--- title: "Alien Resurrection" year: 1997 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/alien-resurrection" fi1m_score: 60 critics_score: 55 critics_reviews: 11 published: "2026-09-19T16:01:48.868185+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T16:02:19.991328+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Alien Resurrection (1997) Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet · 1h 49m · MPA R · Science Fiction, Horror, Action **Fi1m score: 60** · Critics 55 from 11 reviews *In a sentence:* Everything on the ship drips, everyone on it grimaces, and Ripley is the only person having a good time > Jean-Pierre Jeunet brings Ripley back as a clone and the *Alien* series back as a freak show. Sigourney Weaver is remarkable and the pictures are like nothing else in the series; Joss Whedon’s script keeps interrupting both with a wisecrack. ## Synopsis Aboard the military research vessel Auriga, two hundred years after Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) died, scientists led by Dr. Wren (J.E. Freeman) and Gediman (Brad Dourif) have grown her again from a blood sample. They want the alien queen she was carrying; they cut it out and keep the woman as a curiosity, under the eye of General Perez (Dan Hedaya). The clone has acid in her blood, a nose for the creatures and a memory that comes and goes. A freighter, the Betty, docks with cargo: kidnapped sleepers to be used as hosts. Its crew, Elgyn (Michael Wincott), Call (Winona Ryder), Vriess (Dominique Pinon), Johner (Ron Perlman) and Christie (Gary Dourdan), plan to take their money and go. Call has other business on board. Then the creatures in the tanks work out how to leave them. ## Review Five years after *Alien 3* (1992) killed Ripley off, the series has her back, and the film knows how strange that is. Joss Whedon’s script has the military grow her from a blood sample two hundred years on, not for her sake but for the alien queen she was carrying when she died. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who made [*Delicatessen*](https://film.one/film/delicatessen) (1991) and [*The City of Lost Children*](https://film.one/film/the-city-of-lost-children) (1995) with Marc Caro, directs his first film in English and brings the wide lenses and the sickly light with him. What he makes is the oddest of the four films, the funniest and the least frightening. It is worth an evening for the interested and for nobody else. Weaver first. She plays the clone as something that remembers being Ripley without quite being her, and she does it mostly with her body: a loose, unhurried walk, a habit of sniffing the air before she looks, a smile that arrives a beat late. She beats Ron Perlman’s Johner at basketball without appearing to try, then puts him on the floor. The performance has stopped asking for our sympathy and is more interesting for it. Darius Khondji lights the Auriga in the colours of a hospital at night, greens and dirty ambers with the shadows left black, and Nigel Phelps designs it as a laboratory rather than a haunted house: glass tanks, steel tables, corridors with the plumbing on the outside. Bob Ringwood puts the Betty’s crew in scuffed leather and knitwear that looks slept in. Around the midpoint there is a long sequence underwater, in a flooded galley, with the creatures swimming after the humans, the one stretch where Jeunet’s taste for the strange and the series’ need to frighten pull the same way. We held our breath with them. It is the best set piece in the film by a distance. Then there is a room. Roughly halfway, Ripley opens a door, and what is behind it is the film’s one serious scene, played nearly in silence. We will not describe it. We will say it horrified us in a way nothing with teeth in the film managed, because it is about what was done to a person rather than what a monster might do next, and Weaver plays it with a stillness the rest of the picture never asks of her. Then it is back to the corridors. The corridors are where the trouble is. Whedon writes the Betty’s crew as a gang with a line ready for every death: Perlman’s brute, Dominique Pinon’s Vriess in a chair with a gun bolted to it, Gary Dourdan’s Christie with pistols strapped to his forearms. Some of the lines are funny; all of them cost tension, and John Frizzell’s score, thick with brass and choir, keeps announcing dread the dialogue has just waved off. Winona Ryder’s Call has the only conscience on board, and Ryder plays her as if she had wandered in from a quieter film, and the second half explains why. Hervé Schneid cuts the action fast and from many angles, and we sometimes lost track of who was where. Whedon has since disowned the result and blamed the direction rather than the words; having listened to the words, we are not sure he is right. The pictures are of a piece from first frame to last; it is the script that keeps stopping the horror film to tell a joke about it. [*Alien*](https://film.one/film/alien) (1979) was one monster in one ship. [*Aliens*](https://film.one/film/aliens) (1986) was a war film. *Alien 3* was a funeral. This one is a sideshow, with Jeunet as the barker, and the second half takes a turn we will not describe, except to say that the last twenty minutes are the silliest in the series. See it if you liked *Delicatessen* and wondered what Jeunet would do with a monster and someone else’s money, or to watch Weaver take a character she has played three times and make her unfamiliar. Do not see it expecting the fourth chapter of the story you were following; that is the hope that leaves people angriest. It runs 109 minutes and carries an 18 certificate, which for once is not a formality. *Fi1m score 60, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews split almost down the middle, but they agree on one thing: Sigourney Weaver. Her cloned Ripley, jaded, sardonic and not entirely human, is called the best thing in the film by admirers and detractors alike, and several critics find her more compelling than the aliens. