The Thing

John Carpenter’s science fiction horror The Thing was released on June 25th, 1982. It takes place In Antarctica, and begins with a Norwegian helicopter pursuing a sled dog to an American research station. The Americans witness the passenger accidentally blow up the helicopter and himself. The pilot fires a rifle and shouts at the Americans, but they cannot understand him and he is shot dead in self-defense by station commander Garry. The American helicopter pilot, R.J. MacReady, (Kurt Russell) and Dr. Copper leave to investigate the Norwegian base. They find widespread devastation. Among the charred ruins and frozen corpses, they find the burnt corpse of a malformed humanoid, which they transfer to the American station. Their biologist, Blair, autopsies the remains and finds a normal set of human organs.

Clark kennels the sled dog, however it metamorphoses into something horrifying and absorbs several of the station dogs. This disturbance alerts the team, and Childs uses a flamethrower to incinerate the creature. Blair autopsies the Dog-Thing and surmises it is an organism that can perfectly imitate other life-forms. Data recovered from the Norwegian base leads the Americans to a large excavation site containing a partially buried alien spacecraft, which Norris estimates has been buried for over a hundred thousand years, and a smaller, human-sized dig site. Blair grows paranoid and The group implements controls to reduce the risk of assimilation. Bennings is partially assimilated but Windows interrupts the process and MacReady burns the Bennings-Thing. The pressure gets to Blair and he is imprisoned in a tool shed after he sabotages all the vehicles, kills the remaining sled dogs, and destroys the radio to prevent escape. Copper suggests testing for infection by comparing the crew’s blood against uncontaminated blood held in storage, but learn that the blood stores have been destroyed. MacReady Windows, and Nauls then find Fuchs’s burnt corpse. Windows returns to base while MacReady and Nauls investigate MacReady’s shack. 

The team suspect that MacReady has been assimilated and debates whether to allow him inside. Norris then appears to suffer a heart attack. As Copper attempts to defibrillate Norris, his chest transforms into a large mouth and bites off Copper’s arms, killing him. MacReady incinerates the Norris-Thing, but its head detaches and attempts to escape . They discover that every part of the Thing is an individual life-form with its own survival instinct. Macready has a proposal to see who has been infected. PAlmer starts behaving oddly the Palmer-Thing transforms, and infects Windows. Blair, escapes having been infected and has been using vehicle components to assemble a small flying saucer. Then Childs goes missing, and the power generator is destroyed MacReady, Garry, and Nauls agree that the Thing cannot be allowed to escape however the Blair-Thing kills Garry, and Nauls disappears. The Blair-Thing then transforms into an enormous creature and confronts MacReady…