FAQ

The likely answer would be that hovering in one spot, with high winds, trying to shoot at a moving target would be extremely difficult. While flying in a straight line allows for steadier aiming, either way would be extremely difficult even for a seasoned shooter. The films suggest that the Norwegian was a novice, if not a completely inexperienced shooter. Not to mention they probably wanted to keep as much distance from the creature as possible.

R.J. MacReady - Helicopter pilot

Blair - Senior Biologist

Fuchs - Assistant Biologist

Childs - Senior Mechanic

Palmer - Assistant Mechanic (also a helicopter pilot in training, as he offers to give Copper a lift to the Norwegian base. This is confirmed by John Carpenter in the commentary)

Copper - Physician

Clark - Dog handler

Nauls - Cook

George Bennings - Meteorologist

M.T. Garry - Outpost Commander/Supervisor

Vance Norris - Geologist

Windows - Radio Operator

It's possible they were empty drums that weren't stored properly and blew away in a storm. It's also possible they toss empty drums outside the base so they don't blow around and cause damage. However, the most likely explanation is that they used those drums to refuel the chopper or a thiokol and simply discarded the drums.

It is suggested that the Thing's ship crashed on Earth, at least 100,000 years ago. The creature remained buried in the ice until the Norwegian team found it and thawed it out, after which, it's objective was to escape. The easiest way to do this was to infect/assimilate every living organism that stood in its way.

No one has answered this question yet.

Twelve men—helicopter pilot R.J. "Mac" MacReady (Kurt Russell), base physician Dr Copper (Richard Dysart), biologist Dr Blair (Wilford Brimley) and his assistant Fuchs (Joel Polis), geologist Vance Norris (Charles Hallahan), meteorologist George Bennings (Peter Maloney), sled dog handler Clark (Richard Masur), radio operator Windows (Thomas G. Waites), cook Nauls (T.K. Carter), mechanic and helicopter pilot trainee Palmer (David Clennon), head mechanic Childs (Keith David), and station manager Garry (Donald Moffat)—on a U.S. National Science Institution outpost In the Antarctic encounter an alien lifeform with the ability to assimilate, transform, and take the appearance of anyone amongst them.

The Thing is based on the novella "Who Goes There?" by American science fiction writer John W. Campbell Jr., writing as Don A. Stuart (1910-1971). It was first published in the August 1938 issues of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, of which Campbell also became editor. The first film adaptation of this was the 1951 movie The Thing from Another World (1951). A prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 version, also titled The Thing (2011), was released in 2011.

The film does not explain the purpose of the American team in Antarctica. Antarctica has no indigenous people or permanent residents. The Antarctica Treaty, signed by a number of countries in 1959, dictates that Antarctica must only be used for peaceful and/or scientific purposes. Considering the extensive laboratory equipment and presence of several doctors, it is assumed that the men are a part of a scientific team occupying the residence to maintain facilities during the Antarctic winter, as most research occurs during the milder summer months. In John W. Campbell Jr.'s short story, it was explained that the science crew were there to study and perform experiments regarding the dynamics of magnetics and magnetism in subzero conditions. On the audio commentary to the DVD release of the film, John Carpenter says that he wanted to make a different type of horror film about a group of intelligent, well-read guys going up against an otherworldly, almost unstoppable alien that challenges everything they know. Carpenter's concept could fly in the face of accepted "slasher" horror ideas where stupid teenage protagonists are picked off one by one. Also, Carpenter had the idea that each of these men had a reason for wanting to be away from the rest of the world, which is why they are a skeleton crew manning the station during the winter months.

That question is not answered in the movie. Viewers have suggested several possibilities. The Thing may have been (1) the pilot, (2) a passenger, (3) a stowaway, (4) part of the cargo, (5) a prisoner being transported to some interstellar prison, or (6) a collected specimen. In an early version of the prequel The Thing (2011), the Thing was one of many species collected by the alien race piloting the spaceship, but this revelation was later dropped from the finished film.

There's really no explanation. The wobbling of the vessel and the flame that bursts from the back end could suggest that something was wrong inside the ship. This theory suggests the spaceship landed on Earth either by accident or as an emergency landing. Apart from the small burst of flames, however, there seems to be nothing wrong with the structure from the outside. The burst of flames could simply have been due to friction from the spaceship entering the Earth's atmosphere. The wobbling could likewise have been caused by proximity to Earth's gravitational pull or simply a mannerism of the craft's flight, such as a maneuver used to slow down the spaceship before entering the Earth's atmosphere. This theory would suggest the spaceship intentionally entered Earth's atmosphere. A third theory is that the spaceship belonged to some other interstellar race that had become infected by the Thing, wreaking havoc not unlike what we see within the film and causing the ship to crash-perhaps intentionally. This last chain of events was also included in an early script for the prequel The Thing (2011), but later removed during production, and since this movie was written by a different team of writers, it may not have necessarily been the intention of the writers of the original film.

Three theories have been offered.

