The David Fincher series starts next week on Frame Work, but before that, Al and I decided to reflect on the two damn near perfect movies that led to his debut, 1979’s Alien, directed by Ridley Scott and 1986’s Aliens, directed by James Cameron. Two obviously great films, this is a conversation about how both succeed as completely as they do, and it’s about as big a geek-out session as we’ve had since we talked about Inglourious Basterds. Topics include the several layers of genius storytelling, working in harmony, the all time Weasel Hall of Fame, Lovecraftian Horror, the one-two punch of Hudson and Vasquez, and a bit on James Cameron, the all time best at making R-rated movies for children.

We’ll kick off the Fincher series next week with Alien3. In the meantime, you can always check out back episodes by subscribing to the podcast in the App store (Apple, several others), and if you’d like to give us a hand, you could even rate and review it (positively, one hopes), as that increases its visibility!