8 Things That Happen In Every Alien Movie

The Alien movies amount to one of the most popular sci-fi franchises of all time, and they have several recurring themes and occurrences in every installment. Starting with Ridley Scott’s classic 1979 film, the Alien franchise has also been helmed by iconic directors like James Cameron and David Fincher, who added to the series lore while leaning into the aspects that made the original such an all-time favorite. With the terrifying Xenomorph as an unstoppable Lovecraftian antagonist, viewers have come to recognize some repeated tropes that recur throughout each entry.

With a rich mythology that brings together action, horror, and sci-fi genres, the Alien movies were far from predictable, although they still had some tenets that tied them all together. From the feminist heroism of protagonists like Ellen Ripley to the terrifying reproduction processes of the Xenomorph, the Alien franchise has carved out an important place in popular culture. As a series that has continued to boast a loyal following right through to modern times, part of the appeal of the Alien franchise was its recurring themes and motifs that address the endless, unknowable horror of space and the universe.

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Movie	Release Year	Type	IMDb Rating
Alien (1979)	Ridley Scott	Original Movie	8.5
Aliens (1986)	James Cameron	Sequel	8.4
Alien 3 (1992)	David Fincher	Sequel	6.4
Alien Resurrection (1997)	Jean-Pierre Jeunet	Sequel	6.2
Alien vs. Predator (2004)	Paul W. S. Anderson	Crossover	5.7
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)	Greg & Colin Strause	Crossover	4.6
Prometheus (2012)	Ridley Scott	Prequel	7
Alien: Covenant (2017)	Ridley Scott	Preuqel	6.4
Alien: Romulus (2024)	Fede Álvarez	Interquel	7.2

8

Ignoring Safety Protocol

Characters consistently act foolishly in Alien movies

The dark potential of the Xenomorph species is often hinted at right from the beginning of any movie in the Alien franchise. While the space crews on board ships like Nostromo have strict safety protocols they must adhere to in order to avoid any potential harm, the characters are quick to step outside of the rules and make hasty and improper decisions. This can be seen in the very first Alien movie as Kane (John Hurt) discovers mysterious alien eggs, which he immediately closely examines, only for spider-like creatures to emerge and attack, kickstarting all the horror that’s to come.

From underestimating the threat of Xenomorphs and rushing into attack without proper protection to even ignoring rules of ethics and safety in the pursuit of researching the creatures, it seems every Alien movie features somebody who’s determined to risk their lives needlessly. This even extends to Ridley Scott’s prequel movies, such as in Alien: Covenant when the crew explores Planet 4 without following biohazard protocols. While it’s likely the Xenomorph still would have found a way to attack, these basic missteps helped pave the way for countless character deaths in the Alien franchise.

7

Untrustworthy Authority

There’s always an undercurrent of corporate greed in Alien movies

Original SR Image by Shawn Lealos

While the scientists at the heart of the Alien franchise often endeavor to explore the universe and uncover the mysteries that have plagued mankind for millennia, there are often untrustworthy authority figures carefully sowing the seeds of discontent behind the scenes. This is primarily seen through the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, whose desires don’t always align with the needs of the ship’s crew. In Alien, this is seen through the actions of Ash (Ian Holm), an android character who is ordered to preserve the Xenomorph at all costs, even if this means the entire loss of all human life on board the Nostromo.

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Untrustworthy authority is a recurring theme throughout the entire series; this can clearly be seen in Aliens, as Carl Burke prioritizes the corporate needs of smuggling Xenomorph eggs to Earth over the lives of the crew. Alien 3 even saw Ripley surrounded by shady authority figures as she crash-landed on the high-security prison planet Fiorina 161. The dire consequences of untrustworthy authority figures carrying out their darkest desires reached their pinnacle in Alien Resurrection when Ripley was cloned as scientists sought to study the Alien queen as a bioweapon.

6

A Powerful Woman Takes the Lead

This franchise has consistently featured strong and powerful women

Custom Image by Grant Hermanns

The Alien franchise has consistently blended elements of action, horror, and sci-fi movies and, in the process, subverted traditional notions of heroism. With Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) as the series’ most consistent protagonist, her characterization challenged the stereotypical depiction of gender roles in movies as she proved a strong, powerful woman has what it takes to save the day. Weaver’s incredible performance helped the Alien franchise stand out among so many other male-dominated Hollywood series.

