The Thing (1982)

In 1975, while at a party for a mutual screenwriter friend, TV producer Stuart Cohen mentioned in a conversation with film producer David Foster that he’d love to break into features. Foster agreed to entertain any ideas he had. Sometime later, while dining at a restaurant with John Carpenter, his friend from USC film school, they both talked about one of their favorite movies, The Thing from Another World, produced by Howard Hawks in 1951. Cohen floated the idea of remaking it, but they mutually decided their reverence prevented them. They’d rather make a film on the story The Thing was based on, “Who Goes There?” by Joseph Campbell. Campbell, using the pseudonym of Don A. Stuart in 1938 for “Astounding Science Fiction” magazine, was inspired to write the story from the unsettling feeling of growing up with a loving mother who had a mean identical twin sister, having to test whether friend or foe.

Cohen met with Foster to pitch a film adaptation of Campbell’s novella. When Foster mentioned that it had already been made into a film, Cohen said Hawks film changed 90% of the story. He urged him to read it as a way to make The Thing without it being a remake. Foster and his producing partner, Larry Turman, liked the idea, taking it to Universal Pictures president Ned Tanen, who, coincidentally, had just married Howard Hawks’ daughter, Kitty. Tanen was enthusiastic and bought the Campbell story rights from screenwriters Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins after they declined writing the adaptation. However, the studio wanted to use the title of The Thing, which meant buying the rights to the Hawks film, owned by producer Wilbur Stark, who had bought the rights for over twenty prominent films from RKO Pictures. They met Stark’s asking price, including an executive producer credit, in exchange for the film rights. Stark gave them a script treatment they didn’t solicit or use.

Cohen pitched Carpenter to direct. He’d just remade a Hawks film, a modern take on Rio Bravo with Assault on Precinct 13. Foster and Turman didn’t like Assault and wanted someone under contract with Universal. Tanen assigned The Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel to develop it Hooper and Henkel weren’t interested in the paranoia themes of Campbell’s story, veering off into something described as an incomprehensible riff on “Moby Dick”.  Universal was unhappy with this direction and released them. They courted John Landis, who passed. Playwright/author David Wiltse came on board for a new script but he also strayed from the source material, with an alien resembling a light source that enveloped people.  Next was William F. Nolan, hot off of Logan’s Run, was more faithful but the producers weren’t enamored, leaving Universal to put the project on hold. Nolan’s treatment was published commercially with Campbell’s novella in 2009.

Cohen pitched Carpenter again to direct, showing them a raw version of Halloween. Foster and Turman didn’t like it either, even with the nod paid to the first version The Thing in one scene where the babysitter and kids are watching it on the TV. However, when Halloween became the most successful independent feature of all time in 1978, and Alien did very well at the box office in 1979,  Universal revived the project and Carpenter got his shot.

Carpenter was finishing The Fog, with Escape from New York lined up after that. He also was writing screenplays for Halloween II and a Jennings Lang project called Lightning. Someone else would need to script. The producing team compiled a list of ten potential writers. After the top choices didn’t pan out, Cohen suggested Bill Lancaster, son of actor Burt. Cohen liked Lancaster’s screenplay for The Bad News Bears in the way he handled many characters economically, all with distinct personalities and banter, tempered with biting humor. Lancaster’s ideas jibed with where Carpenter wanted to go with the material and he was hired.

There was one near snag that occurred when Carpenter announced that his dream Western project of El Diablo might take precedence, leaving his availability in doubt. Walter Hill was contacted, while Sam Peckinpah and Michael Ritchie were considered. Fortunately, El Diablo wasn’t quite ready, so Carpenter agreed to proceed.

In 1979, Lancaster began adapting the Campbell novella in a secluded cabin. Campbell’s story was mostly talking, little action, but was workable.  He likened the story to a locked-door Agatha Christie murder mystery, but one where everyone was the murderer. If he did it right, the paranoia and distrust among the men would be more deadly than the monster itself. His hardest task was adding moments of action, and giving each character a distinct personality. He completed it in August 1980 and everyone loved it, especially Carpenter.

