The Thing (1982) Movie Reaction! FIRST TIME WATCHING!! 

One of the greatest sci-fi movies ever. John Carpenter is the man

A couple pieces of trivia: That dog was a half wolf-half huskey named Jeb. that's why the dog seemed "off" and dangerous. He had two trainers with him on set at all times to make sure he didn't spook and rip someones throat out. At the beginning, if you understood Norwegian, the guy screaming at the Americans was telling them it wasn't a dog, it was an imitation and to get away from it you idiots. It was filmed in Alaska in winter and they refrigerated the soundstage so the actors look like they're freezing because they are. And finally, I think someone may have said it already, when they blew up the camp wasn't THE last day of filming, they came back the next morning and used the remains to film the Norwegian camp scenes.

The practical effects were made by a young Rob Bottin in his early 20'ies that made up a lot of the techniques on the fly working 7 days a week for 56 weeks straight. By the end of the filming he was hospitalized with exhaustion, pneumonia, and a bleeding ulcer

This movie’s lack of success was just a matter of timing, in my view. It was released only two weeks after E.T. and audiences were more in the mood for friendly aliens, rather than a hostile alien. It was also seen as an allegory for AIDS, a disease that wasn’t well understood in 1982.

"He seems like a good dog."

That ending is perfect in my mind. We all want an ending wrapped up perfectly with a bow on it because that helps satisfy our mind. But a truly terrifying ending is one where you *THINK* they killed the Thing...but did they? And considering the threat it poses to all of humanity as a whole if it manages to get out of Antarctica...if either of Mac or Childs are not who they say they are, then we're all boned. But if they are, then they sit there and slowly die by freezing to death having given everything to protect the world from this threat. Is Childs the Thing? Some folks think there are several visual clues in that final scene that prove he is.

The problem this movie had was that it came out at the same time as E.T. And people were a little freaked out by how dark this movie was, compared to E.T.

Hollywood told Carpenter that he couldn't make the movie unless he added a woman to the cast, he agreed just to get it green lit and then made the movie how he wanted anyway. Unfortunately they placed it head to head with E.T. which is why it didn't do as well as it should have in theaters.

1982 I was ten yrs of age my mom took me to see this movie. I remember afterwards we got home and I barricaded myself in my room I didn't trust my mom. Best monster movie ever hands down John carpenter is a true master of cinema.

"That was definitely not normal." Your powers of observation and description are only rivaled by your skill with understatement. Best. Leo.

The Thing is the first film in Carpenter calls his "Apocalypse Trilogy", which begins with The Thing (1982) and continues with Prince of Dakness (1987) and concludes with In the Mouth of Madness (1994). Although the films are not connected the all deal with a great threat to the existance mankind.

By the way, all of this is based on a short story called 'Who Goes There', written by John W Campbell in the 1930's. This story ripples through The Thing, Alien, Predator, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and so on.

One of the great classics of cinema. That ending is absolutely perfect. They are both tired and neither trust each other any more.

Oh man, you gotta watch his original Halloween (1978).

They used the destroyed American base set as the destroyed Norwegian base set. The cut with commentary is great and gives a LOT of info. Highly recommend watching it. This is one of my all time favorite movies. Robb Bottin's special effects are top of the field as you saw. The man is a wizard.

The 2011 prequel, also named The Thing, shows what happened in the Norwegian camp. They really took great care to match the details of what you see here in the camp, the ax in the door, the holes, it shows how all that happened, up until the dog escaped.

That "Norwegian footage" of them trying to free something from the ice is actually from the original movie The Thing from Another World. Shot in a parking lot, by the way. Best. Leo.

I really liked Wilford Brimley's performance as 'Blair' in this Movie. Unfortunately, He actually passed away earlier this year back in August. He was a Really Great Actor! :(

There was a video game in the early 2000s which Carpenter said was a canon follow-up to this movie (though a lot of long-time fans refuse to acknowledge it). In that game, Childs is found frozen to death, meaning he was human, and and MacReady is rescued and medical testing proves that he's human. Lot's of speculation and in-depth analysis has people believing that either Mac, Childs, or both were infected, though. Personally, I believe in following what Carpenter said about the game being a canon follow-up.

John Carpenter best film and also the best Horror Remake of all time.

Among the best endings of any movie I've seen.

Another of my all-time favorite films. One of John Carpenter's best films. The practical effects, the story, acting and Carpenter's score = Perfection!!!!!

I just loved the tone "I-know-that-is-not-real" with a hint of panic! :)

Read the short story, "Who goes there?"The movie REALLY follows the short story VERY well.

A movie in a world of no tropes... A film with no stereotypes.. No "Final Girl ", Or teenager's..

