The Extraterrestrial Exterminator is a 2027 science fiction slasher action film directed by Tim Miller, and written by David S. Goyer, from a story by Goyer, Darren Lemke and Damon Lindelof. A remake of the 2024 film The Alien Woman, it stars Gabriel Luna, Kathryn Newton, Booboo Stewart, Vince Vaughn and Natalia Reyes. In the film, an unknown alien, which had landed via meteorite, has taken over the body of a human and goes on a killing spree, and her three friends are caught in the crossfire of her rampage.
Despite its middling reviews, Paramount Pictures acquired the rights to The Alien Woman in May 2025, after its commercial success and after Toho announced that they were beginning to distribute their rights for adaptations to major Hollywood studios. It was also after Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Sony Pictures Releasing acquired the rights to produce a The Mysterians remake and Varan remake in December 2024 and February 2025 respectively. Because the film was so new, the license to acquire the film's rights was relatively cheap. Miller was hired as director in June, whom the studio previously worked with him for Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Principal photography began in October 2025 and wrapped in February 2026.
The Extraterrestrial Exterminator was theatrically released on November 26, 2027 to mixed reviews, with praise toward its visual effects and violence, and criticism towards its characters, tone and screenplay. It underperformed at the box office, grossing $132.4 million against a budget of $90 million.
Plot[]
A meteorite passes through Earth's atmosphere, burning up as it breaches through. In the meantime, Steven Fernandez is a graduate student studying abroad in the Philippines, and tutoring for Erica Walker, who is a college student studying at the University of the Philippines Manila. Like a typical session, Erica passes with flying colors in their practice. When she leaves to go to her hotel via taxi cab, the meteorite crashes in the car, killing the driver upon impact and flipping the car upside down. In front of Erica laid the giant rock, blood surrounding it. Suddenly, the surface of the meteorite began to crack, before a parasitic slug emerged from the rock and jumped at her.
Steven comes back to his two younger siblings, Sarah and Nicholas, who also live in the city of Manila and study at the UPA. After a brief dinner session, he heads back into his hotel room and sits as his table, where, through the window, he sees Erica walking in the street alone with no shoes on. Thinking that he's seeing things, Steven takes a giant gulp of his coffee and sees Erica quickly gone vanished. In the meantime, Erica had been possessed and leeched by that slug, who is now residing in her body, and giving her superhuman abilities.
The slug prompts her to kill a couple who are kissing at bench. After wearing a pair of rubber gloves, she kills the boyfriend by ambushing him from behind and snapping his neck. Erica then proceeds to kill the girlfriend by forming a solid blade, via manipulating the shape of her arm seemingly at will, and stabbing it straight through her chest. She proceeds to stab both of their eyes out and eats them, leaving them in the wake of the night. Erica returns home, says nothing to her father and heads upstairs to sleep. Her father, Ian, notices several bruises and cuts on her face, worrying him.
The next morning, Ian is astounded to see that his daughter had gone out without him or without her lunch. Erica opted to sprint towards the UPA for class, and arrives in time for class, seemingly without fatigue. After the day is over, she meets Sarah for an afternoon snack, later joined by Nicholas. During a regular conversation when walking down the streets, Erica suddenly suffers from a seizure and passes out. They call 911, and Nicholas offered to watch over Erica, since Sarah had to get home by dinner for her own affairs. In the ambulance, Erica wakes up and starts to form blade-like weapons from her hands. She proceeds to kill the paramedics in the back, as well as the driver. Nicholas, terrified, immediately jumps from the vehicle, and sees it collide into a nearby building, exploding. Nicholas runs from the scene, as firefighters rush in. Erica walks out of the scene unscathed. However, her clothes were fully burned off, and so, she killed a firefighter for their clothes. She hijacks a car and leaves the scene.
Nicholas rushes back to his home at night, and tells Sarah on how she tried to kill the entire assistance crew. Since their parents are out for the week, the two run towards the hotel Steven is staying at. Meanwhile, Ian, who works for the Manila Police District, is called into the exploded scene. There he finds a almost-burnt picture of him and his daughter, as well as her backpack and phone. The officials there claim that she was consumed by the explosion, and because the wreckage is almost entirely disintegrated, the scene was likely caused by a faulty engine. Ian refuses to believe this, saying something killed his daughter. Suddenly, the bloodied body of a firefighter was found with her, with her throat and wrists slit. Detective Ian has been called to this case, with him having to juggle two cases: a murder and a mystery on how his daughter actually died.
