The Thing

I thought it started with the Norwegian helicopter chasing the dog-thing?!!?

I would have put money on this, even after watching the YouTube embed above.

At first I thought I was wrong, and that I was thinking of Predator (which starts the same way). I can't remember which of them had the studio insist on the depiction of the crash, iirc. I think Predator?

Haha, I rewatched this last month and despite having seen it 10 times I was shocked all over again that this is how it starts. When I watch it again, I'm sure I will have completely forgotten all over again.

Jeez, I thought for sure it started with an extended sequence featuring the Berenstein Bears.

Yes! And I specifically remember it being spelled that way too!

OK, even having seen that clip I don't remember this at all, and I have watched this film frequently. I'm glad I'm not alone in this.

Josh, I am sorry for doubting you.

that scene is really one of the film's only flaws, albeit it not a glaring one — it's just totally unnecessary. probably why so many people seem to have forgotten it.

putting it as a five-second graphic in the title is perfect though - it doesn't spell anything out, just barely-liminally plants the idea in your head for context.

thingification as the ultimate mandela effect, in this essay for cinema today and yesterday i will

Yeah, sic, that's what I like about it, and it's sort of what the podcast plays out. You see a spaceship, you learn who discovered the spaceship, you see what happened to them, down to the last person, and then the movie more or less repeats the process with *our* protagonists, and yet is never the weaker for it. If anything it kind of is a further downer subversion, in that we might think, ok, the Norwegians failed, but *our* guys, we'll get it right.

The same podcast (I think it was Unspooled) remarked on how at the time, none of the cast was a known quantity, which also kind of subverts hero tropes. We ascribe that quality to Kurt Russell now, but back then to most people he was just another bearded dude.

I too was getting confused with the Predator intro.

But I love that this appears to be a global reaction, such a subtle (and as already stated, unnecessary) short scene. Ironically they probably spent a lot of time making it.

xpost Ehh, I can accept that wrt the rest of the cast but Kurt Russell was a legit Disney star in the '60s/'70s!

(Granted, his Carpenter-ification was a bit like Annette Funicello reinventing herself as an '80s action/horror actor but still.)

Eh, I recognize a whopping two of his pre-grown up films by title, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and the Barefoot Executive, but even if he was a star by any standard, people did not flock to Used Cars or Escape from New York (or The Thing) for Kurt Russell. Hell, looking at his filmography, it's actually kind of hard to pinpoint when he *does* become a bankable, marquee star! Overboard? Backdraft?

Big Trouble.. I feel may have put him on the map.

But that was a flop, too, iirc.

if that's how the podcast phrased it, the podcast is wrong: once snake plissken had rebooted the diminishing returns of his disney stardom, he was absolutely a known and enjoyed cult-level quantity, and by the thing (the following year) carpenter was unavoidably signalling "he's my guy" to all who were paying attention

however "the thing" was NOT a break-out movie in its own day -- on the whole it was critically dismissed at the time and only gradually recouped its subsequent massive cult rep via video

in conclusion you can be "known" for quantities other than "box-office bankability"

Well, KR has cult appeal, that much is true, mostly for his John Carpenter films. But those films (by definition) were not really hits. Yet nonetheless, Kurt Russell is afaict without a doubt a movie star/more or less household name, but imo not for those Carpenter films (which all became cult/cultural touchstones after the fact). It could just be the Goldie Hawn connection.

Mostly Captain Ron afaict

also wikipedia tells me he had a baseball career of sorts

i have no idea what role this played tho, i have no idea what baseball actually is and will never change this

Kurt Russell is afaict without a doubt a movie star/more or less household name, but imo not for those Carpenter films

top of the head I'd say Tango & Cash and Backdraft are his only blockbusters until a Marvel sequel and some Fasts & Furioi, thirty years later.

But the whole point of T&C is that it was teaming up two beloved action stars of the decade, and Backdraft is an ensemble picture. He really does seem to be a movie star on osmosis from VHS

Id guess he didn't break out of cult status until the 90s when he was in Backdraft, Tombstone, and then Stargate... and then Tarantino started showcasing him in the late 2000s. Although I definitely knew who he was in the 80s! But really his career doesn't seem like one where he was gunning for the big time.

