Alien/Blade Runner/Predator Cinematic Universe Review
A (Hopefully) Complete Timeline of the Aliens / Blade Runner / Predator Shared Cinematic Universe
Most sci-fi film fans know the Alien sci-fi horror franchise is directly connected to the Predator sci-fi action movie franchise, I mean, hell, there are two films with Alien vs. Predator right there in the title. But some may not realize the sci-fi thriller Blade Runner franchise also appears to be part of the shared universe. Even if you are among the enlightened, you may not know the complete chronological viewing order of said shared universe, or all the pieces that are part of the complete canon, or in some cases in this list, non-canon.
Fear not, I’ve gathered together what I believe may be the most comprehensive viewing order to date. Each other list I found online either has errors, typos concerning the year the films are set, others completely omitting some of the short films or series’ that have been officially produced, among other omissions. And all but one I found left off the digital animated series Blade Runner: Black Lotus as well as the short film The Predator Holiday Special. Yes, there is a Predator Holiday Special.
Hell, I went through numerous iterations of this list before settling upon the one I believe closest represents the in-universe chronology of the films and shorts.
While the film that kicked it all off, Alien, came to us in 1979, the claustrophobic sci-fi horror is among the latter films to be viewed in chronological order. The starting point honor goes to:
Predator: Killer of Killers – Episode One, The Shield. The first episode of the animated series from Dan Trachtenberg, the director of Prey, takes place in Scandinavia in 841 AD and features Vikings versus a Predator.
Predator: Killer of Killers – Episode Two, The Sword. Set in 1609 Japan at the start of the episode, before jumping ahead 20 years, samurai warriors square off with a Yautja (the name the predators have chosen in their native tongue) in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Prey – set in 1719, following the tale of a female Comanche warrior, Naru, and her bloody encounter with a Predator, or a Yautja. Pays off an Easter Egg from Predator 2 when the French trapper Raphael Adolini (Bennett Taylor) gives Naru (Amber Midthunder) an arquebus with his name and the year 1715 engraved on the gun plate.
Prey 2 – an upcoming release from Dan Trachtenberg that should link Prey with Predator: Killer of Killers.
Predator: Killer of Killers – Episode Three, The Bullet. This chapter is initially set in 1941 Florida, which is when a young Hispanic American is drafted to fight in World War II. The story of Torres then leaps forward to the North Atlantic in 1942 and we are treated to the first man vs. Predator aerial dogfight.
Predator: Killer of Killers – Episode Four, The Battle. In this installment, the three previous characters who defeated a Yautja are taken to, possibly, the Yautja home world where they will battle in an arena. It is unclear if the Predators have the ability to time travel or simply cryogenically freeze humans until they are selected for battle. In this arena the humans must first face one another in a fight to the death; and the survivor is to face the Yautja chieftain. The Easter Egg at the end links to Prey. Another Easter Egg in this installment is presented in the form of the weapon selected for Torres, which I found odd, as the Viking received a weapon of her “tribe,” the samurai one from his “tribe,” yet the American soldier receives a French gun from his past, not of his “tribe.”
Predator – the flick that introduced us to the Predator hunter/warrior species stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dutch and is set in the jungles of Guatemala in 1987. A crack special ops team is harassed by a Yautja after completing a mission. Also stars Carl Weathers as Dillon, Jesse Ventura as Blain, and is the first role in the franchise with Kevin Peter Hall portraying the Predator, a role he reprised a number of times in the history of the franchise.
Alien vs. Predator – AVP, as this film is often called, stars Sanaa Lathan as Alexa Woods and also features Charles Bishop Weyland, as portrayed by Lance Henrikson, who starred as the synthetic Bishop in Aliens. Set in 1990, the final scene sets up the sequel, when a Xenomorph/Yautja hybrid bursts from the chest of the Yautja warrior killed near the end of AVP. Weyland’s company will play a significant role in many subsequent releases.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem – also set in 1990, the AVP sequel features lesser-known actors in small town America battling Xenomorphs and Yautjas after a Predator ship crashes in the forest nearby with the hybrid on board. Not one of the better entries in the franchise. Particularly dark. I don’t mean the tone; I mean the actual footage has been shot in low light and just doesn’t translate to the screen.
