Top 20 Alien Franchise Movie Moments
When we think of the "Alien" franchise, these are the scenes that burst out of our minds. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most memorable scenes from the “Alien” franchise.
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00:00Can I dream?
00:03Yes, honey. I think we both can.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most memorable scenes from the Alien franchise.
00:12There will be major spoilers ahead.
00:16There is an explanation for this, you know.
00:24Ash, can you see this?
00:26Yes, I can.
00:30I've never seen anything like it.
00:32The first Alien is highly regarded for its art direction and visual effects,
00:36the mastery of which is on display in the space jockey sequence.
00:40Our heroes stumble across this monster while exploring the derelict ship on LV-426,
00:45and the visual is unforgettable.
00:48Showing some type of inhuman creature sitting at a massive gun,
00:51it raises all sorts of questions and elicits a foreboding mood.
00:55We don't know what the heck this is, and we're not sure if we want to find out.
00:59The scene was nearly cut for budgetary reasons,
01:02but director Ridley Scott insisted that it remain.
01:05We're so glad that he did.
01:07Talk about a mood setter.
01:09Alien life form.
01:13Looks like it's been dead a long time.
01:19Oh, beautiful, beautiful little baby.
01:25Look, it thinks you're its mother.
01:29Just one look at this thing is enough to get the gag reflex going.
01:32Alien Resurrection tried a bunch of different things for the franchise,
01:35some of which landed with surprising grace.
01:38One of the greatest ideas was the newborn,
01:41a revolting human-xeno hybrid that is probably one of the grossest things we've ever seen.
01:46With its white slimy skin, humanoid skull and various facial features,
01:51the newborn is a complete abomination.
01:54And that's not even counting its ludicrously graphic death,
01:57which is both a visual and auditory nightmare.
02:00Really, everything about this creature is enough to turn the stomach.
02:18Even if someone hasn't seen Alien 3, they almost certainly know this iconic scene.
02:23It's one of the franchise's defining visuals.
02:25The alien slowly approaching Ripley as she cowers in fear,
02:28a predator savoring the capture of its prey.
02:31It's a fantastic visual effect, the prop alien dripping with slime,
02:35opening its mouth and extending that oh-so-famous inner jaw.
02:39The tension is almost unbearable, and the building music adds to the dour mood.
02:44Lucky for Ripley, the alien senses the baby inside of her and lets her live.
02:49Two titans of the movie industry quite literally face off,
02:53and the results are undeniably brilliant.
03:16Purvis and Wren certainly don't have big roles,
03:18but they have staked their place in Alien history thanks to a mesmerizing co-death sequence.
03:24Wren holds the group at gunpoint, hoping to abort the crash of the Auriga.
03:28And that's when Purvis plays the hero, albeit in a rather unconventional manner.
03:33Knowing that the alien inside of him is about to burst,
03:36he grabs Wren and forces his head down to his chest.
03:39We then get a wonderfully creative shot where the camera goes down Purvis' mouth
03:43to the baby alien sitting inside.
03:46It then makes its escape, rupturing both Purvis' chest and Wren's head.
03:51It is delightfully surreal, a sequence that doesn't take itself too seriously,
03:56while still managing to be utterly horrific.
04:09By this point in the series, we had seen both a chest-burster and a head-burster,
04:13and now the aliens decide to take the backdoor.
04:16It comes at the expense of Ledward, who is infected by some mysterious spores.
04:21His condition immediately takes a turn for the worse, and he's rushed back to the ship's medbay.
04:26And that's when hell comes to the shuttle.
04:28Ledward goes ghostly white and starts violently convulsing,
04:32and poor Corinne is powerless to stop it.
04:34The alien then makes its exit, emerging from Ledward's back with some grotesque imagery and sound design.
04:40It's easily one of the most graphic death scenes in a franchise full of them.
04:57The black goo is one of the defining elements of the alien saga,
05:01and we see its devastating effects via Sean Fifield.
05:04The geologist is burned by a hammer peat and falls into the goo,
05:08which seemingly grabs itself onto his face.
05:11The visual is repulsive and horrific, but wait, it gets way worse.
05:15He later reappears outside the Prometheus, having turned into an anathema by the goo.
05:20With a disfigured face and superhuman strength, he slaughters several crew members with his bare hands.
05:26He's clearly more monster than man, and he's only taken down after being shot, run over, and torched.
05:33It's a masterfully directed sequence, depicting utter chaos in the face of the unknown.
05:53Director Fede Alvarez clearly has respect for the source material,
05:57and Romulus is full of throwbacks and references to the movies of old.
06:01But it also contains some things we've never seen before, like Bjorn's face-melting acid bath.
06:06The young man finds a cocoon and strikes it with a stun baton, causing it to explode.
