The Alien series is one of the most beloved and revered sci-fi franchises in Hollywood history, even if everyone acknowledges that the first two installments are the only ones that are any good. OK, maybe Alien 3 has some cool moments, but don’t even try and sell me on Alien: Resurrection. And as for those Alien vs. Predator movies? Nah.

But every good franchise deserves redemption, and Twentieth Century Fox is moving forward with their plans to bring back Alien in a big bad way. First off, they are currently in pre-production for Alien: Covenant, with original Alien director Ridley Scott at the helm. It is technically a sequel to 2012’s Prometheus, which was originally sold as being only sort-of related to the Alien series. Then it kind of underperformed, and presto, it’s now officially part of the Alien series.

And that’s not the only Alien sequel that Fox has planned. Disctrict 9 director Neil Blomkamp is planning an Alien film that reunites Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley with characters from James Cameron’s Aliens like Newt and Hicks. But hey wait, didn’t they die in Alien 3’s opening credits? Maybe we’ll find out that those last two movies were all a bad dream Ripley had while in cryo-sleep.

Now, the folks at Mashable have created a handy “Alien in 3 Minutes” video which sums up nearly forty years of the franchise for newbies, looking to get into to the world of xenomorphs and bad ass heroines before the movies arrive. They might miss a few key points here and there, but seem to recognize the importance of Jones the cat, the clever feline who survive not one, but two different Alien movies, while a bunch of stupid humans kept getting killed. You can watch the video in its entirety above.

Did Mashable’s video help catch you up properly on nearly forty years of Alien lore? Let us know what you think down below in the comments.

Image: Twentieth Century Fox / H.R. Giger