Predator 2 – this movie takes place in a drug war zone of Los Angeles in 1997, ten years after the original film, and stars Danny Glover as the film’s protagonist, Detective Harrigan. There are several Easter Eggs in this release that tie things together. In the decisive battle scene between Harrigan and the lone Predator aboard the alien hunter’s ship, there is on display a polished skull of an Alien, or Xenomorph, alongside the skull of the film’s drug lord voodoo priest King Willie. Additionally in that scene, after Harrigan has battled the Yautja called City Hunter, more Predator’s reveal themselves and the leader presents an arquebus with the name Raphael Adolini and the year 1715 on its plate to Harrigan. That same weapon, chronologically, was first presented to Naru in Prey by a French trapper in 1719. Finally, Ana (Elpidia Carrillo) from Predator is shown on a video screen when Special Agent Peter Keyes (Gary Busey) reveals to Harrigan the nature of his opponent. The film is also noted for the appearance of actor Bill Paxton as Detective Jerry Lambert; he also stars in the Alien franchise as Pvt. Hudson in Aliens. Distant relative perhaps?
The Chosen – this five-minute short introduces the nine killers who have been selected to be hunted on the Yautja game preserve planet. It’s the first appearance of Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo, and Adrien Brody, among others in the shared universe. The short film served as a promotion previewing the release of Predators.
Moments of Extraction – this nine-minute animated short provides backgrounds and context for some of the nine killers abducted to serve as prey in Predators. Nolan (Laurence Fishburne), Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien), Cuchillo, (Danny Trejo), Isabelle (Alice Braga), and Mombasa (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali) are each featured.
Crucified – a two-minute animated short that details the Yautjas’ preparations on the game preserve planet as the hunt draws near.
Predators – the next entry stars Adrien Brody (mercenary Royce), Laurence Fishburne (US Air Cav soldier Nolan), Alice Braga (IDF sniper Isabelle), Danny Trejo (Los Zetas enforcer Cuchillo), Topher Grace (a physician named Edwin), Walter Goggins (San Quentin death row inmate Stans), Oleg Taktarov (Spetsnaz Alpha Group soldier Nikolai), Mahershalalhashbaz Ali (Revolutionary United Front, Sierra Leone officer Mombasa), Louis Ozawa Changchien (Yakuza member Hanzo), and some poor schmuck who’s chute didn’t open, as the killers selected to serve as game for the three Yautja (named Tracker, Falconer and Berserker) on a planet reserved for the hunt. They awake in free fall on an alien world under a different sun. They must work together or die alone. Set around 2010.
The Predator – set on Halloween Night, 2018, this sometimes-overlooked film, in my opinion, is one of the best in the Predator franchise, if nothing else for Easter Eggs, like the tin foil unicorn Nettles (Augusto Aguilera) makes for Casey (Olivia Munn) that likens back to the origami unicorn Gaff (Edward James Olmos) made for Deckard in Blade Runner, or Casey’s reference to the original title of Predator, which was The Hunter. She argues the Yautja are hunting for sport, not actually preying on anyone. Additionally, actor Jake Busey plays Keyes, a scientist that seems to be the child of Special Agent Peter Keyes from Predator 2, portrayed by Jake Busey’s father Gary. This “soldier story” really hit home with me. In this film of man vs. Predator the soldiers are fighting for something more than simple survival, they’re fighting for the life of a young autistic child the Yautja wish to abduct. The group of soldiers are escapees from the army’s psychiatric ward. They were en route to their new facility on a prison bus when a predator escaped, providing them with an opportunity to do the same. The team, led by Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook), an Army Ranger sniper, are fighting multiple battles, one against the Predator, one against the Hybrid Predator, and one against the government itself.
The Predator Holiday Special – this short film is created in the style of the 1964 Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer holiday classic, done with stop-motion animation. A departure from the remainder of the franchise, this humorous hot take on the Yautja facing off with Santa Claus and his reindeer at the North Pole is certainly intended as comedy and looks like it came right out of the Adult Swim series Robot Chicken. It’s difficult to determine precisely where this short falls in the canon chronologically, but it was released following the film The Predator, and features a mini-gun and an M16, so definitely there are modern weapons. The Predator is set in 2018, so this seems a logical fit for The Predator Holiday Special. The short film ends with other Yautja de-cloaking to present a victorious Santa with a trophy, the Easter Bunny’s basket of eggs. The final scene shows an egg from the basket hatching in the manner of a Xenomorph egg containing a face hugger.
