John Carpenter's The Thing is a 1982 science fiction film directed by John Carpenter. Ostensibly a remake of the 1951 Howard Hawks film The Thing from Another World, Carpenter's film is actually more faithful to the novella that serves as both films' source material, "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, Jr. under the pseudonym of Don A. Stuart. The musical score was by Ennio Morricone, a rare instance of Carpenter not scoring one of his own films. Carpenter considers this to be the first part of his Apocalypse Trilogy, followed by 1987's Prince of Darkness and 1995's In the Mouth of Madness. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 387 × 599 pixels Full resolution (488 × 755 pixel, file size: 66 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Film poster for The Thing This image is of a film poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher... John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, film score composer and occasional actor. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... John Wood Campbell, Jr. ... William Bill Henry Lancaster was born in Los Angeles, California, on December 17, 1947. ... Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. ... Keith David (born June 4, 1956) is an American film, television, and voice actor. ... Allen Wilford Brimley (b. ... David Clennon (born May 10, 1943, Waukegan, Illinois) is an American actor perhaps best known for his portrayal of Miles Drentell in the ABC series thirtysomething. ... Donald Moffat (born December 26, 1930) is an English-born American actor. ... Charles Hallahan (b. ... T.K. Carter T.K. Carter sometimes credited as Thomas Kent Carter was born in Monrovia, California on December 14, 1956. ... Richard Dysart (b. ... Richard Masur (born 20 November 1948, New York, New York) is an actor who has starred in over 80 movies during his career. ... Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928; sometimes also credited as Dan Savio or Leo Nichols) is an Italian composer especially noted for his film scores. ... John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, film score composer and occasional actor. ... The Music Corporation of America was a United States based corporation in the music business. ... Universal Studios (sometimes called Universal Pictures or Universal City Studios), a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the major American film studios that has production studios and offices located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County between Los Angeles... June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 189 days remaining. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Thing from Another World is a 1951 science fiction film which tells the story of an Air Force crew & scientists at a remote Arctic research outpost who fight a malevolent alien being, The Thing. ... Look up thing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... // January 11 - Production begins on the Star Wars film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. ... Poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey, an archetypal science fiction film Science fiction film is a film genre that uses speculative, science-based depictions of imaginary phenomena such as extra-terrestrial lifeforms, alien worlds, and time travel, often along with technological elements such as futuristic spacecraft, robots, or other technologies. ... John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, film score composer and occasional actor. ... In film, a remake is a newer version of a previously released film or a newer version of the source (play, novel, story, etc. ... See also: 1950 in film 1951 1952 in film 1950s in film 1940s in film years in film film Events Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati Top grossing films North America David and Bathsheba Show Boat tie The Great Caruso and An... Howard Hawks (May 30, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and writer of the classic Hollywood era. ... The Thing from Another World is a 1951 science fiction film which tells the story of an Air Force crew & scientists at a remote Arctic research outpost who fight a malevolent alien being, The Thing. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... John Wood Campbell, Jr. ... Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928; sometimes also credited as Dan Savio or Leo Nichols) is an Italian composer especially noted for his film scores. ... John Carpenters Apocalypse Trilogy are a thematic film trilogy. ... Prince of Darkness (also known as John Carpenters Prince of Darkness) is a 1987 American horror film directed, written and scored by John Carpenter, starring Donald Pleasence, Victor Wong and Jameson Parker. ... In the Mouth of Madness (also known as John Carpenters In the Mouth of Madness) is a 1995 horror film (originally intended for a 1994 release) directed by John Carpenter and written by Michael de Luca, who was at the time in charge of New Line Cinema. ...

Plot

An American Antarctic research station is infiltrated by alien creature, which has the ability to perfectly imitate any animal or human it comes into contact with. The crew of the station come to distrust each other as they cannot tell who is human and who is not. One by one they are killed, either by the creature or by each other. For other uses, see Antarctica (disambiguation). ... Extraterrestrial, as an adjective, refers to something that originates, occurs, or is located outside Earth or its atmosphere. ...

The crew realize that if the creature were to reach the outside world, it would devour all life on earth in a few years. Although they destroy a vehicle that it was secretly building, ultimately the crew are forced to destroy the station in order to kill the Thing, accepting that this act would also kill themselves. There are only two survivors - neither sure if the other is human, but too weak to defend themselves. The Trikke is a Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) This article is about the means of transport. ...

