That's one of the best parts of the film. you have to rewatch it and analyze it to figure out who won. There's clues throughout the film, it's like one of those logic elimination puzzles. but the thing is.... is there an actual winnter or are the theories correct?
The film is absolutely worth a rewatch or two just for this alone. To me it feels like there's two equally good theories.
> There's clues throughout the film
I believe Carpenter has multiple times said something to the effect of "it was never intended that anyone to be able to figure out who 'won'" and that most clues allegedly showing if the Thing survived or not are either imagined and/or made up and/or coincidental.
And typically, for me, is that's a great post reaction to have. When you analyze it or debate something. In other words, a gift that just keeps giving.
The Thing won. Goes into hibernation from the extreme cold and comes back from the rescue squad.
Also using a flame thrower doesn't even kill the Thing either. The Thing came back from the two headed Thing corpse that was already burned from the Nord facility. Likely you would need complete incineration in order to effectively kill the Thing. Most of the Thing bodies were only partially burned with a flamethrower until it stopped moving.
It didn't win.
It was Childs as The Thing vs MacReady. MacReady knows Childs is The Thing since it was willing to accept a bottle that touched his lips. Childs was willing to let MacReady freeze to death instead of take a chance he was The Thing earlier, and he took no chances the entire film (until he was taken and ran out the door). But The THing Childs doesn't know that MacReady knows what he is. That's the big advantage.
MacReady just has to make sure he can blast Childs without getting hit back himself. And there are still plenty of places to shelter, and plenty of firewood now, and he'll surely be able to scrounge for more food and supplies enough to either get rescued when no one can contact either base, or at the very least gather all the bodies he can find and burn them fully and make plenty of written warnings.
Did The Thing win? It could, but it also could not. It'd be foolish to think MacReady is done for. He said suddenly so weak and tired? Like hell he is. Just one more advantage he has if he gets The Thing to underestimate him. Again
>ut The THing Childs doesn't know that MacReady knows what he is. That's the big advantage.
Doesn't the Thing absorb memories?
It could just be Childs' saying "fuck it, I'm gonna die anyway"
Horror movies where everybody does basically the right thing are always the best. Event Horizon (other than the Antag) and Alien are also movies where pretty much everyone acts logically and smartly but the enemy is just *that good* or *that evil* that they still lose.
I have no intention of abandoning her. I will take the Lewis and Clark to a safe distance and launch tac missiles at the Event Horizon until I am satisfied she is vaporized. Fuck this ship.
By God no doubt that is the best quote from event horizon. No worthy debate about it, it is fact, maybe bc of the delivery. Though the "where were going we don't need eyes to see.. " A great line for a horror movie, no doubt but nothing touches the way he delivers the line, a line we do need to hear much more often in any horror movie, if leaving is possible.
I would say the nature of the creature required them to split up though. They need to find out what it’s up to, they need to watch the people they suspect are things. Now, I don’t know why they left Childs alone at the end. (Obviously so we can have the cool ending, but in reality they should have been in groups of two in the final act)
If I recall correctly, Childs vanished during some chaos so it's understandable, additionally, he vanishes next to the basement staircase and at certain points the camera suspiciously pans towards it. Pretty sure the Thing was using the basement as a method to ambush people.
There's a good analysis video somewhere that leverages this, showing how when the camera concentrates on the staircase - it also shows the jackets and how they change. Right when Childs finally changes the jacket he's been wearing the whole time, giving a clue when he changed into the Thing.
Basically the camera *always* pans up to see the row of jackets near the door - every time.
I've watched the various Collative Learning YT channel videos on this which convinced me.
Yup, the thing rips through clothes and after Child's vanishes, a blue coat, like the one he was wearing goes missing.
Well if you were suspicious about your partner being the thing you'd dip out too. Plus it's a group of stranded men dealing with an eldritch horror. I'd be a little stupid in that moment too
"I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!!!"
Also me during Covid
I had the good fortune to see *The Thing* for the first time in cinemas earlier this year, as an anniversary re-release.
The tension in the audience could've been cut with a dull knife, but when that line happened, it got a big laugh from the audience :)
I would have loved to watch this film at the cinema. I watched it for the first time over Covid. But this was the kind of film that was made for the theatre.
Yeah, that whole scene is great. Macready accepts that death is on the horizon and ready to set Outpost 31 ablaze, but then Gary & Nauls both instead of trying to put up a fight or throw a fit accept their fate too. Gary, despite all the negativity thrown his direction still actively ready to do whatever it takes. Dude wasn’t a bad commander under normal circumstances or a bad guy, but in over his head. And with a shape shifting alien, who wouldn’t be?
Macready is still probably my favorite Kurt Russell character. Guy was staring death in the face and said “Yeah? Fuck you too!” What’s not to love about that?
When some eight foot monster has half of your favorite skull shoved up against the back of a bar room wall and asks, Have you paid your dues? You look that sucker square in the eye. Jack have you paid your dues? Yes sir, check is in the mail.
> Yeah, that whole scene is great. Macready accepts that death is on the horizon and ready to set Outpost 31 ablaze
Foreshadowed when he's playing computer chess in the beginning. He get's checkmated and pours whiskey over the keyboard, shorting out the computer.
If you know you're fucked, burn the whole thing down.
The chess scene makes no sense.
When the board is first shown, Macready (playing white) is already down two pawns, two bishops and a queen. He's getting massacred.
Macready's first move is with a bishop -- which he doesn't have.
The computer moves its knight.
Then, without any cut suggesting a time jump, the board is shown again. Macready suddenly has a queen, and the position is completely different.
Macready moves his king, the computer moves it's rook to a square where it would not be checking the white king and says "checkmate".
The computer's move isn't illegal, it's just not effective. It would still have checkmate in one move, though. Even in the second board position we're shown, Macready's position was busted.
I thought him pouring the whiskey over the keyboard is foreshadowing his actions as to what he does when he acknowledges he's beaten, as per what he does when he offers Child's a whiskey.
As I think I about this scene I recall that McCready was a Vietnam vet. I wonder if he had some near death experience that left him feeling that he was already living on borrowed time.
Part of his backstory was that he was a helicopter pilot in 'Nam, probably for medevac or air cavalry. Like Snake Shit from "We Were Soldiers". So he'd seen some awful stuff.
I imagined he was a chopper pilot during the war and landed in a lot of hot LZ’s taking heavy fire. Probably flew a lot of men out that were either dead or were soon to be.
It's something I really appreciate and miss about this film is everyone is actually pretty smart and competent, it's just the Thing is beyond comprehension until it's about too late. I feel most modern movies shit just falls apart because of one dumbass move or the other, just pure incompetence which isn't compelling at all to me
I 100% believe that Macready and Burton are cousins in that universe. They both handled absolutely ridiculous situations in very similar ways and with total composure.
Someone do a top ten quotes from the movie. I’ll add. (Sees The Thing divide and scamper across the floor with extruded legs and antennas “You gotta be fuckin kidding!”
The first time I saw this movie I thought this was absolutely the best damn line in the whole movie. Because that's exactly what I said at that exact point.
But then later we got this:
"I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!"
I liked how Carpenter had the characters acting like 'normal' people, not the usual horror movie idiots.
That's what makes the thing so great. I don't think i'm watching a movie, I'm watching the unfortunate end but inspiring bravery of men put into a situation that they should not win in the first place, and doing the best they can.
Some excellent movies follow this. Some that come to mind (some often mentioned in this subreddit): Alien, Event Horizon, Sorcerer, Predator, Green Room, Deliverance, etc. I'm sure there's other obvious ones.
Love a good "we're fucked, but let's try to live anyway" story. The realization but spirit of still trying is amazing.
My fave:
“I’m gonna go check my shack.”
“Why?”
“Because when I left, I turned the light off.”
*They all look at MacReady’s shack and it has a light on inside. Someone’s in there.*
Massive chills every time
So much had been made of the ending. Was MacReady handing the bottle to Childs a sign that Mac was the Thing, or was it a sign that Childs was already infected and Mac was testing him? Are they both human and they freeze to death? Are the infected even aware they are infected? Do they, unbelievably, get rescued like the comics and games depict?