No, the pilot is NOT the one who blows up. The guy who blows up is the same guy who was shooting the gun while the chopper was flying. It is the PILOT that speaks and gets killed by Gary.

About the music in this: Morricone is credited as the composer, but he and Carpenter were never really able to get their schedules worked out, so Morricone basically just wrote a bunch of scratch tracks for them to use. Carpenter ended up writing the majority of the music himself, but credited Morricone, probably for contractual reasons (or just to get him a paycheck or something...) So most of the music that Morricone wrote went unused... ... UNTIL Quentin Tarantino used a bunch of it for The Hateful 8. So a bunch of the music in Hateful 8 is actually The Thing soundtrack.

Trivia: the guy who did the SFX for Thing was Rob Bottin. He played Blake in another Carpenter film "The Fog". He also did the effects for Robocop, Total Recall and other films.

Blair didn't have the knowledge to build a spaceship, that was from alien knowledge from one of the many aliens it consumed before it reached earth.

It is known the dog was so well trained it unnerved the other dogs while filming. Haha. If you look closely, I think Blair was got when he touched that eraser to his mouth..

What makes Mac such a great protagonist is that he uses both brain and brawn - and he never runs out of Determination. Whoever said, back in 1982, that this movie has a "nihilistic" tone was an idiot. If anything, it's the exact opposite. It's an illustration of the indomitable human will to survive and prevail against a cunning adversary.

Antarcticans love this movie; it's shown twice annually at the Amundsen-Scott station, once to mark the beginning of winter, and once to mark the Midwinter solstice.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978 , is another great remake featuring Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy, and Veronica Cartwright - who played in Alien

Everyones recommended a bunch of Carpenter classics, but I can't stop by without recommending In The Mouth Of Madness. Its a trip, and Sam Neil (who you might remember as Grant from Jurassic Park) is starring!

"He seems like a good dog!"😂😂😂

God I love this movie... One of the best things is that you can piece together things about the characters, the Thing & who's who from repeat viewings. It's actually much better thought out that it seems on the 1st viewing.

Interesting fact: The burnt destroyed set at the end was then used as the destroyed Norwegian camp in the beginning! Also, a great movie to react to would by Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun", a truly stunning film with masterful acting from it's star in his first movie role!

This marks the first time a John Carpenter film did not have a soundtrack created by John Carpenter ennio morricone shows perfectly That Bass beat you here is meant to emulate a cardiogram the machine you see when someone's hooked up in their heartbeat ECG tracing across the screen I thought it was genius

Most people here probably don't know that 'Palmer', played by David Clennon, went on to play one of the best villains in Television as Advertising Exec Miles Drentel in "Thirtysomething."

One if the best aspects of the movie is that the Thing never bothers to try to communicate with the humans. It's truly alien because it's motives are unknowable.

A little behind the scenes fact for you. The part where the Thing bites off Doc's arms was done by using a man who really didn't have any arms, and they added prostatic arms to him to achieve the affect.

If your interested in watching the 2011 "THE THING" Movie then it is actually a Prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter Movie. It takes place 3 days before it and it is the story of what happened at the Norwegian Base. The Prequel is Directed by "Matthijs van Heijningen Jr." and the Music in it is done by "Marco Beltrami". It stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton. I should warn you though that it has really Really REALLY bad CGI in it. They originally also did go the practical effects route when they made the Prequel but supposedly (I don't know if any of this next part is actually true, it is just something that I had heard), after they finished filming the Prequel and it went into post-production, The Studio (for some unknown reason) didn't like the practical effects in it and so late into post-production, the Studio went behind the Director's back and had almost all of the practical effects in the Prequel get covered over with CGI. Apparently, both the Prequel's Director and the guys that did the practical effects for it never even found out that the Studio did that until they actually saw the Movie and it's Premiere. Having said that though, I myself really don't let bad CGI in a Movie really ruin it overall for me and overall, I actually like the 2011 "THE THING" Movie. Heck, I even own it on DVD.

This film is absolute genius in all regards, from writing, acting, directing, special effects, editing, and musical score. It has almost no peers in the science fiction horror genre. There are very few films as good and none better. It's a absolute masterpiece.

love this movie!!

A really good drama to watch is "Twelve Angry Men". Made in 1957, starring Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb, among others. You'll be glad you did. I guarantee it.

I've watched the dvd of this movie about 30-40 times. It grows on you, and every time you watch it, and you see something you missed.

Can you imagine being in 2020, and having the joy of watching the The Thing for the first time, not knowing ANYTHING about it?

Fun fact: The final scene they shot was not the destruction of the US Camp. The final scenes that were shot were when Mac and the Doc were at the Norwegian Camp. They used the destroyed US Camp as the ruined Norwegian Camp

After they blew up the set, it became the Norwegian base. Also, note that Childs did not have any cold breath when he speaks. He’s the Thing.

