THE THING (2011): Discussion, Spoilers, Reviews

Well, we don't see a LOT of characters in both the 82 movie and this one get taken over by the creatures yet at some point they did. That's sort of the whole point in these types of suspense/"who did it" movies. We do lose track of him as an audience between scenes during which time he could've been duplicated.

And, again, it wasn't a helicopter. It was a land-based snowcat.

And, yes, she comes to the conclusion after not seeing the ear ring because as she said earlier in the movie, the alien cannot duplicate metals, only the creature itself. It wouldn't be able to duplicate the earring and I doubt it'd even be able to duplicate the hole in the ear. And when she asks the guy about this he even reaches for the wrong ear he had the ring in. This all clues MEW that he's a thing.

Why he doesn't change is mostly unknown, but there's a couple of times in the Carpenter movie where the thing doesn't reveal itself on death, and this could either mean we're supposed to wonder if she really killed the thing or the actual guy or that maybe the thing had "learned enough" to not reveal itself.

 

Your take on the possibilities is a bit more optimistic than mine was. I automatically assumed she was done for (perhaps just viewing the 1982 film the night before had something to do with that, as those characters have no vehicle to escape in). Did they say the Russian base was 50 miles from the Norwegian base? Did they mention how far the spaceship was and where it was in relation to the Russian base? I know they showed at least one map/image but the information did not stick in my brain.

Not mentioning the American base is slightly irritating. I mean it can't be too far. Or maybe it was very far away from the Norwegian base and the guy in the helicopter is just a really, really bad shot. And has a ton of ammo.

 

Actually, the helicopter is based at the Norwegian base. In the movie they mention that it was off at the Russian base for repairs or refueling or something. So it's just returning "home" at the end.

 

Well then double nevermind! Shows how much attention I was paying to the giant screen in front of my face.

 

In dialogue they say that the Russian base is 50 miles from their location just as they're climbing into the snowcat at the end and that the cat has enough fuel to make it. This is just before MEW toasts him.

In the original the Norwegian base is an hour away from the American one by helicopter, depending on terrain and other factors it's possible the American base cannot be reached or is too far away to be considered before the American one is. It would've been nice if we were told this or the American base was given some mention, but for whatever reason we weren't.

 

I don't think so... unless you mean the fact that the remains weren't totally dead?

 

The spaceship's control center was destroyed by the grenade, so it's not going anywhere.

I just rewatched Thing '82. The paint scheme on the helicopters are the same. Not close. Identical. What's funny is I just now noticed MacReady's chopper is actually Lars' chopper with different decals. Obviously they blew up a mock-up and saved rental fees on another chopper.

In the original, BenningsThing only managed to scream before they torched his ass, same with WindowsThing as he was torched, and PalmerThing stopped shapeshifting as he was torched and just screamed before bursting through the wall and collapsing.

The same scenarios played out in Thing '11. My impression is we are meant to think Braxton is a Thing trying to talk his way out right up until she torches him, and then second guess the decision afterwards. His scream as he burned definitely sounded like a Thing dying, though, and it's been proven in both films that once burned, the Thing can't shapeshift.

As for whether Kate makes it to the Russian base (I hope she does for the Kate/MacReady team-up sequel), BraxtonThing said the snowcat he was driving had enough fuel to make it. There's no telling whether SanderThing's snowcat had any fuel left.

I was also watching MacReady closely during Thing '82. That beard covers most of Kurt's face, and half the time he's in shadow, wearing a hat and goggles or squinting into flares, plus they never say how old he is. I'd say you could throw another beard on him and call any stray wrinkles wear from the ice-storm and call it even. Keith David would be tougher, but they could always say he froze to death, like the semi-official sequel storyline of the The Thing videogame does.

 

Wow...ok so I like it better than I did when I originally saw it, but it's really hard to wrap my mind around the idea that anyone thinks the Carpenter version is a "classic".

 

It's a "cult-classic" it's just a good, enjoyable, action/thriller/horror movie.

 

AFAIK, Kurt Russell's up for the idea of a sequel. The age difference? Frostbite.

 

Well I may see it, I can now go see movies in the theater for free.

 

but the Carpenter version is a classic.

 

So, an American scientist was recently evacuated from Antarctica after suffering an apparent "stroke" and insisting on being taken back to the mainland...

Count Down to the End of Humanity: 27,000 hrs

Time to break out the flame throwers.

 

Eh, I got time.

 

Viewpoint of The Thing
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/

Spoilers
http://scarecrowblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/all-good-things/#more-189
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(2011_film)

 

Re: THE THING

semi-related.
Since all 3 films are based on the 1938 novel Who Goes There? there was a radio drama done in 2002 on the story Who Goes There?.

according to Wikipedia.
Length : 28 Minutes
Does anyone know if it is available anywhere?

I'm still on the fence about seeing the new film.

 

Here are views of the spacecraft itself
http://www.robertdraws.com/2011/10/thing-2011-concept-art.html

The original--
http://thething.ca/blueprints.html
scroll down to no. 71
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/286589/top_75_spaceships_in_movies_and_tv.html

 

As to what happened with Carter, the last thing we see before switching to the Kate vs. Sander-Thing action is that Carter has heard something, presumably the Thing stalking him. When he makes a reappearance, Kate has already made the Thing swallow the grenade, so it would make more sense to act human, lure her into the snocat where she can't run away easily and assimilate her, doubling the Thing's chances of making it to the outside world.

As for not mentioning the American base, that was just so Kate wouldn't drive in that direction for the sequel. And yeah, the way it just cuts away from her is annoying. They could at least of had her snocat's lights driving away into the storm until they were swallowed up or something.

My brother and I returned from holiday and found to our surprise that this movie which had only been playing for a couple of weeks had already left the mainstream cinemas and were showing in the independents - we decided to watch it quickly before it stopped showing!

Conclusions: As a sci-fi horror movie it stands up well, and is worth seeing on that point. As a successor to The Thing (1982) however I was disappointed. Frankly I was expecting to be on the edge of my seat for the entire movie, but that didn't happen (it didn't help that one of the creepiest moments - when Kate is lured away by the Juliette-Thing - had already been spoiled by the trailer). One thing I felt was lacking in the '82 movie (especially as I'd read the Alan Dean Foster novelisation) was an all-out shitfight between humans and alien, but it felt more like they were ticking the boxes from the '82 movie (that's how the axe got there, that's where the two-face Thing came from, the guy who commited suicide was, umm...when exactly did he kill himself?) I thought the "tooth-test" idea was very clever, and was hoping for more cleverness - especially after reading Peter Watt's short story "The Things" I was looking for some insights into the creature. Or a twist like the female protagonist turning out to be the Thing, and in a way that stands up to scrutiny afterwards. And the Thing in it's 'natural' (or previous) form hiding under the hut was good - the well-lit CGI later versions less so.

There's nothing about it that's bad, just not as good as I was hoping.

 

Question?


Spoiler




What happened to the thing in the helicopter that crashed? did they mention it? if not then does that mean there is another one running around? did it seem like everyone was getting infected a whole lot faster in this movie then in the original (just soemthing I noticed). saw it with my son, who never seen the original, and he was sacred out of his pants. reminded me of myself when I saw the original.