The story begins at an American scientific research station in Antarctica, whose scientists grow disturbed by gunshots emanating from a Norwegian helicopter shooting at a runaway husky.  They miss their quarry, and the Norwegians end up getting killed, with no explanation as to what their problem is.  The American crew travels to the Norwegian camp, only to find some very odd occurrences, including a mangled humanoid body that has normal internal organs.  Then, the husky reveals that it’s not really a dog, but an alien organism that crashlanded there 100,000 years ago with the power to mimic and absorb other life-forms.  The men of the camp are its next intended victims, and soon, it’s every man for himself.

The Thing was Carpenter’s first studio film. He signed on with Universal Pictures with apprehension that he’d lose control. Thankfully, Carpenter found he had ample creative freedom, agreeing to follow up with Universal’s Stephen King adaptation of Firestarter, with Bill Lancaster scripting.

Kurt Russell wasn’t Carpenter’s first choice as MacReady; Lancaster wrote it with Clint Eastwood in mind. Carpenter loved Eastwood but he was unavailable. Carpenter pursued Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte, Sam Shepard, Christopher Walken, Tom Atkins, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Brian Dennehy, and Jack Thompson, among others. After Carpenter went to Alaska to shoot second-unit footage, the experience was so grueling, he didn’t want primadonna actors to coddle. He needed someone reliable, and that meant Russell. Russell had no interest in horror but considered Carpenter a master of the genre, so when he was asked, he dropped his intended debut directorial project with his actress wife Season Hubley and signed on. He didn’t want to regret missing out on a potential classic.

For the rest, Carpenter wanted mostly unknowns. For Palmer, they initially looked at standup comedians like Jay Leno, Garry Shandling, and Charles Fleisher, but none could play terrified convincingly. After considering Isaac Hayes, Mark Mosely was tapped for Childs but left to do “Magnum PI”, leaving Ernie Hudson as the top choice until Keith David auditioned. Carpenter nixed his initial choice of Donald Pleasence for Blair because he was too well known and audiences would notice when he disappears for a long stretch, so he cast Wilford Brimley. Comedian Franklin Ajaye read for Nauls but went on a 15-minute diatribe that the part was a racist stereotype before Carpenter broke up the meeting.

Rick Baker and his protege Rob Bottin (who worked on Carpenter’s The Fog) were busy with competing werewolf films, so Foster and Turman hired Dale Kuipers, who they worked with on 1981’s Caveman, to design the monster. Kuipers drew up an insectoid creature that could change its size and appearance through hallucinations. During pre-production, Kuipers was pushed through a plate-glass department store window by an intoxicated biker that left him an invalid for two months. Bottin had finished with his other project and announced his availability. Carpenter asked if he’d assist Kuipers, but Bottin had no interest in completing Kuipers’ work, especially since he didn’t care for the design.

Over dinner, Carpenter asked Bottin what monster he’d create. Bottin said that Kuipers’s monster resembled a bug that laid eggs in humans and bursts out. No matter how well this is done, Carpenter’s film would be called a ripoff of Alien. Bottin’s “Thing” would be something no one could define. People fear the unknown and the unpredictable, so the monster should continuously change so it could be anyone, anything, and anywhere. If a character’s belly suddenly opens up with a mouth and sharp teeth to bite someone, or reveals eyes all over his back, audiences would be terrified.

Bottin explained his Thing was a fugitive from other planets, blending by assimilation, conquering other alien species from within. It crashes on Earth, dormant until found. Its instinct is to hide by blending in, but it keeps getting rooted out, upon which it attacks. It’s not an insect, mammal, reptile, or alien monster – it is all those things, whatever it has consumed and assimilated into.

Carpenter found Bottin’s suggestions weird but said he’d sleep on it. The next day, Carpenter was convinced Bottin’s vision would make The Thing an astounding horror experience like no other. Bottin and Carpenter shared a belief that psychological terror is more frightening than physical. Carpenter wanted audiences to project their emotions to what’s happening on the screen. Everyone would fear the Thing because it could turn into whatever anyone in the audience feared most. He replaced Kuipers with Bottin and his crew, letting their imaginations run wild.

