4. Alien (1979)
Directed by Ridley Scott
Starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dead Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto
The commercial vessel Nostromo receives a distress call from an unexplored planet. After searching for survivors, the crew heads home only to realize that a deadly bioform has joined them.
Showing what a powerful, impressive and brilliant movie Alien is, this is the only movie on our list to have also featured in our Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies of All-Time.
Working as both a masterclass in science fiction storytelling, Ridley Scott’s Alien is also masterpiece of suspenseful horror and terror. Its slow burn and tense atmosphere leads to some of the best jump scares in the genre and it would be hard to argue that Ripley isn’t the best Final Girl to grace the silver screen (but we’ll get to that with our next entry).
Originally published October 31, 2014. Updated October 24, 2022.
