Sci-Fi The Thing (2011)

Kevin

Code Monkey
Staff member
Title: The Thing

Tagline: It's Not Human. Yet.

Genre: Horror, Science Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.

Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Eric Christian Olsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Trond Espen Seim, Kim Bubbs, Jørgen Langhelle, Jan Gunnar Røise, Stig Henrik Hoff, Kristofer Hivju, Carsten Bjørnlund, Jonathan Walker, Jo Adrian Haavind, Ole Martin Aune Nilsen, Paul Braunstein, Michael Brown

Release: 2011-10-12

Runtime: 103

Plot: When paleontologist Kate Lloyd travels to an isolated outpost in Antarctica for the expedition of a lifetime, she joins an international team that unearths a remarkable discovery. Their elation quickly turns to fear as they realize that their experiment has freed a mysterious being from its frozen prison. Paranoia spreads like an epidemic as a creature that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish in this spine-tingling thriller.
The Thing (2011)

 
The 2011 prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 version of The Thing is scheduled to be released this October 14. In a bit of retcon, the directors are hinting that there were clues to there being a prequel in the 82' version.


Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. In the thriller "The Thing," paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they're infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet.

Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up.

When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew's pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish.

"The Thing" serves as a prelude to John Carpenter's classic 1982 film of the same name.
 
It reminds be a bit too much of Carpenter's 1982 version. Flame thrower? Check. Axe wielding? Check. Flares? Check. Scientist discover a way of detecting the parasite in the blood? Check. Crew members turning against each other? Check. Up to one person to sacrifice all to save the rest of mankind? Check.

I might as well watch Carpenter's version.
 
My son and his friends have made it through to the top 20 of the Empire Jameson done in 60 seconds competition with a 60 second version of the remake (prequel) of John Carpenter's 1982 classic 'The Thing'.

Please check it out at:

http://www.empireonline.com/awards2012/diss/shortlist/12.asp

If you like it please vote and let us know what you think.

We loved John Carpenter's version.... but thought the new version was riddled with inconsistencies. What does everyone think?
 
MV5BMTMxMjI0MzUyNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjc1NzE5NQ@@._V1_SY317_CR0,0,214,317_AL_.jpg

R | 103 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi | 14 October 2011 (USA)
The Thing (2011) - IMDb

Paleontologist Kate Lloyd is invited by Dr. Sandor Halvorson to join his team who have found something extraordinary. Deep below the Arctic ice, they have found an alien spacecraft that has been there for perhaps 100,000 years. Not far from where the craft landed, they find the remains of the occupant. It's cut out of the ice and taken back to their camp but as the ice melts, the creature reanimates and not only begins to attack them but manages to infect them, with team members devolving into the alien creature.

Director:
Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. (as Matthijs van Heijningen)
Writers:
Eric Heisserer, John W. Campbell Jr. (short story "Who Goes There?")
Stars:
Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen


I went to see this the night before it was released on a midnight screening. I went into it expecting much of what I loved in the 1982 version. I wasn't dissappointed! I liked the feel of the Antarctic Thule Station and the acting was pretty well done. My experience with the 1982 version kinda ruined the mystery that made the 1982 version so intense. I expected more. All in all I felt it was well done and preserved the storyline of the sequel from 1982.
This 2011 version is the prequel for the 1982 version. The end of this one flawlessly ends where the 1982 version begins. I was quite impressed. Now that I have both versions I always watch the 1982 after this one.
A note on the ship. The ship in this one is much more detailed than in the 82 version but it can be written off as an effect of its refreezing. The ship in this one is much larger than depicted in the 82 version as well but if you want to inspect it microsopically there are other inconsistencies. Don't let the little stuff ruin an otherwise good movie. Besides, Perhaps the 82 version had refrozen so not all the ship could be seen clearly?


For fans of this version I direct you to
thulestationbanner23.jpg

http://thulestation.com/

Links to Carpenter’s film

According to the producers, Director of the 1982 version of The Thing John Carpenter gave his approval for the Prequel to be made and was was enthusiastic about making a cameo appearance. An early draft of the script included the character of a bartender at the McMurdo base that was written for Carpenter to play, but scheduling conflicts prevented him from taking the role and it was dropped from subsequent drafts of the script. “I spoke to [Carpenter’s] old producer and he endorses it but he said, do your own thing, I’m not gonna interfere. So, there will probably be a time, [but] it hasn’t happened yet.”

