The Thing (1982)

In John Carpenter's remake of Howard Hawks' 1951 classic sci-fi film, it told about an alien threat at a remote base, and about additional subsequent threats of personal estrangement, powerlessness, distrust and alienation. It was considered to be the first part of a so-called "Apocalypse Trilogy," followed by Prince of Darkness (1987) and In the Mouth of Madness (1995).

Carpenter's R-rated, dark, nihilistic sci-fi horror film was a mostly faithful, bleak and moody return to the original 1938 source (by scriptwriter Bill Lancaster), with clear homage to the original 1951 film and to Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). Its source was John W. Campbell, Jr.'s short story or novella titled Who Goes There?, (with pen-name pseudonym Don A. Stuart), first published in August 1938 in the popular US sci-fi magazine Astounding Science Fiction.

The initial 1951 film was set 2,000 miles north of Anchorage in a remote Arctic scientific research base in the vicinity of the North Pole (Polar Expedition Six). In this remake 31 years later, the setting was in 1982 at a remote Antarctica base (US Station 4, Outpost 31) at the South Pole amongst a twelve-man US expeditionary crew of socially-isolated outcasts who were experiencing sub-zero temperatures and extreme paranoia. Both films explored how an extra-terrestrial alien life-form entity (frozen in ice and thawed) threatened US researchers. Carpenter's film tagline warned: "Man is the warmest place to hide." The pulsating electronic score by Italian composer Ennio Morricone added to the film's suspense.

Although this cult classic had tremendous but excessively-graphic and grotesque special and visual effects, it was mostly a box-office failure. On a budget of approximately $15 million, the film grossed only $19.6 million (domestic). Afterwards, many claimed that the film's summer competition from Spielberg's more alien-friendly E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) accounted for its poor reception. It was also competing against three other notable sci-fi films in the same year, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Poltergeist (1982) and Blade Runner (1982).