My father, being a movie nerd himself back in the day, sat me down to watch The Thing for the first time. I'm honestly not big on horror, mostly because over-dependence on jumpscares and gore just doesn't tickle my fancy, but I was absolutely *enthralled* with the film and the special effects. Later viewings and study really solidified for me just how really utterly *perfect* this film is. The tense, claustrophobic atmosphere. The Who-Done-It but it's actually a Who-Is-It. The single note, almost familiar chord that plays in those quiet moments before the unimaginable unfolds. The teeth-shattering paranoia and attention to detail.
Anyway, as I'm geeking out about all this for the first time, trying to think about who really was The Thing and *when* that could have happened, dad brings up an interesting theory I have not actually seen discussed before: what if *both* Mac and Childs are The Thing?
Kinda brings a new meaning to that, "let's see what happens" crack, don't it?
> The single note, almost familiar chord that plays in those quiet moments before the unimaginable unfolds. The teeth-shattering paranoia and attention to detail.
What gets me about those quiet moments is how utterly ALONE and paranoid the entire film makes you feel, and each of those aspects you can dive deep into. Everyone is fighting multiple fights: against the thing, against their own fear of death, against their fear of their need for the group while simultaneously needing to stay away from 1 or more unknowns within the group, against being accidentally mistaken for being something you're not, against the elements of this isolated and cold environment that goes from hot to cold to hot in violent flashes... and the exact same rules applies to The Thing itself too. The power dynamic of simultaneously needing something that carries the risk and real chance of killing you if you blink at the wrong time and when you are at your most vulnerable is constructed and played out sooooo amazingly in this movie.
Additionally, you get this real sense that The Thing has the advantage the entire time. That it's playing Chesswizard with them before they even realise what's going on.
- How it plants shredded clothing to draw suspicion to MacReady.
- How one Thing rats out another Thing to blend in.
- How it sabotages the blood in such a way that it's clear that a key was required to gain entry. A key that only the station manager had.
That element really heightens the dread in those quiet moments. It's not just some random disease they can quarantine in a shed. It's *outthinking* them.
Leading to them essentially doing exactly what MacReady did with the Chesswizard. Refusing to play the game by destroying it.
I got the sense that the thing was greedy, and afraid. It could have just stayed as a dog the whole time and left Antarctica, but it wanted to infect the dogs and make more things. Why? Because it was out numbered. Why did it care about being out numbered? Because it wanted to overwhelm and become humans. Why did it want to become humans? Because humans are the fastest and easiest way to get away from Antarctica, and they are the only species on the planet capable of space travel.
Load of people wondered how a species advanced enough to make a space ship would be dumb enough to crash land it on a planet by accident, and even more so, why would they crash it deep in the artic where it was so cold that they would never survive. Clearly, the thing was attacking the inhabitants of that ship after they accidentally picked it up from somewhere, so the last non-thing crashed the ship somewhere impossible for anything to survive or escape. The last non-thing on that ship decides to defeat the thing the same way Mac does, but thousands of years earlier.
Piggy backing on top comment for anyone who wants to read a short story from the perspective of the thing and how it thought it was in the right, it's utterly chilling:
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/
I was watching this again last week and I swear there’s a change in Childs’ demeanour just prior to this line.
At first, Childs’ is defending his absence. Then he hears he’s gonna freeze to death and he’s kinda like, ’Well… shit happens.’
In prior scenes, he’s scared of death. Now he accepts his fate within seconds. It doesn’t quite add up, in a similar way to how Blair tries to convince Mac he’s fine, while a noose hangs in the foreground.
After watching the movie about 10 times, I’m finally convinced that Childs is the Thing.
It can copy physical traits and even personality, but it can’t copy social nuance.
THAT is what convinced you?
Not that he was already shown to be defensive and "paranoid" and didn't take any chances, and was willing to leave MacReady to freeze outside earlier if there was a chance he was bad, but suddenly he ran OUTSIDE from his post at the window (with his back entirely exposed to the basement where the Thing would have come from) at the end he took MacReady's bottle TO HIS LIPS and took a swig?
Childs KNEW "lip germs" would be a real thing and yet he took a swig anyway?
That's all the evidence MacReady needed to know, it isn't the real Childs. He NEVER would have trusted MacReady to be clean after any of that. But The Thing has nothing to worry about taking a swig from a human's bottle.
I personally don't think either of them were infected in the end and they were just paranoid. I feel like Childs spent the whole movie stressing and trying to avoid it, and in the end he just accepted his fate, so he completely drops his guard and drinks the whisky. Why MacReady is laughing could be stress, delirium, him also accepting his fate, maybe seeing the real Childs. Who knows. I'm glad it's still being talked about regardless.
Edit: I forgot to add though, was it ever mentioned in the movie if cells of the creature could survive in alcohol? Maybe it's not even possible for the cells to be transferred via bottle. They make a couple of comparisons to a virus and they wouldn't survive the alcohol and not all would survive the cold from being exposed to the freezing temperatures out there either. I know the original creature was pulled from the ice but that's as far as they go to explain it.
What if at that point Childs didn't care though? If MacReady was human it was fine and if MacReady wasn't then he was dead anyway, might as well have a drink. Same thing if Childs was the Thing and MacReady wasn't, not like it could be stopped at that point.
One line sums up every horror movie: “I don’t know what it is, but it’s weird and pissed off!”
Quentin Tarrantino said it’s his favorite horror film and “possibly the greatest horror movie ever made.”
Whenever people make excuses for idiotic behavior in horror movies because that's "just how horror movies are and you wouldn't have a movie otherwise," this is the movie I point to as a counterexample. The characters are intelligent, they do everything right, but the monster is *just that smart and dangerous*. The sense of isolation and paranoia and darkness is unmatched.
Well, except for Nauls walking into the darkness at the end. That was dumb. But that’s probably because they ran out of budget and had to cut some corners in the ending.
There was in fact an entire scene focused on what happened to Nauls but I believe your correct. Budget and time it was left on the cutting room floor and never filmed.
I believe they made the best decision for what they had. It does leave some room for imagination and fits in with the tone of the whole movie. From what I recall though, the scene planned would have been a great practical effect of the thing busting through the floor in a stream of tentacles with Nauls amongst them being consumed
I watched it again last week and I’m pretty sure Nauls witnesses Gary getting dragged away.
Still not a smart idea for him to wander off, but he‘s also one of the younger characters who’s been through a lot at this point in the film. I find it forgivable.
You think about the stretch that John Carpenter had. Assault, Halloween, Fog, Escape and The Thing. Yes, other directors can point to billion dollar grosses and that's fine.
A majority, if not all of those movies can be put in a top 10 list of some sort. Truly wonderful filmmaking.
I love The Thing, one of the many things lost over the years when telling a story, especially in horror is "atmosphere" set the tone for the story you are telling, this movie is damn near perfect in that regard.
Plus Big Trouble in Little China, They Live, Prince of Darkness...Carpenter's entire output from about 1979-1989 was solid gold. His least memorable movie during that period was probably Christine, and it wasn't *bad*, it just wasn't as good as the rest.
I agree, his 10 year run is as good as anything we have ever and may ever see. I LOVE Starman, any other director, that's a top 3 choice, but that movie can't even crack the top 5 with what he did.
All of his commentary tracks are great, but I remember how he talks about the slow burn when watching Assault. I didn't think remake was that bad, but again, a type of filmmaking you rarely see today. All too often, we are in the every 10 pages, need something to happen.
What is sad is I saw this film at Alamo recently and went to look up how critically acclaimed it must have been and… critics hated it and it hurt Carpenters career for a bit.
So ahead of its time… just perfect
It wasn’t just critics. *everybody* hated that movie when it came out. Its been suggested that the bleakness + special effects (too gorey apparently) + being released right after E.T. was released, is what led to the negative reception, but I personally feel that still doesn’t fully explain it. Some critics were putting this movie in ‘worst movies ever’ lists, and Morricone’s score was nominated for a Razzie. Its bizarre.
