The Thing (1982)

Oh boy, Carpenter's The Thing is my favorite movie of all time. It doesn't even have competition, though the original Terminator, Big Trouble in Little China (also from Carpenter), and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1977 version) are the closest things to being competition for me. That's my Four Horsemen of movies. Not Mt. Rushmore, no, Four Horsemen. Three out of four are apocalyptic, one is just fun and gives no fucks about how macho it is.

This movie (1982) is noteworthy because it has no female characters in the entire movie...except for a cheating chess computer and possibly The Thing itself.

The 2011 prequel is cool for what it is and I'm glad it exists, even if the 1982 movie is way better. Every time I've ever watched the 2011 movie, I HAD to queue up the 1982 movie right afterwards. I can take the 1953 movie or leave it as a standalone movie. It doesn't have much relation to the others. Both 1953 and 1982 are retellings of the short story "Who Goes There?" from the 1930's. Very different retellings. The 1982 version is much, much closer to the short story.

As for the creature itself, I find it one of the most interesting monsters in cinema. In the 1982 version at least. In the 2011 version it's a dumb, rampaging monster (we can explain that away with "it got smarter after that and learned subtlety for the 1982 movie"). In the 1953 movie it's a plant-man. However in the 1982 version it's a completely inscrutable shape-shifting beast from hell. And also a virus, apparently. It can spread by "taking you over" either slowly via virus, or quickly by latching onto you. This thing is truly horrifying and almost unstoppable, and the fact that failure to defeat it means the entire human race is dead by it within 3 years just makes it even worse. Even if you could get away, there won't be anywhere to hide for long.

Arbitrary said:

The John Carpenter film is far, far more faithul to the novella "Who Goes There" (which is very good in its own right) than The Thing From Another World. If you like John Carpenter's version give the book a try.

A few years ago someone wrote a short story from the perspective of The Thing. Horror stories retold from the perspective of the monster are almost their own little sub-genre. The one for The Thing isn't bad.

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast. This page: The Things by Peter Watts

clarkesworldmagazine.com

Click to expand...

Checking that out. I see right at the start that they've got Childs penned as a Thing. If there was any time where he got switched, it was while he was guarding that door.

There's a decent book of short stories inspired by Who Goes There, available on Amazon:

Amazon.com: Short Things: Tales Inspired by "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, Jr. eBook: Foster, Alan Dean , Schweitzer, Darrell , Hoffman, Nina Kiriki , Rusch, Kristine Kathryn , Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn , Anderson, Kevin J. , Sargent, Pamela , Steele, Allen M. , Cole, Allan , Di Filippo, Paul : Kindle Store

The stories are all written by different people, and they're hit-or-miss. There's one really long, boring one. However there are several others that are just chilling, and do a great job expanding the material. There's one that takes place on a spaceship, one that takes place in ancient Greece, one that takes place on a boat, and an especially claustrophobic one that centers around a couple of guys locked in an Area 51 vault where they find Blair's journal in a hazardous materials crate and start to read through it at their own risk.

This movie is probably my 2nd right behind Aliens.

I’ve watched it over 50 times and am into reading about the film. One great discussion is about Childs (Keith David ) being the thing at the end. Childs took off and was no where to be found when the other 3 were taking on Doc Beetus.The reason people theorize this is because of two things.

One reason is Childs is not breathing out condensation when talking to Macready who is breathing out air in the sub temperature of the night. The 2nd is because Maccready hands him the bottle to take a drink and when Child’s takes a gulp Macready laughs seeing Child’s not act in revulsion. It was a Molotov.