PATREON EXCLUSIVE - The Thing (1982) - Our Favorite Movies #1

Thanks guys. I am also a big fan of this film. I saw it in the theater with my friends when it first came out. At the time, I thought some of the gory effects were a little over the top and gratuitous, but over the years I have come to think it was great. Not only do you have the tension and suspense of this creature being able to assimilate and look just like anyone, but these guys are isolated in the middle of nowhere; ratcheting up the tension to an 11. Ennio Morricone composed the main score; he also composed the scores to 1965's The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and the 1987 Untouchables. My favorite line is Palmer's when he sees the Norris-Thing head walking away. Some of my theories: I think Norris was not a thing when he was at the space ship. I think he was in the process of becoming a thing when he had his heart attack. My theory is he became contaminated-infected through food or somehow at some time between the spaceship and the thing bursting through his chest. As for the ending, for the longest time I held the same theory as Josh: that neither Childs nor MacCready were the thing. In recent years, I have changed my mind on that theory and agree more with Alex now that Childs was a thing, having become a thing between when we see him looking out the backdoor window and when the other guys see "Childs" running off into the snowstorm. For more review, commentary, and speculation on The Thing, I recommend viewing Oliver Harper's Youtube entry at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BeWBdbiz04 As an aside, in 2014 I read the story/novella Who Goes There by John Campbell. It was originally written in 1938 for a sci-fi pulp magazine. John Carpenter follows the story fairly closely. I recommend finding it on the internet (it's in the public domain) and giving it your attention.

Collin Freeman