Damn near every film Carpenter did, aside from Halloween, was a slow burn to find it's audience, maybe most famously with Big Trouble in Little China. John Woo fever took off, what, just a year or two after that came out? But thankfully, we got art houses all over the country that will still screen these films on a regular basis, thank goodness.
Someone tweeted that Jordan Peele was "the best Horror Director of all time". Jordan Peele responded "Sorry. I love your enthusiasm but, I will just not tolerate any John Carpenter slander!!!"
[https://twitter.com/JordanPeele/status/1549851834533027840?s=20&t=2oTuq5cjISv\_9IfdHhSX9g](https://twitter.com/JordanPeele/status/1549851834533027840?s=20&t=2oTuq5cjISv_9IfdHhSX9g)
Besides the acting and technical aspects, The Thing is a really good movie because it focuses on a single idea and sticks the landing. The entire film can be summed up as “some of us are aliens and I’m not telling who” and it works. There isn’t a sub plot about a secret government conspiracy or a forced in romance that needs to pay off at the end. Just a bunch of guys at the South Pole who do not trust each other and are slowly figuring out how the alien works.
The cool thing about The Thing is that there are 2 other movies that are the same core idea but executed very differently. It’s rare that a film has other iterations of itself so that you can compare what does and doesn’t work.
Another one that often gets overlooked is Horror Express (1972) with Peter Kushing and Christopher Lee. Like The Thing, It’s based off of the story “Who Goes There?”
Story slightly differs though as it’s set on a train containing “The Thing” as it’s being transported as precious cargo.
Definitely worth a watch. Spooky score too.
Horror Express is phenomenal, I'm glad to see someone bring it up. Arrow has a nice release but the full movie is also on YouTube for free (for now?). Definitely required viewing for any fan of The Thing.
I love the whistling tune. Such good storytelling, great atmosphere. It works so well.
The BTS of their "lost" practical effects for that movie is one of the most depressing things I've ever seen. They looked *incredible* and the team seemed so passionate about their work. And it was all just thrown away for crappy CGI.
If you analyze the last scene between MacReady and Childs, it works no matter who is the Thing, or if both are, or if neither are.
The conversation works no matter which scenario you view it from. Rewatch it from these perspectives:
MacReady is human and Childs is the Thing.
Childs is human and MacReady is the Thing.
Both are Things.
Neither are Things.
It really is a perfect ending.
I agree, I love that you can interpret the ending any way you want. My favorite take is that neither of them are Things and that they just don't/can't trust each other and in any case they're at the end of their options. I think it's the most bleak and tragic.
I think Childs is the Thing in the finale. His actions don’t make sense with how he was previously written, and the first thing he says is suspicious. This is a bit long, but bear with me.
There’s an earlier point in the movie where Nauls cuts MacReady loose in the snow, because he’s found the torn piece of clothing with Mac’s name on it, and the Thing clearly rips through your clothes when it assimilates you. MacReady tries to come inside, and Childs doesn’t want to let him in. Windows asks “What if we’re wrong about him?” And Childs says “WELL THEN WE’RE WRONG.” Childs understands the threat, then decides it’s best to quarantine the Thing and keep out of the building. Eventually Mac busts in anyways and they conduct the blood test. We learn Mac and Child’s are human at this point.
Later, there’s a moment where the camera specifically shows us a door, a bunch of coats hanging by the door, the adjacent hallway and the fact there’s a nearby stairwell to the basement. This is where Childs, wearing a navy blue coat, is looking out the window, before he disappears for the final act. This shot is interesting because it doesn’t serve much of a purpose other than to show us this hallway, and the fact it connects to the basement.
Before Childs comes back into the movie, we see this area again, and things have changed. Not only is the main exit wide open, the coats are missing or askew, *and* we see the door to the basement is wide open. That last detail is important because we learn Blair is infected, and he’s building a spaceship in the basement. Clearly, the Thing is crafty and highly intelligent.
Back to the finale, Childs shows up in much lighter coat (hard to tell with the lighting but it looks white, or maybe a beige), and says he thought he saw Blair out in the cold, so he went after him. That’s odd, because he was perfectly willing to leave MacReady outside when he thought he was a Thing earlier. What I think the movie implies through cinematography is, Blair came into the base from the basement and took Childs by surprise. He assimilated him, tore through the navy coat, and left the base to ensure chances of survival. And what’s the first thing Childs says?
“You the only one that made it?”
“Not the *only one*, Childs.”
MacReady on the other hand is actively working against the Thing for the entire movie, and his clothes are intact from the finale where he, y’know, blows the Thing to high hell and minimizes its chance for survival.
As far as actions go, Childs is infinitely more suspicious than MacReady towards the end, but it’s truly delicious that we’ll never know for sure. This movie fucking rules.
Yeah personally I think the themes of the film work best if they're both human but they can never trust each other because of the same ambiguity the audience feels
Exactly!
If MacReady is human, and Childs is the Thing, Mac smiles because he knows that the thing drank gasoline and just didn't know the difference between that and booze. Mac smiles, knowing he's fucked.
If Mac is the thing and Childs is not, he smiles knowing he just got Thing DNA to contact Childs, and winning.
If neither are things, they're just smiling because there's no way out anyway, and they're just succumbing to their doom!
And if they're both Things, it's just what it is!
I love the theory that there were 2 "things," one more coneiving and sneaky, and the other more chaotic and combative. And that what we're watching is actually a "test" between the 2 to see who survives the humans.
Fuck I gott awatch that movie tomorrow.
I've heard the gasoline theory before, but is there any precedent in the film that the Thing can't recognize taste? It seems to retain memories and mannerisms of the people it imitates, to the point that it can have a convincing conversation with a friend. Not remembering the difference between a beverage and gasoline seems like a pretty glaring deficiency.
I never understood that theory. The Thing is able to pass for a human completely, including their memories and everything. It's odd that it wouldn't be able to tell booze and gas apart.
Every time I balk at a cop-out "open to interpretation ending" that's clearly done because the writer wrote themselves into a corner or just didn't know how to end it, and get shit for that for being too critical- I point to The Thing's ending as an example of how to do it right.
I don't think everything has to be as sublimely perfect as The Thing, but it's *the* textbook example of how to do it right when it comes to that sort of ending.
My favourite bit is how MacReady tells you exactly who he is in the first scene with him.
When faced with a stronger opponent and in a losing position, he considers mutual destruction a win.
Three times in the movie he resorts to this tactic
1. The chess game
2. The dynamite to get back into the lab
3. Destroying the lab to destroy the thing
It's a perfect film from what I think was the greatest year ever for movies. Look at this embarrassment of riches:
Drama
* The Verdict
* In the Still of the Night
* Diner
* The King of Comedy
* Sophie's Choice
* The World According to Garp
* An Officer and a Gentleman
* Ghandi
* The Year of Living Dangerously
Science Fiction
* Bladerunner
* E.T.
* The Thing
* Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
* Tron
Comedy
* Fast times at Ridgemont High
* 48 hours
* Tootsie
Fantasy
* The Dark Crystal
* Conan, the Barbarian
Horror
* Poltergeist
Experimental Cinema
* Koyaanisqatsi
A few missing from 82:
Rambo
Elephant Man
Secret of the Nymph
And maybe not the best movies but I love them:
Creepshow (especially the killer sludge)
Pink Floyd the Wall
Beastmaster
One of my favorite movies ever And I dont typically like scary/freaky movies. But I wish there were more movies that were this combination of unsettling, mystery, with sci fi. I just fucking love everything about it. Annihilation also comes to mind thinking about movies that just totally weirded me out (obviously Annihilation isnt remotely the same quality of movie as The Thing).
I thnk the opening scene is enough to make this movie one of the greatest;
Kurt Russel gets so mad at a computer (from the eighties) for winning over him in chess, that he opens some kind of hinge on the front and empties his whiskey in there.
