Editing The Thing (1982 film) (section)

===Music===
{{Main|The Thing (soundtrack)}}
{{Listen|filename=The Thing Score Sample.ogg|title=Main theme from ''The Thing''|description=Ennio Morricone created a sound that replicated John Carpenter's own style of synthesized music. The piece is used throughout ''The Thing''.|format=[[Ogg]]}}

[[Ennio Morricone]] composed the film's score, as Carpenter wanted ''The Thing'' to have a European musical approach.{{sfn|Evangelista |2017}}{{sfn|Fuiano|Curci|1994|p=24}} Carpenter flew to Rome to speak with Morricone to convince him to take the job. By the time Morricone flew to Los Angeles to record the score, he had already developed a tape filled with an array of synthesizer music because he was unsure what type of score Carpenter wanted.{{sfn|Fuiano|Curci|1994|pp=24–25}} Morricone wrote complete separate orchestral and synthesizer scores and a combined score, which he knew was Carpenter's preference.{{sfn|Jagernauth |2015}} Carpenter picked a piece, closely resembling his own scores, that became the main theme used throughout the film.{{sfn|Fuiano|Curci|1994|pp=24–25}} He also played the score from ''Escape from New York'' for Morricone as an example. Morricone made several more attempts, bringing the score closer to Carpenter's own style of music.{{sfn|Evangelista |2017}} In total, Morricone produced a score of approximately one hour that remained largely unused but was later released as part of the film's soundtrack.{{sfn|Fuiano|Curci|1994|p=25}} Carpenter and his longtime collaborator [[Alan Howarth (composer)|Alan Howarth]] separately developed some synth-styled pieces used in the film.{{sfn|Twells|2013}} In 2012, Morricone recalled:
<blockquote>I've asked [Carpenter], as he was preparing some electronic music with an assistant to edit on the film, "Why did you call me, if you want to do it on your own?" He surprised me, he said{{snd}}"I got married to your music. This is why I've called you."{{spaces}}... Then when he showed me the film, later when I wrote the music, we didn't exchange ideas. He ran away, nearly ashamed of showing it to me. I wrote the music on my own without his advice. Naturally, as I had become quite clever since 1982, I've written several scores relating to my life. And I had written one, which was electronic music. And [Carpenter] took the electronic score.{{sfn|Evangelista|2017}}</blockquote>

Carpenter said:
<blockquote>[Morricone] did all the orchestrations and recorded for me 20 minutes of music I could use wherever I wished but without seeing any footage. I cut his music into the film and realized that there were places, mostly scenes of tension, in which his music would not work{{spaces}}... I secretly ran off and recorded in a couple of days a few pieces to use. My pieces were very simple electronic pieces{{snd}}it was almost tones. It was not really music at all but just background sounds, something today you might even consider as sound effects.{{sfn|Evangelista|2017}}</blockquote>