Cast

The only woman in the film is the voice of a chess computer, voiced by Carpenter regular (and then-wife) Adrienne Barbeau. Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. ... R.J. MacReady or Mac is the main protagonist in John Carpenters 1982 horror film The Thing. ... Allen Wilford Brimley (b. ... T.K. Carter T.K. Carter sometimes credited as Thomas Kent Carter was born in Monrovia, California on December 14, 1956. ... David Clennon (born May 10, 1943, Waukegan, Illinois) is an American actor perhaps best known for his portrayal of Miles Drentell in the ABC series thirtysomething. ... Keith David (born June 4, 1956) is an American film, television, and voice actor. ... Richard Dysart (b. ... Charles Hallahan (b. ... Richard Masur (born 20 November 1948, New York, New York) is an actor who has starred in over 80 movies during his career. ... Donald Moffat (born December 26, 1930) is an English-born American actor. ... Adrienne Jo Barbeau (born June 11, 1945) is an American television, film, and musical theater actress. ...

Critical reception and themes

Upon its release, the film was lambasted by critics for its special make-up effects, created by Rob Bottin, which were seen as excessively bloody and repulsive 1. The film fared poorly at the box office, possibly due to the release of both E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial two weeks earlier, with its more optimistic view of alien visitation, and of Blade Runner the same night, as speculated by Carpenter and writers that have written about him such as Michelle Le Blanc and Colin Odell. Carpenter also said that the audience for horror movies had shrunk when questioned about the failure of The Thing in the book Prince of Darkness. Yet its reputation improved in the late nineties through home video releases, with the film even penetrating the IMDB Top 250 [1]. A collector's edition DVD was released in 1998. Rob Bottin was born in 1959 in the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte. ... E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Dee Wallace and Peter Coyote. ... Blade Runner is an influential 1982 cyberpunk film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, adapted from the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. ... The home video business rents and sells videocassettes and DVDs to the public. ... DVD (commonly known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ...

A scene from this film was listed as #48 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. This article is about the U.S. cable network. ...

This film is cited as the first installment in Carpenter's 'Apocalypse Trilogy', followed by 1987's Prince of Darkness and 1995's In the Mouth of Madness. The plots and characters of the films are not connected. The film is also notable in Carpenter's career for two reasons—it was his first foray into studio film-making and it was Carpenter's first film to be made without Debra Hill in a co-producing effort. The Thing was the fourth film shot with Dean Cundey as his cinematographer (following Halloween, The Fog and Escape from New York). 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Prince of Darkness film poster John Carpenters Prince of Darkness is a 1987 American horror film directed, written and scored by John Carpenter, starring Donald Pleasence, Victor Wong and Jameson Parker. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In the Mouth of Madness (also known as John Carpenters In the Mouth of Madness) is a 1995 horror film (originally intended for a 1994 release) directed by John Carpenter and written by Michael de Luca, who was at the time in charge of New Line Cinema. ... Debra Hill (November 10, 1950–March 7, 2005) was an American screenwriter and film producer who co-wrote the horror movie Halloween. ... Dean Cundey is a celebrated cinematographer born 12 March 1946 in Alhambra, California, USA. He has worked on some of the most influential special effects films in history and has collaborated extensively with directors John Carpenter and Robert Zemeckis. ... Halloween (also known as John Carpenters Halloween) is a 1978 American independent horror film set in the fictional Midwest town of Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween. ... The Fog is a 1980 horror movie directed by John Carpenter, who also wrote the screenplay and composed the music of the film. ... John Carpenters Escape from New York is a 1981 science fiction/action film directed and scored by John Carpenter. ...

Continuation of franchise

As of early 2007 there have been two announced projects to expand the franchise. 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini era. ...

The Sci-Fi Channel planned to do a four-hour mini-series sequel to the film in 2003. Carpenter stated he had heard about the mini-series as well and believed the project should proceed, but because of the lack of updates and the removal of all mention of it from the Sci-Fi Channel homepage, it is likely now abandoned, if it ever existed at all. SCI FI (sometimes rendered Sci-Fi when part of a longer phrase) is an American cable television channel, launched on September 24, 1992, specializing in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal programming. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In September of 2006, it was announced in Fangoria magazine that Strike Entertainment, the production company behind Slither and the Dawn of the Dead remake, is looking for a writer or writers to tackle a theatrical prequel to "The Thing.".^[1] Fangoria is a nationally-distributed US film fan magazine specializing in the genres of horror, psycho and exploitation films, in regular publication since 1979. ... Slither is a 2006 Universal horror / comedy film, written and directed by James Gunn. ... Dawn of the Dead is a loose, reimagined remake of George A. Romeros 1978 horror film of the same name. ...