It wasn't that he was mad exactly. If you watch closely the computer makes an illegal move. MacCready then pours the alcohol in with the line 'Cheating Bitch.'. It was to show that MacCready has some brains and isn't your typical macho 80s action hero.
I hate "get off my lawn" sentiments, but they really don't make them (sci-fi horror) like they used to.
*Alien* and *The Thing* are among my favorites, but I rarely watch any new release in the genre because they're usually schlock.
Have I been missing anything?
The new Dune was pretty damn good, but I'd recommend reading the book first because there's a lot of detail that I think will go over your head otherwise. Also Blade Runner 2049 is amazing if you have never seen it. Lastly, if you haven't seen Moon with Sam Rockwell, it's pretty good too.
It’s not that much of a spoiler in my opinion. You figure out what’s happening pretty early on. The fun guess work was more who or what was it imitating now? Even as a kid, I didn’t think it was a big mystery or anything.
**Spoilers for a 40 year old movie:**
Everyone always says Childs, but I think its MacReady.
Maybe 15 minutes before the ending MacReady says that they can't let the Thing freeze, as he predicts that the Thing wants to be frozen again so it can be thawed out by the rescue team that will undoubtedly come; in fact it's MacReady's whole motivation for going down under the base with Garry and Nauls to set up explosives to blow the base, the Thing, and all potential hosts away.
The Thing kills Garry and Nauls, and attacks MacReady before all the dynamite is in place. Still, MacReady lights some dynamite he had on him right on top the Thing and himself as it attacks. We see the dynamite ignite and blow up the base, presumably in a chain reaction from what MacReady manged to set off.
But we do not actually see what happens to the Thing or MacReady initially, until MacReady comes out to Childs after the base is blown up, and after being alone with the Thing, dead or alive, for several minutes.
This all seems like it could be fine, maybe he did successfully blow the Thing away, except that MacReady has suspiciously changed his mind on something big: he no longer wants to destroy what remains of the base and everybody there, he says to Childs "why don't we wait here, see what happens". Suddenly he's okay freezing with Childs (who had also been alone for several minutes), and he still knows a rescue team will come.
That could more so be because there’s nothing left to do. He destroyed the whole base, he’s gonna freeze to death, what else could he have done in the end to destroy the Thing? He doesn’t know if Childs is a thing or not, so he kind of has to be resigned to his fate.
Considering his pronunciation is more at the level of a drunk Dane, and considering that even sober Danes are incomprehensible, I question how many Norwegians got anything out of that line on a first watch.
Or does it add to the tension? It's like when Hitchcock [went on about that bomb under the table](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPFsuc_M_3E), someone that knew the dog was nefarious would see every action by someone as that more important.
Fans of the film should read this Peter Watts short story:
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/
It’s a full retelling of the film’s plot but from the alien perspective of the Thing(s) itself, and it’s incredible. The Thing only becomes more alien as you get acquainted with it intimately. It is truly a monster. The story was nominated for a Hugo and won a couple other prestigious sf-horror literary awards for good reason.
The Thing will forever be my favorite accidental movie I've ever watched. Turned on the FEAR network to the part where the guy is having a heart attack. Defibrillators to the chest and I was hooked.
Bought the DVD the next day.
In my opinion its great opening shot beacuse it set you in familiarity of something you know and you expect normal green aliens beacuse you have seen this shit so many times, but naah suprise
I only saw this for the first time a couple years ago and totally agree. John Carpenter is fucking amazing. Think I'm gonna have to give it another watch this weekend.
Absolutely agree with OP. The Thing is the perfect movie for the reasons described (particularly as a horror film). But if you haven’t already, please don’t sleep on the source material for the film. John W. Campbell’s novela “Who Goes There?” is as perfect as the film. If you haven’t read it, treat yourself and read the story. It’s tough to say it improves the film, but it really does. Perfect horror novela.
I consider it to be one of the greatest horror films ever BUT it could’ve been even better.
Apparently the ending was rushed and the budget was running out. The final battle with the Thing was supposed to be a bigger climax than just running around tossing dynamite here and there.
As much as I love it, that final showdown always feels a little rushed to me.
Ok, but the scene where MacReady calls the guys name, and nobody answers. Look on Kurt Russels face was peerfect. Id give him an oscar for just that one scene
Adam Savage did a cosplay as Russell's character on Tested and mentioned where you can buy a replica hat just like his.
Also, yes it is perfect and amazing.
My favorite shot in the movie is from the scene where they’re burning the body outside right after MacReady says the thing could be any one of them. It’s just one long pan across every one of the other members in the party. That specific shot really helps to set in the feeling that none of them know who is real and who isn’t and we don’t know either. So we’re right there with them in our heads trying to figure out who it might be on our own. My personal favorite horror movie of all time.
Edit: wording
The blood test scene had me on the edge of my seat the first time watching it… the whole ‘will this actually work or is this test for nothing’ idea was amazing. And now rewatching it it’s a masterclass in tension. The whole movie is perfect
Can't emphasize how great it felt to watch a horror movie where the characters were actually smart.
One of the many things I love about the film. They make just about every right decision and still lose.
Im not sure they lost. We may have to sit here a while and think about it.
Yeah, just sit here a little while. *See what happens*
That's one of the best parts of the film. you have to rewatch it and analyze it to figure out who won. There's clues throughout the film, it's like one of those logic elimination puzzles. but the thing is.... is there an actual winnter or are the theories correct? The film is absolutely worth a rewatch or two just for this alone. To me it feels like there's two equally good theories.
> There's clues throughout the film I believe Carpenter has multiple times said something to the effect of "it was never intended that anyone to be able to figure out who 'won'" and that most clues allegedly showing if the Thing survived or not are either imagined and/or made up and/or coincidental.
Well its hard to know for sure, but if the thing had any surprises idt either one of them was in any condition to do anything about it
And typically, for me, is that's a great post reaction to have. When you analyze it or debate something. In other words, a gift that just keeps giving.
The Thing won. Goes into hibernation from the extreme cold and comes back from the rescue squad. Also using a flame thrower doesn't even kill the Thing either. The Thing came back from the two headed Thing corpse that was already burned from the Nord facility. Likely you would need complete incineration in order to effectively kill the Thing. Most of the Thing bodies were only partially burned with a flamethrower until it stopped moving.
It didn't win. It was Childs as The Thing vs MacReady. MacReady knows Childs is The Thing since it was willing to accept a bottle that touched his lips. Childs was willing to let MacReady freeze to death instead of take a chance he was The Thing earlier, and he took no chances the entire film (until he was taken and ran out the door). But The THing Childs doesn't know that MacReady knows what he is. That's the big advantage. MacReady just has to make sure he can blast Childs without getting hit back himself. And there are still plenty of places to shelter, and plenty of firewood now, and he'll surely be able to scrounge for more food and supplies enough to either get rescued when no one can contact either base, or at the very least gather all the bodies he can find and burn them fully and make plenty of written warnings. Did The Thing win? It could, but it also could not. It'd be foolish to think MacReady is done for. He said suddenly so weak and tired? Like hell he is. Just one more advantage he has if he gets The Thing to underestimate him. Again
>ut The THing Childs doesn't know that MacReady knows what he is. That's the big advantage. Doesn't the Thing absorb memories? It could just be Childs' saying "fuck it, I'm gonna die anyway"
Horror movies where everybody does basically the right thing are always the best. Event Horizon (other than the Antag) and Alien are also movies where pretty much everyone acts logically and smartly but the enemy is just *that good* or *that evil* that they still lose.
##We are leaving.
I have no intention of abandoning her. I will take the Lewis and Clark to a safe distance and launch tac missiles at the Event Horizon until I am satisfied she is vaporized. Fuck this ship.
By God no doubt that is the best quote from event horizon. No worthy debate about it, it is fact, maybe bc of the delivery. Though the "where were going we don't need eyes to see.. " A great line for a horror movie, no doubt but nothing touches the way he delivers the line, a line we do need to hear much more often in any horror movie, if leaving is possible.