If there was an Oscar for best dog/wolf performance out there, I tell you. FYI, the Norwegian camp scenes were filmed after they blew up the American outpost, it was the same set. One of my favorite movies.

9:20, it's still alive on a cellular level.

This was literally the first film done by the SFX artist Rob Botine. He literally worked himself sick to get the effects right.

John Carpenter likes minimal scoring so it doesn't distract from the scene. In films like Escape from New York, it's really just Carpenter on his synth. He didn't use all of Morricone's score. Quentin Tarantino put it in his film The Hateful Eight.

Fun Topic. John Carpenter is a composer also, and composed music for pretty much all of his films. He isn't a great composer, but the simplicity of his music always works. Escape from New York "dum dum ... dumdum" Halloween "dum.....dum......dum" I was stunned on watching this, that Enio Morricone was the composer for this...., but still Carpenter insisted on "dum dum" "dum dum" lol What the hell..., it works so well.

The ending, most people don't tend to notice, that Child's hasn't got any hot breath as he breathes. Also there's a PS2/XB360 sequel to this that reveals who "survived"/was the thing.

Two Hallowe'ens ago I saw John Carpenter playing live in London with his amazing synth band. An awesome guy!

Blair was the first absorbed, the communications room attack was the thing making sure no transmissions are sent out, or Blair’s last moments before it overcame him, like if your infected but slowly cell by cell becomeing the thing, how could you know?

This film was panned worldwide by movie critics so I wasn't expecting much when I went to see this at my local cinema in 1982. Let's just say I got far more than I bargained for.

Rob Bottin was the Key Practical SPFX Artist, he spent so mich time on this work that it sent him to the hospital afterwards. He sort of receded from there, randomly doing bits here and there way apart from each other. This was his Magnum Opus, as well as Carpenters. The film would have worked with other FX, but nothing like what was given forth by Rob. The two together was Cinematic Horror Gold.

The carrot-man from the original really let himself go lol

Kurt Russell was a fantastic actor his entire life. He's a Disney actor. He stared in a lot of teenage Disney films, two of those movies he played the same character.

Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, Shawshank Redemption, Goodfellas, The Usual Suspects, The Silence of the Lambs are all excellent character driven dramas

That ending has left decades of theories - this is my all time favorite horror movie

John carpenter has said of the ending that one of the two survivors is a thing. But he never said who it was during a interview. I suspect it was child’s.

See the original from 1951. The creature was played by James Arness who also starred in "Them" and later in the TV western series "Gunsmoke."

If you don't have it on your list you need to add Blade Runner (1982) and it's follow up Blade Runner 2049. Both are fantastic.

The destruction of the American station was not the last shots in fact... that destroyed set became the Norwegian camp that they visit in the beginning of the film.

I saw this in the theater back in the 80s many times. It's a great movie. Glad you reviewed it!

The dog in this movie is considered by many as the most well trained dog in movies history.

One of the theories was that, what MacReady gave Childs at the end was not whisky but petroleum.

If you didn't read the credits, you would almost think John Carpenter also did the music, since it has his "sound." Apparently, he worked with Ennio Morricone a lot on the music, so I believe his influence is felt fairly heavily.

Ennio Morricone did a GREAT job with the Music for this Movie. Unfortunately, He actually passed away earlier this year back in July. :(

Another classic that still holds up. I love the initial mystery of alien's motive as well as the open ending -- it works as is and could serve a sequel but doesn't blatantly advertise one. Have you seen End of Watch or Narc? Both do a solid job of combining a character study with a crime/action film.

It;s true thought the practical effects are some of the best I've ever seen. A 1982 movie that was way ahead of its time.

When you said "I know that's not real" it sounded, to me at least, like you were trying to convince yourself. Love that

Thanks for reacting to this all. time classic film! A couple of points and facts for you: 1. The Thing was not using Blair's scientific knowledge to construct that circular craft, it has technological knowledge far beyond human knowledge since had absorbed/been part of the crew of the spaceship that crashed eons ago. 2. Fun fact about the set which they blew up. They used the blown up set to represent the Norwegian camp when they visited that earlier in the film. 3. This movie reveals itself a lot more on a second viewing, and you begin to understand all sorts of clues about Palmer and what he's doing during the film, in addition to Blair. 4. The ending of the film is not ambiguous if you pay attention to all the clues. Childs is the Thing. He says he saw Blair out in the snow and went after him, yet seconds after he left, the power was cut off from Blair removing the generator in the generator room, so Childs was lying about seeing Blair. When MacReady offered his drink to Childs, MacReady smiles to himself, because he knows then that Childs is the Thing. He knows that if Childs was human and wasn't sure of MacReady, he would never drink from a bottle MacReady just drank from. However, as the Thing, Childs wants to drink from it because he wants to share the drink with MacReady and infect him. This is how Norris got infected from the stomach first, by ingesting something that Palmer must have infected.

