The complete guide to all the Alien Xenomorphs

A Xenomorph variant in the Alien movie, Alien vs Predator.
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

What's more terrifying than a Xenomorph? Well, if you've watched all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Alien movies in order, you'd know that the answer to that question is "not a lot"🍃. First introduced in Ridley Scott's Alien, the beast has cropped up in several sequels and spin-offs, each time making us more and more afraid to enter abandoned space stations. Or, for that matter, anywhere that's dark. 

Name another creature that's biological defense system (in this case, acid for blood) can cut through the hull of a ship. Think that's cool? What about a being with mandibles that would baffle eve🀅n the most experien🍬ced of dentists? It's impossible. And, while I'm loathe to quote the duplicitous wretch that is Ash, he does have a fair point: They are the perfect specimen. But did you know there's not just one type? 

Xenomorph embryos adopt certain characteristics of their hosts, meaning there are a lot of variations on this ghastly species for us to go through. So, with the new movie 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Alien: Romulus now out in cinemas, we've g﷽ot a complete guide on ꦇall the Xenomorphs for you down below. 

1. Facehugger

A facehugger Xenomorph in the movie Alien.

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

This nasty little parasite is the first Xenomorph to appear in Alien. It has eight finger-like legs, allowing it to scuttle very fast, and a long tai🌄l. Its birth marks the beginning of the Xenomorph's life cycle. Facehuggers hatch from an egg. It then attaches itself to the face of its host and inserts a long proboscis - a tube - down the throat, allowing it to pl🍒ant an embryo in the host's chest. Nice.

To ensure that the embryo is safely nestled into its warm snuggy environment, the facehugger likes to get a good grip on things. That's why any attempts by meddling humans to remove its legs makes its tail ti𒐪ghten around the host's neck. Try and chop its legs ❀off? Fine. It'll just bleed acid everywhere. Once the Xenomorph embryo is secure, the facehugger drops off and dies.

Alien 3 initially had plans for a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Super Facehugger, spotted i💃n behind-the-scenes photos, th🌟at holds the embryo for an Alien queen. That was scrapped, however, but we do see them again in Alien: Romulus!

2. Warrior / Drone

A Xenomorph warrior growling during the movie Alien.

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

The most recognisable standard Xenomorph has tw🍰o 𓆏main variations, typically referred to in fan circles as drones or warriors. They emerge first from their hosts as 'chest bursters', small worm-like beings, and grow to full size in a matter of hours.

The creature in Alien is dubbed a Drone, and soon became the icon for all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best alien movies. Designed by H.R. Giger, it has a smooth, elongated head, a vertebrate-esque body, a long, spiked tail, two sets of retractable jaws, and the ultimate weapon: acid for blood. Initially, its purpose was to create a suitable environment to house its victims so they could be turned into new eggs. Ridley Scott ended up cutting a scene wꦅhich would have made that part of the beast's reproductive cycle. and midway through a hideous transformation. 

Luckily, that was axed, making way for the Warrior. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:James Cameron designed this very similar version for the sequel Aliens. It looks mostly the same, except for a slightly dif🧸ferent ridged desig🔯n on the carapace and its allegiance to the queen. 

3. Queen

A queen Xenomorph snarling during the movie Aliens.

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Alien queens differ from the warriors and drones, and we're not just talking size. Yes, they're massive and have huge crests perched on their heads, adding to their stature. But their purpose is mainly reproduction. They prefer a quiet life, chilling in their hives popping out hund♚reds of eggs from their attached ovipositors (that's the bi▨g translucent tube thing used to plop them out.)

Still, they're not averse 🌜to a punch-up. The first time a queen appears onscreen is toward the end of Aliens when Ripley discovers the nest and decides to incinerate it. The queen quickly rips away from the ovipositor (ouch🐟ie) in pursuit of Ripley and even figures out how to summon an elevator. She's really smart. 

Later queens appear in Resurrection and Alien Versus Predator. The design of the AvP version underwent some tweaks, namely making her faster. It disrupts some of the menace she has in Aliens, like she slo▨wly descen💮ds from the dropship after tearing up Bishop, her toothy smile dripping with saliva. Way scarier.

4. Dog alien

A dog alien Xenomorph variant stalking Ripley during the movie, Alien 3.

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Because Xenomorph embryos adopt traits from the host, we 𒆙get all kinds of strange variations, like the dog🅷 version in Alien 3. Also referred to by the crew as the 'Bambi burster' and the 'runner' or 'dragon' by fans, it's a much smaller creature. It possesses the four-leggedness and agility of a canine, along with the rest of the Xenomorph's usual behaviours. 