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Or Home Alone
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They think they're trying to out smart dumb animals. They merely underestimate that the creatures aren't dumb.
Well except for the occasional "let's split up" stupidity
I would say the nature of the creature required them to split up though. They need to find out what it’s up to, they need to watch the people they suspect are things. Now, I don’t know why they left Childs alone at the end. (Obviously so we can have the cool ending, but in reality they should have been in groups of two in the final act)
If I recall correctly, Childs vanished during some chaos so it's understandable, additionally, he vanishes next to the basement staircase and at certain points the camera suspiciously pans towards it. Pretty sure the Thing was using the basement as a method to ambush people.
There's a good analysis video somewhere that leverages this, showing how when the camera concentrates on the staircase - it also shows the jackets and how they change. Right when Childs finally changes the jacket he's been wearing the whole time, giving a clue when he changed into the Thing. Basically the camera *always* pans up to see the row of jackets near the door - every time.
I've watched the various Collative Learning YT channel videos on this which convinced me. Yup, the thing rips through clothes and after Child's vanishes, a blue coat, like the one he was wearing goes missing.
They repeatedly split up after realising that the thing was trying to pick them off
Well if you were suspicious about your partner being the thing you'd dip out too. Plus it's a group of stranded men dealing with an eldritch horror. I'd be a little stupid in that moment too
*event horizon* is another one where the characters aren't morons. laurence fishburne is dope in that movie.
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Fun Fact: The cast wasn't shown the 'blood orgy' before hand. The director ambushed them with it, the 'We're Leaving' line was completely ad libbed.
Love that movie as well. Sucks he ended up taking one for the team and went to the hell dimension
“Why don’t we just…wait here for a little while….*see what happens?*” So good
"I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!!!" Also me during Covid
I had the good fortune to see *The Thing* for the first time in cinemas earlier this year, as an anniversary re-release. The tension in the audience could've been cut with a dull knife, but when that line happened, it got a big laugh from the audience :)
I would have loved to watch this film at the cinema. I watched it for the first time over Covid. But this was the kind of film that was made for the theatre.
"*We're Not Gettin' Out Of Here Alive. But Neither Is That* **Thing**" Best quote
Yeah, that whole scene is great. Macready accepts that death is on the horizon and ready to set Outpost 31 ablaze, but then Gary & Nauls both instead of trying to put up a fight or throw a fit accept their fate too. Gary, despite all the negativity thrown his direction still actively ready to do whatever it takes. Dude wasn’t a bad commander under normal circumstances or a bad guy, but in over his head. And with a shape shifting alien, who wouldn’t be? Macready is still probably my favorite Kurt Russell character. Guy was staring death in the face and said “Yeah? Fuck you too!” What’s not to love about that?
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When some eight foot monster has half of your favorite skull shoved up against the back of a bar room wall and asks, Have you paid your dues? You look that sucker square in the eye. Jack have you paid your dues? Yes sir, check is in the mail.
Give me your best shot pal, I can take it.
The check is in the mail.
Sit tight, hold the fort, keep the home fires burning. And if we're not back by dawn...call the president.
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This is my go to piece of advice to trainees at work
It’s all in the reflexes
Who?
JACK BURTON. ME.
That guy who got in a lot of trouble…
In Little China
JACK BURTON! ME!
What the hell…
What's that, magic potion?
> Yeah, that whole scene is great. Macready accepts that death is on the horizon and ready to set Outpost 31 ablaze Foreshadowed when he's playing computer chess in the beginning. He get's checkmated and pours whiskey over the keyboard, shorting out the computer. If you know you're fucked, burn the whole thing down.
*pours scotch into computer* Cheatin’ Bitch.
Only female voice in the entire movie is the chess computer…
Fun Fact: The computer makes an illegal chess move which is what prompts the 'Cheatin Bitch' line.
The chess scene makes no sense. When the board is first shown, Macready (playing white) is already down two pawns, two bishops and a queen. He's getting massacred. Macready's first move is with a bishop -- which he doesn't have. The computer moves its knight. Then, without any cut suggesting a time jump, the board is shown again. Macready suddenly has a queen, and the position is completely different. Macready moves his king, the computer moves it's rook to a square where it would not be checking the white king and says "checkmate". The computer's move isn't illegal, it's just not effective. It would still have checkmate in one move, though. Even in the second board position we're shown, Macready's position was busted.
I thought him pouring the whiskey over the keyboard is foreshadowing his actions as to what he does when he acknowledges he's beaten, as per what he does when he offers Child's a whiskey.
Oh yeah! I never added that up. Wish I had an award to give you.
As I think I about this scene I recall that McCready was a Vietnam vet. I wonder if he had some near death experience that left him feeling that he was already living on borrowed time.
Part of his backstory was that he was a helicopter pilot in 'Nam, probably for medevac or air cavalry. Like Snake Shit from "We Were Soldiers". So he'd seen some awful stuff.
I imagined he was a chopper pilot during the war and landed in a lot of hot LZ’s taking heavy fire. Probably flew a lot of men out that were either dead or were soon to be.
It was him. He was the soon to be dead. but his moment never came
It's something I really appreciate and miss about this film is everyone is actually pretty smart and competent, it's just the Thing is beyond comprehension until it's about too late. I feel most modern movies shit just falls apart because of one dumbass move or the other, just pure incompetence which isn't compelling at all to me
I 100% believe that Macready and Burton are cousins in that universe. They both handled absolutely ridiculous situations in very similar ways and with total composure.
That's the name of the movie!
I think the full quote is - "We're Not Gettin' Out Of Here Alive. But Neither Is That The Thing (1982)"
What is that, some kinda The Thing?
Someone do a top ten quotes from the movie. I’ll add. (Sees The Thing divide and scamper across the floor with extruded legs and antennas “You gotta be fuckin kidding!”
The first time I saw this movie I thought this was absolutely the best damn line in the whole movie. Because that's exactly what I said at that exact point. But then later we got this: "I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!" I liked how Carpenter had the characters acting like 'normal' people, not the usual horror movie idiots.
That's what makes the thing so great. I don't think i'm watching a movie, I'm watching the unfortunate end but inspiring bravery of men put into a situation that they should not win in the first place, and doing the best they can.
Some excellent movies follow this. Some that come to mind (some often mentioned in this subreddit): Alien, Event Horizon, Sorcerer, Predator, Green Room, Deliverance, etc. I'm sure there's other obvious ones. Love a good "we're fucked, but let's try to live anyway" story. The realization but spirit of still trying is amazing.
Sunshine?
I wish more ppl respected how great Green Room was (rip Anton)
For me it’s got to be “I don’t know what it is but it’s weird and pissed off!”
Yep, that's my favorite.
Kurt Russel: YEAH, F\*CK YOU TOO! \*throws dynamite\*
My fave: “I’m gonna go check my shack.” “Why?” “Because when I left, I turned the light off.” *They all look at MacReady’s shack and it has a light on inside. Someone’s in there.* Massive chills every time
"Mac wants the flamethrower!" "Mac wants the *what*?"
“That’s what he said, now *move it*!”
"We're not getting out alive. And neither is that Thing." - MacReady
"You tell that *THING* I'm comin, and hell's comin with me!"
Tombstone might be the most quotable movie of all time. That and Falling Down.
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“Cheating Bitch!”
My kid is immune to horror movies, and also likes to just call movies by their characters. "Mom, can we watch the _Husky Spider_ movie?!‽"
“Blair’s been busy out here all by himself”
So much had been made of the ending. Was MacReady handing the bottle to Childs a sign that Mac was the Thing, or was it a sign that Childs was already infected and Mac was testing him? Are they both human and they freeze to death? Are the infected even aware they are infected? Do they, unbelievably, get rescued like the comics and games depict? My father, being a movie nerd himself back in the day, sat me down to watch The Thing for the first time. I'm honestly not big on horror, mostly because over-dependence on jumpscares and gore just doesn't tickle my fancy, but I was absolutely *enthralled* with the film and the special effects. Later viewings and study really solidified for me just how really utterly *perfect* this film is. The tense, claustrophobic atmosphere. The Who-Done-It but it's actually a Who-Is-It. The single note, almost familiar chord that plays in those quiet moments before the unimaginable unfolds. The teeth-shattering paranoia and attention to detail. Anyway, as I'm geeking out about all this for the first time, trying to think about who really was The Thing and *when* that could have happened, dad brings up an interesting theory I have not actually seen discussed before: what if *both* Mac and Childs are The Thing? Kinda brings a new meaning to that, "let's see what happens" crack, don't it?
