Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Alien: RomulusAlien: Romulus is the latest chapter in Fox's beloved Alien franchise, featuring a collection of incredibly scary moments with one of cinema's most terrifying alien specimens. Set between the first and second Alien movies, Fede Álvarez's Romulus was very well received, possessing a strong blend of nostalgia while also exploring some new ideas in the Alien universe. It also generates some very satisfying moments of pure terror and suspense.

In Alien: Romulus, a crew of young disenfranchised miners are tired of endlessly working for the Weyland-Yutani corporation. This motivates them to raid a derelict research station in orbit for its cryogenic pods which will allow them to travel to a brand-new colony world. However, they come to realize all too late that the station was attacked by a recovered XX121 Xenomorph which quickly grew into an entire horde of the classic sci-fi monsters. To that end, here are the top 10 scariest moments in Alien: Romulus, ranked from least to most terrifying.

10 Rook's Reactivation

(Both Times)

In the first act of Alien: Romulus, the remains of a synth known as Rook are found and he's eventually reactivated. This allows the miners to learn the truth about what happened to the space station and its crew, and how to save Navarro (Aileen Wu) who was implanted by a facehugger (one of the early stages of the xenomorph's growth cycle). Resembling Ian Holm's Ash from the first Alien, both of Rook's activations are solid jump scares, some of the first in the new Alien movie.

9 Rain Caught Between Xenomorph and Facehugger

A Rare Moment in the Alien Franchise

Rain Between Facehugger and Xenomorph

Near the end of Alien: Romulus when Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and Andy (David Jonnson) are working their way up the elevator before the gravity kicks back in, Rain finds herself in a rare and absolutely horrifying situation. After falling back down the shaft and being caught by a pursuing xenomorph, Rain gets trapped between this fully grown xeromorph and a facehugger that begins crawling toward her. In past Alien movies, facehuggers are rarely featured at the end of Alien movies as the threat usually moves onto the fully grown xenomorphs. As such, it's equally exciting and horrifying to see both creatures at the same time.

8 The Xenomorph Nest

Building Up To Tyler's Death

On the bottom floor of the research station, Rain and Andy lose Tyler (Archie Renaux) after rescuing Kay (Isabela Merced) from the xenomorphs who'd taken her back to their nest. To that end, the nest is full of corpses from the station's crew who'd been taken and used to grow the creatures' numbers. To that end, Romulus shows just how many xenomorphs were onboard the station after Tyler gets stabbed and pulled up to the ceiling, getting to see the incoming horde of aliens right before he dies.

Likewise, the nest on the bottom floor gets even more dangerous after Rain temporarily turns off the gravity and shoots several of the aliens. This creates a hazardous minefield of the alien's acid blood which Rain and Andy have to float past before it falls to the ground and melts the floor up to the cold vacuum of space. As such, the entire sequence is one of the movie's best and most action-packed, (while also being fairly terrifying).

7 The Facehuggers Waking Up From Cryo-Sleep

Swarming From The Water

The miners' first with the aliens is incredibly scary in the first act of Alien: Romulus. Attempting to grab fuel for their stolen cryo-pods, the rising temperatures result in several cryogenically frozen facehuggers waking up and dropping into the water below. Swimming and striking at the miners before eventually swarming, it's terrifying to see just how fast the facehuggers can truly move, especially thanks to more modern effects compared to past Alien movies. Likewise, seeing so many facehuggers at once is certainly quite horrifying as well.

6 The Hallway of Facehuggers

An Extremely Stressful and Scary Situation

David Jonsson as Andy walking down a hallway full of Facehuggers in Alien Romulus

After Bjorn (Spike Fearn) takes an implanted Navarro back onto the ship (which then crashes into the station's hanger), Andy, Tyler, and Rain are trying to get to Kay before she's taken by the Xenomorph who ends up killing both Navarro and Bjorn. As such, they're forced to travel through a hallway full of several facehuggers. Having matched the hallway's temperature to their own core body temps to give them a fighting chance, the pure stress of the moment and Kay being in danger inevitably rises said body temps, exposing them to the spider-like creatures which they just barely survive.