That shot where they walk up to the hole in the ice is a painting too, and you didn't notice that one. The actors were on a white patch in the middle of a car park.

“That’s something I’ve never seen before”......” I can’t believe it’s not CGI”......”and I can’t believe it’s getting away from them!!”... 😆😆😆 Absolutely love your reaction.

This was the first horror film I ever saw. I was a teenager at my friend’s house and it scared the crap out of me! Ive never forgotten that scene when his hands went through that guy’s chest. And when Kurt Russell tests their blood with that guy tied up trying to scoot away! Haha.

Such a great movie. Yes the effects are great but it's the acting, suspense/atmosphere, paranoia, direction and script that really make it so good.

Is this the first time you saw The Thing. It's one of my favorite movies..... so well done with such a small cast.... just a horror classic.

RU-vid suggests Shan Watches "The Thing" Me = Get in there!!

Notice at the end, you can see McReady's breath but nothing from Childs. This has led people to speculate that Childs was also "infected" by the thing.

My fav “ monster “ movie of all time. The 2011 remake wasn’t quite as good, but it’s a prequel that answers a lot of questions.

I love that you thought it was "campy". That is the last way I'd describe this film. It scared the crap out of me. Now back to watching your reaction.

You notice how Palmer looks sad for just a moment before he's found out? Makes me feel bad for him/it

Haha Your face throughout this movie! Such a simple but brilliant and effective score! That scene where the Doc gets his arms bit off in dudes chest... It is seered into my brain! It fucked me on some primal level. Seeing this in the theatre back in 82 was so amazing! Lost count how many times you said "that's disgusting..but amazing" lol This film has a really special place in my heart lol Thank you!! Edit: That dog gave one of the best and creepiest performances in film! Movie rec: Pans Labyrinth is a must see :)

When the Thing was first released in 1982 It was meet with horrible reveiws, film magazine Cinefantastique called it "instant junk", "a wretched excess", and proposed as the most-hated film of all time. Today it is considered as one of the best science fiction and horror films ever made.One of the reasons for it's initial negative reviews is because it was released at the same time as ET The Extraterrestial which presented a more positive take on alien visitation

John Carpenter had done most of his movie scores himself out of necessity and budget. However the studio wanted a composer for The Thing and suggested Morricone. When Morricone played Carpenter his first workings of the score Carpenter thought it was too much, too elaborate and asked him to "use less notes". He provided Carpenter with the score in pieces and it wasn't until the editing process that Carpenter realized that there wasn't enough music, specifically in places in the film that had no music but Carpenter wanted music in these spots. So Carpenter added some basic chords and underlying music to the film himself.

In the final shots, Childs has no breath, whereas Mac does. Makes you think...

To the questions: what is the thing, where it came from and all of that lore side of thing. I guess we get enough clue to know about it. The nihilism that is strongly present in the themes of the film hint toward the answer of "anything that crossed the path of the thing either got absorbed or barely killed it", when you know it's powers and how it operates, it's so "infectious" (even tho it's not an infection) that it probably absorbed any lifeform in the galaxy, or has either barely started to. The place of origin of the thing could be anywhere in space, really, but the monster, when the action of the film happens, may have been else the first of it's kind, one in a million, or just the last survivors of this specie. What is also terrifying in the film, it the plausibility of such a monster, it's not totally impossible for a colony of anicellular organisms to act to imitate normal pluricellular specimens and even steal their dna "blueprints". The whole conept is not explained, doesn't exist but could theorically exist and that gives shivers in the spine.

Notice how you can't see Child's breath in the freezing air but you can see Mac's.

You gotta see They Live (1988), also by Carpenter

Speaking of Kurt Russell Tombstone is a great movie starring him as Wyatt Earp (western)

"That is an excellent question, Keith David". LMAO

The Norwegian camp is the American camp after it was destroyed.

Rob Bottin was a ridiculous genius on this Film. And watching his interviews on the The Thing extras, the loveliest (most lovely?) bloke ever

Just so you know, some of the score of this film was unused, the unused tracks were used in The Hateful Eight; in which Kurt Russell also acted in similar circumstances narratively.

Escape from New York 1981, Big Trouble in Little China 1986, & Starman 1984 are good movies from John Carpenter.

I could tell you so much about this movie. For instance, when the burn the dog thing, it is shooting something at them, it is a flower made of dog tongues covered in dog teeth. Amazing amazing movie. BTW: On Escape from New York, James Cameron was on the special effects team.