The Thing (1982) Universal/Sci-Fi-Horror RT: 109 minutes Rated R (language, graphic violence, gross special effects) Director: John Carpenter Screenplay: Bill Lancaster Music: Ennio Morricone Cinematography: Dean Cundey Release date: June 25, 1982 (US) Cast: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, T.K Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, Thomas G. Waites. Box Office: $19.6M (US)
Rating: ****
Indisputably, one of the coolest sci-fi-horror movies of the 80s, The Thing is (sort of) a remake of the 1951 classic The Thing from Another World. Kurt Russell (Escape from New York) heads an all male cast as R.J. MacReady, the helicopter pilot at a scientific research center in Antarctica. It’s winter and a group of scientists and other personnel have only been there for a few weeks, but things are about to get real crazy real fast due to an unexpected visitor.
After a near-fatal encounter with a crazed sniper trying to kill a sled dog, MacReady and Dr. “Doc” Copper (Dysart, Pale Rider) fly to the nearby Norwegian science center to find out what’s going on. They find the place in charred and frozen ruins. All of the scientists are dead or missing. They also find the frozen corpse of a humanoid creature which they bring back to their own station. An autopsy is performed and the results are inconclusive. Dr. Blair (Brimley, Cocoon) finds a set of normal human organs, but he has no idea what type of creature he has before him.
After the sled dog transforms into some kind of creature and infects another dog, Dr. Blair concludes it’s an alien life form capable of imitating its host. After viewing some videotapes salvaged from the Norwegian station, MacReady and two others fly out to a field site where they discover an alien spacecraft that’s been buried in the ice for about 100,000 years. That’s where the Norwegians found the parasitic alien life form now running rampant throughout the American research station.
Blair becomes violently paranoid about the possibility of the creature reaching the public. He destroys all of the helicopters, kills all of the dogs and breaks the camp radio with an axe, effectively cutting them off from the outside world until spring. Alone and isolated, the team starts to become distrustful of one another. The parasitic alien is capable of perfectly imitating anybody it infects. Any member of the team could be a host. It wouldn’t take long for it to take over everybody at the station. Tensions and hostilities grow as the alien works its way through the group.
It may not be an original story,; it’s actually based on the 1938 novella “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell Jr. The 50s film adaptation by Christian Nyby is loosely based on it. John Carpenter’s version sticks more closely to the source. He makes it work. Carpenter (Halloween, Prince of Darkness) knows his way around a scary, suspenseful horror film. It helps that the screenplay by Bill Lancaster (The Bad News Bears) is intelligently written. The music by Ennio Morricone (The Man with No Name trilogy) augments the suspense, although a lot of it sounds like it was composed by Carpenter. The truth is some of it is; he just goes uncredited for that particular contribution.
The real star of The Thing is the groundbreaking makeup effects by Rob Bottin (The Howling, RoboCop). They’re totally awesome! They look absolutely real. In fact, everything in this movie from 40+ years ago looks more convincing than any of the CGI effects in today’s movies. There’s something to be said for old school FX. If done right, they could really gross audiences out. The Thing is definitely done right. It has a lot of slime, ooze, goo and gore. Its icky factor is high; it goes to 111.
There’s one scene where one team member (Hallahan, True Believer) has a heart attack. Doc tries to revive him with a defibrillator. The man’s chest opens up and bites off Doc’s hands. He holds the bloody stumps up to the camera and bleeds to death right there. Meanwhile, the head detaches from its body and falls to the floor where it sprouts spider legs and scurries away before getting torched with a flamethrower. Upon witnessing the head’s transformation, pot-smoking assistant mechanic Palmer (Clennon, Missing) exclaims, “You gotta be f***in’ kidding.” It’s nice to break up the horror with a little humor.
There’s also plenty of suspense in The Thing. Various characters walk down dark hallways and corridors alone not knowing what fate awaits them. Something could jump out of the darkness at any time. The suspense is also found in not knowing who’s human and who’s not. A blood test administered by MacReady becomes a real exercise in tension. Any of them could be the alien in human form. You don’t know until he tests their blood with a red hot needle. This is the way scary movies should be done. They should be genuinely scary with lots of moments designed to make you jump out of your seat right into the lap of the person sitting next to you.
Russell is one of my favorite actors and does a superb job in The Thing. He gets off one of the film’s best lines when he shouts, “Yeah, f*** you too!” at the roaring monster in the fiery climax. What you have to remember is Russell got his start in the cheesy live-action Disney flicks from the 70s (The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Strongest Man in the World). He was still making the transition into more adult roles at the time. He proved his mettle as an action lead in Carpenter’s Escape from New York (1981) and continues to do so here. His MacReady is an intelligent hero. He likes to play computer chess while drinking Scotch. He’s a natural leader who takes charge of the extra-terrestrial situation. No pussyfooting around either. If he discovers that somebody is infected, he will torch that person, no questions asked. Russell is the quintessential tough guy, but he’s not a larger than life action hero like Schwarzenegger or Stallone. He’s a more realistic kind of bad ass.
Of the other actors in this movie, I can say that they all deliver decent performances. Some stand out more than others like the jive-ass cook Nauls (Carter, Doctor Detroit) and distrustful chief mechanic Childs (David, Platoon). But here’s the thing (no pun intended), the characters aren’t as important as what awful fate awaits them in the frozen no man’s land that is the continent of Antarctica. This setting is ideal as it’s one of the most isolated places on the planet. In the frozen wilderness, nobody can hear you scream. The cinematography by Dean Cundey effectively evokes the sense of dread that can only found in that frozen, uninhabited hell.
In the end, The Thing is all about effects and atmosphere. The fact that it’s legitimately scary and surprisingly smart is an added bonus. Lancaster takes the time to explain the biological aspects of the alien life form whereas in other similar movies, the alien would just exist without too much explanation. The whole idea that this creature remained frozen in ice for 100,000 years before being discovered and thawed out is pretty damn cool. As sci-fi-horror, The Thing is the real deal!