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s look for the film, grungy and fantastical, is widely noted, and the underwater sequence is singled out again and again as the set piece that works. Beyond that the spread is wide. The 1997 notices are largely cold: they find it nasty and emotionally remote, and Roger Ebert dismisses it as forgettable and Winona Ryder as miscast. The defences come later, from critics who treat it as a comic-book actioneer or a grotesque art film due a reappraisal; Paste argues its oddness now looks prescient. Consequence stands furthest out, calling it the worst of the original series and blaming a mismatch between Joss Whedon’s script and Jeunet’s direction. ### Reviews we read (11) - **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez (75/100, inferred): The critic recommends treating the much-maligned film as a comic-book actioneer full of laughs rather than a serious entry in the series. They single out Sigourney Weaver's jaded, quotable performance and the film's goofy, entertaining set pieces for praise. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/alien-resurrection/) - **Empire**, Ian Nathan (70/100, inferred): The critic finds Alien Resurrection a lively, humorous and atmospheric entry that improves on Alien3, though it sometimes prioritises gags and gore over sustained tension. Jeunet’s visual style, particularly the electrifying cinematography and underwater sequence, is singled out for praise alongside Sigourney Weaver’s performance. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/alien-resurrection-review/) - **Time Out**, TCh (70/100, inferred): The review finds the film distinctive thanks to Jeunet's fantastical style and Joss Whedon's genetic nightmare premise, but notes the director disengages from the action set-pieces. It singles out Sigourney Weaver's intense, ambivalent cloned Ripley as the standout element, more compelling than the aliens themselves. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/alien-resurrection) - **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (55/100, inferred): Maslin describes the film as the series' most freakish and macabre entry with an eerie grunge look and ghastly sideshow atmosphere, praising Weaver's buff and sardonic Ripley while noting its extreme nastiness may overwhelm some viewers. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/26/movies/film-review-ripley-believe-it-or-not-has-a-secret-and-it-s-not-pretty.html) - **Variety**, Derek Elley (50/100, inferred): Elley finds the film generally cold but sometimes wildly imaginative and jokey, with gripping action set pieces including an underwater sequence, but held back by lack of emotional engagement and half-assimilated quirks. [Read](https://variety.com/1997/film/reviews/alien-resurrection-111732354/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (35/100, inferred): Ebert calls the film a forgettable 'geek show' with little artistic impact and no sense of wonder in its production design, while praising Sigourney Weaver's strong performance as Ripley and noting Winona Ryder is miscast. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/alien-resurrection-1997) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (30/100, inferred): Turan deems it strictly for hardcore horror fans obsessed with slime, gore and repulsion, criticizing its pretentious dead-end weirdness and stylized grotesquerie while noting Weaver is the best thing in it. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-nov-26-ca-57719-story.html) - **Digital Spy**, Joshua Winning (75/100, inferred): The critic defends the film as a unique, grotesque and mesmerising 'art film' with fresh ideas, morbid humour and a compelling mutated Ripley clone, despite tonal shifts from prior entries and Whedon's disavowal. They single out the underwater sequence, the newborn hybrid creature, and Weaver's performance for praise while noting it is the least scary entry. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a630047/in-defence-of-alien-resurrection-the-franchises-ugly-duckling/) - **Paste**, Matthew Jackson (75/100, inferred): The critic argues that Alien Resurrection deserves reappraisal as a bold, energetic franchise revamp whose quirky design, cast and tone feel prescient today. He singles out Jeunet’s distinctive visual and directorial choices for particular praise. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/alien/alien-resurrection-joss-whedon-franchise-reboot) - **HeyUGuys**, Andy Petrou (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the concept intriguing but the execution disappointing due to a weak script and lack of suspense, calling it a guilty pleasure at best that leaves much to be desired. He singles out the underwater sequences for praise. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/video-vault-alien-resurrection/) - **Consequence** (30/100, inferred): The piece calls the film the worst in the original Alien series, a complete trainwreck caused by the mismatch between Whedon’s script and Jeunet’s direction. It highlights the resulting incoherence and lack of thematic unity as the main flaws. [Read](https://consequence.net/2022/11/alien-resurrection-why-its-bad-joss-whedon/) ## Details - **Director:** Jean-Pierre Jeunet - **Director:** Jean-Pierre Jeunet - **Writer:** Joss Whedon - **Cinematography:** Darius Khondji - **Editor:** Hervé Schneid - **Music:** John Frizzell - **Production design:** Nigel Phelps - **Costume design:** Bob Ringwood - **Producer:** Walter Hill, Gordon Carroll, Bill Badalato - **Cast:** Sigourney Weaver as Ripley; Winona Ryder as Call; Dominique Pinon as Vriess; Ron Perlman as Johner; Gary Dourdan as Christie; Michael Wincott as Elgyn; Kim Flowers as Hillard; Dan Hedaya as General Perez - **Runtime:** 1h 49m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 26 November 1997 - **Genres:** Science Fiction, Horror, Action - **Budget:** $70 million - **Box office:** $162 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu1tVYGsJ1Q ## Where to watch in the US - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $4.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $19.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Alien* (1979), Fi1m 92: One monster, one ship, and the fear this sequel keeps joking its way past. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/alien.md) - *Delicatessen* (1991), Fi1m 83: Jeunet and Caro’s butcher-shop comedy, where the sickly light and the grins began. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/delicatessen.md) - *The Fly* (1986), Fi1m 88: Cronenberg’s answer to the same question: what is left of a person after the lab. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-fly.md) - *Event Horizon* (1997): Same year, another haunted ship in deep space, and no jokes to spoil the dread. - *Splice* (2009): Scientists grow something they should not, then grow fond of it, and nobody laughs. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/alien-resurrection