As a "monster," the Thing inarguably stands pretty unrivaled in awesomeness in the halls of cinema, though I don't know if I could list it as a favorite character, since most of its "character" was usually pretending to be other characters. As far as personal favorites go, I do love crazy ol' Blair (mainly because I feel so bad for the guy since he always seemed to be the only one that fully comprehended the weight of their situation), and of course, MacReady himself. Russell definitely got to bring to life some pretty iconic characters during his many collaborations with Carpenter, though I still think MacReady may be his grea-*test*-('") (and most underappreciated) performance. His opening chess game tells you everything you need to know about the man in about 15 seconds: he's a loner, he's a drunk, and when he's outmatched he'd rather destroy everything than simply give up and lose.

For me, it's a toss-up between Blair, Windows, and Clark. Blair is probably the most conflicted and emotionally complex character - he is the first one to grasp the severity of the situation and seems to be unsure how to handle the information he has just learned. Not to mention the fact that he's played by Wilford "diabeetus" Brimley. Windows is a likable fellow and you can't help but feel sorry for him when he gets blasted by MacReady. I also like the sound of his voice for some reason. There's something appealing about Clark for me; the way he responds when MacReady shoots the dog, or when he hears that the dogs have been murdered by Blair - as an animal lover and owner of two dogs (one of which is a Husky) I can definitely sympathize.

I'd have to say it was a tie between Blair, Childs and Mac for the best but only slightly because they all did a bang up job. I was also really impressed with the dog because he really acted off right up until the kennel scene.

Jeez, I like all the characters (even Husky-Thing), but if I've gotta pick: The characters that struck me the most, were probably Fuchs, MacReady, and Nauls. I naturally gravitated toward MacReady first; He was a relatively quiet guy until the Thing caused a ruckus in the camp and he tries to keep a cool-head about himself and the men, (Kurt Russell is one of those rare actors that always gives stellar performance). I couldn't help but crack up everytime I saw him wearing that hat and how kept referring to the Norwegian's as "Sweedish". Fuchs is another character I could relate to, in some odd way. There was something about his calm and rational demeanor, particularly after taking up Blair's research, that made me so cool to me. I didn't expect him to end up mysteriously charred, so that bummed me out. Nauls, dare I say it, was a rather cute character to me. The little things about his character, like the roller-skates, never bothering to turn the volume down on his radio, and his facial expressions, made me think the rest of the men considered Nauls to be the "little brother" of their group (no kidding). I'll always wonder how Blair-Thing got him.