According to Variety, Strike Entertainment and Universal Pictures are getting ready to remake The Thing. Ronald D. Moore is set to write the script with Marc Abraham and Eric Newman producing. David Foster, producer of the original film, will also executive produce the remake.^[2] Ron Moore at a Battlestar Galactica Convention Ronald Dowl Moore (born 1964 in Chowchilla, California) is an American screenwriter and television producer who is known for his work on Star Trek. ...

Video and DVD releases

After its cinema run, the film was released as usual on video, and also on laserdisc. Bottom view of VHS cassette with magnetic tape exposed Top view of VHS cassette with front casing removed The Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS is a recording and playing standard for analog video cassette recorders (VCRs), developed by Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC) and launched... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The Thing has been released on DVD twice by Universal. The first edition was a Universal Collector's Edition released in September of 1998. It contained the documentary The Thing: Terror Takes Shape on the making of The Thing, along with deleted scenes (shown in the television version), a theatrical trailer and production notes. The only thing lacking was an anamorphic widescreen transfer which was remedied with a new DVD release in October of 2004, which features a new anamorphic transfer with identical supplements to the 1998 release. The Thing has also been released on HD DVD. Anamorphic widescreen is a cinematography and photography technique for capturing a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film, or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. ... HD-DVD disc HD DVD (for High Density Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical media format which is being developed as one standard for high-definition DVD. HD DVD is similar to the competing Blu-ray Disc, which also uses the same CD sized (120 mm diameter) optical data...

The Terror Takes Shape documentary on the Region 1 Universal Collector's Edition DVD contains the option to replace the documentary's dialog with the full, isolated Ennio Morricone soundtrack.

Other media

Video game

Main article: The Thing (video game)

In 2002, a video game was released, taking the form of a sequel to the film. The game — also titled The Thing — makes use of the elements of paranoia and mistrust intrinsic to the film, and was released on multiple platforms: PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. The game is horror-based with action elements. The game's trust-based mechanics, which allowed you to test your fellow team members for Thing-infection, were undermined by the game's insistence on automatically converting previously uninfected team members into Thing infectees at certain waypoints. This lent a feeling of pointlessness to the game's testing mechanic, as you could test somebody, find out that they're clean, and then see them erupt into a Thing as soon as you walked through an invisible waypoint moments later. Some retailers, such as GameStop offered a free copy of the 1998 DVD release as an incentive for reserving the game. The Thing is a video game sequel to John Carpenters 1982 film The Thing. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a cultural phenomenon. ... The PlayStation 2 , abbreviated PS2) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. ... The Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. ... GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME), headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, USA, is the worlds largest video game and entertainment software retailer. ...

Books and comics

There was a novelization by Alan Dean Foster published in 1982. It was based on the second draft of the screenplay. It includes the sequence in which MacReady, Bennings, and Childs are forced to chase after some infected dogs who escaped onto the Antarctic tundra. Alan Dean Foster (November 18, 1946, New York City) is a prolific American writer of science fiction and fantasy novels and movie novelizations. ... See also: 1981 in literature, other events of 1982, 1983 in literature, list of years in literature. ...

Dark Horse Comics published three comic book sequels to the film, featuring the character of MacReady as the lone survivor of Outpost #31. The series was renamed "The Thing from Another World" (the 1951 Howard Hawks original film title) in order to avoid confusion (and possible legal conflict) with Marvel Comics' orange rock skinned Fantastic Four member also known as The Thing. Marvel Comics, sometimes called by the nickname House of Ideas, is an American comic book company. ... The Fantastic Four is Marvel Comics first comic book superhero team, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and debuting in The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. ... John Carpenters The Thing is a 1982 science fiction film directed by John Carpenter. ...

References

1. ^ September 6: THE THING prequel on the way. Retrieved on 2006-09-08.
2. ^ Michael Fleming (2006-11-16). U preps for 'Thing' fling: Carpenter classic set for remake. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.

For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... September 8 is the 251st day of the year (252nd in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ...

External links

• Outpost #31 - The Ultimate THE THING Fan Site
• The Thing at the Internet Movie Database
• thething.ca The world's largest The Thing memorabilia collection.
• The Thing at theofficialjohncarpenter.com
• The Thing: Between arrival and spontaneous emergence (The Thing and pulp-horror)
• Review of The Thing video game at Something Awful