Weaver’s incredible performance helped the Alien franchise stand out among so many other male-dominated Hollywood series.

The role of women in the Alien franchise was all the more effective with the knowledge that Ripley was originally written to be a man (via Vanity Fair), but director Ridley Scott opted to turn them into a heroine. While Ripley led the franchise for its first four installments, when Scott returned for his prequel, Prometheus, Noomi Rapace was brought in as the determined archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw. This theme of strong women has continued into Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus, which was led by Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine.

5

The Facehugger Attack

This early version of the Xenomorph’s lifecycle continually attacks in the Alien movies

Alien attacks have been a hallmark of this sci-fi franchise since the very beginning, as chestburster scenes and Facehugger assaults are a calling card of the Xenomorph’s undeniable power. As the perfect representation of the unknowable terror and sudden impulses of alien life, the Facehugger attack was first seen after Kane found hundreds of Xenomorph eggs in the original Alien and has since become a recognizable forebearer to the even more intense horror that always followed it. Facehuggers were the parasitic lifeforms that hatched from Xenomorph eggs and served as the second stage in the alien’s life cycle.

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Facehuggers gained their notorious name for the way they latch onto their victims’ faces as they implant embryos in other living beings to act as intermediates into their next live stage. While the first Facehugger victim was Kane, they reappeared in Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, and other spin-off media. With horrific intensity, one of the scariest things about a Facehugger attack was that it was just the first step in the creature’s complex journey toward reaching its full, awe-inspiringly destructive potential.

4

Disposable Characters Are Killed

Very few make it out alive in the Alien movies

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Since the very first installment, the Alien franchise has always been like the equivalent of a slasher movie in space. With this in mind, this sci-fi franchise follows many of the tenets of classic horror movies as supporting characters get slowly killed off one by one, leaving just the protagonists to fend off the terrifying Xenomorph creatures by themselves. This was best encapsulated by Ellen Ripley in Alien, whose role as an action hero final girl both subverted and leaned into horror movie stereotypes at the same time.

Ellen Ripley was the sole survivor in the original Alien movie, showcasing this as a ruthless series where nobody was safe.

The deaths of Kane, Brett, Dallas, Lambert, and Parker in Alien were just the beginning of the bloodshed in the Alien franchise, as each subsequent installment saw many unsuspecting space crew members and scientists pay dearly after an encounter with a Xenomorph. While death was always an inevitability in Alien, there’s always somebody with the wherewithal to make it out alive. This was often Ripley, but other major characters like Elizabeth Shaw or even the morally dubious android David in the prequels have managed to survive past the end credits of Alien movies.

3

Stuck In a Claustrophobic Setting

Space crews are often stuck in enclosed spaces in the Alien movies

One thing that sets the Alien franchise apart from other sci-fi stories is the claustrophobic settings of each installment. With the first Alien movie essentially being a haunted house story set in space, the inescapable nature of an alien-infested spacecraft has always made these stories feel particularly tense and unnerving. In each Alien movie, characters are trapped in enclosed spaces with a Xenomorph, meaning there’s nowhere to run, and the only choice left is to kill or be killed.

While the Nostromo ship from Alien is the classic example of this in practice, this has been repeated through the labyrinthine corridors of Hadley’s Hope colony in Aliens, the dark, oppressive tunnels and confined spaces that trapped prisoners in Alien 3, and the cramped interiors of the USM Auriga in Alien Resurrection. By trapping characters in enclosed spaces with nowhere to run or hide, the Alien franchise saw many crew members meet their end in distressingly hopeless situations.

2

The Monster Reveal

The Xenomorph is slowly revealed to viewers in the Alien movies

While sci-fi lovers will immediately recognize the iconic outline of a Xenomorph even if it is cast behind shadows, the Alien franchise has been careful not to show all its cards at once. In every Alien movie, there’s a slow build-up toward its eventual reveal, as by restricting the audience’s exposure to the creature in the beginning, the impact is all the more effective when it is revealed in all its terrifying glory in the closing act.

