The Correct Order To Watch The Alien Franchise
Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror film "Alien" is about a cat named Jones, colloquially called Jonesy, who lived on board a starship called the Nostromo. Jonesy was a friendly little guy who kept several humans as pets and didn't have a care in the world. One afternoon, however, Jonesy became startled when a massive cockroach with an aspic for a head began eating his humans. However, one of the humans escaped the aspic-cockroach and took him on a vacation. After the cockroach incident, Jonesy got to take a very, very long nap, woke up refreshed, and adopted several new humans as pets.
Jonesy appeared in "Alien" as well as James Cameron's "Aliens" (1986), as well as a few tie-in novels like Tim Lebbon's "Alien: Out of the Shadows" (2014) and Rory Lucey's children's book "Jonesy: Nine Lives on the Nostromo" (2018). There were also several "Alien" spinoff movies that followed the movie's non-cat characters on their various adventures. The humans, however, don't talk about Jonesy a lot.
At last measure, there were seven feature films, one documentary, and 21 shorts in the "Alien" series, each one made by an interesting auteur. Ridley Scott made his original classic in 1979, and for three sequels, let other filmmakers put their own tonal spin on the material. Scott wouldn't return to the series until 2012, making a pair of prequel films that explained, in excruciating detail, how the aspic-cockroaches — often referred to as xenomorphs by the humans — came into being.
This is a great list for cat lovers everywhere. Here's the correct order to watch all of Jonesy's adventures ... err ... the "Alien" franchise.
The release order
In order of their release, the "Alien" movies and shorts are as follows (the features are in bold):
- Ridley Scott's "Alien" (1979)
- James Cameron's "Aliens" (1986)
- David Fincher's "Alien³" (1992)
- Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Alien Resurrection" (1997)
- Luke Scott's "TED 2023" (February 2012)
- Johnny Hardstaff's "Happy Birthday, David" (April 2012)
- Johnny Hardstaff's "Quiet Eye: Elizabeth Shaw" (May 2012)
- Chris Eyerman's and Evan DeHaven's "Project Prometheus: Mission" (May 2012)
- "Weyland Industries Testimonial" (June 2012)
- Johnny Hardtstaff's "Prometheus Transmission" (October 2012)
- Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" (2012)
- Luke Scott's "Alien: Covenant – Prologue: Last Supper" (February 2017)
- Luke Scott's "Alien: Covenant – Meet Walter" (March 2017)
- "Alien: Covenant – Crew Messages" (April 2017)
- Ridley Scott's "Alien: Covenant – Prologue: The Crossing" (April 2017)
- Matthew Thorne's "Alien: Covenant x Audi Lunar Quattro" (April 2017)
- Luke Scott's "Alien: Covenant – She Won't Go Quietly" (May 2017)
- Toby Dye's "Alien: Covenant – Phobos" (July 2017)
- Matthew Thorne's "Alien: Covenant – Advent" (August 2017)
- Ridley Scott's "Alien: Covenant" (2017)
- Chris Reading's "Alien: Containment" (March 2019)
- Kelsey Taylor's "Alien: Specimen" (April 2019)
- Aiden Breznick's "Alien: Night Shift" (April 2019)
- Kailey and Sam Spear's "Alien: Ore" (April 2019)
- Benjamin Howdeshell's "Alien: Harvest" (April 2019)
- Noah Miller's "Alien: Alone" (April 2019)
- Allen Colombo's "Alien: Covenant — David's Lab: Last Signs of Life" (Augut 2019)
- Alexandre O. Philippe "Memory: The Origin of Alien" (2019)
- Fede Álvarez's "Alien: Romulus" (2024)
"Romulus" is due out in theaters this coming August, and it is to be set in between the events of "Alien" and "Aliens." Both "Prometheus" and "Covenant" take place before the events of the first "Alien." "Resurrection," meanwhile, takes place almost 200 years after "Alien³."
"Memory" is a documentary about the making and legacy of the "Alien" movies.
Explaining all this
The six 2012 shorts were all released leading up to "Prometheus," and they reveal plot details not included in the film. Same with the 2017 shorts, but those were released in conjunction with "Alien: Covenant." The 2019 shorts were made as a 40th anniversary project. Each one expands the extant "Alien" lore.
A curious thing about the "Alien" movies is that they change in both tone and genre depending on who is directing. Scott's first movie is a straight-up horror film, while Cameron's "Aliens" tilts directly into action. "Alien³" is a prison drama/tragedy, although the tone is wildly scattered; the film had a notoriously troubled production. "Resurrection" was scripted by Joss Whedon, and it — like many Whedon projects — possesses a light, comedic tone and is populated by characters who banter sarcastically. When Scott returned to the series, the tone became heady and cerebral, and a lot of attention was paid to the creators of the xenomorphs, a species of statuesque, pale brutes who wanted to destroy humanity.
A notion that persists throughout the "Alien" movies is that the xenomorphs are essentially living weapons, engineered to kill off humans and frighten cats. No other explanation for the xenomorphs has been given.
Completionists will tell you that the "Alien" movie crossed over with the "Predator" movies thanks to a series of "Alien vs. Predator" comics from the 1980s. Those comics were eventually adapted to film, allowing the "Predator" movies to be part of the "Alien" series in retrospect. The full list of "Alien" and "Predator" movies can be found in the pages of /Film under the title "The Correct Order To Watch The Predator Movies." That article also lists the many films in chronological order, should you want to run a historical marathon.