I speak of the 1982 John Carpenter movie that's a remake of "The Thing From Another World" one of, few, good examples of a remake.
Anyway, I think this is a great movie with a great look, atmosphere, score and you can never go wrong with Kurt Russell. But there's parts of it that just don't make too much sense.
First of all, I'm not clear on if the "thing" is replicating people or inhabiting/taking over their bodies. The computer simulation of what the cells are doing (which a 1982 computer in an Antarctic research station performing this kind of simulation? LOL!) it seems to imply that it's taking over the bodies of people but dialogue sort of suggests it's replicating people. But if that's the case where are the originals going? At one point when they kill one of the researchers they say they did it before it had chance to finish the transformation.
When did Wilford Brimley's character get taken over/replaced? He goes mad in the the radio room and starts destroying the radios and he even destroys the helicopters and snow vehicles to prevent anyone from escaping the station and the possibility of leaving and getting back to civilization and exposing the populated world to the thing, they capture him and lock him in a shed then later we find out he was the thing, he tunneled underground and was building a space ship out of parts from the destroyed helicopters and snow vehicles? Huh? How was he tunneling undergroud? Where was he putting the snow/dirt/ice/and such? And building the space craft?
Also the research base had a below-ground generator room with exposed plumbing and such? I don't know much about Antarctic research bases but I'm guessing there's not a lot of heavy construction involved in them including building basements and stuff.
The dog kennel has GRASS in it. GRASS Growing, indoors, from permafrost!
The look and "feel" of Antarctica on some levels seems like it's done pretty well but on others it seems like it's not done well enough, it's said early on it's the first week of "Winter" in Antarctica (which would be in June) and I believe a map shows that these research bases are pretty close to the shore/coast of the continent which means it'd have a pretty "normal" day/night cycle for a winter, but given that it's the south pole it'd be pretty damn cold, and temperatures are even mentioned a couple times in the movie but most of the time when they're outside they're dressed pretty much like you would be for a "regular" winter. At one point one of the researchers says he cut McReady (Kurt Russel) off the guide wire (a wire between building entrances you link yourself to and use to guide you around in white-out conditions where you can use vision to move between locations) the researchers think that when McReady returns he's the thing because no one could get through those conditions without the guide wire, but when we see outside it's not white-out conditions it's just kind of snowy but looks like a regular winter night.
I dunno, just things going through my mind after watching it. It's a great movie and these things don't impact my enjoyment of it, but aspects of it don't completely fit.
And, FWIW, I never minded the 'prequel" made a few years ago with Mary Elizabeth Winestead in it, it kind of creates some problems in the lore and it partly ruins the ambiguous ending of the first movie, and the thing seems more quick to reveal itself, but overall it's an okay sort of movie.
Anyway, I think this is a great movie with a great look, atmosphere, score and you can never go wrong with Kurt Russell. But there's parts of it that just don't make too much sense.
First of all, I'm not clear on if the "thing" is replicating people or inhabiting/taking over their bodies. The computer simulation of what the cells are doing (which a 1982 computer in an Antarctic research station performing this kind of simulation? LOL!) it seems to imply that it's taking over the bodies of people but dialogue sort of suggests it's replicating people. But if that's the case where are the originals going? At one point when they kill one of the researchers they say they did it before it had chance to finish the transformation.
When did Wilford Brimley's character get taken over/replaced? He goes mad in the the radio room and starts destroying the radios and he even destroys the helicopters and snow vehicles to prevent anyone from escaping the station and the possibility of leaving and getting back to civilization and exposing the populated world to the thing, they capture him and lock him in a shed then later we find out he was the thing, he tunneled underground and was building a space ship out of parts from the destroyed helicopters and snow vehicles? Huh? How was he tunneling undergroud? Where was he putting the snow/dirt/ice/and such? And building the space craft?
Also the research base had a below-ground generator room with exposed plumbing and such? I don't know much about Antarctic research bases but I'm guessing there's not a lot of heavy construction involved in them including building basements and stuff.
The dog kennel has GRASS in it. GRASS Growing, indoors, from permafrost!
The look and "feel" of Antarctica on some levels seems like it's done pretty well but on others it seems like it's not done well enough, it's said early on it's the first week of "Winter" in Antarctica (which would be in June) and I believe a map shows that these research bases are pretty close to the shore/coast of the continent which means it'd have a pretty "normal" day/night cycle for a winter, but given that it's the south pole it'd be pretty damn cold, and temperatures are even mentioned a couple times in the movie but most of the time when they're outside they're dressed pretty much like you would be for a "regular" winter. At one point one of the researchers says he cut McReady (Kurt Russel) off the guide wire (a wire between building entrances you link yourself to and use to guide you around in white-out conditions where you can use vision to move between locations) the researchers think that when McReady returns he's the thing because no one could get through those conditions without the guide wire, but when we see outside it's not white-out conditions it's just kind of snowy but looks like a regular winter night.
I dunno, just things going through my mind after watching it. It's a great movie and these things don't impact my enjoyment of it, but aspects of it don't completely fit.
And, FWIW, I never minded the 'prequel" made a few years ago with Mary Elizabeth Winestead in it, it kind of creates some problems in the lore and it partly ruins the ambiguous ending of the first movie, and the thing seems more quick to reveal itself, but overall it's an okay sort of movie.