• the film opened with the arrival of an unidentified flying object (a flying saucer-shaped spacecraft) that entered Earth's atmosphere near Antarctica and possibly crash-landed
• a helicopter from a Norwegian research base erratically flew above a US National Science Institute research station in Antarctica (US Station 4, Outpost 31) near the South Pole; the chopper was hunting down a beastly and vicious Husky sled dog that had apparently attacked its camp on the tundra; after landing, the two Norwegians (speaking a foreign language) clumsily used a rifle and grenades to try and destroy the snarling Creature; the gunman-passenger (Larry Franco) warned: "Get the hell away! That's not a dog, it's some sort of thing! It's imitating a dog, it isn't real! GET AWAY, YOU IDIOTS!"
• in the confusion, the pilot (Norbert Weisser) and helicopter were accidentally blown up by a grenade; then, the gunman-passenger began firing wildly with his rifle, and shot and injured meterologist George Bennings (Peter Maloney) in the left leg; to defend the American camp's other scientists, station commander Garry (Donald Moffat) shot back and killed the shooter; as the flames of the burning helicopter were extinguished, it was noticed that cans of kerosene on board the chopper had intensified the fire
• the US camp's physician Dr. Copper (Richard Dysart) treated Bennings' leg wound and hypothesized that the Norwegians must have been suffering from "cabin fever" and were crazed as they hunted down the Husky dog; radio operator Windows (Thomas Waites) was unable to transmit a report about the harrowing incident to the outside world
• US helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Dr. Copper flew to the Norwegians' base camp (it had been set up as a 10-person science expedition) and found evidence throughout the devastated complex of damaging explosions, extensive fires, and frozen corpses; they saw a bloody axe, and one frozen dead man had apparently committed suicide by slitting his wrists and throat in a locked radio room; outside was a large block of ice that had been hollowed out [Note: It held an alien frozen in the ice for 100,000 years, as MacReady theorized: "Thousands of years ago it crashes, and this thing gets thrown out, or crawls out, and it ends up freezing in the ice... They dig it up, they cart it back, it gets thawed out, it wakes up, probably not the best of moods"]
• behind the research station near cans of kerosene, they also discovered the smoldering, charred and semi-frozen corpse of a partly-formed half-mutant and half-humanoid; three major items -- the deformed, unidentifiable and twisted body, the frozen corpse of the suicide victim, and some of the base's videos and research were brought back to the US Institute's base; senior biologist Blair (A. Wilford Brimley) and Dr. Copper performed an autopsy on the human specimen, but determined that it had a normal set of internal organs
• dog handler Clark (Richard Masur) locked up the mad Husky sled dog with the US station's other sled dogs; soon after, he watched in horror as the dog's head split open and was metamorphosized into a scary-looking creature sprouting tentacles and crab's legs that began to spray the other dogs with slime before consuming them; as the team came to the rescue, the Creature's head separated itself and disappeared into the ceiling, while the rest of its body (with arms and hands) was incinerated by chief mechanic Childs' (Keith David) flamethrower
• the next morning, Blair conducted a second autopsy on the recently-burnt sled-dog creature and he and Dr. Copper concluded that it was a shape-shifting alien "Thing" - a chameleon that could perfectly assimilate, digest (or dissolve) and re-form itself into the shape of its victims (animal or human) by imitating its image or identity: ("You see, what we're talkin' about here is an organism that imitates other life-forms, and it imitates 'em perfectly. When this thing attacked our dogs, it tried to digest them, absorb them, and in the process shape its own cells to imitate them. This for instance. That's not dog. It's imitation. We got to it before it had time to finish...finish imitating these dogs"); in his autopsy notes, Blair described how cellular activity in the dog's remains was still present and alive
• after questioning Clark, Blair learned that the Husky dog had been with the Dog-creature for over an hour before it was locked up with the rest of the dog pack; it was the beginning of the development of suspicions and mistrust between the team's members
• after viewing a video of the Norwegians at a remote dig site (the location of the UFO crash) who used thermite explosives to unearth the alien spacecraft, MacReady and a few team members traveled to the Norwegians' excavation site; inside a large underground crater, they came upon a partially-buried alien UFO that had possibly crash-landed 100,000 years earlier; nearby at another dig site, the Norwegians appeared to have cut a large block out of the ice (where a Thing-creature had frozen to death) that had since been hollowed out; after returning to the base, MacReedy was certain that an alien-Thing in the block of ice had been thawed out and had attacked the researchers' camp
• Blair privately ran a computer test simulation of the cellular assimilation process, and determined that the Dog-Thing creature had clearly absorbed and mimicked its victims; he fearfully (with increasing paranoia) reported that if the virulent alien-Thing ever escaped to civilized areas, it would quickly assimilate all of life on Earth in only a few years; MacReady summarized the threat: ("This Thing doesn't want to show itself. It wants to hide inside an imitation. It'll fight if it has to, but it's vulnerable out in the open. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it, and then it's won"); Blair estimated that the entire world could be infected in only 27,000 hours (about 3 years)
• to reduce further assimilations, Dr. Copper requested that the two sets of remains (human and animal) from the Norwegian base be locked up in a storeroom; as Windows and Bennings prepared the room, Bennings did not notice that one set of remains under a blanket was moving; slightly later after returning, Windows was horrified to notice that Bennings was becoming absorbed and/or assimilated by the tentacles of one of the Creature's remains
• Bennings broke through an exterior window, and when Windows, MacReady, and assistant biologist Fuchs (Joel Polis) pursued him in the snow and cornered him, he bellowed and wailed back at them; the crew discovered that he was a half-changed mutant-Creature (with mis-shapened, arachnid-like arms); within a circle of the men, MacReady incinerated Bennings by overturning a large canister of fuel and igniting him within a fire-pit, along with the remains of the other creatures; MacReady explained to doubting station commander Garry: "It was one of those things out there trying to imitate him, Garry"