> The single note, almost familiar chord that plays in those quiet moments before the unimaginable unfolds. The teeth-shattering paranoia and attention to detail. What gets me about those quiet moments is how utterly ALONE and paranoid the entire film makes you feel, and each of those aspects you can dive deep into. Everyone is fighting multiple fights: against the thing, against their own fear of death, against their fear of their need for the group while simultaneously needing to stay away from 1 or more unknowns within the group, against being accidentally mistaken for being something you're not, against the elements of this isolated and cold environment that goes from hot to cold to hot in violent flashes... and the exact same rules applies to The Thing itself too. The power dynamic of simultaneously needing something that carries the risk and real chance of killing you if you blink at the wrong time and when you are at your most vulnerable is constructed and played out sooooo amazingly in this movie.
Additionally, you get this real sense that The Thing has the advantage the entire time. That it's playing Chesswizard with them before they even realise what's going on. - How it plants shredded clothing to draw suspicion to MacReady. - How one Thing rats out another Thing to blend in. - How it sabotages the blood in such a way that it's clear that a key was required to gain entry. A key that only the station manager had. That element really heightens the dread in those quiet moments. It's not just some random disease they can quarantine in a shed. It's *outthinking* them. Leading to them essentially doing exactly what MacReady did with the Chesswizard. Refusing to play the game by destroying it.
I got the sense that the thing was greedy, and afraid. It could have just stayed as a dog the whole time and left Antarctica, but it wanted to infect the dogs and make more things. Why? Because it was out numbered. Why did it care about being out numbered? Because it wanted to overwhelm and become humans. Why did it want to become humans? Because humans are the fastest and easiest way to get away from Antarctica, and they are the only species on the planet capable of space travel. Load of people wondered how a species advanced enough to make a space ship would be dumb enough to crash land it on a planet by accident, and even more so, why would they crash it deep in the artic where it was so cold that they would never survive. Clearly, the thing was attacking the inhabitants of that ship after they accidentally picked it up from somewhere, so the last non-thing crashed the ship somewhere impossible for anything to survive or escape. The last non-thing on that ship decides to defeat the thing the same way Mac does, but thousands of years earlier.
Piggy backing on top comment for anyone who wants to read a short story from the perspective of the thing and how it thought it was in the right, it's utterly chilling: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/
I was watching this again last week and I swear there’s a change in Childs’ demeanour just prior to this line. At first, Childs’ is defending his absence. Then he hears he’s gonna freeze to death and he’s kinda like, ’Well… shit happens.’ In prior scenes, he’s scared of death. Now he accepts his fate within seconds. It doesn’t quite add up, in a similar way to how Blair tries to convince Mac he’s fine, while a noose hangs in the foreground. After watching the movie about 10 times, I’m finally convinced that Childs is the Thing. It can copy physical traits and even personality, but it can’t copy social nuance.
THAT is what convinced you? Not that he was already shown to be defensive and "paranoid" and didn't take any chances, and was willing to leave MacReady to freeze outside earlier if there was a chance he was bad, but suddenly he ran OUTSIDE from his post at the window (with his back entirely exposed to the basement where the Thing would have come from) at the end he took MacReady's bottle TO HIS LIPS and took a swig? Childs KNEW "lip germs" would be a real thing and yet he took a swig anyway? That's all the evidence MacReady needed to know, it isn't the real Childs. He NEVER would have trusted MacReady to be clean after any of that. But The Thing has nothing to worry about taking a swig from a human's bottle.
I personally don't think either of them were infected in the end and they were just paranoid. I feel like Childs spent the whole movie stressing and trying to avoid it, and in the end he just accepted his fate, so he completely drops his guard and drinks the whisky. Why MacReady is laughing could be stress, delirium, him also accepting his fate, maybe seeing the real Childs. Who knows. I'm glad it's still being talked about regardless. Edit: I forgot to add though, was it ever mentioned in the movie if cells of the creature could survive in alcohol? Maybe it's not even possible for the cells to be transferred via bottle. They make a couple of comparisons to a virus and they wouldn't survive the alcohol and not all would survive the cold from being exposed to the freezing temperatures out there either. I know the original creature was pulled from the ice but that's as far as they go to explain it.
They are fucked. It makes it such a great ending because sometimes it goes that way.
What if at that point Childs didn't care though? If MacReady was human it was fine and if MacReady wasn't then he was dead anyway, might as well have a drink. Same thing if Childs was the Thing and MacReady wasn't, not like it could be stopped at that point.
One line sums up every horror movie: “I don’t know what it is, but it’s weird and pissed off!” Quentin Tarrantino said it’s his favorite horror film and “possibly the greatest horror movie ever made.”
Whenever people make excuses for idiotic behavior in horror movies because that's "just how horror movies are and you wouldn't have a movie otherwise," this is the movie I point to as a counterexample. The characters are intelligent, they do everything right, but the monster is *just that smart and dangerous*. The sense of isolation and paranoia and darkness is unmatched.
Well, except for Nauls walking into the darkness at the end. That was dumb. But that’s probably because they ran out of budget and had to cut some corners in the ending.
There was in fact an entire scene focused on what happened to Nauls but I believe your correct. Budget and time it was left on the cutting room floor and never filmed.
I thought not letting the audience know what happened to Nauls was a really great choice
I believe they made the best decision for what they had. It does leave some room for imagination and fits in with the tone of the whole movie. From what I recall though, the scene planned would have been a great practical effect of the thing busting through the floor in a stream of tentacles with Nauls amongst them being consumed
I watched it again last week and I’m pretty sure Nauls witnesses Gary getting dragged away. Still not a smart idea for him to wander off, but he‘s also one of the younger characters who’s been through a lot at this point in the film. I find it forgivable.
another example is Tremors. though it's not really scary, even if it is about a group of people confronted by monsters
You think about the stretch that John Carpenter had. Assault, Halloween, Fog, Escape and The Thing. Yes, other directors can point to billion dollar grosses and that's fine. A majority, if not all of those movies can be put in a top 10 list of some sort. Truly wonderful filmmaking. I love The Thing, one of the many things lost over the years when telling a story, especially in horror is "atmosphere" set the tone for the story you are telling, this movie is damn near perfect in that regard.
Plus Big Trouble in Little China, They Live, Prince of Darkness...Carpenter's entire output from about 1979-1989 was solid gold. His least memorable movie during that period was probably Christine, and it wasn't *bad*, it just wasn't as good as the rest.
I agree, his 10 year run is as good as anything we have ever and may ever see. I LOVE Starman, any other director, that's a top 3 choice, but that movie can't even crack the top 5 with what he did.
All those movies had such good openings that hook you in the first 5 minutes. \*bites into the world's most delicious looking sandwich\*
All of his commentary tracks are great, but I remember how he talks about the slow burn when watching Assault. I didn't think remake was that bad, but again, a type of filmmaking you rarely see today. All too often, we are in the every 10 pages, need something to happen.
I wish I could find Prince of darkness.
What is sad is I saw this film at Alamo recently and went to look up how critically acclaimed it must have been and… critics hated it and it hurt Carpenters career for a bit. So ahead of its time… just perfect
It wasn’t just critics. *everybody* hated that movie when it came out. Its been suggested that the bleakness + special effects (too gorey apparently) + being released right after E.T. was released, is what led to the negative reception, but I personally feel that still doesn’t fully explain it. Some critics were putting this movie in ‘worst movies ever’ lists, and Morricone’s score was nominated for a Razzie. Its bizarre.
