Film & 40s: Film & 40s: The Thing (1982)

The best. Great F&40s too.

I love this movie. While I definitely feel it's open ended, there's a great youtube video that makes a strong case that Childs is the Thing at the end. It bases a lot of it on the clothing the characters wear. I've not gone through the whole movie with an eye on it, but the video suggests that the characters wear the same thing throughout the movie until they're absorbed or whatever, then they wear something else. There's also the shot towards the end of Childs guarding the door, then a few minutes later a shot of the same area but without Childs. And Childs seems to be wearing different clothes at the end.

It was nice to hear Dan the “film major” learn what exposition is.

Man, this movie rules.

This might be obvious in retrospect but for anyone curious, at the beginning of the movie when the Norwegian guy from the helicopter was screaming at them. What he was saying translates to "Get the hell away from that thing. That's not a dog, it's some sort of thing! It's imitating a dog, it isn't real! GET AWAY, YOU IDIOTS!" in English.

@meaninoflife42: haha I had that exact thought when that happened

Finally, an excuse to post perhaps my favourite thing on the internet.

Film and 40s is my very favorite Giant Bomb content lately and I hope the distant future is not too long from now. I think either a Thanksgiving-Road-Trip-Movie series OR an X-mas-Heist-Movie series would be incredible.

Did no one play the video game? It was written as a direct sequel by Carpenter himself. MacReady was the thing. He got turned after the big explosion at the end so the MacReady in the last scene was the thing.

Also, when this originally came out on dvd I remember being excited because the director’s commentary was Carpenter and Russell. During the blood test scene, when Palmer changes and runs outside after being set on fire, Russell said that was him throwing actual dynamite and no one thought it was going to explode as big as it did. If you look, after it explodes he gets knocked back quite a bit from the explosion.

Alex is right that the 2011 The Thing isn't good but one thing that always amused me is one of the people that makes up the "split face" thing looks like Drew.

Dan loves Metal Gear Solid
Dan doesn't know what exposition is

I guess Dan "Film Major" Ryckert was confused by one of the F&F movies as well, so guess it's not that surprising this is giving him trouble! You're still great, Dan!

Thanks for this and for all the previous spooky F&40s! Hopefully we don't have to wait 'till next Halloween for a new one.

Is Kurt Russell really Abby’s uncle. I noticed that they do have the same last name.

Are you related to Cherry 2000? I've noticed that you also have very similar names.

Even though I know he got the gist of it, to further clarify exposition to @danryckert : every single Codec Call from Metal Gear Solid is blatant exposition. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine in most recent movies have also basically been there just to explain the plot.

Also @alex the Thing 2011 had some great practical effects that were later covered by CGI. There's some good YouTube videos on the effects. It also went into having an alien pilot that would have been something that was taken over by the Thing, but they removed that part.

@marehart1020: I've also read Carpenter didn't want there to be a "single solution" ending, so a lot of what's online is not entirely accurate (the "invisible breath" being a big one), which is an ending I like. Because the movie's not about who The Thing is, at the end of the day. It's about "No one trusts one another. And we're very tired."

Frankly the idea that neither of them is The Thing is the most horrifying ending I can think of: it's two people freezing to death in the snow because they can't trust one another.

I need Kurt's Thing hat.

@rigas: It can be yours for just $335 – $760.

They should check out the PS2 game which is a direct sequel to the film.

Dang, why y'all always throwing shade at Captain Ron? Kurt Russell wears a speedo!

Well, I have no doubt this will prove to be the best possible way for me to watch this classic of horror cinema for the first time.

@moda: that is literally the appeal of this feature...

Robert Shaw died in 1978.

More Films! More 40s!

Feeling FIlm&40s famished

@sukibhamra: oh really?

@benpack: If you're saying what I think you're saying... YESSS!!

Late to the party, but watch this instead of the 2011 prequel.

@benpack: really.. please feed us film & 40's :D

Film major Dan Ryckert: what is exposition?

@klager: Thanks for the suggestion, I had never seen it!