April 26 is officially designated Alien Day, when fans around the world celebrate the alien movies, of which there are currently six (not counting the ones where the alien squares up to the predator). But despite all of the Alien movies having their defenders (yes, even that one), director Ridley Scott believes that none compare to the OG.
Scott famously does not mince his words when on press tours to promote his movies, something we had the fortune of experiencing twice last year, with him promoting The Last Duel and House of Gucci. In 2019, Scott gave an interview for the 40th anniversary of science fiction horror masterpiece Alien to Los Angeles Times reporter Justin Chang.
Despite James Cameron famously producing one of the best sequels of all time with Aliens (and obviously Terminator 2), and Scott himself returning to the franchise with prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Scott still remained skeptical of sequels; “There’s only ever the one. It’s like trying to do a sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Fundamentally, you can’t.”
Scott continued; “Really, with the greatest respect to Star Wars, the best film by far is the one that George (Lucas) directed, right? By miles. It was unique. It was absolutely wonderful to me. It was the fairy story of all fairy stories in space. And to follow through is a tough call. So, same with Alien.”
The merits and drawbacks of sequels will always be a source of discussion and controversy, and Vulture has just published a new ranking of the 101 best ones. Only a few rarefied examples, such as Godfather 2, are widely considered better than the original movie in a series.
Find out whether Alien made our list of the best alien movies and we hope you had a Happy Alien Day!