By 10:00 am, Sarah and Nicholas, each armed with an M9 that their parents kept under their desks, run to the hotel that Steven is staying at, not knowing that Erica had been following them the entire time in her firefighter outfit. After frantically asking Steven to open the door, he eventually does, and the two attempt to explain the situation on how Erica could form blades out of her hands. Steven, thinking that's stupid, goes to the door to leave for a lunch meeting he had planned with a friend. Suddenly, Erica appears at the entrance and knocks him back to the end of the room. Having lost his breath, Steven quickly backs himself into a corner, while Nicholas and Sarah open fire on her. Erica slowly closes in on them whilst not reacting once to the bullets hitting her, and quickly disarms the two, knocking their guns aside. After showing off her regenerative capabilities, Erica goes in for the kill, until a blast from the side blows up half her face. Steven had a Mossberg 500 shotgun in his room, and was busy arming and loading it. As Erica regenerates her face, the three escape, but not before Steven gives a few more blasts to incapacitate her for a little longer.
When the three try to recollect their thoughts in the car, Erica chases them the three try to fire bullets and everything at the being, with the shotgun managing to momentarily slow her down at times. But when she catches up to the car, she tries to blow out the tires, but Nicholas grabs her head and Steven blows her head with the shotgun again. Bringing her more into the car, Nicholas notices a slug-like figure down her throat and tries to take it out, which lights the body up. However, the slug is tightly suctioned onto her throat, and when Erica's head fully regenerates, it chomps away Nicholas's hand cleanly, which makes her slip out of the car into a grill, which she collides with and explodes. Ian, who just happened to be there, pulls up to the scene. He, as well as the three who pull up, see Erica screaming in the fire before composing herself and walks out of the fire. The three takes it as how the slug-infected person would be weak to fire, while her father is shocked and speechless to see Erica alive. When Ian goes in for a hug, Erica lunges in, but is gunned down by the Fernandez's. While the two younger siblings force the detective into the car, Steven grabs a matchstick to confirm that the creature is indeed weak to fire. It also appeared as if the slug wanted to get out of the host's body. Before Steven could try and pull it out of Erica's throat, she quickly grabbed him and knocked him back to the car. This proved to his advantage, as it allowed for a quick escape. Seeing a motorcade left behind, she quickly hijacks and follows them quietly, disguising herself with a helmet.
The three explain the entire story on Erica's superhuman strength and regenerative capabilities, and how hot temperatures like fire would make her vulnerable. They quickly devise a plan to use a train that goes through the Manila Light Rail Transit System, and blow up the train at the dead end of the tracks. Immediately, Ian notifies the department of this plan and the entire situation of a superhuman killer which is his daughter. They frankly obliged, because upon checking his body cam footage, their suspicions were immediately rectified. They see that a mysterious motorbiker had been tailing them. Suspicious of if it is Erica, Steven immediately drives straight towards Paco Station, while Ian tells them what station they were headed towards, and then asks the department to shut down the railway line and for more guns and firepower. They immediately confirmed that an empty train was waiting for them, the commuter line has been shut down, and the police had already left a package of bombs and guns near Paco Station. The four storm into the entrance, find a fresh badge of guns and C4s, and board the train to bait Erica, all the while she had arrived and had jumped onto the train just before it was headed straight towards Calamba Station.
For the next ten minutes, Steven, Sarah and Nicholas, one handed, all fire their guns that they've placed throughout the numerous cars, including a rocket launcher that blows off the roof of one car and a bunch of grenade launchers to disorient Erica. Once they've reached the end, the Fernandez trio leap off the train, whilst suffering minor bruises. Ian, who at the front of the train at the pilot's seat, meets with Erica face-to-face. Erica gives him a stab in the torso with her bladed arms, but Ian had been holding a C4 detonator this whole time. Smirking at her for one last time, he presses the button, and the wheels explode, making the train go off the rails, and making the walls of the cars explode as well. His detective friends were witness to this.
Seeing the fiery scene, Steven and the two others presume Erica to truly be dead. But in turns out, she was still agonizingly crying in pain, engulfed and drenched in gasoline and fire, with no nearby water source. The three take this chance to pull the slug out of Erica's throat, all the way the trio grab fire extinguishers after the slug had gone out of her mouth. With the tendrils still suctioning onto her throat tightly, Steven pulls out an M9 and shoots through the tendrils whilst not shooting Erica or himself, detaching the parasite from her body. The two then put Erica out with fire extinguishers. With Erica now in a state of shock, Steven takes one last look at the slug and shoots it with his shotgun, exploding the body into a million different pieces.