(1) If the Thing was piloting, crashing in Antarctica was probably an accident as the Thing would certainly choose a landing area with an abundance of lifeforms, although it's been argued that the Thing may have chosen to land in an isolated, inconspicuous place, as landing in a heavily populated area might have resulted in a much more organized and efficient response, wherein the ship would be quarantined, making it impossible to infect another life form. The Thing may have known the best strategy was to start someplace remote, so virtually nobody would know until it was too late, although it is stated the spacecraft crashed about 100,000 years ago so this would not have been an issue, as man was still very primitive.

(2) If the Thing was a stowaway or passenger and had gotten loose and would be attacking the crew, crashing in Antarctica may have been an intentional attempt by the besieged crew to mitigate Thing's ability to spread by landing in a desolate and hostile environment. Antarctica is one of, if not the only, place on the planet in which there are areas with virtually no animal life. Had the Thing been piloting the spaceship, it would have been extremely unlucky to crash in the small section of the Earth in which it would not be able to find life forms to assimilate. This supports the theory that something other than the Thing was piloting the spaceship. Note that the Thing discovered by the Norwegians had attempted to crawl away from the crash site, only to freeze on the ice. It seems unlikely the Thing would intentionally crash in Antarctica and then attempt to crawl away from its ship. This further suggests that however the spaceship ended up in Antarctica, it was either an accident or a deliberate attempt by the crew of the spaceship to avoid letting the Thing reach life forms. But if one takes the implications of the Norwegian camp and what happened to the American camp, it appears history continually repeats itself when coming in contact with the Thing. So it's quite likely the pilot of the ship crashed on purpose to stop the Thing.

(3) It was simply a matter of coincidence. Whether the spaceship was deliberately being piloted towards Earth or due to a malfunction, it approached Earth from below, such that its angle of descent just happened to be aimed at Antarctica. As soon as the ship was caught in the Earth's gravitational pull, there was little opportunity to deviate from that course.

(4) in the novelization the ship crashes after tangling with unexpected difficulty upon encountering earths magnetic field.

While we know that the Thing is not affected by bullets, we know that, if it wished to stay hidden in its dog form, it would have to act wounded if hit. The Norwegians were likely trying to slow it down to catch up with it so they could deal with the Thing properly, i.e. explosives or fire, hence their use of thermite grenades and the many cans of kerosene they were carrying.

The Norwegian said to MacReady and the men, in Norwegian: "Se til helvete og kom dere vekk. Det er ikke en bikkje, det er en slags ting! Det imiterer en bikkje, det er ikke virkelig! Kom dere vekk, idioter!" This is translated to: "Get the hell outta there. That's not a dog, it's some sort of thing! It's imitating a dog, it isn't real! Get away, you idiots!"

Despite countless online articles stating that this sentence gives away the entire plot of the film, it in fact, does not. It only tells us that the dog is not actually a dog. Which the audience would already know that something strange is up with the dog. So at worst it spoils the next 15 minutes or so of the film.

Police, military and other armed forces aren't trained to wound. They are trained to shoot to kill. The reason being; if a threat has reached the point where the officer needs to use their gun, it is to end the threat as quickly as possible. A wounded individual can still potentially fire a gun or cause harm to others.

The Norwegian was shooting up their camp, had shot Bennings and was continuing to fire at the dog. Garry was simply doing what was necessary to end the threat as quickly as possible and protect his camp mates.

It was Palmer despite the fact that he has no dialogue during the scene. The script verifies this, as does his attire earlier in the film. He wears a green ski mask and had green goggles (most noticeable during the inspection of the wreckage of the Norwegian helicopter). He's often confused with Garry because Garry also wears a dark green jacket, but Garry has a distinctive ski cap that has a brim and pom-pom on the top. Which the person with Mac and Norris does not have. John Carpenter and Kurt Russell also confirms that it's actor David Clennon (Palmer) in the DVD commentary.

The shape and size of the block of ice is a deliberate ploy on the part of director, John Carpenter to reference the form of the alien in the other film version of the story, The Thing from Another World (1951). Carpenter persuaded the production designer to watch the earlier film and design the ice block accordingly. The block of ice was quite big with some type of weird outline carved in it, suggesting a large and relatively thin creature. The shape of the Thing is revealed in the prequel, The Thing (2011). It is very dark-skinned, with large crab-like legs, talon-like digits and a large mouth with long sharp teeth; wide-shots of the burnt corpse of the creature make it look like that of a giant beetle. It is heavily implied that this is not the "true" shape of the Thing, but another assimilated creature from another planet and that what we see isn't even the form of the creature it assimilated as it could have altered its shape to suit its immediate need either before or while it was frozen. Note the similar Blair-Thing at the end, the Splitface-thing as it tries to kill someone in the prequel, and even the Norris spider-head, all of which show traits from the people they previously infected but change their shape to something that better suited their immediate need. So a Thing consists of billions of individual cells that can cooperate to form individual parts or entire organisms, choosing the shape of what it needs to be. For more information, get the DVD release of The Thing and listen to the commentary by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell.

In the novelization the thing is rubbery blue humanoid with tentacle fingers and hair and has 3 red eyes when in the ice and when its last form is fought in the shed.

