The Alien saga has 7 released films, 14 hrs 34 in total, spread from 1979 to 2024.
That comes to 8 evenings of two hours — the median film runs 122 minutes, so an evening swallows one, rarely two.
In release order
- 1979 — Alien — 1 hr 58
- 1986 — Aliens — 2 hrs 17
- 1992 — Alien³ — 2 hrs 25
- 1997 — Alien Resurrection — 1 hr 49
- 2012 — Prometheus — 2 hrs 04
- 2017 — Alien: Covenant — 2 hrs 02
- 2024 — Alien: Romulus — 1 hr 59
In chronological order
- 2012 — Prometheus — 2 hrs 04
- 2017 — Alien: Covenant — 2 hrs 02
- 1979 — Alien — 1 hr 58
- 2024 — Alien: Romulus — 1 hr 59
- 1986 — Aliens — 2 hrs 17
- 1992 — Alien³ — 2 hrs 25
- 1997 — Alien Resurrection — 1 hr 49
Which order should you pick?
Release order. The two prequels explain where the creature comes from; watching them first means arriving at the 1979 film already knowing what it takes a full hour to reveal. The first Alien is built as a discovery — the ship, the egg, the thing — and that discovery does not replay. Save chronology for a rewatch: it turns a monster into the end point of a project, which is an entirely different film.
Is Alien worth the marathon?
A handful of evenings only, for a saga running forty-five years. That is little for a saga of that age, and the reason is rare: it changed genre along the way. The first film is a haunted-house piece, the second a war film, the prequels creation myths. Each director pulled the saga toward their own cinema, which makes the whole thing uneven and far more interesting than a run of repeats.
Who it is for
Meant for anyone who wants to see two films that became genre references, and accepts the other four swing widely. For anyone who prefers seven evenings to a long commitment. If you want a saga coherent from start to finish, this one is not, and does not try to be — that is how it stayed alive for forty years.
FAQ
What order should I watch Alien in? Release order: the prequels reveal what the 1979 film takes an hour to show.
How many hours in total? The exact count is at the top of the article: it moves with each new film, and Romulus just did.
Is Prometheus part of the saga? Yes, even though TMDB files it separately: it is counted here.
Last updated: September 23, 2026 — TMDB data verified.