Poster © 20th Century Fox. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAction, Horror & Sci-Fi
RatedR
Runtime1 hr 49 mins
ReleasedNovember 26, 1997
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorJean-Pierre Jeunet
StarringSigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman
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Alien Resurrection (1997)
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| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Alien Resurrection's Details | |
| Genre | Action, Horror & Sci-Fi |
| Rated | R |
| Released | 11/06/1997 (Premiere); 11/12/1997 (France); 11/26/1997 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 49 mins |
| Budget | $70M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Characters by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Alien Resurrection's Interests | |
| General | Cloning labs, flooded corridors, a mercenary ship called the Betty, backwards basketball shots. |
| Music | John Frizzell, gloomy and grand. |
| Movies | The City of Lost Children (1995). Jeunet's earlier fever dream. |
| Television | Firefly. Joss Whedon wrote this script, then gave a scrappy space crew its own show. |
| Heroes | Ripley 8. Same legend, new attitude, acid for blood. |
| Alien Resurrection's Crew | |
| Director | Jean-Pierre Jeunet |
| Writers | Joss Whedon |
| Producers | Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Sigourney Weaver, Walter Hill, Bill Badalato |
| Cinematography | Darius Khondji |
| Music | John Frizzell |
| Edited By | Hervé Schneid |
| Production | 20th Century Fox, Brandywine Productions |
| Distributed By | 20th Century Fox |
A pickup basketball game is the high point of Alien Resurrection, and that should worry you. Sigourney Weaver’s cloned Ripley sinks a no-look shot over her shoulder, smirks at a stunned mercenary, and for a minute the movie feels alive. Jean-Pierre Jeunet brings a gooey, oddball style that clashes with everything the series built, and the tone lurches between goofy comedy and gloomy horror. Winona Ryder looks lost as Call, a mechanic in a role that needed far more steel. Ron Perlman’s loudmouth Johner gets most of the laughs. The flooded kitchen sequence, with the crew swimming through dark water while something swims after them, is the best set piece by far. The rest is a lot of yellow light, slime and shouting. Then the ending introduces a creature so strange that fans still argue about it. It made $161.4 million worldwide on a reported $70M. A 4.4 because Weaver is fascinating and the movie around her is a mess. $316 says you challenge someone to a game of HORSE this month and insist on taking every shot without looking.
What works: Sigourney Weaver plays the cloned Ripley as eerie and unpredictable, and the underwater chase is a genuinely tense set piece.
What doesn’t: The tone swings wildly between oddball comedy and horror, Winona Ryder is miscast, and the ending’s creature lands as accidentally silly.
Who it’s for: Alien completists and fans of strange, handmade-looking sci-fi who can forgive a mess.
Spoilers
Call turns out to be an android sent to stop the cloning program. The alien queen gives birth to a human-alien Newborn that sees Ripley as its mother, and Ripley sadly lures it to a tiny breach in the hull, where it gets pulled out into space. The survivors fly down toward Earth.
Two hundred years after Alien 3, military scientists aboard the research ship USM Auriga bring Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) back through cloning, because they want the alien queen she was carrying. The clone comes out different: stronger, faster, a little feral, with acid in her blood and pieces of Ripley's memories. Then a crew of mercenaries docks with a shady cargo delivery, including the newest member, Annalee Call (Winona Ryder), and the loudmouth Johner (Ron Perlman). The scientists' prize specimens are smarter than anyone planned for. Jean-Pierre Jeunet directs. One hundred nine minutes, cloning was a mistake.
Anyone who has seen the first three and still says yes to the space station.
| Sigourney Weaver | Ellen Ripley |
| Winona Ryder | Annalee Call |
| Dominique Pinon | Dom Vriess |
| Ron Perlman | Ron Johner |
| Gary Dourdan | Gary Christie |
| Michael Wincott | Frank Elgyn |
| Kim Flowers | Sabra Hillard |
| Dan Hedaya | General Martin Perez |
| J. E. Freeman | Dr. Mason Wren |
| Brad Dourif | Dr. Jonathan Gediman |
| Raymond Cruz | Vincent DiStephano |
| Leland Orser | Larry Purvis |
| Carolyn Campbell | Anesthesiologist |
| Marlene Bush | Dr. Carlyn Williamson |
| David St. James | Dr. Dan Sprague |
| Tom Woodruff Jr. | the lead Alien |
| Steven Gilborn | Father |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $161.4M; Domestic box office $47.8M; Opening weekend $16.5M; Profit / loss (est.) -$24.3M; Rotten Tomatoes 56%; CinemaScore B−; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 56% (163 reviews); Metacritic 63 / 100; CinemaScore B−; IMDb users 6.2 / 10 (295,241 votes); movie.guru score 4.1.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.