THE THING

Universal Pictures

Rated R

Running time: 103 minutes



Universal Pictures The Thing is a prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing which is based on the short story Who Goes There by John W. Campbell Jr. (Don A. Stuart). In Antarctica, a scientific research station discover not only an ancient spaceship - but an alien thing.

While Carpenter's The Thing is closer to the original story by Campbell, this version of The Thing is closer to the Howard Hawkes version of The Thing From Another World, although it is still the same basic story as Carpenter's The Thing. Scientist Ulrich Thomsen brings in paleontologist Mary Elizabeth Winstead to study the discovery in Antarctica. When the frozen alien thaws out and suddenly comes alive, the men and women at the research station not only must fight for their lives - but must discover which one of them has also turned into a thing.

I believe this is the first instance of the movies explaining the thing's chameleon/cloning capability of becoming another person. This movie is just as graphic as Carpenter's The Thing, including pieces of the thing becoming other things. Since this is a Norwegian outpost, it backs up Carpenter's The Thing as the first outpost that was attacked by the thing.

When Winstead is in her lab at the beginning of the film, she is listening to the Men at Work song Who Can It Be Now. This was appropriate to the future paranoia that will happen in the movie. The end scenes in the movie with the spaceship could have been done at the research post. As it was, it was basically the end scenes from the movie Alien and really broke the format of all the terror taking place at one location as well as just seeming unnecessary. I started to go ho-hum when the movie went in that direction. As a result, Winstead's character was based on Sigourney Weaver's character in Alien.

For a research post, the scientists have a lot of weapons - especially flame throwers. Flame throwers are not normal military weapons, for scientists to even have flame throwers is questionable. I might understand if flame throwers are used for ice mining, but they did not establish that and it is still a lot of flame throwers.

Do not leave as the end credits roll as there are scenes which lead directly into Carpenter's The Thing.

Rated R for graphic violence and language. Running time: 103 Minutes.

Pancho
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