Yeah, given his p undeniable star quality, he could've been way huger than he is.

i have no idea what baseball actually is

*fires up slide deck*

and will never change this

Ah! well nevertheless,

Was Overboard a hit?

Whether KR was a cult star, action star, or mid-level star in 1982, still seems obvious that none of the cast was the specific kind of famous enough that youd assume they wouldnt get eaten by the thing. Tbh when The Thing came out Wilford Brimley might have been just as well known to audiences if not more, he had some memorable supporting roles in hit Hollywood stuff in the years just prior

Wilford Brimley was 48 when The Thing was released.

These guys were so relatively under the radar that the podcast noted Carpenter briefly considered Donald Pleasance for Brimley's role, but decided even he was too well known and people would expect him to make it to the end of the movie in one way, shape or form.

Man, one of the most remarkable things about The Thing is the way people are constantly disappearing for long stretches or getting (apparently) killed off screen. Just such a fascinating rhythm, especially for a movie whose contemporaries were tons of "And Then There Were None" slasher riffs that relished on-screen kills.

I have to admit I'm *meep* not a podcast guy, I'm probably more receptive to the vlog format (like those nerdy guys who pick apart how bad the Star Wars/every JJ Abrams movies are), tell me there exists something like that on the 'tube?

(aside to Mark S: Kurt Russell's youngest child played the lead in the Lodge 49 TV show which I'd love to hear your thoughts on if you can find it where you are!)

theres an official making-of vid on youtube thats like 90 minutes long thats pretty interesting. lots of war stories from the effects guys about dealing with different kinds of prop slime and whatnot, as youd expect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSFXYKl_rf0

I generally don't have time for podcasts, either, it's just kind of happenstance that I listened to the Unspooled on The Thing.

Overboard was a flop by Garry Marshall standards - made 26 million on a 22 mil budget, vs 57 million on 20 for Beaches, his next project, and $467 million on a $14 million budget for the one after that.

Oh, another observation made in that podcast was how when the movie starts it's more or less from the POV of the (excellent) dog actor, who, as a shapeshifting monster in disguise, knows to run to a human and lick his face for sympathy/protection from the Norwegians, who know better.

Thanks Josh! I bookmarked that and will view during my next bout of insomnia.

The flying saucer opening is good partly because it leads you to believe that you're about to watch something relatively routine, whereas the body of the film turns out to be rather more WTF

you could take it as Carpenter signaling the stakes, saying "REMINDER: treat this as seriously as you would any movie that begins with a flying saucer crash landing on earth". Which could be good or too bad, depending on your take. (I forget the exact quote but I once read a critic describe Carpenter as something like "hes good, but he settles for too little".)

some historical links that need to be posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhgJ82sDDuU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jURaHXAPbPQ

you can hear carpenter light his first cig before the 2 minute mark on that commentary, ha

Another favorite detail comes during the infamous blood test sequence. After they slice the finger open, they have a shot of the small wound being disinfected and pressure being put on it to stop the bleeding, just like when donating blood.

it's on my tv again

Horror Channel? Awesome.

seems to be carpenter week on the only good terrestial channel

never entirely convinced that explosives are a helpful device round a THING: surely not all the little bits are going to be burnt beyond regeneration ??

Even setting them on fire and dumping the body in the snow to extinguish the fire seems un-thorough once they know that any wee giblet contains the full consciousness of the thing

full capability anyway

if it's full consciousness then THINGS have also to be somewhat telepathic IMO (which it was in the original story) (this is discussed upthread iirc)

One of the most unsettling images in the film imho is the drops of blood on the floor all moving around in unison when macready drops the dish during the blood test

I get the impression that the rampaging Thingses don’t have similar thought / consciousness to humans — it takes a good while after an absorption for a Thing to be able to pilot the speech and memories of a biped, and the way the doggie thing scopes out the base and picks a human to thingify might be a hint of telepathy too.

(Does the film specify whether the saucer was piloted by the Thing, by a Thing, by another species or class that was transporting the Thing, or was a drone?)