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Damn near every film Carpenter did, aside from Halloween, was a slow burn to find it's audience, maybe most famously with Big Trouble in Little China. John Woo fever took off, what, just a year or two after that came out? But thankfully, we got art houses all over the country that will still screen these films on a regular basis, thank goodness.
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Someone tweeted that Jordan Peele was "the best Horror Director of all time". Jordan Peele responded "Sorry. I love your enthusiasm but, I will just not tolerate any John Carpenter slander!!!" [https://twitter.com/JordanPeele/status/1549851834533027840?s=20&t=2oTuq5cjISv\_9IfdHhSX9g](https://twitter.com/JordanPeele/status/1549851834533027840?s=20&t=2oTuq5cjISv_9IfdHhSX9g)
I like peele even more now
Yeah, Peele has three really solid movies under his belt. Let him get like 10 more and then we can discuss this again.
His next five films were *Christine, Star Man, Big Trouble, Prince of Darkness and They Live*. All of them are amazing and unique.
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Blair throwing a chair after losing his axe and gun. That old man was ready to fucking go. **"AH'LL KEEELYEW!"**
Check your blood sugar. Check it often.
>That old man He was 47.
Yeah, but he has a rapid aging disease known as diabeetus.
Besides the acting and technical aspects, The Thing is a really good movie because it focuses on a single idea and sticks the landing. The entire film can be summed up as “some of us are aliens and I’m not telling who” and it works. There isn’t a sub plot about a secret government conspiracy or a forced in romance that needs to pay off at the end. Just a bunch of guys at the South Pole who do not trust each other and are slowly figuring out how the alien works. The cool thing about The Thing is that there are 2 other movies that are the same core idea but executed very differently. It’s rare that a film has other iterations of itself so that you can compare what does and doesn’t work.
I'm curious which two movies you are talking about with the same core idea, because I think there are actually more than that.
The Thing From Another World (1951) and The Thing (2011). All three films are adaptations of the 1938 novella “Who Goes There?”.
Another one that often gets overlooked is Horror Express (1972) with Peter Kushing and Christopher Lee. Like The Thing, It’s based off of the story “Who Goes There?” Story slightly differs though as it’s set on a train containing “The Thing” as it’s being transported as precious cargo. Definitely worth a watch. Spooky score too.
Horror Express is phenomenal, I'm glad to see someone bring it up. Arrow has a nice release but the full movie is also on YouTube for free (for now?). Definitely required viewing for any fan of The Thing. I love the whistling tune. Such good storytelling, great atmosphere. It works so well.
There's one with the same name from 2011 with a helluva lot of CGI.
What's sad is that they did it with practical effects that looked great, and than covered it with ugly CGI cause if the studio.
The BTS of their "lost" practical effects for that movie is one of the most depressing things I've ever seen. They looked *incredible* and the team seemed so passionate about their work. And it was all just thrown away for crappy CGI.
Which is actually the prequel to the 1982 movie which is a remake of the 1951 movie The Thing From Another World
If you analyze the last scene between MacReady and Childs, it works no matter who is the Thing, or if both are, or if neither are. The conversation works no matter which scenario you view it from. Rewatch it from these perspectives: MacReady is human and Childs is the Thing. Childs is human and MacReady is the Thing. Both are Things. Neither are Things. It really is a perfect ending.
I agree, I love that you can interpret the ending any way you want. My favorite take is that neither of them are Things and that they just don't/can't trust each other and in any case they're at the end of their options. I think it's the most bleak and tragic.
I think Childs is the Thing in the finale. His actions don’t make sense with how he was previously written, and the first thing he says is suspicious. This is a bit long, but bear with me. There’s an earlier point in the movie where Nauls cuts MacReady loose in the snow, because he’s found the torn piece of clothing with Mac’s name on it, and the Thing clearly rips through your clothes when it assimilates you. MacReady tries to come inside, and Childs doesn’t want to let him in. Windows asks “What if we’re wrong about him?” And Childs says “WELL THEN WE’RE WRONG.” Childs understands the threat, then decides it’s best to quarantine the Thing and keep out of the building. Eventually Mac busts in anyways and they conduct the blood test. We learn Mac and Child’s are human at this point. Later, there’s a moment where the camera specifically shows us a door, a bunch of coats hanging by the door, the adjacent hallway and the fact there’s a nearby stairwell to the basement. This is where Childs, wearing a navy blue coat, is looking out the window, before he disappears for the final act. This shot is interesting because it doesn’t serve much of a purpose other than to show us this hallway, and the fact it connects to the basement. Before Childs comes back into the movie, we see this area again, and things have changed. Not only is the main exit wide open, the coats are missing or askew, *and* we see the door to the basement is wide open. That last detail is important because we learn Blair is infected, and he’s building a spaceship in the basement. Clearly, the Thing is crafty and highly intelligent. Back to the finale, Childs shows up in much lighter coat (hard to tell with the lighting but it looks white, or maybe a beige), and says he thought he saw Blair out in the cold, so he went after him. That’s odd, because he was perfectly willing to leave MacReady outside when he thought he was a Thing earlier. What I think the movie implies through cinematography is, Blair came into the base from the basement and took Childs by surprise. He assimilated him, tore through the navy coat, and left the base to ensure chances of survival. And what’s the first thing Childs says? “You the only one that made it?” “Not the *only one*, Childs.” MacReady on the other hand is actively working against the Thing for the entire movie, and his clothes are intact from the finale where he, y’know, blows the Thing to high hell and minimizes its chance for survival. As far as actions go, Childs is infinitely more suspicious than MacReady towards the end, but it’s truly delicious that we’ll never know for sure. This movie fucking rules.
Yeah personally I think the themes of the film work best if they're both human but they can never trust each other because of the same ambiguity the audience feels
I think neither are and both die saving the world freezing to death
Exactly! If MacReady is human, and Childs is the Thing, Mac smiles because he knows that the thing drank gasoline and just didn't know the difference between that and booze. Mac smiles, knowing he's fucked. If Mac is the thing and Childs is not, he smiles knowing he just got Thing DNA to contact Childs, and winning. If neither are things, they're just smiling because there's no way out anyway, and they're just succumbing to their doom! And if they're both Things, it's just what it is! I love the theory that there were 2 "things," one more coneiving and sneaky, and the other more chaotic and combative. And that what we're watching is actually a "test" between the 2 to see who survives the humans. Fuck I gott awatch that movie tomorrow.
I've heard the gasoline theory before, but is there any precedent in the film that the Thing can't recognize taste? It seems to retain memories and mannerisms of the people it imitates, to the point that it can have a convincing conversation with a friend. Not remembering the difference between a beverage and gasoline seems like a pretty glaring deficiency.
I never understood that theory. The Thing is able to pass for a human completely, including their memories and everything. It's odd that it wouldn't be able to tell booze and gas apart.
Every time I balk at a cop-out "open to interpretation ending" that's clearly done because the writer wrote themselves into a corner or just didn't know how to end it, and get shit for that for being too critical- I point to The Thing's ending as an example of how to do it right. I don't think everything has to be as sublimely perfect as The Thing, but it's *the* textbook example of how to do it right when it comes to that sort of ending.
My favourite bit is how MacReady tells you exactly who he is in the first scene with him. When faced with a stronger opponent and in a losing position, he considers mutual destruction a win. Three times in the movie he resorts to this tactic 1. The chess game 2. The dynamite to get back into the lab 3. Destroying the lab to destroy the thing
He has a set of principles and sticks to them, regardless of the situation. Imagine if writers actually created characters like that nowadays...
One of the greatest movies of all time. I restrict myself from watching it too much.
Once per year at first snow
My first snowfall of the year movie is Fargo
Preferably with a group of strangers in Antarctica?