The art of the monster reveal is something that horror movies have been perfecting since the dawn of cinema and can be seen in everything from Frankenstein to Jaws. However, the Alien movies have always been particularly good at ensuring they got the most out of their eventual monster reveals. While the chestburster scene from Alien is perhaps the most famous example, the hordes of Xenomorphs in Aliens or the terrifying Proto-Xenomorph known as the Deacon in Prometheus were some of the franchise’s greatest monster reveals.

1

A Showdown With a Xenomorph

A final confrontation is a given in the Alien movies

While all the movies in the Alien franchise have added something new and interesting to the mythology of this series, there’s one thing that’s always a given, and that’s a final showdown with a Xenomorph or Xenomorphs. As each film focuses on the mistrust between crew members, the misjudged desires of authority, or the innate desire to study these alien creatures, the inevitable consequences of these grave errors were alien creatures running wild and a shocking battle of life and death between the alien and the hopeful survivors.

The Xenomorph has been the most consistent factor across all the Alien movies, as different varieties of this terrifying species were revealed with each subsequent installment. As an extraterrestrial race that wants to propagate its own survival at all costs, the conflict between humans and Xenomorphs relates to its destruction mode of reproduction. As the parasitic creature leaches onto others to go through its life cycle, a deadly confrontation with a Xenomorph is always an inevitability.

Source: Vanity Fair

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Alien

The Alien franchise, which began with Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, is a Sci-Fi series comprised of several horror films, games, and comic books centered on humanity’s encounters with a hostile extraterrestrial species known as Xenomorphs. Characterized by their lethal prowess and capability to reproduce at an alarming rate, these creatures pose a profound threat to human existence. The primary series protagonist, Ellen Ripley, acts as the voice of reason as she seeks to keep the creatures out of the hands of greed-driven corporate scientists.

Movie(s)

Alien
, Aliens (1986)
, Alien 3 (1992)
, Alien: Resurrection (1997)
, Prometheus (2012)
, Alien: Covenant (2017)
, Alien: Romulus (2024)

Created by

Ridley Scott

First Film

Alien

Latest Film

Alien: Romulus

Upcoming TV Shows

Alien: Earth

Cast

Sigourney Weaver
, Tom Skerritt
, Veronica Cartwright
, Harry Dean Stanton
, John Hurt
, Ian Holm
, Yaphet Kotto
, Michael Biehn
, Paul Reiser
, Lance Henriksen
, Carrie Henn
, Bill Paxton
, Charles S. Dutton
, Charles Dance
, Pete Postlethwaite
, Winona Ryder
, Ron Perlman
, Dan Hedaya
, Noomi Rapace
, Charlize Theron
, Idris Elba
, Guy Pearce
, Michael Fassbender
, Katherine Waterston
, Billy Crudup
, Danny McBride
, Demián Bichir

Spin-offs (Movies)

Alien vs. Predator
, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem

TV Show(s)

Alien
, Alien: Isolation – The Series

Character(s)

Ellen Ripley
, Arthur Dallas
, Joan Lambert
, Brett (Alien)
, Gilbert Kane
, Ash (Alien)
, Dennis Parker
, Corporal Hicks
, Carter Burke
, Bishop (Alien)
, Rebecca ‘Newt’ Jorden
, Private Hudson
, Dillon (Alien)
, Clemens (Alien)
, Bishop II
, David (Alien)
, Annalee Call
, Johner (Alien)
, General Perez
, Elizabeth Shaw
, Meredith Vickers
, Janek (Alien)
, Peter Weyland
, Walter (alien) Daniels (Alien)
, Christopher Oram
, Tennessee
, Lope (Alien)

Video Game(s)

Alien: Isolation (2014)
, Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013)
, Aliens vs. Predator (2010)
, Aliens vs. Predator 2 (2001)
, Aliens vs. Predator (1999)
, Alien 3: The Gun (1993)
, Alien 3 (1992)
, Aliens (1990)
, Aliens: The Computer Game (1986)
, Alien (1984)

Summary

The Alien franchise, which began with Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, is a Sci-Fi series comprised of several horror films, games, and comic books centered on humanity’s encounters with a hostile extraterrestrial species known as Xenomorphs. Characterized by their lethal prowess and capability to reproduce at an alarming rate, these creatures pose a profound threat to human existence. The primary series protagonist, Ellen Ripley, acts as the voice of reason as she seeks to keep the creatures out of the hands of greed-driven corporate scientists.

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