Ridley Scott has officially returned to the Alien franchise. He is hard at work on Alien: Covenant right now and we are all hoping it is a return to form ala Alien and Aliens. Though, in total, there are actually 7 films in the Alien franchise and that can be a little bit daunting, especially because not all of the movies are great.

A new video that comes courtesy of the Mashable YouTube channel has solved that problem for everyone though. The video is called 'Alien in Under Three Minutes' and it is exactly what it sounds like. The video takes you through all seven installments of the franchise and explains the lore behind the movies with animations and all, clocking in at a total of 2 minutes and 44 seconds.

The video is part of a series that Mashable created called 'Too Long; Didn't Watch' and pretty much exists to get people caught up on various films and other pop culture properties that some folks may simply never actually get around to seeing. Granted, in the case of the Alien franchise specifically, the first two entries are well worth your time, but it is very justifiable to skip other installments. And this video actually does a very good job at explaining what you are missing, but does sum it all up nicely by saying "Every film is a massacre." Though funny, their description of Alien is pretty on point as well.

"In Alien 1, a group of space truckers discovers an abandoned ship filled with eggs. One of the dudes is a big fan of eggs. So he brings back a specimen, attached to his face. Over the course of a day, the alien kills just about everyone."

The beginning of the video is spent simply setting up the franchise and does a pretty great job of describing the main villain of the Alien films, calling the Xenomorph, "A tall beetle from another planet with really really long lips." It then notes that, "This thing is literally walking death." It also took a fun moment to discuss the life cycle of a Xenomorph, which may very well be the best segment of the whole video.

The Alien franchise is one of the most enduring franchises in history and even though not every film has been great, some of them not even good, they have always made their money and the universe is something people seem to want to revisit time and time again. Alien: Covenant seems promising and it is set for a release next year. With Scott in the director's chair and with Prometheus out of the way, this has the potential to really get the franchise back on its feet. With any luck, we will also get to see Neill Blomkamp's Alien 5 at some point in the near future as well. In any case this video will serve as a nice, quick catch up for those who haven't seen all of the movies and will provide those who have seen them with a good chuckle. Be sure to check it out below for yourself.