Blade Runner – Here’s my biggest gripe about the shared universe. The Predator takes place in large part on Halloween night 2018. Blade Runner is set November 1, 2019, a year and a day later… and there are fucking flying cars! Flying Cars and a hella polluted L.A. I’m not saying those things cannot come to fruition in that short a span of time, but it seems a little far-fetched. That, and replicants are not a thing in The Predator, nor had humanity discovered the secrets of deep space travel; so, how in the fuck did Roy Batty see “attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion”? Perhaps mankind used one of the jump gates the Yautja utilizes to travel to earth for their little safaris; otherwise, Blade Runner is a freaking classic sci-fi film. Rutger Hauer – what is there to say that his character didn’t? Harrison Ford as Deckard is vulnerable, fragile, and brilliant, and damn, Sean Young’s portrayal of Rachel is stunningly sexy. The metaphysical implications of the film are deeply affecting - the tale of the prodigal son, the quest for more life, the best lived life, artificial life rights, racism, preserving life even if it’s not your own, meeting one’s maker… and it’s “all lost like tears in the rain…”
Finally, there’s the soft, touching score from Vangelis, also famous for the “Chariots of Fire Theme,” that really drives home the tone of the film. An interesting note, the chess set used by Sebastian against Tyrell would later appear in Stranger Things season 4 in a game between 011 and 001.
Skinjob – This is an award-winning animated short film connected to the Blade Runner film, that is simply a damn well-done fan-project, and it has some interesting beats. It appears to be a visual representation of the last few memories in the mind of Roy Batty as he dies.
Tears in the Rain – another fan film, featuring a different Blade Runner and a replicant named Andy, a Nexus 3 that doesn’t know he’s a replicant. The short film references J.F. Sebastian. A little pretentious, tries a little too hard, but fits in with the canon. Take it or leave it.
Blade Runner: Blackout 2022 – a 15-minute-long anime short film entry into the shared universe canon, Blade Runner: Blackout 2022 tells how the Nexus 8 Replicant models became the targets of a human supremacy movement and rose up. “Life doesn’t mean living,” is a phrase one of the Nexus 8’s says that really drove home the whole theme of the Blade Runner films with me. The short film details the fall of the Tyrell Corp and the takeover of the synthetic human market and Tyrell’s assets by the Wallace Corporation.
The Peter Weyland Files: TED Conference, 2023 – Peter Weyland tells the tale of Prometheus to a stadium full of onlookers; he works in a story about T.E. Lawrence as well. Weyland (Guy Pearce) tells the crowd that humankind is God now, because it has the power to create, destroy and create again. He even claims ethical guidelines are restraining humankind from further advancement. Fucked up, I think this is where we’re at today.
Blade Runner: Black Lotus – this 13-episode animated series takes place 10 years after the events of Blade Runner: Blackout 2022 and is presented by Cruchyroll in conjunction with Williams Street and Adult Swim. It is entirely in Japanese. However, episode one “City of Angels,” can be located on YouTube with English subtitles. Watch it first to get a sense of the story, then read the Wikipedia entry of the episodes before viewing each subsequent installment. The story revolves around a Nexus 8, called “a doll” by the human supremacy movement. She’s named Elle, and in episode four we learn part of her backstory. She and several other dolls were hunted for sport, a piss poor sport if you ask me, since the dolls are harmless, with a safeguard built in preventing them from harming humans. Elle, somehow, breaks from that genetic coding and goes on a rampage to avenge herself upon the hunters. The catch? Elle has amnesia and cannot recall her past. This series explains why Niander Wallace, Jr., is blind in Blade Runner 2049. Well worth the ride and time investment. The only curiosity I really wondered about is why characters in a series largely set in L.A.’s Chinese quarter speak exclusively Japanese?
2036 Nexus Dawn – “Humanity has only survived this long by crushing the earth to suit its needs,” that from Wallace, Jr., portrayed by Jared Leto in this short prequel to Blade Runner 2049. Leto, of course, is the madman determined to replace humans with replicants in order to create a better world in Blade Runner 2049.
Soldier – a universally panned film starring Kurt Russell set in 2036 that does, however, have a cult following. It is only tangentially related to Blade Runner by a couple Easter Eggs, including the appearance of a spinner car first seen in the original Blade Runner and references to the battles Russell’s character, Sgt. Todd 3465, has taken part in, including the battle off the Shoulder of Orion and at Tannhäuser Gate, both mentioned by Roy Batty in the original Blade Runner. Todd 3465 speaks just 104 words the entire film. The movie begins in a nursery where a man is assigning newborns 1-A status; in other words, they’re being drafted. Damn disturbing. Gary Busey, having previously starred in Predator 2, makes a second appearance in the shared universe, playing Todd 3465’s CO. It’s actually a better film than critics gave it credit for.
