One of the greatest sci-fi film franchises of all time has a new streaming home in April. Most of the Alien films, including the 1979 original directed by Ridley Scott, will join the HBO Max streaming library on April 1. Not every Alien movie will be on HBO Max, but most of them will.
As mentioned, Alien is included in this streaming, as is the James Cameron-directed sequel, Aliens. Alien 3 and Aliens: Resurrection are also going to HBO Max. All four of those films will even have alternate versions available: Alien: Director’s Cut, Aliens: Director’s Cut, Alien 3: The Assembly Cut, and Alien Resurrection: Special Edition.
The non-canon crossover movies are also going to HBO Max: Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. Alternative versions of these two films will also be available, with Alien vs. Predator: Extended Cut and Aliens vs Predator: Requiem: Extended Cut also coming to the streaming service.
Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are not included in HBO Max’s April library update. However, Alien: Romulus will join the streaming service on April 3.
How To Watch the Alien Movies on HBO Max in Order
That’s a lot of Alien to watch on HBO Max in April. Luckily, watching the Alien series in order is pretty straightforward, especially since the movies coming to HBO Max are focused on one main character: Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver.
Alien, a beloved sci-fi classic, is the first film in the franchise. The story sees Ripley aboard the commercial space tug Nostromo, which responds to a distress call and discovers a chamber full of strange eggs. One hatches, and the creature inside attacks one of the crew, putting the entire crew in deadly peril.
Aliens, James Cameron’s seminal 1986 sequel, picks up with Ripley waking from stasis 57 years after Alien​​​​. When Ripley discovers that the company has built a colony on the planet where the original Xenomorph was discovered, and that all contact with the colony has been, she joins a group of space marines to investigate what has gone wrong, and finds terrifying results.
Alien 3 occurs immediately after Aliens. Directed by David Fincher and released in 1992, the film reveals that only Ripley and an alien survived the events of Aliens, and both crashland on a prison colony. Now Ripley must navigate both the violent prisoners and the alien threat.
Alien: Resurrection picks the story up 200 years later. The film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and released in 1997, introduces a clone of the long-dead Ellen Ripley. However, there’s something different about this clone’s very nature.
What About the Alien vs. Predator Movies?
The Alien vs. Predator movies, inspired by the Alien vs. Predator comic book series, are set in a different timeline than either the core Alien or the core Predator timelines. That makes them easy to navigate, especially since there are only two of them.
The first film, AVP: Alien vs. Predator, was directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and released in theaters in 2004. Originally intended as a sequel to the first two Predator movies and a prequel to the Alien franchise, the story is set between both sets of films. The story involves a group of scientists stumbling upon a Xenomorph breeding ground in the Arctic set up by Predators.
The sequel and final film in the series (for now, at least), AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem, followed in 2007. Directed by Greg and Colin Strause, the film sees a Predator scout ship crashing in Colorado, releasing Xenomorphs and hybrid Predators on an unsuspecting population.
These Alien movies arrive on HBO Max on April 1.
Created by
Dan O’Bannon, Ronald Shusett
First Film
Alien
First TV Show
Alien
Latest TV Show
Alien: Isolation – The Series