The Thing

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This article is about the film. For other meanings of thing, see thing (disambiguation).

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John Carpenter's The Thing is a 1982 science fiction film directed by John Carpenter. Ostensibly a remake of the 1951 Howard Hawks film The Thing from Another World, Carpenter's film is actually more faithful to the short story that serves as both films' source material, "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, Jr.. The musical score was by Ennio Morricone, a rare instance of Carpenter not scoring one of his own films.

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story takes place in Antarctica. An American research station (Outpost #31) receives a surprise visit from a seemingly insane Norwegian, that is attempting to shoot a runaway Husky dog. The Norwegian is killed, and an investigation of the burned-out Norwegian research station from which he came reveals that they had uncovered an alien spacecraft from under hundreds of feet of ice.

It is soon revealed that the runaway Husky, now in the Americans' care, is in fact an alien life form that has the ability to duplicate any creature it absorbs. The result is an alien predator with the ultimate camouflage; it is a perfect reproduction of its host. Gradually, paranoia sets in among the Americans, as none can be certain who has been infected.

Many characters' names are taken directly from the original Campbell story, as is a scene in which Russell's character devises a test to see who may be infected, by exposing a sample of each man's blood to extreme heat. The creature itself is never named but is always referred to as The Thing.

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Critical reception and themes

Upon its release, the film was lambasted by critics for its special make-up effects, created by Rob Bottin, which were seen as excessively bloody and repulsive. The film fared poorly at the box office, mainly due to the release of E.T. a few months earlier, with its more optimistic view of alien visitation. Yet its reputation improved in the late nineties through home video releases. It is now regarded by the majority of Carpenter's admirers as one of his finest films. A collector's edition DVD was released in 1999.

This film is the first installment in Carpenter's 'Apocalypse Trilogy', followed by 1987's Prince of Darkness and 1995's In the Mouth of Madness. The plots and characters of the films are not connected.

Just as the 1951 film had taken advantage of the national mood to enhance its terror effect, this film did likewise. The early 1980's were a period of low public morale in American history; the nation was experiencing poor economy and high unemployment. Internationally, communism was on the move again, following the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, and American hostages were being held in Tehran, Iran. For many, the United States was appearing more and more isolated and vulnerable to outside attack, much like the crew of the Antarctic outpost in the film. Though strictly unintentional, certain elements of the film (transmission of the alien organism through bodily fluids, the inability to look at a person and determine infection, the use of a blood test to test for infection) paralleled the first reports of a new disease, AIDS.

In 2004 another The Thing collector's edition DVD was released. The only differences between the two is an improved anamorphic transfer and removal of the isolated score from the 1999 release.

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Sequel or not?

Due to the unclear fates of the characters portrayed by Kurt Russell and Keith David, many fans of the film have hoped for a sequel. An alternative ending was originally shot showing MacReady rescued and a blood test proving he was human but it was done as a precaution and never used even for test screening and not part of John Carpenter's original vision for the film. Some still speculate about the content of a possible sequel and have even made their own fan scripts and fan fiction of their vision of how things might have turned out.

John Carpenter once stated the Dark Horse Comics envisioning is what he would base a sequel on but this never happened. He later stated he would have done a sequel but no one ever asked him to do so. On another occasion, he stated the sequel would be costly beyond his own means and that it would be about "teenagers fighting the Thing in the Bahamas".

Other fans reject the idea of a sequel, stating that it would ruin the first film and state it should stand alone, as they see it to be a masterpiece. They also state if one was made now, it would be lacking and would not do the first film any justice. Others also feel the video game is enough to do for a sequel.

There have been many rumors of a movie sequel spreading throughout the blogosphere. All of them are false, according to Carpenter. One very lengthy script was discovered and was thought to be an actual sequel script, due to the vast content and detail but it turned out to be yet another fan script. A false article stated that Carpenter had written a script but he shot down the rumor.

The Sci-Fi Channel stated they would be doing a four hour mini-series sequel to the film in 2003. However, there have been no updates on this and if the idea ever existed, it is likely now abandoned. Also from Carpenter's reply about the false script rumor, he stated he had heard about the mini-series as well and felt like the project should proceed. But because of the lack of updates and Sci-Fi's homepage removing it from their selection, it's likely to be left unaired. However Sci-Fi aired an original made for TV movie called Alien Hunter, which bears remarkable resemblance to Carpenter's film, both plot-wise and stylistically.

The current chances of a true movie sequel seem very low. However, a Thing mini-series, perhaps unrelated to Sci-Fi's attempt, was announced in 2004 and is expected to be released in December 2005/spring 2006. Further information is available at the Internet Movie Database.

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Other media

Image:Merge-arrows.gif It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with The Thing (game). (Discuss)

A novelisation by Alan Dean Foster was released in 1982.

In 2002, a video game was released, taking the form of a sequel to the film. The game — also titled The Thing — makes use of the elements of paranoia and mistrust intrinsic to the film, and was released on multiple platforms: PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. The game is horror-based with action elements.

The game is the official sequel to the movie. You play as a soldier with the name of Blake (named after the chief antagonist of the early Carpenter movie The Fog). Your mission is to find out what happened at the Norwegian polar base. As you play the game you will enter many locations from the movie (even finding the tape recording that MacReady hid in the original movie) and are able to recruit up to four people who will follow you if you can gain their trust. You must prove that you are not infected or else they will not follow you; additionally your teammates can turn into "the thing" at any time, though this aspect of the game is often criticized as too scripted. There are three classes of people that you can recruit to your team; Soldiers, Engineers, and Medics. Another interesting dynamic was a fear-level behavior system for the NPC's. If a teamember becomes too scared, he might recklessly run away possibly getting himself killed in the process, or refuse to leave a relatively safe area. Worse, sometimes when a teamember is surrounded by the horrifying gore left in The Thing's wake, he will shoot himself in the head to "escape". Apart from proving that you are human using blood tests, you can gain a teamember's trust by giving him ammunition. However, if you are running low on ammunition, and take another player's gun, he and the other teamembers might lose trust and turn on you. Unfortunately, the game was horrifically flawed in terms of programming. For example, if one of your teammates turns out to be a Thing, most players would load a previous save to kill him as human, saving vital ammo. But the human in question would not be a Thing then. You could literally administer a bloodtest, have nothing out of the ordinary, and then have him turn right before your eyes 20 seconds later.

The game has many similarities with the Electronic arts game Freedom Fighters. Both games use a trust parameter to recruit new people. However, Freedom Fighters is more straightforward in that your teammates are not likely to commit suicide or turn into "The Thing" at any moment.

The game also features a cameo appearance by John Carpenter as the character Dr. Faraday (Carpenter provided the character's likeness and voice), and the voice of William B. Davis as Colonel Whiteley, the game's main antagonist.

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External links

fr:The Thing (film, 1982) it:La cosa (film 1982) he:הדבר (סרט) ja:遊星からの物体X ru:Нечто (фильм)

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