The Thing
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- This article is about the film. For other meanings of thing, see thing (disambiguation).
The_Thing_DVD.jpg
The Thing is a 1982 science fiction/horror film directed by John Carpenter. Ostensibly a remake of the 1951 Howard Hawks film The Thing From Another World, Carpenter's film is actually more faithful to the short story that serves as both films' source material, "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, Jr.
The Thing stars Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley, Richard Dysart and Richard Masur, among others. The musical score was by Ennio Morricone, a rare instance of Carpenter not scoring one of his own films.
The story takes place in Antarctica. An American research station receives a surprise visit from a seemingly insane pair of Norwegians, who are attempting to shoot a runaway Husky dog. The Norwegians are killed, and an investigation of the burned-out Norwegian research station reveals that they had uncovered an alien spacecraft from under hundreds of feet of ice.
It is soon revealed that the runaway Husky, now in the Americans' care, is in fact an alien life form that duplicates its host's cells with its own. The result is an alien predator with the ultimate camouflage, a perfect reproduction of its host. Gradually, paranoia sets in among the Americans, as none can be certain who has been infected.
Many characters' names are taken directly from the original Campbell story, as is a scene in which Russell's character devises a test to see who may be infected, by exposing a sample of each man's blood to extreme heat.
Upon its release, the film was lambasted by critics for its special make-up effects, created by Rob Bottin, which were seen as excessively bloody and disgusting. The film fared poorly at the box office mainly due to the fact that E.T. came out around the same time. Yet its reputation improved in the late nineties through home video releases. It is now regarded by the majority of Carpenter's admirers as one of his finest films. A collector's edition DVD was released in 1999.
In 2004 another The Thing collector's edition DVD was released. The only difference is an improved anamorphic transfer but the isolated score from the 1999 release is lost.
Other media
In 2002, a video game was released, taking the form of a sequel to the film. The game — also titled The Thing — makes effective use of the elements of paranoia and mistrust intrinsic to the film, and was released on multiple platforms: PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox.
The game is the official sequel to the movie. You play as a soldier with the name of Blake. Your mission is to find out what happend on the Norwegian polar base. As you play the game you will enter many locations from the movie and are able to recruit up to four people who will follow you if you can gain their trust. The game is revolutionary because of the fear factor. You must prove that you are not infected or else they will not follow you, additionally your teammates can turn into "the thing" at any time. There are three classes of people that you can recruit to your team; Soldiers, Engineers, and Medics.
The game is horror-based with action elements.
The game has many similarities with the Electronic arts game Freedom Fighters. Both games use a trust parameter to recruit new people. However, Freedom Fighters is more straight forward in that your teammates aren't likely to commit suicide or turn into "The Thing" at any moment.
External links
- Template:Imdb title
- The Thing at theofficialjohncarpenter.com (http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/themovies/th/th.html)
- The Thing: Between arrival and spontaneous emergence (The Thing and pulp-horror) (http://hyperstition.abstractdynamics.org/archives/003784.html)
- Deleuze/Guattari: Capitalism/ The Thing/ Fictional quantities (http://hyperstition.abstractdynamics.org/archives/003761.html)
- Outpost 31 (Great Thing Fan site) (http://www.outpost31.com)
- TheEvilThing at freeservers.com (http://theevilthing.freeservers.com/)de:Das Ding aus einer anderen Welt (1982)