2048 Nowhere to Run – an official short prequel to Blade Runner 2049 that explains how the whereabouts of Sapper Morton (Dave Bautista) are discovered.
Blade Runner 2049 – stars Ryan Gosling, Jared Leto, Ana de Armas, Robin Wright, and Harrison Ford reprising the role of Rick Deckard 30 years older and wiser. Edward James Olmos also reprises the role of Gaff. K/Joe (Gosling) has been tasked with retiring an old Nexus 8 that served as a medic in the Colonial Marines (take that Noah Hawley) and has an open-ended lifespan, Sapper Morton (Dave Bautista). In the offing he discovers a couple of small fresh flowers placed under the trunk of a long-dead tree and x-rays the ground, discovering a grave. That grave launches an investigation into what Morton only referred to as “a miracle.” This film, much like the original, deals with a great deal of existential angst, and is an absolute masterwork of cinema. And goddamnit, Ana de Armas (Joi) is devastatingly beautiful. I had doubts about a sequel to one of my all-time favorite films so far removed from the release of the original, but Denis Villeneuve hit a fucking grand slam home run. Hampton Fancher and Michael Green produced an original script that is just political dynamite. Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch created a score to rival that of Vangelis’ original.
“I’ve never retired anything that’s been born before,” the implications of that statement from K really made me think about humanity’s practices of slavery, racism, segregation, murder - war. I find it damned disturbing that thoughts of interbreeding could destabilize society, but I suppose the writers are holding a mirror up to our society, or at least a portion of it clinging to past mores that were less than moral. Freaking hell man, difficult subject matter, particularly considering current political climates. Not one to be missed.
The Peter Weyland Files: Happy Birthday, David – this short introduces Michael Fassbender as the new Weyland Corp synthetic person, David, who appears in Prometheus.
The Peter Weyland Files: Quiet Eye, Elizabeth Shaw – a short that introduces Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), one of the human scientists aboard the Prometheus.
Project Prometheus: Mission – essentially a brief recruiting film for Weyland Industry’s Prometheus mission.
Weyland Industries Testimonial – a mock advertisement claiming that Weyland Industries can “build better worlds.”
The Peter Weyland Files: ‘Prometheus’ Transmission – this short introduces Idris Elba as Captain Janek, as well as Logan Marshall-Green as Charlie Holloway and reintroduces much of the crew of Prometheus previously met in other short films. It serves as a transmission to intelligent life in the universe. Additional to the crew vignettes, there are images of art artifacts, fashions of Earth, videos of dancing, and still shots from across our planet, serving as a message much as the golden record attached to Voyager 1.
Prometheus – “There are those who believe that life here, began out there,” lol. That’s what I take from the opening sequence of this Alien prequel, set largely in December 2093. The Engineer alien race closely resembles the hybrid Xenomorph that later appears in Alien: Romulus. While this film absolutely lies in the official canon, it explores its own mythology. The mission is to a point in space too far removed from Earth for early civilizations to have knowledge of it, yet a map of the star system is discovered in an ancient cave painting on Earth. An aged Weyland has been cryofrozen and secreted aboard Prometheus, seeking to postpone his inevitable death. Predictably, the mission goes off the rails and few survive. An interesting Easter Egg appears in the earlier entry, Blade Runner 2049. In Wallace’s lab there is a creature strongly resembling the race of alien “Engineers” from Prometheus.
Blade Runner 2099 – an upcoming series from Ridley Scott that will star Michelle Yeoh.
Alien: Covenant – Prologue: The Crossing – this short details the further mission of Elizabeth Shaw and David aboard the liberated “Engineer” ship.
Alien: Covenant: Meet Walter – this short shows the creative process that went into making the synthetic person Walter (Michael Fassbender).
Alien: Covenant: Phobos –this short is a collection of potential participants for the Covenant Mission undergoing tests and interviews.
Alien: Covenant – Prologue: Crew Messages – this small collection of approximately one minute each short films simply are messages to home from the participants of the Covenant Mission before they enter cryostasis.
Alien: Covenant – Prologue: Last Supper – after the captain of the mission enters cryostasis, the rest of the crew throw a party aboard the Covenant before they do the same. It is reminiscent of the first chest buster scene aboard the Nostromo in the original Alien (1979).
