With Noah Hawley’s brand new series Alien: Earth debuting on FX and Hulu this evening, it’s time to take a look at the famously vast and varied franchise to see what you need to see before you tune into the new series. Here are our recommendations.
Alien (1979)
Obviously. Any excuse to rewatch Ridley Scott’s seminal science-fiction/horror classic is a great one, as the film has stood the test of time and remains a monolith of modern pop culture. However, considering the material that Alien: Earth most prevalently deals with, a viewer’s enjoyment of it will be increased that much more if Alien is fresh in their mind.
In terms of narrative, the series is set two years prior to the first film and has several connections to it, and in terms of the filmmaking itself, Hawley and his team utilize the foundation of Scott’s visual work to scale new heights. To this end, everything about Alien: Earth will be that much more compelling and satisfying if you’ve recently watched Alien as prep.
Streaming on Hulu and Disney+, available for rent on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.
Aliens (1986)
James Cameron’s sequel to Scott’s original took the central character of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, made her a pathos-laden bona fide action star, and escalated the stakes to insane new levels. All of this resulted in Aliens being one of the most riotously satisfying blockbusters in cinema history, but it also fundamentally altered the perception of the franchise.
When Alien 3 strove to bring things back to basics and eschew this more action-oriented approach, it was met with resistance on all fronts. Alien: Earth manages to strike a wonderful balance between the slow-burn dread of the first film and the more high-octane thrills of the sequel, something which is made all the more apparent if a viewing of Aliens has been freshly completed.
Streaming on Hulu and Disney+, available for rent on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.
Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017)
Decades after leaving the science-fiction genre behind following Alien and Blade Runner, Scott returned to make Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Both of these films see Scott coming full circle and delivering thoughtful, existential films rooted in further exploring the mechanics of synthetic humans and creationism within the Alien universe.
To this end, they are both more than worth a watch prior to booting up Alien: Earth. Within the timeline of the franchise, each of these films takes place several years prior to the new series, which also leaves Covenant’s cliffhanger more than up for grabs for the series to intersect with at some point.
Both movies are streaming on Hulu and Disney+, available for rent on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. Alien: Covenant is also streaming on HBO Max.
Bonus: Blade Runner (1982)
Scott’s other iconic sci-fi film from this era was none other than the Harrison Ford-starring Blade Runner, which saw the filmmaker exploring the inner workings and minutia of this dystopian future landscape through the lens of classic noir films.
While Blade Runner doesn’t technically take place within the Alien canon, it might as well. The film sees Scott contemplating the role of big businesses within people’s lives, the commodification of labor, and the humanity of synthetic systems.
All of these themes are present in the Alien franchise, but brought even further into the foreground via Hawley’s writing on Alien: Earth. As such, reacquainting yourself with Scott’s work from the film helps to contextualize some of the show’s new characters in interesting ways.
The first two episodes of Alien: Earth premiere on Hulu at 8:00 p.m. ET tonight, with the first episode airing at 8:00 p.m. ET on FX and the second at 9:00 p.m. ET on FX.
Available to rent on YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.
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