How it can crawl up and around walls like Spider-Man is presumably inherent in the Xenomorph. Or perhaps the dog's gr💝anddad was a circus performer. Due to an anomaly in how the dog's and Xenomorph's DNA mesh together, the chest-burster is a lot bigger than the꧋ ones spawned from humans. 

Originally, the special effects crew tried a♎ttaching a Xenomorph costume to a whippet for t൩hat added touch of authenticity. Yeah... , so they went with a CGI version instead.

5. Oxen alien

An oxen alien Xenomorph variant covered in blood during the movie Alien 3.

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Listen, there are many reasons why Alien 3 isn't exactly remembered as one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best sci-fi movies. But one of the reasons is that the film underwent many, many changes during production. One of those alterations affᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚected how the Xenomorph made its way onto the prison planet. As seen♌ in the Assembly Cut, the movie opens with the prisoners using a herd of oxen to yank Ripley's EEV escape pod out of the water. Can you guess what happens next?

Yes, one of those poor creatures is attacked by a facehugger. In this longer - and greatly improved - edit of the movie, instead of seeing a che꧅stburster emerge from a dog, . Fans꧋ speculate that the reason the creature is so big is because it took longer to crack through the ox's chest. This is probably why the ox is dead at the time. 

6. Newborn

A newborn Xenomorph variant during the movie Alien Resurrection.

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Alien Resurrection has Weylan꧑d-Yutani scientists cloning Ripley so they can get their greedy hands on the alien queen embryo in her chest. They succeed in harvesting the Xenomorph's DNA and make a load of aliens and a load of Ripleys.

Through all the messed-up cloning stuff, the only surviving Ripley sort of becomes ha♉lf-Alien, and the Alien queen becomes half-Ripley, complete with a human reproductive system. And you know what else the queen has? Butt-ugly offspring. 

The Newborn is... man, who knows what it is. Half-human, half-Alien, 100% revolting. It bursts forth from the q🦂ueen's humongous womb, takes one look at its mother and smashes her jaw clean off. Aside from its shitty attitude, it's also pretty unpleasant to look at. Its skin resembles hardened mucus. Its deep-set eyes look eerily human. To keep the whole alien-human aspect going, it originally had two sets of engorged human genitals, but they were digitally erased.

Unfortunately, Newborns may be more of a thing in the future on the Alien timeline, which you can read more about in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Alien: Romulus ending explained guide. Hopefully, our hunch is wrong, though, and this Xenomorph variant stays locked in o𝔉ur nightmares instead. 

7. Deacon

An Xenomorph Deacon during the movie Alien Covenant.

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Prometheus is a touchy topic among Alien fans, but it can't be denied that the creature at the end is related to the Xenomorph. While there's no official name for it, it's referred to as the Deacon or Proto-xenomorph. There's no mistaking that it's some variant of the bea🥀st in the main Alien series, especially if you inspect its features. That long, domed head, the double-jaw, the general hostility immediately after being born? Al✨l Xenomorphic traits.

As th💜e film takes place years before the first Alien, it's assumed that this creature is a distant ancestor of the Xenomorph. If that's the🌞 case, then the Xenomorphs had human DNA in them way before Alien Resurrection.

Let's break it down: Elizabeth Shaw gets impregnated by Charlie Holloway, who's infected with the black goo. The resultant "offspring" is a giant starfish-shaped creature, the Trilobite, which grows at an alarming rate and later facehugs one of the Engineers. Sometime later, the Deacon bursts out of the dead Engineer's chest. For more details, head over to our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Prometheus review

8. Predalien

A Xenomorph Predalien fighting the Predator in the rain.

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

The final moments of Alien versus Predator show one of the Yautja (the official species name) carted o🌼nto a ship with a Xenomorph facehugger att𒆙ached. Say hello to the .

This version is perhaps the most deadly. It incorporates the violent, unrelenting qualities of the alien with the violent, unrelenting qualities of the predator. It's a lot stro🦹nger than the human-spawned Xenomorphs and boasts a number of other unique visuals, such as the pred's fancy dreadlocks. 

Another unpleasant twist in the Xenomorph life cycle is that the PredAlien removes the need for an egg-laying queen. It simply opens its hideous jaws, latches its mouth over the host/terrified victim, and chugs multiple chestburster embryos directly into the body. Except according to the film's directors, they're actually bellybursters that cause the person to split 🎐wide open from the stomach. The whole thing's made even more horrible in the sequel when the PredAlien does that . 


If you want to hear about the latest Xenomorphs, you can read our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Alien: Romulus review. Or, for the future of the Alien franchise, check out our guide on everything we know so far about the upcoming TV series 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Alien: Earth

Gem Seddon iဣs GamesRadar+'s west coast Entertainment News Reporter, working to🎉 keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter. 

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