Alien: Covenant – Prologue: She Won’t Go Quietly – select scenes with Daniels aboard the Covenant serving as a promotion for the film itself.
Alien: Covenant – Prologue: The Audi Lunar Quattro – essentially an Audi commercial crossover with Alien: Covenant.
Alien: Covenant – this entry into the Alien universe features the story of a colony ship sent to settle an uncharted world in 2104. They encounter David (Michel Fassbender) on an alien world, stranded after the events of Prometheus. There are indeed some great horror elements in this sequel/prequel. And a great deal is learned about the Xenomorph’s genealogy with a careful examination of David’s Lab. Fassbender is outstanding, playing opposite himself as there is an updated version of his model aboard the ship, Walter. Katherine Watterson, Billy Crudup, and Danny McBride star alongside Fassbender’s double role.
Alien: Covenant: Advent – this short shares the most detailed explanation of the Xenomorph species to date and brings the tale of David to a close.
Alien: Covenant: The Secrets of David’s Lab – a short that hints at Elizabeth Shaw’s final fate and shares some overlap with Advent.
Alien: Covenant – Epilogue: David’s Lab, Last Signs of Life – a 12-minute short that goes in depth into the face-hugger’s morphology, as some dumbass is wandering around David’s Lab examining it. It ends just as you might expect.
Alien: Earth – would fall into this timeline here in the year 2120 but does it’s damndest to differentiate itself from the Blade Runner films, naming the five corporations that run things, and Wallace is not among them. What fun is that?
Fuck Alien: Earth!
But I still gave it a look, and I wasn’t overly impressed, even if it has a 95 percent Fresh Rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The whole Wendy and the Lost Boys bit, with a corporation killing children in secret to transfer consciousness into synthetic bodies with no emotions, really creeped me right the fuck out. I mean, if you have no emotions, what the fuck is the point of living?
Yes, I get that the Boy Genius is supposed to be Peter Pan, we have the obvious Lost Boys, Morrow (Babou Ceesay) with his built-in blade, is Captain Hook. The Xenomorphs are the crocodiles, Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis) Mrs. Darling, Arthur Sylvia (David Rhysdahl) Mr. Darling, and the island is Neverland. Yes, yes, yes, it’s a a clever retelling of Peter Pan for grownups. Whoop-de-fucking-do. It’s a series about children in need of parental guidance, not getting it, and having to fend for themselves.
One thing I will hand to Alien: Earth, its end credits music is banging for each episode.
Alien – the 1979 sci-fi horror that kicked off this whole industry. A deep space mining ship with its crew in stasis is diverted when an alien transmission is detected in 2122. They investigate after being awoken by the ship’s computer, Mother Kain (John Hurt) is incapacitated by a strange being that attaches itself to its victim’s face during an exploration on LV-426. The alien has unique defense mechanisms and physical traits. One, it has external lungs that it utilizes to breathe for its victim while it is attached. Two, it has a tail that wraps around the victim’s throat that will shut off the oxygen supply if the alien is assaulted in anyway. Three, acid for blood. Of course, the infamous chest buster scene at supper was one of the all-time most horrifying experiences I’ve ever watched the first time I saw it, with me being just a child of eight. I may have even wet my pants, LOL. I don’t recall. My sphincter STILL tightens to this day when I view the original Alien film. An earlier version of the script called for Ripley to be male. By chance, the role was altered, and the character became “Ellen” Ripley, played commendably by Sigourney Weaver. That was the beginning of the female action movie badass lead in cinema that would become a trope – Tomb Raider, Underworld, Resident Evil, Black Widow, to name a few. And what an outstanding cast - Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Koto, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright, and Ian Holm. Practical effects rather than digital, really turn up the horror aspect. Just that look… it’s amazingly detailed.
Alien: Alone – this short film created for the 30th Anniversary of Alien, depicts a synthetic left alone aboard the Otranto, a deep-space ship that has undergone the requisite systems malfunction. She befriends the lone creature still onboard, a face-hugger.
Alien: Containment – this 30th Anniversary short begins with the breakup of the Borrowdale with more than 23,000 souls aboard. There are four survivors trying to escape in a shuttle, which one is infected? The post credits scene is a stroke of pure genius.
Alien: Harvest – the third installment in the Alien 30th Anniversary hexology of short films takes place aboard the comet plasma harvester vessel the November with, again, four survivors. They are so fucked.
