The Thing (1982 film)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Adaptation Displacement: John W. who?
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Many Norwegian viewers see the movie as a group of brave Norwegians being killed by ignorant Americans, who then get their just desserts. Hell, anyone who realizes what the Norwegians were shouting at the start of the movie will probably see it in this light.
    • The movies are actually full of this trope. After watching, you know who has been assimilated, but not always when they were. For example, did Blair destroy all that equipment in a desperate attempt to keep the Thing contained, or had he already been assimilated and was out to prevent the others calling for help? Also, Norris turning down taking a leadership role. Was it because of his heart condition as initially implied, or was he a already Thing at this point and knew being leader would inevitably focus a lot of unwanted attention/suspicion on himself?
  • Broken Base: As evidenced by many of the sticky posts on the Outpost 31 forums dedicated to the movie. The lack of solid information on the Things and other unanswered questions have led to some rifts amongst the fandom. Some have 2 main points of contention. Others have hardly anyone at all agreeing with anyone else's ideas.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome:
    • After Me by Saliva, featured in the credits of the 2002 video game.
    • The original score by Ennio Morricone. It may be shocking to learn that it actually got nominated for a RAZZIE, though like the rest of the film, it was originally slated by critics (who accused Morricone of being lazy and just copying John Carpenter's score for Halloween), and has been Vindicated by History. It makes a welcome (and haunting) return at the end of the prequel in the scene that ties the final knot between the two films.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: In the prequel, both Lars and Jonas.
  • Even Better Sequel: John Carpenter's film is often regarded as one of the greatest remakes ever made, with many even feeling it surpasses the original.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The movie initially didn't do so well in the U.S., but, according to Guillermo del Toro, it was very successful in Mexico.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Keith David's character starts calling MacReady out on his "Voodoo bullshit!"
    • A man nicknamed Mac has trouble with his computer and destroys it, while a man nicknamed Windows has trouble sending messages to the outside world. Neither the Macintosh nor the Windows operating system existed at the time this film came out. To add another layer to the analogy, when he's most needed, Windows freezes and gets his head eaten in the process.
  • Idiot Plot: Defied. Normally, in a monster film, the monster is so successful because the cast makes stupid mistakes. After the first human victim, they figure out more or less what it's capable of, and go out of their way to burn not just the bodies of its two known incarnations of the creature, but all of its targets. It still isn't enough...
    • And because nobody trusts anybody, everybody is weary of taking some decisions. What's worse is that the The Thing can influence a group into making decisions it wants. It comes dangerously close to the group killing MacReady after planting very good evidence.
  • Paranoia Fuel: This film is made of it, runs on it, and will take you over with it.
  • The Problem with Licensed Games: Opinions differ on how much this applies to the 2002 game, though even its detractors generally tend to admit that there are many far worse licensed games out there (well, unless you're Spoony...)
  • Special Effects Failure:
    • While the majority of the effects have held up magnificently, it's a little sad that during the otherwise flawless blood-testing scene that when Windows is being ragdolled by the Palmer-Thing he is obviously, well...a ragdoll.
    • In the prequel, while the majority of the digital effects are good, the pixelated core in the ship during the finale is shoddy.
      • It`s not pixelated. If you look carefully, you`ll notice the ``pixels`` are actually 3-dimensional; they`re some sort of moving panels that keep interlocking and separating.
    • When Palmer-thing leaps onto the ceiling, you can see a part of the tile fly off the ceiling, and then stick back up onto it. This was because that part was filmed with him on the ground, and the film was simply transposed to make it look like he was attaching himself to the ceiling.
    • Whenever a tentacle wraps around something, it does so in an oddly rapid way. This is because all of the tentacle wraps were done in reverse.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • the deaths of the dogs toward the beginning, and later, Clark's reaction to the deaths of the remaining dogs.
    • When they first see the thing in the dog kennel and start shooting at it, Clark only seems concerned that they're hitting the dogs and even tries to run into the cage to save them despite the fact that doing so would obviously get him killed.
    • Peder's death in the prequel.
  • Vindicated by History: A huge flop when it was released, and initially received mixed to negative reviews. Then The Nineties rolled along, and people started picking it up on VHS and DVD. It's now considered to be one of the greatest horror films in history and maybe even John Carpenter's best film.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome - For its time, the 1982 film packed some terrific animatronic and makeup effects. The 2011 prequel features some not too shabby digital effects.
  • The Woobie - Norris. Fat unassuming guy who is among the least argumentative team members and has a heart condition. Probably why the alien assimilated him, because he drew little suspicion. Given that Palmer shares a room with Childs but Norris has a single, he was also most probably the person the Dog-Thing infected that first night, and was thus really an alien imitation for most of the movie.
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