Stars: Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley
Director: John Carpenter
We are now moving on to 1982, one of the greatest years of film with multiple classics being sent out to theaters. The same weekend that The Thing dropped in theaters, Blade Runner was released, E.T. was number one in the box office, and Poltergeist and Star Trek II were both still enjoying strong runs. As a kid, I saw all but two of these in the theater. I’ll let you guess which two and the answer will be below.
Brief synopsis: Workers at an American research station in Antarctica are shocked when two men from a nearby Norwegian camp appear in a helicopter shooting at a dog. Eventually both men are killed and the dog is taken in by the American crew. MacReady, the helicopter pilot, takes Dr. Copper to the Norway base camp to try and get answers. Once there they discover that the base is destroyed. They find a man who has slit his own throat and wrists, burned remains, a creature that looks like two humans fused together, and a melted block of ice that obviously had something in it that was released. Mac and Doc take the creature back to base to examine. Another scientist, Blair, examines the creature and discovers that it is appears to be human, with normal organs. Meanwhile, the dog that was being chased is finally put into the pen with the rest of the dogs and all hell breaks loose.
Spoilers below (you have been warned):
The dog turns into a dog thing, sprouting other-worldly appendages and almost a flower-like appearance in places. It attacks the other dogs and the men respond to the ruckus. Mac orders the men to get a flamethrower and they burn the dog thing up. Slowly, paranoia begins to circle through the camp as they realize that they are dealing with an alien that can imitate life and imitate it perfectly. Blair is isolated after going crazy and assimilated by the creature.
Through many spectacular effects show pieces, the crew is slowly whittled down to Mac, the base captain Gary, cook Nauls, and mechanic Childs working together to stop Blair-thing from taking off in the ship he has built. Childs disappears and Blair-thing dispatches of Nauls and Gary, leaving Mac. Mac blows up the base, setting the camp on fire. As he sits drinking, Childs come back. Neither man trusts the other at this point but, as Mac points out, neither is in any position to do anything about it. The base fire will burn out soon and they will die of hyperthermia. With one of the most famous last lines in a film, Mac hands Childs a bottle of whiskey and says “Why don't we just wait here for a little while, see what happens?”.
My thoughts (with spoilers):
Confession time – this is one of my favorite films of all time and I hope to one day see it on the big screen. In 1982, my parents were not dropping me off to see The Thing. First off, I was 8 when this came out so I couldn’t go to a rated “R” movie by myself at that time. Secondly, I don’t think my parents really knew what this film was. We had watched The Thing from Another Planet, probably on Svengoolie, but we did not make the connection to this film. There is a good reason for that. The 1950’s film is about a giant carrot alien who attacks a base in Alaska. It is silly and really has no resemblance to the original short story, Who Goes There? The screenwriter of The Thing from 1982, Bill Lancaster, went back to the source material and an alien that takes over and replicates whatever it is taking over.
This film, in my humble opinion, is Carpenter’s masterpiece. There is only one shot that I think should have been eliminated and that is the opening shot with the spaceship crash landing on Earth. It is not necessary and takes away a little bit of the mystery of what is happening. I wish the film had just started with the opening titles and then the stark shot of the Antarctic mountains, emphasizing the isolation these men feel, but that is a minor quibble. Other than that, this is a well-shot film with cinematography by the amazing Dean Cundey. We are kept in a constant state of confusion and paranoia along with the men. We do not know who to trust or who is a thing. Each shot, including close-ups on needles going into arms and the creature bursting out of its host bodies, is directed to wring the maximum amount of terror and horror out of it. I still love Halloween but this will always be my favorite of his films.
The acting is great across the board. Most of these men are from the 1980’s slate of character actors so they have faces that you recognize but you may not know the names. This adds to the tension as you do not know who to trust as the paranoia mounts. There are really only two recognizable actors in this film: Kurt Russell and Wilford Brimley. I say recognizable as in both had been in films for years and their faces, even behind beards, are quite recognizable. Keith David would end up becoming a staple in films but his Childs is the first major role he would have in a career that is still going strong today. Because the acting is so good, we empathize with these men as they try to make the right decisions and do not dislike anyone until they turn out to a thing. We will get to what I consider the female version of this film, The Descent, in the 2000’s and that film has a definite villain and her name is Juno. Not here, here they are just a group of people trying to survive an impossible situation.
The great acting includes the dogs in the film, specifically the main dog-thing, played by Jed. Animal actors often have trouble conveying the right mood in a scene but there is always something just a bit off about him. Whether he is standing at a window, staring out at the men as they head to his old base, or stalking his way down a hall to claim his first victim, the dog is never quite right. Carpenter said in his commentary track that the dog just did the scenes perfectly, without needing much guidance. By the way, get the DVD and listen to the commentary track with Russell and Carpenter. These longtime friends have a blast revisiting their box office failure together.
None of this would have worked if the special effects were shoddy but the effects created by Rob Bottin are nothing short of incredible. Only one special effect, the dog-thing turning in the dog kennel, was done by the legendary Stan Winston based on Bottin’s sketches. Every other effect in this movie was done by Bottin. He spent so much time working on the movie that he ended up in the hospital being treated for exhaustion. The creativity of the creatures, the mad genius behind the idea that a creature that can mimic anything and has probably been to multiple planets can look like anything, is what holds the film together. The fact that the creature also is basically a simple cell that overtakes, that it really isn’t a whole being is also fascinating. Each cell protects itself, only concerns itself with its own survival. The blood test scene proves this out and is tense with a comedic line at the end to release the tension held in your body. The way the contaminated blood jumps out of the petri dish after being burned still gets me no matter how many times I have seen it.
The Thing is a tense paranoic masterpiece. Misunderstood at the time it was released, people said it was too gory and nasty to watch. Compared to the torture porn era, this is nothing. Also, unlike films that seem to just be gore for gore’s sake, this film has a reason for the gore. We need to see the organs to understand that they are the same are ours. We need to see the thing change to understand the danger our protagonists are in. We need to understand that not only is the danger real, chances are that none of these men are surviving the attack and that they really should not if humanity wants to survive. The Thing is a must watch for any horror film fan.
More films from 1982 to check out:
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial – First film I saw multiple times in the theater, including once with my maternal grandma. A young widow (like myself) and a product of the depression era, she was tough as nails couldn’t believe it when my mom and I started crying when E.T. died. Her words, “What are you crying for, you know he is going to live.” Still a classic and I still cry every time.
Blade Runner – The other sci-fi classic that I did not see in the theaters. I have watched multiple versions of the film and am still not sure which one I prefer but Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer are both excellent.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – My second favorite of the series (still love Star Trek IV more, sue me) with Shatner overacting to a positive effect, great battle scenes, and a stunner of ending that was undone in the next film.