Predator —12 August 2004
2. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem — December 25, 2007 (US)
Prequel series:
1. Prometheus — June 8, 2012
2. Alien: Covenant — May 19, 2017
Spin-off film:
1. Alien: Romulus — August 12, 2024
Television and Web series:
1. Alien: Isolation – The Digital Series — February 28, 2019
2. Alien: Earth — Mid-2025
Where to Watch Alien Movies?
You are able to stream Alien films in Order by renting or purchasing on Amazon Prime because it is pretty much solely available to watch on Amazon Prime, you may be able to Rent and buy on Vudu and Apple TV.
Conclusion:
The Alien franchise has captivated audiences for decades with its blend of science fiction, horror, and action. By following the Alien Movies in Order, fans can fully appreciate the evolution of the terrifying Xenomorphs, the struggles of Ellen Ripley, and the origins of the Engineers. From the groundbreaking Alien (1979) to the intense sequel Aliens (1986), and the prequel expansions like Prometheus (2012), the franchise has continued to expand its deep mythology. With Alien: Romulus (2024) and an upcoming TV series, the saga remains a cornerstone of sci-fi horror, blending thrilling storytelling with thought-provoking themes of survival and corporate greed. For More: Wikipedia.org
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