7 Best Action Scenes in the Alien Franchise

The Alien franchise merges the DNA of science fiction, horror, and action into a literally acidic combo, often excelling at all three, including its action sequences. The genre-hybridity of the Alien Universe took some time to coalesce fully, with the first installment of the franchise, Ridley Scott’s 1979 movie Alien, principally operating as a horror movie in space. The movie’s 1986 sequel, James Cameron’s Aliens, is well-known for placing a much heavier emphasis on action, and from that point forward, the Alien movies have consistently been as action-packed as they are scary.

Of course, the Alien franchise also has an advantage in this regard with the terrifying menace of the xenomorphs as one of the great movie monsters. With an array of human characters, including Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley and other human protagonists, the Alien movies never fail to deliver gripping, intense, and often quite scary action scenes.

Here are the 7 best action scenes in the Alien franchise.

Rain & Andy Dodging Fighting in Zero Gravity – Alien: Romulus

The extremely corrosive acid blood of the xenomorphs has been used as a great tool of tension and suspense throughout the Alien franchise. Alien: Romulus ups that ante in a big way by removing gravity from the equation.

When the artificial gravity is temporarily deactivated, Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and android Andy (David Jonsson) find themselves hovering on one side of a floating river of xenomorph blood, forcing them to undergo the most harrowing aerial swim imaginable to get to the other side without being burned. Alien: Romulus has earned well-deserved praise as a reinvigoration of the Alien franchise, and undoubtedly, the movie’s very creative use of xenomorph blood in one of its most memorable set pieces is a major highlight. BONUS: The sequence leads into an even longer and more impressive set piece, where the ante gets upped once again with the addition of an elevator.

Shaw Destroying the Engineer’s Ship – Prometheus

Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien franchise with 2012’s Prometheus brought with it the epic scale and stunning visual impact that Scott is renowned for. Scott really delivers on both in the finale of Prometheus, in which Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) must stop a ship piloted by the mysterious Engineer from departing for Earth to wipe out mankind. It’s one of the highest-stakes scenarios the Alien franchise has ever delivered, made all the more gripping by delivering one of the most harrowing spacecraft crashes in cinema history, with the circular ship crashing back to the planet below and rolling like a coin as Shaw and Vickers (Charlize Theron) flee. In its destruction of the Engineer’s ship, the finale of Prometheus literally stuck the landing.

The Corbelean Dodging the Rings of LV-410 – Alien: Romulus

Another great crash sequence set piece in the Alien franchise, Alien: Romulus wraps up with the movie’s protagonists facing “The Offspring,” a monstrous creature merged from human and xenomoprh DNA, but that’s just the beginning of their problems. Not only must they jettison the creature from their ship, the Corbelean, but also must prevent the drifting ship itself from crashing into the rings of the planet LV-410 as the ship gradually descends towards it. The effects, both CGI and practical, in the Alien: Romulus finale are superb, as is the tension of the sequence itself and the sense of two-sided urgency it carries in both immediate threats to the human survivors. The finale of Alien: Romulus takes the movie out on an all-time great Alien action scene in which, just like the aforementioned acid blood scene, the lack of gravity is the name of the game.

RELATED: Every Alien Franchise Movie Ranked by Scariness (Including Romulus)

The Tunnel Chase on the Prison Planet – Alien 3

It’s safe to say that Alien 3 isn’t exactly regarded as the crown jewel of the Alien franchise (even then-first-time director David Fincher has famously distanced himself from it after its troubled production), but it nonetheless has a strong final act when Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and the inmates of the prison planet Fiorina 161 orchestra a plan to slay the movie’s dog-like xenomorph in a mold of molten lead. To accomplish that, however, the inmates must lure the xenomorph through a winding series of tunnels to trap it, with the xenomorph climbing on the walls and the ceiling in pursuit. The fact that everyone in Alien 3’s finale, save for Ripley, is guilty of murder and other unspeakable crimes removes a lot of the sympathy from seeing them picked off one by one, but in visceral terms, Alien 3‘s corridor chase finale is still a fantastic Alien action sequence.

The Xenomorph Attacks The Ship – Alien: Covenant

The xenomorph itself was on the bench in 2012’s Prometheus, and while it was saved strictly for the finale in 2017’s Alien: Covenant, the Xenomorph makes a very memorable impression in the movie’s finale. As Daniels (Katherine Waterson) and the surviving protagonists flee back to the Covenant’s drop ship, a newly hatched Xenomorph gives chase with blinding speed as it assaults the departing spacecraft. The Xenomorph’s attack, which effectively amounts to a cameo in the context of the movie itself, was featured prominently in Alien: Covenant‘s marketing, but thankfully not to the point of being spoiler-heavy, allowing the finale to deliver with Alien: Covenant‘s third-act twist.

The Xenomorphs Ambush Colonial Marines – Aliens

“How can they cut the power, man? They’re animals!” Bill Paxton’s Hudson asks incredulously as Ripley, Newt (Carrie Henn), and the space Marines prepare for an impending xenomorph assault in a suddenly darkened room on LV-426’s human colony. Rarely had action ever been scarier before than in the countdown to the destruction of 1986’s Aliens.

The xenomorph’s vicious slaying of nearly every human character here sells their threat better than anything in the whole Alien franchise, spilling into an intense chase in a vent shaft, featuring one particularly unforgettable shot of the xenomorphs pursuing their human prey. Even as they are outnumbered and overwhelmed, many of the human protagonists go out swinging, including in Hudson’s last stand and the observation by Vasquez (Jeanette Goldstein) that “You always were an a–hole, Gorman” before their shared death by hand grenade.

Ripley vs. The Xenomorph Queen – Aliens

Just when it seems the xenomorphs have been wiped out in the nuclear explosion on LV-426’s human colony, the Xenomorph Queen steps out for round two after stowing aboard Ripley’s escape ship. Of course, Ripley has a battle plan of her own, donning a power-lifter mech suit and challenging the Queen to a final showdown with her immortal line “Get away from her you b—h!”

With Aliens, James Cameron was all about upping the ante on everything from Alien, including with the far more fearsome Xenomorph Queen, and the finale lands as both an enthralling human vs. xenomorph smackdown on the surface and Ripley finally exorcising her trauma from her first xenomorph encounter as the warrior she’s become. Even the ill-advised placement of a lever to open the ship’s hatch right inside of said hatch is easily overlooked with how strong Aliens‘ final action scene is, and how endlessly gripping “Bishop’s Countdown” (implemented to outstanding effect in many subsequent movie trailers) is on James Horner’s soundtrack. Taking the whole package together, Ripley’s final showdown with the Xenomorph Queen continues to stand as the best action scene of the Alien franchise.

All Alien movies are available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu, and Alien: Earth will debut on Hulu in late 2025.