This is not addressed in the film. In The Thing (2011), the ship had made a long diagonal tunnel when crash-landing. Afterwards, the creature crawled out of ship and to the surface through that tunnel. At first, the ship was completely buried in ice; at the end of prequel, however, the creature returns to ship and activates its engines. The ice cave crumbles, and ship becomes visible from above, too, which explains the crater in 1982 movie. The video footage discovered in the 1982 movie briefly shows the Norwegians somehow clearing the ship with thermite explosives, but they may have been widening the access tunnel or trying and failing to unearth the ship itself. On closer reflection, it should be obvious that the gargantuan crater where the ship rests could not have been dug out with thermite, unless the Norwegians had shipped truly enormous quantities of the explosive to the Antarctic for this very purpose (and such a large operation would already be internationally known). The prequel presented the more credible scenario that they only cleared a smaller access tunnel, and that the ship melted itself out of the ice when it was briefly activated.

In the novelization the ship is somehow ignited by the thermite charges and burns extremely hot melting the ice.

In an interview in the special features of The Thing Collector's Edition Blu-ray disc release called The Men of Outpost 31, Thomas G. Waites says that he showed up during rehearsals wearing sunglasses and said to John Carpenter, "I want everyone to call me Windows from now on." For a reason that none of the actors ever found out, Carpenter agreed and left that in the film. Waites joked that he's amazed he wasn't fired.

The Thing itself may most accurately be regarded as "asexual". It is neither male nor female as it does not procreate by having sex but rather consuming living cells and replicating them.

The most logical answer is that they were to be used to quickly melt ice if the need arose. This is presumably the reason the Norwegian base also had flamethrowers in the prequel. In the novelization the flamethrowers were needed to melt ice off of the helicopters and other equipment.

Of course this may be impractical and even dangerous by real life standards. It's a fair explanation within the film's universe.

They were presumably intended in case the need arose to use a dog sled. This is a perfectly common means of transportation in snow-covered areas (particularly the Antarctic), and it would be useful if the snow-cats or the helicopter were to break down. They were popular in the Antarctic until banned by the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty in 1992.

Cold War paranoia, especially given that the prequel film establishes a Soviet military base to be located a few miles away despite going against the Antarctic treaty (which states guns aren't permitted in Antarctica) in event that they were to be attacked by Soviets. Note the rifles Windows reaches for are locked in a cabinet that he has to break open, possibly due to the desire to save them for emergencies. As for Garry having the revolver; Garry is clearly the station manager and likely a sort of security guard as well. Being in the most hostile and isolated part of the world, it's possible for someone to have a mental breakdown and become dangerous, harming themselves or others (as Lars was initially believed to have done in the opening scene). Garry carries the sidearm likely as a precautionary measure in case any members of the research station try and attack one another, or as we saw at the beginning of the film, to defend the base against an attacking force. However, the novelization mentions that Garry also had some prior military experience, that he mainly carries the sidearm around as much as he does out of habit more than anything else. Palmer even jokes about wondering when "El Capitan was going to get a chance to use his pop gun", possibly suggesting that Garry's constant holding of his gun has occasionally been the subject of ridicule.

In general, people—whether they are hunters, privateers, archeologists, explorers or whatever—harboring a particular amount of firearms (as well as medical supplies and firefighting equipment, or other special tools) in a wilderness setting, away from civilization and civil services (albeit law enforcement or friendly military) has never been particularly unusual. The volume of such means and ways typically reflects the situation/environment at hand.

Presumably the starting up of the spaceship's engines/grenade explosion weakened the roof of the ice cavern and it collapsed in between Kate leaving and MacReady, Norris and Palmer arriving. If the finale of The Thing (2011) is observed closely, after the Thing has fired up the engines, the ceiling of the cavern fractures and begins to fall. There is a panning shot from the ship to the now revealed starry night sky above, showing that the ship has, in fact, been completely uncovered before Mac, Norris and Palmer arrive.

The Thing doesn't have an original form in the macro world. The Thing is a single-celled organism that works together with other single celled versions of itself to form different creatures. The Thing's original form is a single cell.

Yes. It debuted at #8 at the U.S. box office. The movie's production budget was approximately 15 million USD and although it grossed close to 20 million domestically, the studio would not have made their total outlay back (due to marketing and distribution costs and the fact that theaters keep, on average, almost half of the box office for themselves). Despite not being a commercial success, John Carpenter has stated that of all the films he's directed, he's most proud of The Thing. In the DVD commentary, Carpenter and Kurt Russell theorize some factors as to why the film didn't perform better at the box office; they believe the largest contributing factor is that E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) had been released the week before and was a major success. It had a PG rating, had a very light-hearted and optimistic view of alien visitation whereas The Thing was the exact opposite. Then Poltergeist (1982) was released the week after. Lastly, critics were not kind to the film either. They praised the special effects, but blasted the actual film. However, over time, the film has become regarded more highly and has gained a large cult following.

According to Guillermo Del Toro, he had dinner with Carpenter and told him how beloved and revered The Thing had become to audiences. Carpenter responded "What the fuck good does that do me now?". They then ordered dessert.