the movies poster.
The Thing is a science fiction horror movie directed by John Carpenter, based on the 1938 novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr. The movie was released in 1982. it did not perform very well at the box office due to competing with E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, however, the film would later find success on home video and be considered one of Carpenter's best horror films.
Plot[]
In the year 1982 on the continent Antarctica, a Norwegian helicopter is seen trying to shoot a dog. The dog finds its way at an American research station. the helicopter accidentally crashes, and the Norwegian man tries to shoot the Americans, only for him to be shot in the eye, the Americans take the dog in.
Members R.J. MacReady, Gerry, and Dr. Copper leave to investigate the Norwegian base, only to find frozen corpses at the base, and a strange humanoid corpse. They take it back to their base for biologist Blair to perform an autopsy on the body, but inside are normal human organs.
That night, a man named Clark puts the dog in a kennel with other dogs, but the dog splits its head open, revealing it to be a monster referred to simply as the thing. It manages to kill most of the other dogs, but a member of the crew named Childs uses a flamethrower to burn the thing. Blair autopsies the dog-thing, and learns that it's an organism that can imitate other life forms by killing and assimilating them.
Data from the Norwegian base leads the Americans to the ruins of an alien spacecraft, which Norris thinks was buried under the snow for one hundred thousand years. Blair becomes paranoid and destroys the helicopter, all the radios as well as killing the surviving dogs, so R.J. and the crew lock Blair in a shed outside. Crew member Bennings becomes a thing as well and runs outside, where R.J. burns him with the flamethrower, killing it.
Norris as the thing.
The crew believes that R.J. is the thing, but he threatens to blow everyone up with a dynamite, which makes Norris die from a heart attack, Copper attempts to defibrillate Norris, but his chest turns into a mouth, biting Coppers hands off and killing him. R.J. then burns the thing, but the head of Norris grows spider legs and attempts to flee, luckily R.J. burns the head too.
To make sure the thing isn't one of them, R.J. takes blood samples from Childs, Nauls, Windows, Palmer, as well as the corpses of Clark and Copper, in order to test if the blood reacts violently to fire. Everyone passes the test except Palmer, who is now the thing, it kills Windows, so R.J. incinerates both of them. Childs is left to guard the place while the others test Blair, but Blair disappears. In the shed, the crew finds a UFO that Blair made, who is now the thing, they then destroy the UFO to prevent the thing from escaping.
The thing destroys the generators, causing the base to lose power, in order for it to return to hibernation until a rescue team arrives. The thing kills Gerry and Nauls disappears, R.J. then encounters a giant thing and breaks the detonator, luckily, R.J. triggers the explosives with a stick of dynamite, killing the thing and destroying the station. Childs returns after getting lost in a snow storm while chasing Blair. R.J. becomes suspicious of Childs being the thing. The two men sit next to the remnants of the burned down station, sharing scotch whiskey before freezing to death.