Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Thing (1982)



"An American Antarctic research team stationed at the United States National Science Institute Station 4 (or Outpost 31) is alerted by gunfire and explosions. An Alaskan Malamuteis trying to evade a Norwegian helicopter with an on-board rifleman frantically trying to kill the dog. The helicopter lands, and the pilot (named Matias in the prequel film) attempts to volley a thermite charge, but accidentally drops the grenade. He tries to pick it up but dies in the subsequent explosion, destroying the helicopter in the process. Unable to communicate with the team in English, the rifleman (named Lars in the prequel) who survived the explosion fires at the dog, grazing George Bennings (Peter Maloney), one of the researchers. Lars is shot and killed by Garry (Donald Moffat), the station commander.
Not knowing what to make of the incident, the station crew adopts the dog, placing it in the hands of Clark (Richard Masur), the sled-dog handler..."
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The 2011 movie is an interesting expansion of the story taking place before the events in the 1982 film. The 1951 movie still provides a general outline of the story, but with simple special effects. John_Carpenter was wise to tap into the novel, as a result directed one of the best horror films.
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THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD TRAILER 1951

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Who_Goes_There?, the 1938 story is quite fascinating for the time that it was written. The story reaches back about 20 million years when the ship containing The Thing had crashed on earth. The book & the last two movies take place in Antarctica.
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Here is a link offering a skeptical perspective. http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/pseudosc/piriries.htm
For many the discovery of an ancient map of Antarctica proves nothing more than what the legend of Atlantis does. Its OK to think the the earth is more than a few billion years old. Yet, if one ponders that civilization may have made the climb from stone age to space age much more than once, over the past several hundred million years, opens up a lot to think about. Its a fascinating time aspect of the novella story that became The Thing movies. The book goes back 20 million years, where as the movies set the crash around a hundred thousand years ago. Other than sci-fi & legends, humanity isn't suppose to think about the possibility of very ancient life on this & other worlds. http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens,
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There could be several kinds of benevolent beings from this & other dimensions. However, it only takes a small percentage of menacing entities to cause a lot of problems.
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