The Demise of Meterologist Bennings - Turned Into a Half Mutant

• meanwhile, the increasingly-crazed senior biologist Blair had locked himself away in an isolated storage toolshed and refused to answer the door; Blair (who was probably infected) went on a rampage to prevent anyone's escape from the base; he was spotted after he had killed the surviving sled-dogs, disabled the tractor, and destroyed the helicopter's controls with an axe; armed with a gun, he threatened to shoot and kill anyone who blocked his destruction of other communications equipment; Blair was disarmed, subdued, disabled and detained and locked up in the toolshed, and heavily sedated
• the next morning, Dr. Copper suggested that they could 'smoke out' the infected alien creature by testing each person's blood; blood samples of each crew person would be compared to uncontaminated clean blood held in lab storage; however, suspicions further intensified when it was learned that the blood bag-stores in a locked refrigerator had been sabotaged; since the key lock was unbroken, it was suspected that either Dr. Copper or Garry had used a key to access the stored blood and destroy it; the men lost faith in Garry's leadership, who voluntarily relinquished his command, and MacReady took charge as the team's 'de facto' leader; MacReedy's first order was to have Garry, Dr. Copper and suspected dog-handler Clark quarantined and sedated; meanwhile, a major blizzard hit the Antarctic area
• in a private audio log entry that he made, MacReedy recorded his theory that the Creature-Thing tore through its victim's clothing during the absorption process ("I think it rips through your clothes when it takes you over. Windows found some shredded long johns, but the nametag was missing. They could be anybody's. Nobody, nobody trusts anybody now, and we're all very tired"); Fuchs shared some of his suspicions with MacReedy after reading Blair's notes to him the chameleon-like nature of the Thing and its latent cellular activity ("It wants life-forms on Earth....It needs to be alone and in close proximity with the life-form to be absorbed. The chameleon strikes in the dark.... There is still cellular activity in these burned remains. They're not dead yet!"); Fuchs suggested a preventative antidote - that everyone prepare their own meals and only eat canned food
• as Fuchs continued his research, he found MacReady's shredded jacket out in the snow, and then only a few hours later after an unexpected black-out power failure in the lab, Fuchs' charred corpse was found out in the snow; MacReady, the camp's cook Nauls (T. K. Carter), and Windows speculated that Fuchs had either killed himself (to avoid assimilation), or had been burned to death by the Thing
• as MacReady and Nauls continued on to MacReady's shack, Nauls became suspicious when he also found MacReady's shredded jacket in the shack; back at the base, Nauls returned to report to the rest of the team that due to his suspicions, he had abandoned and stranded MacReady in the blinding blizzard by cutting his guide line; as they debated MacReady's possible assimilation and targeted him as the next Thing, MacReady spitefully returned to the camp with a flare and dynamite and threatened to blow up the camp
• during the altercation and stand-off, geologist Norris (Charles Hallahan) suffered a heart attack -- and as the camp's physician Dr. Copper attempted to revive his heart with resuscitation paddles and CPR, Norris' mutated rib-cage/chest and stomach broke open; it became a fanged, gaping maw with a bear-trap spring that bit off the doctor's forearms (and he subsequently bled to death); also, while Norris's body was being incinerated by MacReady's flame-thrower, Norris transformed into two "Things"; his 'spider head' separated from its body and reached up to the overhanging ceiling vent, while his body dropped to the floor, sprouted spindly spider legs and eye stalks, and scurried away like a crab; Palmer exclaimed: "You gotta be f--kin' kidding" - MacReady was able to destroy both the head and body

During Chest Defibrillation of Heart-Attack Victim Norris, Both of Dr. Copper's Forearms Were Bitten Off by Norris' Jaw-Like Abdomen