06:11And that's when the term hot shower takes on a whole new meaning.
06:15The alien's acid blood rains down onto Bjorn, melting numerous limbs before finally turning his heart to goo.
06:22It's one of the most gruesome deaths in the franchise, not just owing to the visuals,
06:27but also the fact that Bjorn was alive through the harrowing ordeal.
06:49David helps to create the perfect organism, and he uses an engineer planet as his guinea pig.
06:54David arrives on Planet 4 aboard an engineer ship, amazing the citizens below.
06:59They gawk at the ship and even wave at it, apparently welcoming its arrival.
07:04But that's when David unleashes the black goo on the citizenry below,
07:08effectively wiping out the entire settlement and creating the Neomorphs.
07:12The scene is atypical from the usual alien formula, foregoing claustrophobia in favor of a large-scale extermination.
07:19The visuals are breathtaking and the sound design terrifically conveys a sense of total pandemonium.
07:25Those collective screams still haunt our nightmares.
07:49While the aliens are already pretty terrifying when walking, they're somehow even scarier underwater, as this intense scene proves.
07:57During their escape, Ripley and crew discover the mess hall, their only route out,
08:02has been completely submerged in water and begin their swim across.
08:06Unfortunately, aliens follow in what is perhaps the movie's most famous and easily creepiest scene.
08:12The idea of swimming aliens is freaky enough,
08:16but being in the position of having to hold your breath while being chased by incoming monsters is a harrowing situation to imagine.
08:38In this shocking ending to the original trilogy, Ripley goes out in a blaze of glory,
08:43overly obvious Christ symbolism and all.
08:46When Ripley discovers that she has an alien growing inside of her and that the company wants to study it,
08:51she sacrifices herself and falls into molten metal.
08:55The music during this scene is swelling and complements the drama perfectly.
08:59The dark cinematography is also outstanding,
09:02and the content look on Ripley's face proves a fitting noble end to the legendary heroine,
09:07at least until the next movie.
09:14Starting off.
09:29The scene that introduced the world to the grown alien creature,
09:33Brett's death is a true milestone in cinema history.
09:36After calling out for Jonesy the cat,
09:38Brett finds him hiding in a corner, but also discovers more than he bargained for.
09:42The swiftness and quiet deliberation of the alien is terrifying as it drops down behind Brett,
09:48and the snarling mouth is an unforgettable introduction to the monster that everyone fears.
09:53The sound effects, cinematography, and lack of detail regarding the alien
09:57all combine to create a scary scene that plays with everyone's imaginations.
10:13Number 9.
10:14Oh, there they are.
10:15Aliens.
10:20No other moment in this movie blends horror and action so perfectly,
10:24except maybe the scene where the aliens are gunned down by the auto-turrets.
10:28After seeing motion on the tracker, Ripley and her group await the onslaught of aliens,
10:33until Hicks opens the ceiling and discovers a swarm about to attack.
10:38The wait for the creatures is unbearably tense,
10:41and the scare of seeing the mass of aliens will make anyone shiver.
10:45The gunfight that follows is loud, explosive, and a lot of fun to watch.
10:54Number 8.
10:55Dallas in the air shaft.
10:56Alien.
10:57Dallas, are you sure there's no sign of it? I mean, it is there.
11:02It's gotta be around there.
11:05Playing on many different types of fears all at once,
11:08this scene is a classic due to its sheer intensity.
11:11After Dallas volunteers to go into the air shaft,
11:14Lambert watches him on a motion tracker,
11:16only to realize that the alien is coming right for him.
11:20The air shaft itself is a tight space and pitch black,
11:23which plays on viewers' claustrophobia and fear of the dark.
11:26The dread of knowing the alien is stalking Dallas
11:29is increased by Veronica Cartwright's amazingly desperate performance.
11:33And of course, it's capped off by one terrific jump scare that gets us every time.
11:44Number 7.
11:45First encounter with the aliens.
11:47Aliens.
11:48Hot as hell in here.
11:50Yeah, man, but it's a dry heat.
11:52Knock it off, Hudson.
11:54This scene let the audience know that this movie wasn't pulling any punches,
11:58and that it would place an emphasis on action as well as horror.
12:01When the Marines discover the alien hive,
12:03viewers are treated to a terrifically terrifying scene
12:06when aliens suddenly drop from above and pick off the crew.
12:09James Cameron made a great decision to not show the actual combat,
12:13but instead, let our imaginations take over,
12:16allowing us to fill in the blanks amid the constant yelling and the chaotic camera.
12:20And really, what's scarier than that?
12:22Movement!
12:23What's the position?
12:26Uh, can't lock in.
12:28Number 6.
12:29The C-section.
12:30Prometheus.
