Song 1 – Well, There Goes Our Salvage, Guys (Jernigan)
The idea began in the most ordinary way imaginable. With beer!
Sometimes the best ideas begin as jokes. Ours started the evening after my wife and I watched Alien on Stage, the wonderful documentary about a group of Dorset bus drivers who loved Ridley Scott’s Alien so much that they staged their own delightfully homemade production. Sitting on our deck with a couple of beers, one of us asked a question that seemed completely ridiculous: What if James Cameron’s Aliens was a Broadway musical or even just an off off off-Broadway musical?
Song 2 – I’m Really an Okay Guy (Carter Burke)
That single joke snowballed.
In 1986, James Cameron’s Aliens exploded onto movie screens and became one of the greatest science fiction action films ever made. Forty years later, fans are still quoting its dialogue, debating its characters, and introducing new generations to LV-426. Like so many fans, I’ve loved the film for decades. What I never expected was that it would eventually inspire my wife and me to write a collection of original songs imagining Aliens as a musical.
Song 3 – You Can Kiss All That Goodbye (Ellen Ripley)
We started throwing around imaginary song titles based on famous quotes from the film. Then someone sang a line. Then came a chorus. Soon there were verses, followed by entire songs. Every time we sat outside with another couple of beers, another idea found its way onto a notepad. Before long we’d accidentally written an entire soundtrack. Or at least that’s what we convinced ourselves of in our increasingly inebriated state as we clinked two beer bottles together in celebration.
Song 4 – It’s a Second Chance, Kiddo (Ellen Ripley and Carter Burke)
Over the next few years those lyrics lived on an assortment of scraps and dog-eared sheets of paper stuffed into the utility drawer beside the bottle opener. Pencil marks began to fade, ink started to smudge, and more than one page bore the scars of an exploding takeout ketchup packet that I’d confidently saved because, “You never know.” There they sat—just ideas. Jokes we’d shared over a couple of beers. A souvenir of some good evenings together, but nothing we seriously imagined we’d ever turn into anything.
Song 5 – A Day in the Marine Corps (Alexander ‘Al’ Apone)
Life has a habit of deciding your schedule for you. Between my wife finishing her second degree and me still working, there never seemed to be enough time to tackle a project like this. Then, earlier this year, my career came to an unexpected close, and I suddenly found myself with something I’d been short on for years: time. Around the same time, I remembered that 2026 marked the 40th anniversary of Aliens, and what had been a drawer full of scribbled lyrics suddenly felt like a project worth dusting off.
Song 6 – I Prefer the Term ‘Artificial Person’ (Lance Bishop)
Most of the songs are done. There’s still a few that haven’t fully come together yet. They’d been written years earlier, one lyric and one laugh at a time. What remained was figuring out how to bring them to life. I spent countless hours editing scenes from the film, weaving them together with newly created AI imagery to visualize the moments we could only imagine. AI became another creative tool in the toolbox—not the storyteller, but a way to help stage scenes that never existed while staying true to the characters and the spirit of the film.
Song 7 – Anytime. Anywhere. (Jenette Vasquez)
The result is a collection of quirky fan-made music videos that celebrate one of our favourite movies in the only way we knew how: with affection, a healthy dose of satire, and perhaps just a touch of xenomorph-induced madness. We hope fellow Aliens fans enjoy watching them half as much as we enjoyed dreaming them up. Happy 40th Anniversary, and thanks for joining us for the show!
Song 8 – Game Over (William Hudson)