A science experiment goes dangerously wrong. Quarantining the infected proves impractical or insufficient. Welcome to Alien: Coronavirus (sorry, Romulus), the franchise’s best and most evocative effort since Sigourney Weaver donned a mechanical exosuit in the classic 1986 sequel. 

Of course, the Alien movies have dredged ideological waters in the past, most famously in David Fincher’s 1992 follow-up-cum–AIDS parable, Alien 3. If that bleak film represented the series at its most progressive, framing the title creature as a (over-obvious) metaphor for HIV, the latest entry marks a decidedly reactionary turn. More explicitly than ever, the franchise is now a critique of scientific utopianism, a posture as dangerous as any virus. The newest offering even features a loosely constructed Anthony Fauci stand-in.