With the release of Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus, cinema audiences are being thrown back into the terrifying (and occasionally baffling) sci-fi/horror franchise launched in 1979 by Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, Alien.
The films that followed over the last four decades have certainly varied in success.
Some have taken us in bold new directions, while others (Romulus included) have merely riffed on familiar franchise tropes that were never served up better than in the first two films.
Musically, Alien has been something of a moveable feast with no single composer ever scoring more than one of the films.
Each has been inspired by the sheer horror unleashed by the insatiable Xenomorph – the nightmare-inducing alien species at the heart of the series, designed by HR Giger, with acid for blood and a hideous mouth-within-a-mouth.
Like the films themselves, the music has variously taken listeners to tantalising new places or else been a variation on a theme.
But which Alien score is the very best? From the action-packed to the downright disturbing, here’s our ranking…
9. Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Music by Harald Kloser
Two of cinema’s most fearsome alien monsters went head-to-head in Antarctica in this cinematic adaptation of what was a nifty comicbook ruse.
It probably seemed like a licence to print money for what was 20th Century Fox, and while the box office wasn’t too shabby, Alien vs. Predator didn’t really hit the spot for fans of either franchise.
Austrian composer Harald Kloser, who had seemingly come from nowhere in 2004 when he scored Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow, followed that with this robust, anthemic and somewhat forgettable score.
8. Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
Music by Brian Tyler
Given the financial ‘success’ of Alien vs. Predator, it was no surprise that a sequel would follow, this time charting the hunting down (again on Earth) of a bizarre Predator-Alien hybrid – a ‘Predalien’, if you will.
Thrills and spills (mainly of a lot of blood) ensue, all to the tune of Brian Tyler, one of Hollywood’s most in-demand composers.
Tyler is anything but subtle, unleashing orchestral hell for this absurd set-up, but his big-boned, brass and percussion-heavy music is well-polished and brilliantly executed.
There’s more than a nod to James Horner’s Aliens in the Xenomorph music, too. Well played Mr. Tyler.
7. Alien: Covenant (2017)
Music by Jed Kurzel
This sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2012 Alien prequel Prometheus saw the director seemingly at pains to make sure audiences were in no doubt they were watching an Alien movie – it’s actually in the title for one thing.
So the Xenomorph looks more familiar and the music, by Australian composer Jed Kurzel, even quotes Jerry Goldsmith’s original theme.
Beyond that brief moment of musical nostalgia, though, Kurzel crafts an entirely unnerving soundworld – a concoction of sound design and orchestral elements performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra under Robert Ames.
It’s more than effective in its eerie scene-setting.
6. Prometheus (2012)
Music by Marc Streitenfeld and Harry Gregson-Williams
Original Alien director Ridley Scott returned to the dystopian future he helped create by spinning us this somewhat bewildering origin story.
Ambitious and rather beautiful, the film gets better with repeated viewing – particularly once you get over the fact that it’s Alien but not as we know it.
For the music, Scott returned to German composer Marc Streitenfeld, who had become his regular composer since 2006’s A Good Year.
British composer Harry Gregson-Williams was brought in to supply what became the film’s main theme (‘Life’, actually the score’s standout/memorable musical element).
Altogether, though, it makes for an engaging score in-film, and ably underlines the wonder and weirdness of it all.
5. Alien: Romulus (2024)
Music by Benjamin Wallfisch
Given audiences had already seen the past and future of Alien, director Fede Alvarez had little choice but to plump for a ‘midquel’ (or is it‘interquel’?).
Yes, Alien: Romulus takes place after 1979’s Alien and before 1986’s Aliens…
Whatever it is, it’s a good excuse to throw some poor unsuspecting space scavengers into a ship with you-know-what on board.
Rehash? Reboot? Either way, it’s pretty wild and the music is too.
Benjamin Wallfisch was always destined for great things on the big screen, the British composer now one of Hollywood’s most reliable and inventive musical artists.
This score serves as a love letter to the franchise’s musical forefathers, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner and Elliot Goldenthal, and even features a nod to Harry Gregson-Williams's 'Life' theme from Prometheus.