Bottin’s monster assumed the appearance of anything it assimilated. Its nature is to survive, imitating its enemies, absorbing them until it has no enemies left, then moving on. It can assume any form after attacking and absorbing other living organisms, making it especially difficult to identify. In all, the monster had about three dozen different looks, using mechanics and puppetry that required nearly all Bottin’s crew to operate. Bottin overworked himself to the point he needed outside assistance to stay on schedule. Stan Winston assisted with the dog-thing design , while Randy Cook performed stop-motion animation for the Blair-thing that Carpenter refused to use. When it was over, Bottin was hospitalized for exhaustion and pneumonia.

Roy Arbogast created mechanical effects, from snowstorms, explosions, and the monster’s destructive power. Albert Whitlock provided the matte painting work. Carpenter favorite, Dean Cundey, provided cinematography, working with production designer John Lloyd emphasized claustrophobic environs, practical lighting, and reducing colors except for the monster. Cundey encouraged showing the monster more, as Bottin wanted it to be seen primarily in silhouettes and shadows.

Hawks had two female characters in his film, but Lancaster felt female characters would complicate the story dynamics. He felt Russell was a handsome enough guy that might lure in female audiences despite no female characters. He included a humorous scene of MacReady and a sex doll that was later removed.

Aside: One of the pre-Carpenter screenwriters tried to frame the alien as a positive symbiotic force. Nonconformist Carpenter wasn’t fond of that message. This alien symbiosis theme is explored in the 2018 film, Annihilation, with a female cast.

Shooting took place in Juneau, AK, and at Stewart, BC. Carpenter and crew endured harsh cold and lack of visibility. Carpenter and several members of the second crew went without heat, electricity, or running water for several days at a time while scouting locations and filming exteriors with acting doubles.  Warming sheds vats of hot soup were needed, especially as the trailer heating was inadequate. Everyone got sick. Interiors at the refrigerated studios were not much better with chemicals and kerosene smoke filling their lungs.

The Thing continues Carpenter’s theme of people trapped and fighting their way out. This speaks to Carpenter’s fears of being confined, whether physically or in his career. His love of horror stems from a fear of death – a universal fear that audiences the world over can relate to. Carpenter fears being controlled by other people and losing his identity. He’s always been an outsider looking in, never quite able to assimilate, resisting conformity in favor of maintaining his individuality, which is why The Thing is something that makes him afraid.

Despite reducing the Campbell’s characters from 37 to 12, Carpenter felt challenged by too many personalities to give direction and too difficult to photograph everyone indoors. Carpenter felt the middle of the film was too talky so he restructured it, reshooting several scenes outdoors with more action and movement.

Carpenter had to fight for the ambiguous ending. Carpenter argued that audiences would feel defeated without hope, and an uplifting ending was corny. Three endings were shot, the ambiguous one, one in which Childs walks off into the snow presumably to freeze to death leaving MacReady alone to fight the Thing, and another showing MacReady surviving after blowing up the creature, awaiting the results of a blood test. Preview audiences scored the film similarly – poorly – so Carpenter decided to go with the ambiguous ending he preferred. Russell wrote the final lines of the film.

By the way, both Lancaster and Cohen firmly believe both men are human at the end, while Carpenter has been inconsistent, sometimes saying he doesn’t know, and other times saying one is the Thing but won’t reveal who.

For scoring duties, the producers considered Jerry Goldsmith, John Corigliano, and Alex North, but Carpenter, who usually composed his films, said the only composer he’d accept was Ennio Morricone. Morricone initially turned it down to have time for Once Upon a Time in America. The producers got him to attend a private screening of raw footage and he said he might provide something if they visited him in Rome. Carpenter came to Rome for two days and played noted on the piano of what he was looking for, coldness but not hopelessness. Morricone provided 22 minutes of thematic suites for Carpenter to edit into the film.  Carpenter and partner Alan Howarth added extra music to bridge some scenes.

