re: How would you rank these four 80's sci fi films?

I agree, not a lot of people give "The Thing" it's proper respect. In a way it reminds me of the twilight zone episode "the monsters are due on maple street", where the fear of your neighbor being something other than what they appear to be, can put one into a murderous/survival mentality.

The isolation of a vast frozen wasteland, even though it is all open space..gives a claustrophobic feeling of helplessness.

The whole idea and concept of terminator is great. psycological thriller in a way, Arnold didn't have much dialog which helped IMO (was early in his career and no need to say much anyways), the eye removal and stop motion chase at the end doesn't really sell well. But it is what it is.

Aliens looks great and there is a lot of action. Not a lot of time to inspire a killer story, as a kid it disturbed me. Years ago i dated a girl who was related to Paul Reiser, which was fun to reminisce on.

Was hard for me to take predator serious, because by that time I just saw the Terminator, Apollo Creed and The Body Ventura on a hunt/hunted