Erica, wondering what has happened, asks the three if she can see her father. Sarah tells her that her father is dead to save her. Erica breaks out crying, while the two friends comfort her, though Nicholas making things slightly worse when she points out that she ate her hand. Steven gives one last good look as the sun sets, and he sees a meteor shower raining down from the night sky.
A post-credits scene shows Steven driving Erica back home, as she managed to drop all legal charges of murder, for she wasn't in control of her body. Suddenly, another meteorite hits the hood of the car, overturning it. Steven and Erica watch, as the rock's surface begins to crack open.
Main credits[]
- Directed by: Tim Miller
- Screenplay by: David S. Goyer
- Story by: David S. Goyer and Darren Lemke and Damon Lindelof
- Produced by: Ryuhei Kitamura and David Ellison
- Executive producers: Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Tim Miller, David S. Goyer and Edward Cheng
- Director of photography: Ken Seng
- Production design by: Sonja Klaus
- Edited by: Julian Clarke
- Music by: Tom Holkenborg
- Visual effects supervisors: Jonathan Rothbart
Cast[]
- Gabriel Luna as Steven Fernandez
- Kathryn Newton as Erica Walker / The Extraterrestrial Exterminator
- Booboo Stewart as Nicholas Fernandez
- Vince Vaughn as Detective Ian Walker
- Natalia Reyes as Sarah Fernandez
Production[]
Development[]
Despite its middling reviews, The Alien Woman proved to be successful at the box office. Paramount Pictures acquired the rights to the film in May 2025, after its commercial success and after Toho announced that they were beginning to distribute their rights for adaptations to major Hollywood studios. It was also after Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Sony Pictures Releasing acquired the rights to produce a The Mysterians remake and Varan remake in December 2024 and February 2025 respectively. Because the film was so new, the license to acquire the film's rights was relatively cheap. The film was helmed by Skydance Media, who had a production contract with Paramount since 2009, with David Ellison acting as producer, and Dana Goldberg and Don Granger acting as executive producers.
Pre-production and writing[]
Tim Miller was hired as director in June, whom the studio previously worked with him for Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). He hired David S. Goyer, Darren Lemke and Damon Lindelof to write the screenplay. Being aware of the source material, Miller asked the three writers to try three different approaches; a dark, straightforward slasher like the original, a fun action film to be along the lines of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and a somber drama film. Goyer wrote the darker story, while Lemke wrote the more action-oriented story. Lindelof was tasked to write the dramatic version, but he ended up dropping mid-way through pre-production to work on The Mysterians from Space. Miller wanted to combine the two complete scripts with elements from Lindelof's draft, and he tasked Goyer to write the complete screenplay.
Most of the film played the same beats as the original film. One major change Goyer did input that deviated from the source material was that the alien would not actually kill the human after transforming into it, and instead assimilating into the being, acting more as a parasite towards the host; keeping the human alive for its malicious intentions, similar to how Marvel's Venom acted towards its human hosts. Goyer explained that the change was made to make the audience root for the character's struggle of getting a parasite out of their body, whilst trying to keep themselves alive, though Miller put out a claim that this was a change that was reinforced by Paramount's executives, to keep the characters alive for potential sequels. Goyer finished the script by September, one month before principal photography was slated to begin.
At the same time in July, the casting process was also taking place. Gabriel Luna was announced as the lead actor, while Kathryn Newton was announced as the lead actress, with Booboo Stewart and Vince Vaughn being cast the week after. Natalia Reyes, whom she and Luna worked with Miller on Terminator: Dark Fate, was cast in mid-August. The Alien Woman director Ryuhei Kitamura was brought on as producer of the film.
Filming[]
Principal photography began in October 2025 and wrapped in February 2026, with the film being shot in Manila. Miller took it upon himself to honor the original by shooting it in the country of origin.
The film's train sequence, which originally takes place at the Manila LRT system, was changed to the now-defunct PNR Metro Commuter Line. Originally meant to be a CG sequence, Miller shot the derailment scene on camera at Calamba Station. The special effects team, led by Neil Corbould, built the train from scratch and installed a lever system at the wheels of the train to get the train to derail without the use of dangerous explosives. The remaining tracks were used by the film crew before being dismantled to give way for the construction of the North–South Commuter Railway.
