10 Best Sci-Fi Movie Cliffhangers

10. Alien Covenant

Alien: Covenant was not the successful revival to the Alien franchise that many wanted it to be, but it does have a terrific ending.

The sixth movie in the franchise (and second prequel after Prometheus) centres on the Covenant ship crew, led by Daniels (Katherine Waterston) and android, Walter (Michael Fassbender), who, whilst on route to the planet, Origae-6, are forced to take refuge on a mysterious planet, where they are terrorised by a new kind of Xenomorph.

At the end, when it seems like Daniels and her crew have defeated the Xenomorphs, the crew return to Covenant to go back to hypersleep. However, it is then revealed that Walter is in fact his malevolent older clone, David, who then proceeds to set his evil plan into action. He places some alien embryos with some human embryos, planning on making his own Xenomorph, and then sets course for the highly-populated Origae-6.

A dour and grim ending, this is one of the highlights of an otherwise disappointing sequel. It works so well because it feels like an original, innovative moment in an otherwise tired franchise. It’s a shame that we’re unlikely to see a third movie (at least, for a while, anyway), as this ending sets up what would have been a great premise for a sequel.