Every Ridley Scott Movie Ranked Worst To Best

2. Alien (1979)

Alien changed the world. That's how big a film it was. It might not have invented the horror sci-fi genre but it did more for it than any film has since, and it set the mould for hundreds of monster in space movies to follow on its trails. That nothing has come close to matching it (Aliens is an entirely different genre) says everything you need to know about it.

The film's story is so well-versed that it's almost passed straight into cliche (which actually seems to be the case with the majority of Scott's best works), and it almost feels like even those who haven't seen it would recognise the pillars of its story elsewhere. It is the perfect portrait of a character pushed to their extreme condition through adversity, and Ellen Ripley is pretty much the poster-girl for the genre.

It is still stunning that this was only Scott's second film - especially at it feels a galaxy away from The Duellists - and even more stunning that the film wasn't quite a home-run when it first came out. Perhaps that boils down to its simplicity - which absolutely shouldn't be used as a rod for its back: instead it's an indication of Scott's restrained, atmospheric film-making that dragged something so affecting out of something so slight.