- 2 days ago
From ancient Engineers to futuristic nightmares—this is the full timeline of the Alien universe.
Welcome to WatchMojo! In this recap, we’re breaking down the entire Alien franchise timeline, including films, canon shorts, and major lore from games, comics, and novels—with a special look at the 2024
release Alien: Romulus.
We’ll explore key events from:
🧬 Prometheus (2012)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
👾 Alien (1979)
🎮 Alien: Isolation (2014)
🚀 Alien: Romulus (2024)
🔫 Aliens (1986)
⚰️ Alien 3 (1992)
🧟♂️ Alien Resurrection (1997)
… and more canon content that shaped this terrifying universe.
❌ Note: This timeline does not include Predator or AVP crossovers.
🔥 So, which film reigns supreme—Alien or Aliens? Let the debate begin in the comments!
Welcome to WatchMojo! In this recap, we’re breaking down the entire Alien franchise timeline, including films, canon shorts, and major lore from games, comics, and novels—with a special look at the 2024
release Alien: Romulus.
We’ll explore key events from:
🧬 Prometheus (2012)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
👾 Alien (1979)
🎮 Alien: Isolation (2014)
🚀 Alien: Romulus (2024)
🔫 Aliens (1986)
⚰️ Alien 3 (1992)
🧟♂️ Alien Resurrection (1997)
… and more canon content that shaped this terrifying universe.
❌ Note: This timeline does not include Predator or AVP crossovers.
🔥 So, which film reigns supreme—Alien or Aliens? Let the debate begin in the comments!
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NewsTranscript
00:00Get away from her, you bi-
00:02Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the ever-evolving Alien timeline.
00:07We'll be focusing on the films, but we'll reference major events in the novels, comics, and video games that are generally considered canonical.
00:14That excludes Predator and AVP, which we're treating as separate franchises.
00:19Sorry, Predalien.
00:26In the beginning, there were the Engineers.
00:30At least, that was our beginning.
00:36The extraterrestrials are, in director Ridley Scott's words, quote,
00:39gardeners in space, seeding planets with life.
00:43Prometheus opens with an engineer drinking a black mutagenic liquid and donating his DNA.
00:49These ancient astronauts visited early civilizations.
00:52In fact, the script originally implied that Jesus was an engineer.
00:56Until Ridley Scott realized it was, quote, a little too on the nose.
01:01Nonetheless, it was around the time of Christ's crucifixion that the Engineers decided a do-over was in order.
01:06On the moon LV-223, in the binary star system Zeta Reticuli, they loaded a ship with ampoules of black liquid.
01:13But before they could wipe out humanity, they lost control of their creation, stealing fire.
01:29Fast forward all the way to 2093 A.D., when the space exploration vessel Prometheus touches down on that same moon, guided by ancient pictographs.
01:38Right there. God does not build in straight lines.
01:41Entrepreneur Peter Weyland, founder of Weyland Corp., has commissioned the expedition in a desperate bid to meet his makers and cheat death.
01:48A steelbook easter egg actually suggests that Weyland's mentor was none other than Blade Runner's Eldon Tyrell, although we don't think that's canon.
01:56Through the machinations of Weyland's replicant, er, android David, archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw is impregnated with black liquid, leading to the bloody emergence of the trilobite.
02:07A surviving Engineer smites Weyland, but the Prometheus crew rams the Engineer's ship to save humanity.
02:15Just run sideways!
02:18Implanted with a trilobite embryo, the Engineer births the Deacon.
02:22Meanwhile, Shaw and David escape on an Engineer juggernaut in search of answers.
02:31Looking for paradise.
02:33Their search brings them to Planet 4 in an adjacent sector of space, only for David to annihilate the population and conduct grisly and very fatal experiments on Shaw.
02:54Yeah, this is why we're polite to AI.
02:56David needs new hosts to create the perfect organism, and in 2104 AD, a lander of the colony ship Covenant arrives to investigate a rogue transmission from the now-abandoned Juggernaut.