Alien: Ore – set in a mine on Bowen’s Landing. Once again, the synthetic fucks the other crew members when a hostile species is encountered. Hanks (Tara Pratt) shows facial expressions during the attack, that of elation, surprise and terror all rolled into one, and that is an outstanding bit of acting, with no lines spoken.
Alien: Specimen – takes place on LV-492, at Greenhouse 211. This 30th Anniversary short film takes a quite different approach, with an upbeat modern pop tune blasting before the action, likening to the helicopter scene in Predator, and a different take on the synthetic much like we’ve seen in Blade Runner before, I really enjoyed this one a lot. It has elements of horror I haven’t noticed in the Alien series since the very first film.
Alien: Romulus – this is Fede Álvrarez’ (partially) successful attempt to return the Alien franchise to its sci-fi horror roots. The film opens with a Weyland-Yutani probe encountering the wreckage of the Nostromo, and it brings back a cocoon with the Xenomorph inside. A crew looking to escape the hopeless planet and their Weyland -Yutani employment, leaves from Jackson’s Star and encounters the wreckage of what was originally thought to be a ship but is in reality a space station with the Xenomorph aboard, now in a decaying orbit. Onboard the station (Renaissance) is the surviving half of an artificial person with the same design as the one from the original Alien film, Ash, named Rook (portrayed by the late Ian Holm via archival and digitally manipulated footage). A derelict Weyland property, potentially with coveted cryopods and fuel that would get the crew to Yvaga III. What could possibly go wrong? This film does return to the claustrophobic, haunted house feel of the original film but lacks the character development and character interactions we saw in Alien. Nothing in particular makes me relate to the characters and get inside their heads the way earlier Alien films have. Still, it has a few great horror beats. I don’t particularly care for the design of the Xenomorph in Alien: Romulus. Álvrarez’ (Evil Dead, 2013; Don’t Breathe, and The Girl in the Spider’s Web) fourth outing as a horror film writer/director. IMHO, he should stick to directing and stop writing, however.
Aliens: Lost Transmission – this is a well-done bit of fan fic, with just three characters shot mostly in a maintenance room with the survivors of a Xenomorph attack. All viewers have to go on to determine exactly when it is set are the interior ship’s design, and a mention of a salvage team around Jackson’s Star where there is a destroyed space station, which of course is the Renaissance, the station that with two halves – Romulus and Remus. This fan film actually has a plot. I love the line, “Just because you think nobody survived doesn’t mean nothing did.” Nice bit of foreshadowing. More of a drama than an action film.
Alien: Night Shift – this short, created for the Alien 30th Anniversary, takes place partially in February of 2179, the same year the original Alien sequel Aliens is set. It also takes place on LV-426, where the first and second Alien films transpire. A night shift survivor of a Xenomorph attack on a supply depot is giving a report of his experience to corporation interrogators. The said reported events take place after 426 has been settled, but before Aliens. After the survivor signs an NDA, the interrogators liken the story to that of the Nostromo.
Aliens – the original sequel to 1979’s Alien, is less a work of horror, and more of a war film cum political treatise set in 2179. This James Cameron movie would set the blueprint for all subsequent sci-fi action films and video games. Still utilizing practical effects, as digital simply was not there yet, it does have true horror beats, particularly the scene with Newt (Carrie Henn) and Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) sleeping in a room Burke (Paul Reiser) has let a face-hugger loose in. The premise, Ripley, and the cat Jonesey, have been in cryostasis for 57 years. After Officer Ripley tells her story to the company, it is summarily rejected… until the colonists on LV-426 go radio silent. Then, Ripley is asked to return to the planet in an advisory capacity to a unit of Colonial Marines. Well, the USCSS Sulaco doesn’t experience a dramatic malfunction, until the next film anyway. However, things do go wrong near the film’s midpoint when the marines go looking for the colonists’ PDTs (Personal Data Transmitters). Only three of them will come out alive, Cpl. Hicks (Michael Biehn), Pvt. Hudson (Bill Paxton), and Pvt. Vasquez (Jeanette Goldstein). The survivors, which include Lt. Gorman, knocked unconscious and suffering a concussion during the escape scene in the APC, as well as Bishop, Ripley, Burke, and Newt, take up the decision how to handle their predicament, and Burke argues the company line, adding exclusive rights will come with a significant finder’s fee. “I don’t know which species is worse. You don’t see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage,” Ripley replies. Spot on, I’m looking at you Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Donald Trump, etc? Probably the second-best entry in the entire shared universe, right behind the original Alien.
