The Best Ridley Scott Movies, Ranked - and How to Stream Them

Ridley Scott’s second film, Alien, is still unrivalled in the genre it helped to create — creeping, monster-driven suspense horror, set in the black void of space — and is still the best film of Scott’s career.

From a craft point of view alone, H.R. Giger’s designs for the Xenomorph and the ship’s interiors are still some of the most influential in any science fiction movie, but the brilliance of Alien is as much to do with Scott’s direction and the strength of the cast — and not least Sigourney Weaver, who basically became a star overnight after first playing Ripley. 

The movie, of course, launched a franchise that is still alive and well today, but it’s hard to beat the original — though James Cameron came very very close.

Unsatisfied with just one groundbreaking sci-fi movie, Scott followed Alien three years later with Blade Runner, an even more influential sci-fi movie, this one a neo-noir in which Harrison Ford starred in the iconic role of Rick Deckard.

Like Alien, this Philip K. Dick adaptation has now spawned a sequel, Blade Runner 2049, and a TV show, 2099, but the originator still holds up and still looks incredible a near half century since its release. For this film and Alien alone, the director will always be considered one of the greats.

Scott’s biggest hit, taking both awards and box office into account, will always be Gladiator, a Roman epic with the action of a blockbuster and the tight, simple story of a claustrophobic character piece. 

Released in 2000, its CGI reproductions of Rome and the Colosseum were like nothing audiences had seen before, and in Russel Crowe, an actor at the height of his powers, Scott found the ideal star to play Maximus — the general who became a slave, who became a Gladiator. 

Go for all that, but stay for Joaquin Phoenix’s incredible turn as Commodus. It’s a movie that deserved every gram of its Best Picture Oscar.

Scott’s career is not without its fallow periods - he had one after Blade Runner, making a few relatively forgettable films before roaring back with Thelma & Louise, a feminist road movie that has grown to become a highly influential classic. One reason for its legacy was how unusual it was at that time for a movie with two female protagonists to be such a major hit, but almost everything about it has aged well..

The wide open skies of the Utah locations are still a marvel, as is the knockout physique and charm of the young Brad Pitt (in a star-making supporting role), but at the end of the day the movie belongs to Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon.

By 2015 it seemed as if Scott’s career might finally be tailing off a little, but then he came back yet again with The Martian, starring Matt Damon as a man stranded on the Red Planet. Ambitious, witty and imaginative, it’s one of Scott’s finest blockbusters.

If you appreciated Project Hail Mary this year — which was also adapted from an Andy Weir novel — you’re gonna love it. Think Cast Away in space and you’re basically there.

After Gladiator, the great director went through one of his most unpredictable eras, working again with Russell Crowe on various occasions and even remoulding him as a romantic lead in the surprisingly gentle A Good Year. The movie is one of those stories — like Living or Ikiru — where a stiff businessman learns to stop and smell the roses, specifically by inheriting his uncle's vineyard.

Like a glass of dessert wine, this one won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it might be just what you need in the colder months of the year when those sunny trips to France feel a million miles away.

Quention Tarantino recently went on the record to say that Black Hawk Down is the best film of the century so far. We wouldn’t go that far — the politics alone are enough to make you skeptical — but in terms of war movie filmmaking, it’s hard to fault it. 

The score, by Hans Zimmer, is one of the composer's very best, and it boasts a fine cast of young Hollywood actors from that era — with a young Josh Hartnett leading the line.

Ridley Scott came out of the gate quickly in 1977 with the critically acclaimed historical drama The Duellists, a period-set movie that split the difference between Barry Lyndon and Sergio Leone western.

The movie, which stars Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine, takes place in 17th Century France, where a rivalry between two French army officers gradually simmers to a boil over the course of 15 years.

Following the first movie’s release in ‘79, a wide range of directors gave their twist on the Alien franchise before Scott returned to direct Prometheus in 2012, a prequel movie that dove deep into the lore, moving it away from its horror roots and into the realms of hard science fiction. 

If you vibe with this one, you can follow it up with Alien: Covenant, but in terms of Alien universe building, Prometheus still reigns supreme.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Scott’s most recent pictures is how talked-about they are: directors who keep going into their old age tend to churn out movies that are politely well received by their fans without making too much wider impact, but Scott still has a knack for cultural relevance. 

In 2021, after a long absence either side of the Covid pandemic, he delivered both the challenging period drama The Last Duel and the mischievous biopic House of Gucci, following them in 2023 with a wildly ambitious epic, Napoleon — a movie that attempted to do for the legendary French general what Gladiator had done for ancient Rome.

Of course, it wasn’t nearly as successful, but if you like Ridley in period battle mode it’s well worth seeking out.