03:08David's experiments have transformed the ecosystem, and spores lead to the gruesome birth of bloodbursters, the infant form of neomorphs.
03:16Breathe on the nostrils of a horse, and he'll be yours for life.
03:22But you have to get close.
03:25You have to earn its respect.
03:27David has also engineered ovomorphs that harbor Prado facehuggers, which carry the embryos of even deadlier Prado morphs.
03:35Chief Terraformist Daniels kills the Prado morphs, but David commandeers the Covenant and continues his experiments, transmitting his research back to Weyland-Yutani.
03:44But I've still one thing left to perfect.
03:47Perfect.
03:48Perfect.
03:49Perfect.
03:54My queen.
03:58Final Girl and Cat.
04:00Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!
04:04The slow-burn original film Alien, which taught us that in space, no one can hear us scream, is set almost two decades later in 2122.
04:13Investigating another transmission from an engineer juggernaut, the ill-fated star freighter Nostromo lands on LV-426, a different moon in the Zeta Reticuli system.
04:24Unbeknownst to the crew, Megacorp Weyland-Yutani has ordered Nostromo's android science officer Ash to secure any potential alien specimens.
04:31Aboard the derelict juggernaut, the crew encounters eggs and a facehugger, leading to the iconic chestburster scene back on the Nostromo.
04:39One by one, the xenomorph hunts down the crew.
04:51Come on, baby.
04:59Fortunately, among them is warrant officer Ellen Ripley, who escapes the doomed Nostromo aboard the shuttle Narcissus, ejects the alien into space, and settles down with the ship's cat Jonesy into hypersleep.
05:11Outbreaks Across the Frontier.
05:13This isn't the only xenomorph incident around that time.
05:20The 40th Anniversary Short Films tell similar tales of terror in remote colonies and space vessels across the far reach of the frontier.
05:27While the six shorts are fan-made, they were created in association with 20th Century Fox, suggesting they may be canon.
05:34Man, we think we'll just stick to Earth, thanks.
05:46Space exploration in this universe is just not worth it.
05:49Like Mother, Like Daughter.
05:51It's about your mother.
05:53We think we may have found her, Amanda.
06:00Meanwhile, Ellen has left a daughter, Amanda, behind on Earth.
06:04Hoping to find her mother, in 2137, Amanda joins a Weyland-Yutani expedition to the space station Sevastopol and the Zeta Reticuli System, where a salvage crew has brought the Nostromo's flight recorder.
06:16Unfortunately, the salvage crew first followed the flight recorder's data back to Alien's good old LV-426, where they picked up a nasty stowaway.
06:25The video game Alien Isolation sees Amanda follow in her mother's badass footsteps, surviving a xenomorph infestation and murderous androids.
06:38Amanda's adventures continue in the comics, teaming her up with Private Zula Hendrix as they seek to sabotage and expose Weyland-Yutani's bioweapons programs.
06:47Just stay out of space.
06:48Is this really where you want to spend the rest of your life?
06:51You know I don't.
06:52Five years after the events of Alien Isolation, aboard yet another troubled space station, a group of young colonists also stumbles across the aliens.
07:00These are the events depicted in Alien Romulus, taking place on the Weyland-Yutani Space Station Renaissance, which comprises the modules Romulus and Remus.
07:09Oh, but then Dory, come on!
07:11Run.
07:12In Roman mythology, Romulus slew his twin brother Remus in a dispute over where to found Rome.
07:18Not really auspicious names for a space station, if you ask us.
07:22Are you sure you want to do this?
07:26Ellen's Return
07:27It ain't over for poor Ellen.
07:29In the year 2159, 37 years after she entered cryosleep, Ash puts her through the ringer again.
07:36Before his demise, he had uploaded his mind into the Narcissus and now diverts the shuttle to the alien-infested mining vessel Marion.