Alien3 – if I had not billed this list as “complete,” I would have skipped this turd in the Xenomorph punch bowl. With three (and a half) survivors from the Sulaco in Aliens, I honestly expected much more from this film, but interesting characters Cpl. Hicks (Michael Biehn), Newt (Carrie Henn) and Bishop (Lance Henrikson) are killed off screen. Henrikson does reprise his role of the artificial person Bishop very briefly, for a bit of exposition explaining what happened aboard the Sulaco; but like Bishop’s body after the Xenomorph Queen ripped him in half, it’s a bit part. This movie, set in 2179, takes place on a penitentiary planet, Fiorina, or “Fury,” 161, inside a Weyland prison facility. The first Xenomorph hybrid is featured in this film (not chronologically, but in order of release date), as a face hugger attaches to an ox (a dog in the theatrical release) and it comes out… odd compared to what we were accustomed to after the release of Alien and Aliens. This film lost my attention pretty quickly, and I abhor the penultimate scene. One item of note, Paul McGann, the Eighth Doctor Who, plays the psychopath killer Golic in this installment of the alien series. There were rumors Sigourney Weaver had cancer at the time of the filming after photos of her with a shaved head leaked. The 2003 Special Edition received better reviews than the original 1992 release.
Predator vs. Colonial Marines – this short is actually a fan film from Loot Crate, but a curiosity, nonetheless. It takes place in 2189, ten years after Aliens. It’s pretty bad, with a single stationary camera shot. The action takes place off-camera. It’s basically a bunch a fan boys that flunked out of film school shooting their masturbatory cosplay with a phone. I’m not certain why I even bring it up. There are much better fan films out there.
Alien: Resurrection – and finally there is the bizzaro film Alien: Resurrection. United Systems Military is the big evil government now that the big evil company Weyland-Yutani is long out of business. The year is 2379, Ellen Ripley now dead 200 years, has been cloned from a blood sample taken on “Fury” 161 in 2179 before her death. She was impregnated with an Xenomorph embryo at the time of the sample collection. She was cloned, as it seems, eight times to recreate the Xenomorph. Ripley 8 (Sigourney Weaver) is considered a byproduct. The scientist branch of the USM wants to keep her, the military wants to destroy her now that they have their Alien. A group of mercenaries deliver a cargo of humans in cryostasis to the space station Auriga. The scientists use them as hosts for the eggs of the queen they harvested from Ripley 8. Of course, the Xenomorphs get loose and wreck the station. Also star Winona Ryder as the merc synthetic Call, Ron Perlman as Johner, and Michael Wincott as the merc leader Elgyn. The station is crashing to Earth; how many survive this time? How will the synthetic storyline play out? At present, this is the final installment in the shared universe. “No human being is that humane.” ~ Ripley 8 speaking about Call.
Predator: Badlands – coming in November of 2025, not a great deal has been announced about this film, except that it takes place in the future and on the Yautja home-world. The plot features a Predator, Dek, as the protagonist and Elle Fanning as Tania a synthetic who sympathizes with him. Where will it ultimately fall chronologically in the canon?
As I’ve mentioned a couple of times, the creator of Alien: Earth, Noah Hawley, has dismissed the idea that Blade Runner is a part of the shared Alien/Predator universe. One of the best pieces of evidence the films ARE related comes from “The Peter Weyland Files.” In one of the dossiers on the BluRay release Weyland writes of his “mentor and long-departed competitor,” who ran his company, that designed replicants, “like a God on top of a pyramid overlooking a city of angels.” Weyland admits he attempted to “replicate” the work of his predecessor. Hmm, wonder who that could be? In the original Blade Runner Tyrell’s facility was a massive pyramid overlooking the City of Angels. Later, Niander Wallace, Jr. in Blade Runner 2049 says, “we make angels – in the service of civilization.” The words of Weyland, Wallace, and the allusions to the original Blade Runner are pretty damn clear. So, I’m STILL of the mindset Blade Runner is indeed part of the shared universe canon, despite no official confirmation from Ridley Scott, and Hawley’s denial.
So that’s it, the whole shared cinematic universe, and in closing I’m going to borrow a line from City Hunter, the Yautja from Predator 2: “You want some candy?”
Happy Halloween!
~Mike