Today, June 25, two of the best movies of all time jointly celebrate their shared birthday, as they both turn 41. Get out the birthday cake.
Both sci-fi classics, the movies are John Carpenter’s The Thing and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. It’s a good day if you love science fiction.
Fascinatingly, while both are now regarded as two of the best movies of all time, they were also major box office disappointments upon their release, only finding their popularity years later. The relative failure of The Thing was, kind of hilariously, attributed to the release of E.T. two weeks prior, with analysts at the time saying that after the family friendly alien movie had made waves, there was no appetite for Carpenter’s existential horror.
Meanwhile, Blade Runner also suffered from an oversaturated sci-fi market as – in addition to The Thing and E.T. – sophomore Star Trek movie The Wrath of Khan also hit theaters in the same month. June 1982 really did see the debut of some of the best science fiction movies ever made. Now, rightly, we all love all of these four releases.
The then underappreciated Blade Runner and The Thing have since been on the receiving end of sequels and reboots, with Blade Runner in particular remaining an active franchise. Following on from Denis Villeneuve’s 2049, a live-action Blade Runner TV series is in development, in addition to the recent release of animated series and table top games.
Equally, Carpenter has teased that The Thing could be getting another reboot soon, with his involvement.
It’s exciting fans to be fans of either, or both, and whatever the future holds for the pair, we know how we’re celebrating tonight.
For more on the classics, check out our picks for the best ’80s movies and best thriller movies. Or, keep your eye on all the new movies coming in 2023, before seeing what’s new on Netflix.