Carpenter himself quashes these rumours in a 2012 Q&A with fans at Outpost31 by simply saying: “…the rumors are not true.”

Carpenter has stated many times on twitter that he is yet to see the Prequel. He tweeted on October 16th 2011: “I haven’t seen THE THING prequel. I hope it’s good. One improvement on my movie: they have a babe, a very talented actress.”

In an interview in Jan 2011, Carpenter said of the prequel: “Well right now, Universal has made a prequel to The Thing. They’ve already shot it. It’s a prequel to my film and I didn’t have anything to do with it. So I don’t know what to say. That’s their choice.”

Eric Heisserer: “The way we approached it was by autopsy, where the director, producers and I pored over Carpenter’s film. We must have screened it two or three dozen times. And we’d freeze frames and have lengthy discussions about what evidence is there, that would lead to so much blood. It was a forensic discussion of Carpenter’s films. That’s probably where the whole “fire axe in the door” probably came from. Because we said, we have to justify that, we have to have a moment in our movie where you see that happen.”

The red axe that ‘Joel Edgerton’ uses and eventually sticks into the wall can be seen still stuck in the wall when the Americans visit the Norwegian camp in the original John Carpenter version.

The burnt Split-Face with the two merged faces/heads that MacReady and gang find at the Norwegian site (in the 1982 Carpenter remake) is the same organism created when Edvard lowered himself onto Adam and “incorporated” the latter by joining their faces in this prequel.

This film may have purposely solved a long-standing mystery in the 1982 film. This film reveals that The Thing cannot replicate abiotic (non-living) things such as fillings, earrings, clothes, etc. and at a pivotal moment near the end, Kate realizes that Carter’s earring is missing as well as the hole for the piercing revealing him to be a Thing. At the end of the 1982 film, the character Childs still has his earring in his right ear. It can be seen just before he takes a drink from the bottle of J&B.
 
I did do a search for this before I posted recently...erm it didn't pick it up.
Search was:
The Thing (all titles)
The Thing (2011) all titles
 
___________________
3WgZQkt.jpg


IMDB has 33 trivia items for this movie. Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting, in the blue text.
icon_biggrin.gif

________________________________


The filmmakers used Kurt Russell height as an estimate as to how big the sets would have to be to faithfully recreate the Norwegian camp as no blueprints existed from the John Carpenter movie.

Note from me: Wow, there's a weird way to approach an architectural project!
icon_biggrin.gif


It is mentioned in the DVD commentary that the remains that Kate Lloyd is examining at the beginning of the movie is one of the dog thing props from John Carpenter's The Thing (1982).

Note from me: Clever reuse of a prop. But I'm surprised that it hasn't deteriorated in almost thirty years. (Wait, maybe it HAD deteriorated and it looked even more bizarre that way!
icon_eek.gif
)


John Carpenter, the director of the 1982 remake The Thing (1982), was enthusiastic about making a cameo appearance, but scheduling conflicts prevented him from making one.

Note from me: They should have used a lookalike in makeup and then leaked the rumor that a strange "duplicate" of John Carpenter was seen lurking around on the set!

In order to not try to compete with Kurt Russell's portrayal of the 1982 film's protagonist, R.J. MacReady, the character of Kate Lloyd was designed to have traits in common with the character Ellen Ripley from the Alien (1979) film series.

Note from me:: Wait, let me get this straight. In order to keep Kate Lloyd from being too much like Kurt Russel, they made her more like Sigourney Weaver. I'm not sure what any of that means . . .
icon_rolleyes.gif


This film actually solved a long-standing mystery in the 1982 film. This film reveals that the Thing cannot replicate inorganic things - such as fillings, earrings, clothes, etc. - and at a pivotal moment near the end, Kate realizes that Carter's earring has vanished revealing him to be a Thing. At the end of the 1982 film, the character Childs still has his earring in his right ear. It can be seen just before he takes a drink from the bottle of J&B.

Note from me: This comment is easily refuted. An alien smart enough to mimic a specific human would be smart enough to put on all its victim's jewelry, etc. after the transformation. The trivia comment really ought to be about how the alien in the prequel was foolish NOT to have done exactly that.

_______________________ The Thing - Movie CLIP
__________ hqdefault.jpg

Bud Brewster - All Sci-Fi
 
Last edited:
Back
Top