Alien: Romulus, which hit theaters Friday, returns audiences to the universe that Ridley Scott built. It’s been 45 years since Scott’s original Alien flick kicked off the enduring franchise, and a rewatch of the various sequels and prequels is definitely in order. Whether you want to curate a marathon or are visiting the franchise for the first time, take note: Every Alien movie is available to stream right now.
Alien hit theaters in 1979 and is led by Sigourney Weaver in her star-making turn as Ellen Ripley. The movie follows the crew of the Nostromo, a commercial starship, as they investigate a distress call in space. They discover an aggressive alien species running rampant on a dead spaceship, which turns their rescue mission into a fight for survival.
Weaver reprised her role of Ripley in three of the franchise’s six installments: James Cameron’s Aliens, David Fincher’s Alien 3 and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien Resurrection. She returned to voice the character in the 2014 video game Alien: Isolation.
From left: Sigourney Weaver as Ripley and Carrie Henn as Newt in Aliens.
Fede Álvarez (2013’s Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe) directed Alien: Romulus, a standalone story between the events of Alien and Aliens. It’s worth noting that Fede’s sequel and Noah Hawley’s Alien TV show won’t connect.
How should you watch the Alien movies, anyway? The overall story timeline jumps all over the map — the original series consistently pushes the story into the future, the prequels explore the creature’s origins far in the past and the Alien vs. Predator movies exist in a whole other reality. Like many fans, I don’t consider them canon.
You can watch the Alien franchise in chronological order, which would put the prequels first. I suggest starting with the 1979 original and going in theatrical release order. And if you want to make further sense of Alien: Romulus, you can trim the franchise’s proverbial fat and minimize your movie marathon to three of the six entries.
Ready to hop on the express elevator straight to hell? Here’s how you can stream all the Alien movies.
Read more: ‘Alien: Romulus’ Trailer Brings the Chest-Bursting Horror Back to Space
These three Alien movies tie Romulus together
Since Alien: Romulus takes place between the events of the first two movies, it goes without saying that watching Alien and Aliens will help add further context to the story of Romulus. After three decades, Ridley Scott returned to the director’s chair for 2012’s polarizing prequel Prometheus.
These three titles influence the story and aesthetic of Alien: Romulus. To discuss the connections further, I’ll be delving into spoiler territory. Scroll past this section if you don’t want to know any story details about these movies and how they connect to Alien: Romulus.
Alien: Romulus opens with an intriguing sequence showing Weyland-Yutani scientists retrieving a sample from space. For those familiar with the events of Alien, you’ll recognize this as the remains of the xenomorph Ripley battled on the Nostromo, which she shot out of the airlock.
The company moved forward with experiments on the sample onboard the Romulus-Remus space station — and unbeknownst to them, the creature was not dead.
There are plenty of alien battle sequences in Alien: Romulus gives nods to Aliens. The weaponry is similar to what the Colonial Marines used in James Cameron’s sequel. Rain (Cailee Spaeny) totes a formidable pulse rifle and eviscerates a bunch of xenomorphs and face-huggers. The action-heavy tone of the movie’s second half recall Aliens in delightful ways.
The Prometheus connection begins earlier in the film. After a horde of face-huggers attacks Rain and her friends, they bring a damaged droid named Rook back to life. Ian Holm, who played the evil android Ash in Alien (and passed away in 2020), returns in CGI form here. In Alien, Ash is directed to retrieve the unknown alien species and bring it back to Earth for further testing.
Rook’s messaging in Romulus is similar; He refers to the xenomorph as the perfect life form and introduces the crew to the “Prometheus Strain.”
Audiences first got a glimpse of an Engineer — also referred to as the Pilot or Space Jockey — in Alien, when the crew landed on the planet and discovered the humanoid’s giant skeletal remains. Prometheus clarifies what these creatures were, how they became extinct and the black goo they left behind.
According to Rook, Weyland-Yutani reverse-engineered the substance and bottled it up for further testing. He claimed the serum to be a cure for all human diseases. Spoiler: It’s not. Alien: Romulus takes a wild swing in its third act and shows how the Prometheus Strain interacts with human DNA. A pregnant and injured Kay (Isabela Merced) injects herself with the black goo. It’s not the smartest decision, to be sure.
She goes from not showing a baby bump to delivering the thing in no time flat. The creature she gives birth to quickly grows from newborn-sized to a giant monstrosity and resembles a mashup of human, xenomorph and Engineer.
I said there were three movies this film connected to, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Alien: Resurrection. In the fourth movie — which was written by Joss Whedon — Weyland-Yutani scientists are yet again conducting experiments. Here, a xenomorph/human hybrid is created by blending the DNA samples from a creature and Ellen Ripley herself.
It’s not a great ending, to be honest and I’m not suggesting you watch this one. Heck, even Whedon hated the end-result. But the similarities are worth noting.
How to watch all the Alien movies in chronological order in the US
- Prometheus (2012)
- Alien: Covenant (2017)
- Alien (1979)
- Aliens (1986)
- Alien 3 (1992)
- Alien Resurrection (1997)
Every Alien movie listed above — including Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) — can be streamed on Hulu for U.S. viewers. The same will go for Alien: Romulus, which was originally supposed to premiere on the streamer before getting a theatrical run.
Hulu starts at $8 per month to stream with ads, while Hulu without ads costs $18 a month. If you prefer a cable-like experience, you can go with Hulu with Live TV for a $77 monthly charge. This option comes with more than 90 channels, Disney Plus, on-demand Hulu content and ESPN Plus (with ads).
You can also opt for one of the Disney Bundles: Hulu and Disney Plus with ads for $10 a month; Hulu and Disney Plus without ads for $20 a month; Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus with ads for $15 a month; Hulu and Disney Plus without ads and ESPN Plus with ads for $25 a month; and the Hulu, Disney Plus and Max megabundle — the ad-based version is $17 per month, while the ad-free one is $30 a month.
Max has one Alien movie available for streaming: James Cameron’s action-packed sequel, Aliens.
Subscriptions cost $10 per month (with ads) or $17 per month (ad-free). To watch in 4K, you can also sign up for the Ultimate plan for $21 per month. The Hulu, Disney Plus and Max megabundle may also be of interest. The ad-based bundle comes with a $17 monthly price tag, while the ad-free version is $30 a month.
Where to watch all the Alien movies in the UK
Hulu isn’t available for audiences in the UK. Instead, viewers can find every single Alien movie on Disney Plus.
Disney Plus subscriptions in the UK are broken down into three plans. The Standard with Ads plan costs £5 a month. The Standard plan costs £8 a month (or £80 a year) and the Premium plan costs £11 a month (or £110 a year).
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