The original 1979 film follows Ellen Ripley and her encounters with the Xenomorphs. The success of the first film spawned a media franchise of novels, comic books, video games, and toys, as well as three sequel and three prequel films, and the story of her character Ripley's encounters with the Alien creatures became the thematic thread that ran through the sequel Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992) and Alien Resurrection (1997).
The subsequent prequels Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) abandoned this theme in favor of a crossover with the Predator franchise.