• in the next very tense and shocking sequence, MacReady and radio operator Windows implemented a way for each person's sample of blood to be tested with a heated piece of copper wire; at gunpoint, everybody was forced to take the blood serum test in the rec room; MacReady described how each life-form subject that was infected and transformed into the Thing would try to independently defend itself if threatened: ("Blood from one of you Things won't obey when it's attacked. It'll try and survive, crawl away from a hot needle, say") - and the blood test would reveal who had become assimilated, and who had remained human
• the group's members were forced to sit together while tied by heavy rope in chairs as they had their thumbs sliced open with silver scalpels to cause blood spurts: ("We're gonna draw a bit of everybody's blood. We're gonna find out who's the Thing"); Clark resisted the test and lunged at MacReady to stab and attack him with a scalpel - and was shot dead in the head
• the first test of Windows turned out to be negative; MacReady armed Windows with a flamethrower to help keep control if any further tests revealed the Thing; MacReady was also cleared after confidently testing himself ("Now I'll show you what I already know"); the deceased bodies of Clark and Norris were tested next, and they were also found to be uninfected and human
• when MacReady tested the blood of helicopter pilot Palmer (David Clennon), the blood sample in the petri dish recoiled and reacted violently indicating that he was infected; the victim's face exploded outward, and his body was propelled into the ceiling tiles; when the body fell back down, its deformed head split vertically to shockingly reveal an eyeless tentacled monster; with its main tentacled mouth emerging from what was its head, it massacred, mauled, strangled and bit into Windows' head until it was finally incinerated by MacReady's flame thrower; the burning creature smashed through the outer wall and fell into the snow, where MacReady blew up its remains with a stick of dynamite
• and then, because Windows had been infected and was starting to transform, MacReady torched Windows with another flame thrower; Nauls, Childs, and Garry were also tested and cleared; the only one remaining to be tested was Blair, who had earlier been locked into the tool shed and sedated
• there were now four who had been cleared, Childs, MacReady, Nauls, and Garry; the group proceeded to the locked tool shed to find Blair for testing, where they realized that Blair had tunneled under the ice and had been gathering other vehicle components (from the helicopter) to construct a small spacecraft under the camp; the group destroyed the 'flying saucer' and then upon their return to the main base, they saw Childs fleeing into the blizzard (in pursuit of Blair?)
• MacReady realized that the Thing creature (Blair) had blown up the base's power generator with plans to freeze the camp and its inhabitants (including itself as a hibernating, frozen Creature), before it expected to be rescued and transported away - to be thawed and exposed to the rest of the world: ("It wants to freeze now. It knows it's got no way out of here. It just wants to go to sleep in the cold until the rescue team finds it"); they decided that the only way to insure the camp's survival was to annihilate the base by exploding it to smithereens with dynamite; MacReady, Nauls and Garry began to set charges with explosive Molotov cocktails
• in the camp's basement while preparing the dynamite charges, Garry was killed by Blair, and Nauls also disappeared and was never seen again; MacReady and Childs (now missing) were the only two left; MacReady was confronted by the monstrous, snarling, big-toothed creature - now appearing Godzilla-like from under the ground (and giving birth to another sled dog); the Thing destroyed the detonator, but MacReady was able to succeed in his mission (he hurled his last stick of dynamite at the Creature, with parting words: "F--k you too!"), by causing an explosive chain reaction of destruction that completely obliterated the camp's station
• afterwards in the film's deliberately-ambiguous ending set in MacReady's shack, MacReady and Childs (who appeared and claimed he was lost in the storm during the pursuit of Blair) shared a bottle of Scotch as they discussed how futile survival was (if they continued to warily distrust each other) and how, in any case, they probably wouldn't make it anyway due to the frigid temperatures and their dire circumstances; they also pondered how powerless they would be if one of them turned out to be "THE THING"; however, if they both died, their deaths would prevent the infection from spreading to others: "Why don't we just wait here for a little while, see what happens?" (the film's last line from MacReady)
• [Note: in an alternate, nihilistic ending, both MacReady and Childs were transformed into the "Thing" (mimicking a sled dog again), that looked back at the burning camp at dawn before continuing on into the snowy Antarctic wilderness.]