The Alien franchise is a pentalogy of films that began with the original film in 1979 and ended with the final installment in 1996. It follows a woman named Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) who is forced to do battle with a series of extraterrestrial creatures (the titular 'Aliens') in the far future, creatures whose only goal is to use humans as incubators for their offspring, killing them in the process.