12:31My, my.
12:36You're pregnant.
12:37Ridley Scott transformed the chestburster,
12:39and in the process, gave us a masterpiece of body horror filmmaking.
12:43Shaw sleeps with Holloway,
12:45who had previously been infected by the black goo.
12:48The intimate night results in a baby,
12:50just not of the human variety.
12:52Realizing that she is pregnant with something,
12:55Shaw undergoes what could be the most ghastly C-section in movie history.
13:00The sequence is a masterclass in tension building,
13:03with the claustrophobic setting aided by eye-popping visuals
13:06and terrific acting from Noomi Rapace.
13:08She perfectly sells the panic of the situation,
13:11and the macabre effects do the rest.
13:13Surgery.
13:14Abdominal.
13:16Penetrating injuries.
13:20Poor buddy.
13:22Initiate.
13:23Number 5.
13:24K births the offspring.
13:26Alien Romulus.
13:28Whatever comes, we'll face it together.
13:30When you get down to it,
13:31the Alien franchise is really just about the primal terror of childbirth.
13:36The injured K injects herself with the Z-01 compound,
13:39which may have seemed like a good idea,
13:41but which comes back to kill her.
13:43Literally.
13:44In a series full of gnarly birth sequences,
13:46K's proves one of the grossest.
13:49It contains an ungodly amount of blood and fluid,
13:52and she gives birth to an egg from which hatches the humanoid offspring.
13:56The horror is almost Lynchian,
13:58depicting a very human experience with surreal and nightmarish flourishes.
14:03And that's to say nothing of the offspring itself,
14:06which recalls the newborn from Alien Resurrection,
14:09but is an even scarier amalgamation of human, xenomorph and engineer.
14:14You are a beautiful, beautiful butterfly.
14:23Number 4.
14:24Discovering the Alien Queen.
14:26Aliens.
14:27Ripley.
14:28I don't want to hear about it, Bishop.
14:30She's alive. There's still time.
14:32This scene is one of James Cameron's finest,
14:34remaining exciting and visceral to this day.
14:37When Ripley decides to rescue Newt,
14:39she rides the elevator down to the Alien Queen's lair.
14:42The audience is treated to a masterclass in suspense
14:45as she looks around in fear,
14:47alarms beeping and blaring around her.
14:49The Queen itself still looks fantastic all these years later
14:52due to the power of practical effects,
14:55and Ripley burning the eggs is an unforgettable moment in the Alien canon.
14:59It's got horror, it's got action,
15:01and it's got fantastic visual work all in one.
15:13No!
15:15Number 3.
15:16Ash is an Android.
15:18Alien.
15:19Ash, open the door.
15:22While Ian Holm portrayed the robotic Ash perfectly
15:25with his deadpan expressions and humorless personality,
15:28it's still a surprise when Parker knocks his head off
15:30and we discover that he is an Android.
15:32While his spastic freak-out is certainly an indication
15:35that something wasn't right,
15:36the reveal is an iconic moment that no one saw coming.
15:40The scene afterwards with his talking head
15:42is fantastically created with milk and pasta
15:45and still looks disgusting today,
15:47highlighting the true mastery of the effects team.
15:58Number 2.
15:59Get away from her, you bitch!
16:00Aliens.
16:03Get away from her, you bitch!
16:05One of the most quoted lines from any of the Alien movies,
16:08this scene ended the second film with a terrific action sequence
16:12and showed Ripley's bravery and motherly instincts in full focus.
16:16After the alien rips Bishop in half and is about to kill Newt,
16:19Ripley walks out in a full mech suit and utters the famous line.
16:23Everything including the context,
16:25the cinematography,
16:26the acting,
16:27and the slow reveal comes together perfectly
16:30to form one of the most memorable scenes in action movie history.
16:34You did okay.
16:36I did?
16:37Oh yeah.
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16:54Number 1.
16:55The chestburster.
16:56Alien.
16:57Dulles, I think you should come and see Kane.
16:59Has his condition changed?
17:00It's simpler if you just come and see him.
17:02We're on our way.
17:03What else could we pick besides this terrifying scene
17:06that continues to scare audiences decades later?
17:09After Kane's facehugger is removed,
17:11we think all is well.
17:12That is,
17:13until he starts choking and an alien bursts out of his stomach.
17:17The sound effect of the alien is chilling,
17:19while the acting and visual effects are outstanding.
17:22Veronica Cartwright is even legitimately scared on screen
17:26when the fake blood shoots into her face,
17:28as she had not been warned ahead of time.
17:30It's not only the most memorable scene of the franchise,
17:33but one of the most iconic moments in all of cinema.
17:39Did we forget any other memorable scenes?
17:41Let us know in the comments below.
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