The Thing essays

The Thing essays The Thing is a cult classic film that was based on a short story by famed science-fiction author John W. Campbell, Jr., entitled 'Who Goes There? John Carpenter directed the Movie in 1982, and is a remake from an earlier edition made in the 1950s. In Carpenters work he sets a strong theme of paranoia and isolation through a shape-shifting monster, or alien that physically imitates the host of who it kills...which is every one it can. Though it did not do so well in box office, it has been recognized over the years through cult success. I have mixed feelings about this, and am not sure if I agree with the success of its reconition. The Thing is set at an American Antarctic research station in the middle of winter. The movie opens with a couple of Norwegians flying in a helicopter across a snowy barren land, attempting to shoot at a dog. They all arrive at the American camp, and with the Norwegians still trying to kill the dog, they themselves get killed because the Americans think that they have gone crazy and are attacking them. The Americans then decides to investigate the nearby Norwegian camp to see what made these people go so crazed. Once they got there they discover it destroyed and all members of the expedition dead, a couple in very strange ways. Macready (Curt Russell) realizes that the Norwegians were performing digs, and upon investigating the dig site they discover a large saucer shaped spacecraft in the ice. They also come across a block of ice that was carved out of the ground and which once contained something human-sized. They decide that what the Norwegians found in the ice was a creature f rom another planet and the Americans shortly found out where that creature was now, when the dog that the Norwegian's were chasing reveals it's true nature: It turns out that it is an alien shape-shifter that can imitate any one it wants, and can spread to multiple individuals at the same time. ...