How-To
How to Watch the Alien Movies in Order
By Jordan A. · · Updated · 5 min read
Netflix added Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) on September 1, 2026, which is the best excuse in years to start the saga. What it is not, despite a lot of posts saying otherwise, is the whole franchise landing at once. Checked September 9, 2026: the two Netflix arrivals are the first two films only, and the September 2026 arrivals list does not include Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Prometheus, Alien: Covenant or Alien: Romulus.
That matters for planning, because you will hit a wall after Aliens and need to rent, buy or switch services for the rest. Below is the order to watch in, what each film costs you in patience, and how to run the marathon without paying for the whole franchise twice.
The release order
This is the order audiences first saw them, and for a first watch it is the right one.
Alien (1979), directed by Ridley Scott. A haunted house in space, slow and suffocating, and still the scariest of them.
Aliens (1986), directed by James Cameron. The sequel that swaps horror for a war film and one creature for an army. Watch the special edition if you can find it.
Alien 3 (1992), directed by David Fincher. Fincher has disowned it and the studio cut is a mess. The assembly cut is a meaningfully better film.
Alien Resurrection (1997), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Strange, gooey, written by Joss Whedon, and the weakest of the seven by most counts.
Prometheus (2012), directed by Ridley Scott. Scott returns thirty-three years later to ask where the creatures came from.
Alien: Covenant (2017), directed by Ridley Scott. The follow-up to Prometheus, and the one that finally connects the prequels to the original.
Alien: Romulus (2024), directed by Fede Alvarez. A deliberate return to the claustrophobia of the first two.
The chronological order
If you would rather follow the internal timeline, the prequels move to the front: Prometheus, then Alien: Covenant, then Alien (1979), then Alien: Romulus, then Aliens, then Alien 3, then Alien Resurrection.
Romulus is the wrinkle. Alvarez set his film between the events of the first two, so on a timeline watch it slots in after the original and before Cameron's sequel. It was built as a love letter to those two films, so it fits the gap cleanly.
So which order should you pick
Release order wins for a first watch and it is not close. Prometheus and Covenant lean on the mystery of where these creatures come from, and their power depends on you already fearing the thing. Watching the prequels first spoils the slow reveal that makes 1979 work. Save the origin story for when you understand what it is the origin of.
Chronological is the rewatch. On a second pass, starting with Prometheus turns the saga into one tragic arc about creation and consequence, and details you missed start to rhyme. It is the connoisseur's route, not the newcomer's.
The practical version, now that only two are on Netflix
Here is how to actually run this in September 2026 without wasting money.
Night one, free if you already have Netflix. Alien and Aliens back to back is nearly four and a half hours, so most people split it across two evenings. This is also the natural stopping point for anyone who just wants the good part. The two films are a complete story and plenty of people have never gone further.
Night two, the 1990s pair. Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection are the ones worth renting rather than buying, and if you rent only one, make it Alien 3 in the assembly cut. Where these stream shifts month to month; the title page on BingeNext shows current US options.
Night three, the Scott prequels. Prometheus and Covenant are close to five hours together and they are the pair that most benefits from being watched in one sitting, because Covenant answers questions Prometheus deliberately leaves open.
Night four, Romulus. The most recent film and the one that plays best after you have seen everything else, since it is built almost entirely out of references to the earlier ones.
If you are budgeting, the franchise is also sold as a digital and a physical boxed set, so compare that against the cost of five separate rentals before you rent the fourth one. And if the marathon leaves you wanting more of what Alien started, our roundup of the best horror movies of 2025 covers the current end of that lineage.
A note on the spinoffs
The Alien vs. Predator films are missing from both orders on purpose. They exist, they cross the xenomorph over with the Predator franchise, and they sit outside the main story. Skip them on a first run and circle back only if you want the completist experience.
How the tone shifts, and why that is the appeal
One pleasure of a full run is watching the series refuse to sit still. The 1979 original is a slow horror film about a crew nobody would call heroes. Cameron builds a war film out of the same creature. Fincher goes bleak and stripped down, Jeunet gets weird, Scott returns to ask philosophical questions the early films never bothered with, and Alvarez swings back toward straight horror.
You are not watching the same film seven times. You are watching very different filmmakers each take a swing at the same nightmare, and the disagreements between them are half the fun. Go in expecting each film to feel like its own thing and the uneven stretches become part of the story rather than a flaw in it.
Where to start
If you have never seen any of them, watch Alien tonight on Netflix and stop there. If you loved it, Aliens is the next night and it is a completely different film. If you have seen both and want to know whether the prequels are worth it, watch Prometheus and decide at the halfway point, because the film tells you very early what kind of thing it is going to be.
Not sure whether you want the horror of the original or the action of the sequel tonight? BingeNext's movie recommendations take what you already love and return picks with a reason and where each one streams. A run takes about a minute, and a free account covers three a day.
Topics covered: alien movies, watch order, ridley scott, science fiction, netflix
About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and is responsible for every guide published on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu. Dates, season counts and where-to-watch details in these guides are checked against official sources before publishing, and corrections are welcome at Jordan@Bingenext.com.