What Song is Playing at the End of ‘Alien: Earth’? Noah Hawley Explains Those Black Sabbath, Tool Needle Drops

FX’s Alien: Earth takes everything we know and love about the original Alien movies and gives it a little twist. Instead of following intrepid explorers trapped in a spaceship with a Xenomorph, Alien: Earth ponders what would happen if one of those Weyland-Yutani research vessels crash landed on Earth.

Of course, that’s not the only wrinkle that series creator Noah Hawley throws our way. In Alien: Earth, we learn that Prodigy founder and corporate overlord Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) has figured out how to transfer the human consciousness into a synthetic form. These “hybrids” are literally dying children who are placed into super-strong adult robot forms as part of Boy Kavalier’s experiments. Now immortal, they are reborn as their Peter Pan-obsessed boss’s “lost boys.”

When Wendy (Sydney Chandler), the first hybrid, discovers that her brother Hermit (Alex Lawther) is stuck in the dangerous wreckage of the USSS Maginot, she proposes that she and the other hybrids go on a rescue mission. Boy Kavalier only agrees because he wants his team, including the synthetic Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant), to round up the five alien species aboard the Weyland-Yutani ship.

The first two episodes of Alien: Earth dropped on FX and Hulu tonight and if you made it to the end of each installment, you might have noticed something totally new to the franchise: needle drops. Alien: Earth Episode 1 ends with Black Sabbath’s “The Mob Rules” over the closing credits, while Alien: Earth Episode 2 subs in “Stinkfist” by Tool.

Decider can confirm that, yes, this is an ongoing trend throughout the rest of the series. Every episode of Alien: Earth ends with a raucous rock ‘n roll needle drop.

“I mean, classic film, classic rock, right?” Alien: Earth creator and showrunner Noah Hawley said. “I think that literally in the movie, Aliens, Vasquez yells, ‘Let’s rock!’”

Hawley explained that he didn’t initially have the idea to bookmark every episode with a rock song, but that it was an organic impulse born out of the editing bay.

“I didn’t go into the filming planning to do that, but as I got into the editorial process, each episode kind of ends on a cliffhanger,” Hawley said. “What I’m looking for is to make an arena show, right? It’s something that feels bigger than than a small theater. It’s an arena show. And so, you know, I started to put these songs in at the end, these big classic metal or hard rock songs.”

Hawley revealed that he’s a “big fan of the Tool song” in Episode 2. “You don’t see a lot of Tool on soundtracks,” he said. “You know, there’s a Queens of the Stone age track in there later on. That’s really great.”

“You know, it’s a feeling, right? I’m just trying to create a big feeling in the audience as the episodes end and you realize that you have to wait another week to see it, but it’s a celebration of what you’ve watched before and throwing you into the future.”

What Song Plays at the End of Alien: Earth Episode 1 “Neverland”?

What’s the song that plays at the end of Alien: Earth Episode 1, just as Wendy and her friends are about to enter the wreckage on New Siam? That would be “The Mob Rules” by Black Sabbath.

The song aptly opens with a warning to civilians that evil is on its way:

“Close the city and tell the people
That something’s coming to call
Death and darkness are rushing forward
To take a bite from the wall, oh”

Black Sabbath, of course, is also famously Ozzy Osbourne’s band. The beloved rocker passed away recently at the age of 76. DECIDER can confirm that the song was chosen before his death, but it still feels like a great homage to the Prince of Darkness.

What Song Plays at the End of Alien: Earth Episode 2 “Mr. October”?

Alien: Earth Episode 2 “Mr. October” ends with “Stinkfist” by Tool. While that song is obviously about sex, the subtext is about the narrator seeking some sort of validation that they are alive. There are lyrics that describe being “desensitized to everything,” which could describe the hybrids.

“But it’s not enough, I need more
Nothing seems to satisfy
I said, I don’t want it, I just need it
To breathe, to feel, to know I’m alive”

Again, Hawley told DECIDER he’s a “big fan” of this one.