Alien Movies: Release Order
The Alien franchise explores humanity's terrifying encounters with a perfect killing organism across centuries of space exploration, beginning with Ridley Scott's 1979 masterpiece that redefined science fiction horror. This release order preserves the viewing experience as audiences originally encountered the films, allowing the franchise's evolution from pure horror to action-horror hybrid to prequel mythology to unfold naturally.
The watch order avoids spoilers that prequels might reveal about the xenomorphs' origins and lets you experience the franchise's creative journey from the claustrophobic terror of the original through the expanded universe exploration of later entries.
There are 3 other watch orders available – see the links up above.
Alien
The crew of a commercial spaceship encounters a deadly alien creature that stalks them through their vessel after being brought aboard from a distant planet. This sci-fi horror classic follows their desperate fight for survival against a nearly indestructible extraterrestrial predator.
Aliens
Ripley, the sole survivor of a deadly alien encounter, reluctantly joins a team of Colonial Marines to return to the planet where the nightmare began. This intense sci-fi sequel delivers relentless action as humanity faces an even greater xenomorph threat.
Alien³
Ripley crash-lands on a prison planet where she must face a deadly alien threat alongside hardened convicts, with no weapons and no way to escape.
Alien Resurrection
Two hundred years after her death, Ripley is cloned by scientists hoping to breed the ultimate alien weapon, but both she and the new creatures prove full of deadly surprises. The resurrected Ripley must team up with smugglers to prevent the aliens from reaching Earth.
Prometheus
A team of explorers follows clues about humanity's origins to a distant planet, where they encounter ancient secrets and deadly threats that could determine the fate of mankind.
Alien: Covenant
The crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers what appears to be an uncharted paradise on a remote planet, but soon realizes they've landed on a dark and dangerous world filled with deadly threats.
Alien: Romulus
A group of young space colonizers encounter deadly alien creatures while exploring an abandoned space station in this latest installment of the iconic horror franchise.
Other Film Series
Phantasm
A surreal horror franchise following young Mike Pearson and ice cream vendor Reggie in their ongoing battle against the interdimensional Tall Man and his deadly silver spheres.
Romero's Living Dead
George A. Romero's groundbreaking zombie saga, featuring classic horror films and several reboots.
Scanners
A sci-fi horror series about people with telepathic and telekinetic abilities, beginning with David Cronenberg's acclaimed 1981 film.
The Purge
A dystopian horror franchise set in an America where all crime is legal for 12 hours once a year during an annual event called The Purge.
Tremors
Kevin Bacon and Michael Gross battle subterranean Graboids in this cult monster franchise spanning three decades.
Warlock
A supernatural horror trilogy featuring different standalone stories about malevolent warlocks, connected more by theme than narrative continuity.