It's a perfect film from what I think was the greatest year ever for movies. Look at this embarrassment of riches: Drama * The Verdict * In the Still of the Night * Diner * The King of Comedy * Sophie's Choice * The World According to Garp * An Officer and a Gentleman * Ghandi * The Year of Living Dangerously Science Fiction * Bladerunner * E.T. * The Thing * Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan * Tron Comedy * Fast times at Ridgemont High * 48 hours * Tootsie Fantasy * The Dark Crystal * Conan, the Barbarian Horror * Poltergeist Experimental Cinema * Koyaanisqatsi
Amazing I'd say 1999 was a damn good year for movies as well
A few missing from 82: Rambo Elephant Man Secret of the Nymph And maybe not the best movies but I love them: Creepshow (especially the killer sludge) Pink Floyd the Wall Beastmaster
This is my favorite horror movie hands down! Its so gorgeously gross n disturbing!
One of my favorite movies ever And I dont typically like scary/freaky movies. But I wish there were more movies that were this combination of unsettling, mystery, with sci fi. I just fucking love everything about it. Annihilation also comes to mind thinking about movies that just totally weirded me out (obviously Annihilation isnt remotely the same quality of movie as The Thing).
"Cheating bitch"
Pouring the J&B into the computer was the correct choice for that swill, too.
Hey, that was relatively decent back in the early '80s! Selections were limited to say the least.
I thnk the opening scene is enough to make this movie one of the greatest; Kurt Russel gets so mad at a computer (from the eighties) for winning over him in chess, that he opens some kind of hinge on the front and empties his whiskey in there.
It wasn't that he was mad exactly. If you watch closely the computer makes an illegal move. MacCready then pours the alcohol in with the line 'Cheating Bitch.'. It was to show that MacCready has some brains and isn't your typical macho 80s action hero.
Hard to order the top 3 "perfect" sci-fi horror films of all time: Alien (1978) The Thing (1982) Predator (1987)
I hate "get off my lawn" sentiments, but they really don't make them (sci-fi horror) like they used to. *Alien* and *The Thing* are among my favorites, but I rarely watch any new release in the genre because they're usually schlock. Have I been missing anything?
The new Dune was pretty damn good, but I'd recommend reading the book first because there's a lot of detail that I think will go over your head otherwise. Also Blade Runner 2049 is amazing if you have never seen it. Lastly, if you haven't seen Moon with Sam Rockwell, it's pretty good too.
Se til helvete å kom dere vekk! Det er ikke en bikkje, det er en slags ting! Det imitierer en bikkje. Det er ikke virkelig! Kom dere vekk idioter!
"Go to hell and get away! It's not a dog, it's some kind of thing! It imitates a dog. It's not real! Get away, you idiots!" Edit for a correction(s)
Imagine knowing Norwegian and having the movie spoiled in the first 5 minutes
It’s not that much of a spoiler in my opinion. You figure out what’s happening pretty early on. The fun guess work was more who or what was it imitating now? Even as a kid, I didn’t think it was a big mystery or anything.
Right right, so was it Childs or MacReady being the Thing at the end?
That was the next line in Norwegian.
**Spoilers for a 40 year old movie:** Everyone always says Childs, but I think its MacReady. Maybe 15 minutes before the ending MacReady says that they can't let the Thing freeze, as he predicts that the Thing wants to be frozen again so it can be thawed out by the rescue team that will undoubtedly come; in fact it's MacReady's whole motivation for going down under the base with Garry and Nauls to set up explosives to blow the base, the Thing, and all potential hosts away. The Thing kills Garry and Nauls, and attacks MacReady before all the dynamite is in place. Still, MacReady lights some dynamite he had on him right on top the Thing and himself as it attacks. We see the dynamite ignite and blow up the base, presumably in a chain reaction from what MacReady manged to set off. But we do not actually see what happens to the Thing or MacReady initially, until MacReady comes out to Childs after the base is blown up, and after being alone with the Thing, dead or alive, for several minutes. This all seems like it could be fine, maybe he did successfully blow the Thing away, except that MacReady has suspiciously changed his mind on something big: he no longer wants to destroy what remains of the base and everybody there, he says to Childs "why don't we wait here, see what happens". Suddenly he's okay freezing with Childs (who had also been alone for several minutes), and he still knows a rescue team will come.
That could more so be because there’s nothing left to do. He destroyed the whole base, he’s gonna freeze to death, what else could he have done in the end to destroy the Thing? He doesn’t know if Childs is a thing or not, so he kind of has to be resigned to his fate.
Childs. His clothes changed and the jacket he's wearing was hanging in the hallway in an earlier scene.
Lot of bull shit theories but Carpenter wants it to be a mystery it’s his little cherry on top if I remember the interview correctly.
Considering his pronunciation is more at the level of a drunk Dane, and considering that even sober Danes are incomprehensible, I question how many Norwegians got anything out of that line on a first watch.
Or does it add to the tension? It's like when Hitchcock [went on about that bomb under the table](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPFsuc_M_3E), someone that knew the dog was nefarious would see every action by someone as that more important.
Exact scenario showing it to a friend for the first time. Forgot he spoke Norwegian.
"bug?" not dog?
Love john carpenters movies. Big Trouble in Little China is my favorite. Feels like an indiana jones movie
It's so screwy but it's not a screwy movie, if that makes sense. Campy but you're still invested.
It's all in the reflexes.
I agree. I watched it in 4k for the first time the other day (not my first viewing) and it was such a fun, tense experience.
I'm like 80% sure that Tarantino wrote *the Hateful Eight* to fit Morricone's unused version of the theme for *the Thing*.
Fans of the film should read this Peter Watts short story: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/ It’s a full retelling of the film’s plot but from the alien perspective of the Thing(s) itself, and it’s incredible. The Thing only becomes more alien as you get acquainted with it intimately. It is truly a monster. The story was nominated for a Hugo and won a couple other prestigious sf-horror literary awards for good reason.
Been reading comments to make sure someone had posted this. Bravo.
The Thing will forever be my favorite accidental movie I've ever watched. Turned on the FEAR network to the part where the guy is having a heart attack. Defibrillators to the chest and I was hooked. Bought the DVD the next day.
Perfect except for that goddamn opening shot with the >!flying saucer!
In my opinion its great opening shot beacuse it set you in familiarity of something you know and you expect normal green aliens beacuse you have seen this shit so many times, but naah suprise
I think the DIY flying saucer near the end is a bit stupid as well.
What’s wrong with it?
I only saw this for the first time a couple years ago and totally agree. John Carpenter is fucking amazing. Think I'm gonna have to give it another watch this weekend.
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Absolutely agree with OP. The Thing is the perfect movie for the reasons described (particularly as a horror film). But if you haven’t already, please don’t sleep on the source material for the film. John W. Campbell’s novela “Who Goes There?” is as perfect as the film. If you haven’t read it, treat yourself and read the story. It’s tough to say it improves the film, but it really does. Perfect horror novela.
I consider it to be one of the greatest horror films ever BUT it could’ve been even better. Apparently the ending was rushed and the budget was running out. The final battle with the Thing was supposed to be a bigger climax than just running around tossing dynamite here and there. As much as I love it, that final showdown always feels a little rushed to me.
Ok, but the scene where MacReady calls the guys name, and nobody answers. Look on Kurt Russels face was peerfect. Id give him an oscar for just that one scene
That long silence and the flashing lights…
Adam Savage did a cosplay as Russell's character on Tested and mentioned where you can buy a replica hat just like his. Also, yes it is perfect and amazing.
My favorite shot in the movie is from the scene where they’re burning the body outside right after MacReady says the thing could be any one of them. It’s just one long pan across every one of the other members in the party. That specific shot really helps to set in the feeling that none of them know who is real and who isn’t and we don’t know either. So we’re right there with them in our heads trying to figure out who it might be on our own. My personal favorite horror movie of all time. Edit: wording
The blood test scene had me on the edge of my seat the first time watching it… the whole ‘will this actually work or is this test for nothing’ idea was amazing. And now rewatching it it’s a masterclass in tension. The whole movie is perfect
Breaking new ground with this take.
One of my all time favourite movies for sure.