Wallfisch creates a thrilling orchestral/choral/electronic soundworld, and like any great Alien score there’s just the right balance of beauty and horror.
4. Alien Resurrection (1997)
Music by John Frizzell
This fourth film in the franchise is oft-derided, perhaps because the story is just so far removed from the simplicity of Alien’s ‘crew stuck on a spaceship with a monster’ trope.
Yes it’s set 200 years after Alien; yes, somehow Sigourney Weaver’s ‘Ripley’ has been spliced with a Xenomorph.
And yes it is all a bit… weirdly erotic. But it has its moments, not least of all musically.
American composer John Frizzell actually made his debut with this massive score, which in its way was ahead of its time.
Years before sound design passed for underscore, Frizzell crafted this heady, textural piece which brought together huge orchestral forces, choir and electronics.
His music has a strange sensuality and is full of extended orchestral techniques which serve to blur the lines of what we understand as being music. It’s time this score was celebrated more.
3. Aliens (1986)
Music by James Horner
Viewed today, given the impact of Ridley Scott’s Alien, it seems surprising that it took almost seven years for a sequel to appear.
The title hinted we were getting more bang for our buck and director James Cameron made sure we did, taking the franchise into far more action-packed territory.
Sigourney Weaver was back as Ellen Ripley, leading an ensemble cast battling an Alien Queen and her offspring at a decimated terraforming colony on the very planet she first encountered her arch-nemesis.
Composer James Horner pulled out all the stops (and most of his hair) in delivering what remains a quintessential action score.
The composer worked until the eleventh hour on the demanding music, which was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
Everything about the score for Aliens is big and loud, Horner underlining Cameron’s grungey, militaristic vibe perfectly – see/hear ‘Ripley’s Rescue’ and ‘Bishop’s Countdown’ for a taste.
There’s a strange beauty, too, in the more reflective moments, Horner echoing the Adagio from Khachaturian’s Gayane ballet music.
2. Alien3 (1992)
Music by Elliot Goldenthal
The third instalment of the franchise was certainly a troubled production (rewrites, replaced directors…) and its reception upon release was fairly lacklustre – I mean, how do you follow Ridley Scott and James Cameron?
David Fincher (in his directoiral debut) had his work cut out for sure, but time has been kinder to Alien3 on the whole.
That said, apart from appearances from some great British character actors, the best thing about the film is surely Elliot Goldenthal’s score.
Goldenthal cut his teeth in theatre, after studies with none other than Aaron Copland, and while he had dabbled in film music, Alien3 was his first major score for the big screen.
Cerebral, dissonant, bleak and beautiful, Goldenthal’s music drenches the largely mediocre film with broad avant-garde strokes that are deeply felt.
1. Alien (1979)
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
The film that started it all.
Little did Ridley Scott know in 1979 that his claustrophobic sci-fi/horror/thriller would spawn decades of sequels, prequels and midquels; in fact the film didn’t exactly light up the box office upon release, though it is now hailed as a total masterpiece.
Veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith took to Alien fairly fresh from an Oscar-win for The Omen and went about scoring this off-world horror with real flair and orchestral inventiveness.
His music, performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra under Lionel Newman, features a blown Conch shell, serpent and even a didgeridoo, alongside a multitude of eerie brass and echo effects (Goldsmith was a champion of synthesised music in film scoring, though largely left that to one side for this).
It’s amazing, then, to realise that his inspired work was either edited, moved or dropped completely from the final film.
His unsettling quasi-romantic main title theme didn’t make the cut, and music from his own 1962 film score for Freud is used here and there, not to mention music by another composer entirely for the film’s finale and end credits (Howard Hanson’s ‘Romantic’ Symphony No. 2).
What remains of Goldsmith’s bold and brilliant vision for Alien is still enough to warrant this number one placing, though. Seek out the soundtrack album to hear what could have been.
Alien: Romulus in in cinemas now and Benjamin Wallfisch’s score is available to stream from wherever you enjoy your music