5 Xenomorph Cocoon

Bjorn Killed With Acid Blood

On board the miners' ship known as The Corbelan, Bjorn comes face-to-face with a cocoon that's apparently created between the chestburster stage and the full-grown xenomorph stage of the life cycle. Attacking the cocoon with his stun baton, Bjorn gets stabbed by the newly birthed xenomorph before the alien's acid blood melts his fingers and parts of his face. It's a truly grisly and tragic death, one that proves just how dangerous a xenomorph can be even after it's been wounded (the "swan song" as Rook calls it).

Revealing The Chestburster Inside Of Her

Just before Bjorn's death was Navarro's murder which is arguably even worse and far more gruesome. While hers is also an incredibly iconic demise seen throughout the Alien franchise, this one features an even darker twist. Having found a handheld X-ray device on board the station, Navarro uses it to scan her body in intense panic. This horrifically allows her and viewers to actively see the alien breaking her ribs and bursting out of her chest from inside her own body. While chestburster deaths are incredibly common in the Alien franchise, this one is quite notable and unique thanks to this X-ray device, making it all the more terrifying in this latest chapter.

3 The Offspring Egg

A Disturbing Human-Xeno Hybrid

Offspring Egg in Alien Romulus

Having used the "Promethean Fire" serum known as Z-01 to heal her wounds, the substance derived from xenomorphs' biology results in Kay's rapid birth who was revealed to have been pregnant at the beginning of the mission to the research station. However, Kay's child is horribly mutated due to the serum, resulting in an extremely disturbing half-human, half-xenomorph hybrid that's been referred to as "The Offspring" in Alien: Romulus. As a result, Kay ultimately gives birth to an egg which opens to reveal what looks to be a baby's face. However, the accelerated growth has only just begun in the movie's final act.

2 First Look At The Adult Offspring

Extremely Unsettling

Mere moments following its birth, The Offspring rapidly grows into its fully adult form at the end of Alien: Romulus, possessing just as many disfigured human features as it does from its xeromorph DNA. Likewise, the moment when Andy turns around to see this disturbing hybrid for the first time is one viewers won't soon forget. Looking right back at Andy in silence down the corridor, the Offspring starts rapidly crawling to get to Kay, its "mother".

The concept of a human/xenomorph hybrid has been explored before in the Alien franchise, such as the "Newborn" hybrid that saw Ripley 8 as its mother in Alien Resurrection. That said, Alien: Romulus takes the idea to a whole new level with the "Offspring" and its disturbing connections to Prometheus. It's also far more scary and unsettling to look at when compared to the Alien franchise's original xeromorph/human hybrid.

1 The Offspring's Final Scene

Alien: Romulus' Final (And Best) Jump Scare

The scarred face of The Offspring in Alien: Romulus (2024)

Last but not least, the very final shot of The Offspring serves to be one of the scariest moments in Alien: Romulus. Having opened up the bottom of The Corbelan to the cold vacuum of space, the final act makes it seem as though Rain successfully rid herself of the horrifying hybrid, having put on a space suit and tethered herself to the ship. Triumphant music even starts to play, only to be sharply cut off by the major jump scare that is The Offspring's sudden and terrifying return.

2:52
Related
Alien: Romulus Ending Explained

Alien: Romulus' ending leaves the door open for another entry in the franchise. We break down the Alien sequel's final moments & what might come next.

Attempting to break Rain's helmet open with its second, xenomorph-styled mouth, the Offspring manages to crack the visor before it ultimately loses its grip and gets disintegrated by LV-410's rings. While Rain survives and sets the ship to travel to the new colony world or Yvaga, this final jump scare shot featuring The Offspring is easily one of the scariest moments in the entire movie, coming right at the end of Alien: Romulus.

Alien: Romulus is now available on digital.

Alien Romulus Poster Showing a Facehugger Attacking A Human

Your Rating

Alien: Romulus
Release Date
August 16, 2024
Runtime
119 Minutes
Director
Fede Alvarez

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming

Alien: Romulus is the seventh film in the Alien franchise. The movie is directed by Fede Álvarez and will focus on a new young group of characters who come face to face with the terrifying Xenomorphs. Alien: Romulus is a stand-alone film and takes place in a time not yet explored in the Alien franchise.

Writers
Fede Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues, Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett
Franchise(s)
Alien
Studio(s)
Scott Free Productions, 20th Century
Distributor(s)
20th Century
Main Genre
Horror