The Thing drew some scathing reviews from critics, who found the effects overwhelming, complaining about how distasteful, depressing, and overbearingly bleakness. The Thing also fared poorly at the box office, debuting at #8 and falling out of theaters within a month. It certainly didn’t help that it came out two weeks in the wake of E.T. and three from Poltergeist (coincidentally, directed by Tobe Hooper).  It made only $20 million off of its $15 million budget.

Carpenter the criticism for glorifying violence is undue. No person could copycat the murders of the monster in The Thing in reality. If people have nightmares about his monster, then he’s done his job for genre fans who’ve grown jaded by derivative monsters. More terrifying is that the monster could be anyone around you – or everyone. Critics attacked Carpenter for nihilism, replacing Hawks’ humanity with suspicion and bleakness. Carpenter’s monster evokes no compassion, unlike the Hawks film where he’s a stranger in a strange land. If Carpenter’s creature were to find civilization, it would destroy all life on the planet in a matter of weeks.

The Thing‘s poor performance displeased Universal, who removed Carpenter from Firestarter with full pay. Carpenter had hoped to explore other genres, like his western idea, El Diablo, a musical about a nuclear reactor meltdown called Prometheus Crisis, a Vietnam war flick, and one on the Philadelphia Experiment called Without a Trace. Unfortunately, The Thing‘s financial failure gave him less of the all-important control he wanted, staying in the horror genre for another Stephen King adaptation, Christine.

Over the years, The Thing‘s reputation grew among horror fans; many consider it his best film, some a masterpiece. One wonders what Carpenter’s career might have been if The Thing were successful, with more clout and confidence. Although made in 1982, there’s an ageless quality to it, partially because it’s set away from civilization, and modern technology is sparse.  It didn’t play well for the thinking of the 1980s but identity and trust are much more prominent issues today in the internet age. And graphic violence in horror much more commonplace. It’s become a very influential movie, with countless imitators, such that it feels very fresh to today’s audiences.  Even by today’s standards, the film’s gore factor is quite high, with some truly grotesque and convincing creatures to give you nightmares for the rest of your life.

Carpenter’s creation gets under your skin early and stays there for the duration, becoming one of the most riveting horror films of the 80s.  While similar to other films to come out in the years before it, including Alien and the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it holds its own through the fantastic action and engaging performances, especially by Kurt Russell, headlining his third movie with John Carpenter.

Carpenter churns up the thrills and chills, rarely missing a beat in the delivery.  The build-up is masterful, as is the quality of the characterizations, which are short but effective, and when it all boils over, there is much power in the performances.  There are a few implausible developments here and there, but in the end, it hardly matters,  The Thing hooks you in and never let’s go, and even when you think you can’t look, you find you can’t turn away either.

• In 2005, Universal contemplated making a miniseries sequel for SyFy Channel called “Return of the Thing”.
• A big-budget remake/prequel theatrical feature was made in 2012 that recounts what happened at the Norwegian research station that discovered the Thing.
• The story continued in comic books from Dark Horse, a 2002 video game sequel set 25 years later (featuring some voice work by Carpenter), and haunted house attraction for Halloween at Universal Studios Orlando in 2007 and Universal Studios Hollywood in 2011 tied into the prequel called “The Thing – Assimilation” that was set 25 years after the movie.
• In 2018, it was discovered that “Who Goes There?” was an abridged version of an unpublished novel entitled “Frozen Hell” by Campbell. It was released in book form in 2019. In 2020, Carpenter announced collaboration a reboot of The Thing with Blumhouse Productions with elements from the novel.

Qwipster’s rating: A+

MPAA Rated: R for pervasive gore, violence, and language
Running Time: 109 min.

Cast: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur, T.K. Carter, Thomas G. Waites, David Clennon, Richard A. Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Donald Moffatt, Joel Polis
Director: John Carpenter
Screenplay: Bill Lancaster