Post-production[]
Unlike the previous film's usage of practical effects, the film extensively uses CGI, which aligned with Miller's directing style. Industrial Light & Magic, Digital Domain, Blur Studio, Weta FX and Rodeo FX provided the 1,400 visual effects shots, under the supervision of Jonathan Rothbart, whom Miller previously worked with Deadpool (2016). Many of the original's big set pieces were all recreated with CGI, since Miller "wanted visual effects to get the spotlight, since they seemed to get underrated praise next to practical effects." Kitamura disliked the approach initially, but liked it once Miller broke down the entire process.
Despite the train sequence being on camera, most of the sequence would still be finalized with CG. Some train shots shot practically were replaced with a CG train.
Music[]
Tom Holkenborg composed the music for The Extraterrestrial Exterminator. This would mark his third Toho adaptation that he'd score for, after Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and go onto score Godzilla x Kong: Monster Apocalypse.
Release[]
Theatrical[]
The Extraterrestrial Exterminator was theatrically released on November 26, 2027 by Paramount Pictures worldwide. It released on December 1 in the Philippines and on December 24 in Japan. The film was given an R-rating, the first Toho adaptation to be rated as such.
Home media[]
The Extraterrestrial Exterminator was released on Digital HD on January 13, 2028, and released on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD on February 21, 2028.
Reception[]
Box office[]
The Extraterrestrial Exterminator grossed $50.6 million in North America and $81.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $132.4 million. Accounting for all expenses, such as production and marketing, the film had break-even point of $230-250 million. The film ended up losing $45 million for Paramount, cancelling any and all plans for sequels or spin-offs.
The film was initially projected to gross $25-35 million in its domestic opening weekend. Upon the film grossing $2.4 million on its first day, projections fell to $20-23 million. The film grossed $23.3 million in its opening weekend, placing second, behind The Authority, which had released two weeks prior. In its second weekend, the film grossed $11.9 million, a drop of 49%. It was completely overshadowed in its third weekend by Godzilla Plus Two, grossing $7 million, compared to the $15.7 million Plus Two had accumulated in its opening weekend.
Critical reception[]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 60% based on 255 reviews, with an average rating of 4.50/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "From the director of the sixth Terminator movie, you can tell he mostly copied the cool visuals and violence, as well as several of its story beats." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 41 out of 100 based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 64%, and 45% with a "definite recommend."
Accolades[]
| Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturn Awards | Best Horror Film | The Extraterrestrial Exterminator | Nominated |
| Best Actor | Gabriel Luna | Nominated | |
| Best Special Effects | Jonathan Rothbart, Neil Corbould, Vinod Gundre and Sheldon Stopsack | Nominated | |
| Visual Effects Society Awards | Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project | Oliver Kane, Mat Monro, Florence Green and Serban Ungureanu - Commuter Train | Nominated |
| Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal Project | Neil Corbould, David Brighton, Ray Ferguson and Keith Dawson | Nominated | |
| Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Picture | Ryuhei Kitamura and David Ellison | Nominated |
| Worst Supporting Actor | Vince Vaughn | Nominated | |
| Worst Screenplay | David S. Goyer, Darren Lemke and Damon Lindelof | Nominated |
Cancelled sequel[]
Initially, Paramount wanted to start a franchise with The Extraterrestrial Exterminator, with a sequel showing rival aliens fighting for territory. Goyer and Miller put together a story draft weeks before the film premiered. When the film bombed, all plans were scrapped. Coincidentally, at around the same time, Universal Pictures acquired the rights to produce an adaptation of The Human Vapor for the following years, which would be revealed to be The Invisible Man vs. The Human Vapor, written and directed by Leigh Whannell.
Trivia[]
- This film is the only direct Toho adaptation to date that does not credit the company in the end credits sequence.
- Universal Pictures' The Invisible Man vs. The Human Vapor was considered by many fans to be the spiritual successor of The Extraterrestrial Exterminator.
- While the film never got any expansion in the form of any films, Matt Frank published an unlicensed crossover between the Extraterrestrial Exterminator and the Terminator, in his graphic novel called "Two Sides of Termination."
- The film's train sequence takes place in a fictional unnamed line of the Manila LRT system, despite being at-grade and the use of commuter rail rolling stock, unlike in the original which actually used the elevated Line 1.
- Kathryn Newton was the first and only actress considered for the titular role, as she bears a striking resemblance to Ysabel Ortega. This resemblance would also result in Newton being cast as Olivia Imperial for the American remake of #JusticeForLove: End of the World, that was portrayed by Ortega in the original film.
Notes[]
- ↑ The studio ultimately goes uncredited in the end credits, though the Writers Guild of America website features them.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||