In this day and age, franchise films have overwhelmed the cultural landscape, but one still finds a way to reinvent itself. This IP continues to impress, even decades after it came screaming out of the darkness. Sci-fi horror was in its early days in the ‘70s, but Ridley Scott’s Alien redefined what it meant to be scared.
Starring Sigourney Weaver, the first Alien film was a jarring flip on the script. Instead of slasher films that often victimized women, the pendulum swung the other way. Weaver stars as Ripley, an officer on the spaceship Nostromo who is really the only person concerned when an alien lifeform is found. Instead of adhering to the quarantine protocols, Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt) brings an infected crew member on board, which allows the Xenomorph to be born — literally and painfully. Alien shows sexual violence pointed at men instead of women, and this first film fueled a sci-fi franchise that continues to impress audiences.
‘Alien’ Is Still Terrorizing Film and Television Audiences
The heart of the Alien films is the “perfect organism” that has been terrorizing viewers since 1979. This concept is what makes the series so addictive — and why the Weyland-Yutani corporation continues to try and capture the ultimate predator for profit. Alien has always been a source of fascination for viewers in the theaters, even with the less-than-popular franchise films. Following Sigourney Weaver’s tenure as Ellen Ripley, the series continued with some unfairly criticized sequels.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz
Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive?
The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do?
The first instinct is often the truest one.
APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it.
BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don’t keep you alive.
CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who’s pulling the strings.
DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it.
EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can’t fix a broken galaxy alone.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely?
What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don’t need resources — you can generate them.
BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it.
CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity.
DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on.
EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night?
Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant.
BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left.
CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you’re a problem, you’re already out of time.
DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn’t even know I was playing.
EThe Empire tightening its grip until there’s nowhere left to run.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust?
Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it.
BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better.
CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy.
DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can’t beat a system you refuse to understand.
EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term?
Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters.
BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest.
CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions.
DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand.
EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire’s attention rarely reaches.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart?
The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
AA tight crew of believers who’ve seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose.
BOne or two people I’d trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks.
CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice.
DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last.
EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all?
Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
AI won’t harm the innocent — even the ones who’d report me without hesitation.
BI do what I have to to protect the people I’ve chosen. Everything else is negotiable.
CThe line shifts depending on who’s asking and what’s at stake.
DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people’s future, even if it’d help now.
ESome lines, once crossed, can’t be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What would actually make survival worth it?
Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it.
BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving.
CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out.
DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations.
EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else’s boot.
REVEAL MY WORLD →
Your Fate Has Been Calculated
You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
Prometheus served as a divisive prequel to the franchise, co-written by Lost co-showrunner Damon Lindelof. Viewers took issue with the Engineers, but the origins of the Xenomorph were still a captivating story. Starring Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, and Idris Elba, Prometheus shows the challenges of looking for faith in all the wrong places.
For some, the film was a misfire, but like the Xenomorph, the franchise always returned. Recent additions, such as Alien: Romulus, capitalized on what made the franchise so enduring to begin with. A love letter to the series, Romulus, takes place between Alien and Aliens as a crew imprisoned by Weyland-Yutani gets trapped in another version of Ripley’s story. Horror director Fede Álvarez finds the sweet spot with the film, showing the heartbreaking reality of an android with the character Andy (David Jonsson) and a killer third act – in more ways than one.
It was with FX’s television series, Alien: Earth, that really showed how to do a franchise right. The series elevated the original concept of a victim stuck in a room with a killing machine and broadened the concept even further. Created by Fargo scribe Noah Hawley, the series is set a couple of years before the first Alien film.
At its core, Alien has always been a criticism of capitalism, which Hawley’s series explores. At a time when technology has reached its peak, corporations have been looking for a path to immortality. Humanity has created cyborgs, fully synthetic life, and hybrids. This sets up the main conflict when a research ship crashes into Earth, carrying a deadly secret.
Alien: Earth is just another way to explore the themes set up in Alien with even more specificity. This franchise continues to draw in viewers not just because of the scares, but also because of the social commentary that was always part of the IP’s DNA. Alien defined sci-fi horror and continues to show others in the genre how it’s done.