07:45Ripley survives the ship and the mines on the planet below and Ash is erased.
07:50Oh, but Ripley has those memories wiped and re-enters cryosleep, which is awfully convenient because that's how she's found in 1986's Aliens.
07:59Revived again in 2179, Ripley reluctantly returns to LV-426, where terraforming colony Hadley's hope has gone radio silent.
08:08Hey, Ripley, don't worry. Me and my squad of ultimate badasses will protect you.
08:15In the extended cut, Ellen learns that her daughter Amanda died two years before, a scene that sets up her maternal feelings towards the last surviving colonist Newt.
08:24Get away from her, you b****.
08:26After a showdown between Ripley and an alien queen, the survivors hit the snooze button back aboard the warship Sulaco, and all live happily ever after.
08:38Just kidding.
08:42Out of the frying pan.
08:44Unfortunately, there is an alien egg on the Sulaco.
08:48How, you ask?
08:49Yeah, Alien 3 had a troubled production, so let's just skip over that one.
08:54How did it get there?
08:54The facehugger's acidic blood ignites a fire, and the cryo chambers crash on the prison planet Fiorina 161.
09:03Newt's rescue was for naught.
09:05Mr. Mystery Facehugger attaches to the dog Spike, and, well, this is one dog that does not survive the movie.
09:11What emerges is a runner xenomorph.
09:14Ripley realizes that she's also been implanted with an alien queen.
09:18And, after killing the runner, she sacrifices herself to keep the queen from Weyland-Yutani.
09:25What are you doing?
09:29No!
09:32Nonetheless, over coming years, Weyland-Yutani continues their nefarious bioweapons program.
09:37And, there are numerous alien outbreaks in remote space.
09:40There's actually a lot more that happens in the comics, RPG sourcebooks, and video games,
09:45but few have lasting impacts on the overall narrative.
09:48So, get ready for another big fast-forward.
09:52Back from the Dead.
09:53She'll breed.
09:55You'll die.
09:57Everyone in the company will die.
09:59Two whole centuries after Alien 3, in the year 2381,
10:03Ripley returns again, this time as a clone, and with the alien queen's DNA mixed in.
10:10United Systems military scientists on the research vessel Auriga have also cloned the queen and bred xenomorphs.
10:16Great idea, right?
10:18Your attention, please.
10:20Security breach.
10:22Med lab level 15.
10:23Obviously, the aliens break free and run, or swim, amok.
10:27A hybrid alien, the newborn commits matricide, and stalks Ripley onto the mercenary ship Betty,
10:34where Ripley experiences the death of yet another child.
10:37Sort of.
10:43The Auriga crashes into Earth, destroying the xenomorphs.
10:47Well, all's well that ends well, we guess?
10:50Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
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11:06A few loose ends.
11:08A couple of decades before events in Alien Resurrection,
11:11megacorporations had been banned, putting an apparent end to Weyland-Yutani schemes.
11:16Terran growth conglomerate.
11:18They had defense contracts under the military.
11:21But after the Aurigus crash, the company steps in to clean up the mess,
11:25winning public support, and is soon back in business.
11:29Over a century later, in 2497,
11:32Ellen and Amanda's descendant Alan Decker would find himself fighting xenomorphs on the planet LV-178
11:37in the same minds that Ellen once did.
11:40His ordeal ends with Weyland-Yutani in possession of xenomorph specimens.
11:44That's incredible.
11:46Bummer.
11:46Of course, we know what you've really wanted to know this whole time.
11:49And we're happy to tell you that after Ellen was revived in 2179,
11:53Jonesy remained on Earth, living out the rest of his life being the most handsome boy.
11:59And you, you little sh**head.
12:02You're staying here.
12:05Tell us, which is better, alien or aliens?
12:08Pick a side in the comments.
12:10That's it, man.
12:11Game over, man.
12:12Game over.
12:13Did you enjoy this video?
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