I'm sorry the movie might have a lot of other merits but the fact we're supposed to believe the thing was secretly making a flying saucer out of helicopter parts is just beyond laughable and takes me out of it.
>>217253335All Carpenter movies are overrated as fuck. They have neat concepts but terrible execution
>>217253335I don't understand why they locked Blair in an outlying shed. It makes him an easy target and gives the Thing full reign to come and go as it pleases if it gets him. They should have just locked him in a room in the main building so they could keep a close eye on him
>>217253335i have a friend who is this exact same type of mental midget, hunting down what he perceives are "plotholes" and calling them out non-stop, trying to appear smart
I can appreciate the thematic poetry of the ending but if you did care about the future of humanity after all the sacrifices you previously made, wouldn't you give it your all to make sure the potential still alive thing burns instead of letting it hibernate again?
>>217253433>hey this thing breaks my suspension of disbelief>hurr youre just trying to feel smart just like turn your brain off
I love the tension of the scene but a couple schmucks assuming a small blood sample would for sure screech and jump around if you touch it with a heated element was one hell of a deduction
>>217253495>hey look how smart i am for noticing this>im gonna say it out loud but im going to pretend its because it BREAKS MY SUSPENSION even though i havent stopped talking for the entire duration of the movie pointing out irrelevant shit that everyone sane disregards because its a movie
>>217253625bro come on, it's not like im pointing out some bad faith cinemasins-style small detail inconsistency, it doesnt signal any intelligence because any dumbass with half a brain could tell you how fucking ridiculous that part of the plot is and that's precisely why it's a problem.sorry for taking the time to lament how an otherwise excellent movie is weakened by a major flaw in the script that I wish had been omitted/reworked
>>217253758i get it because i also saw a flying fucking saucer made of helicopter parts and chuckled - my brain instantly communicated to me "lol this is retarded" and i simply moved on. not only is it not a MAJOR flaw, it made the experience a little richer because i chuckled. it's still my favorite movie of all time.it never occurred to me to talk about it or make a thread on it
>>217253812He’s right, OP. No point in making this thread.
>>217253611Are you fucking retarded? No one expected that shit to happen. That's why it scared the fuck out of everyone. He expected it to react or move not turn into...that shit.
>>217253335why can't you make a flying saucer out of helicopter parts? are you a helicopter and/or flying saucer engineer?
would a professional really ruin a valuable piece of computer equipment on an isolated research station because they were pissed the computer beat it at chess?
>>217253495>alien movie>building alien tech is TOO FAR for my brain!People announcing this during horror and Sci fi movies are far stupider than the people who can just shut the fuck up.
>>217253464>Clives breath doesn't show in the coldSo we can all assume he was the Thing at the end
>>217253883>valuable piece of computer equipmentIt's a fucking video game. And it cheats. Dorks were building pc's out of random oft scavenged electronics parts that could do the same thing. Wouldn't even take a week to create a chess program using fucking basic.
>>217253946In the videogame sequel that was made with John Carpenter's approval they're both human
>>217253858I meant the fact that they knew for sure it would visibly react at all(and when it didn't characters assumed for sure they were in the clear)Mind you this assumption came from the fact that they saw a whole ass head(sizeable, with organs and full of muscle tissue) that was just attached to corrupted body (try to)escape on its own while the body burned. It's one hell of an assumption to extrapolate that situation to "a small blood drop of blood will react something like that too"
>>217253952So you think the computer was only there for them to play chess and it had no other valuable functions?
>>217253883Mac's girlfriend was getting jealous he was spending too much time with the chess girl
>>217253379The Fly is excellentoh wait that's cronenberg
>>217253464I think Mac was just super exhausted and cold as fuck. He knew Childs was a thing, but could lull it into dropping its guard, let it think that he had calmed down and didn't suspect it, then Mac would find a way to take it out. At that moment, he didn't have any more tnt, flamethrower, and was in a vulnerable position so the thing would win if he attacked. Mac took it out after the movie ended then died himself, and it's better that we don't see that.
>>217254032They didn’t know for sure, it was a working theory based on how they’d observed its cells operating. If none of the samples did anything, then they’d be in the same position they were before. If any reacted in an alien way (which they did) then they would have confirmed their theory and identified an imposter.I think you have some sort of autism.
I don't get this please no bully
>>217254164what's not to get?
>>217254183what is it and why is it significant
>>217254164i get it, the thing wanted to take a bath, so what?
>>217253335>I'm a faggot contrarianYou sure are OP
why didnt the dog start licking everyone in the crew when everyone was still 100% unsuspecting?
OP got roasted and bailed on his thread lol
>>217254200The Swedish explorers found the alien ship. Nearby they found a weird alien lifeform in the ice. They cut out a huge block of ice around the lifeform then took it back to their base. They carefully dug the lifeform out of that ice block trying to keep it frozen to not damage it. They didn't know it would be still alive and just thought it would be an amazing find that all scientists around the world would enjoy seeing.
>>217254251oh, cool. okay thanks
>>217253853>>217254231samefagimagine frothing at the mouth about a thread with discussion about a cool classic movie when 99% of /tv/ is just a cesspool of garbage
>>217254324Nothing wrong with mocking OP’s stupid take and discussing the movie at the same time.
>>217253335I agree, it's needlessly goofy. IIRC that was part of the original story but the adaptation changed so many other things they could have scrapped that too
RIP Nauls
saw those woke blacks in the artic station and I knew the movie was garbage
>>217254251for 1982 that's a pretty shitty painting not gonna lie.
>>217254450Damnit, there go my plans for a Thing Sequel whete Nauls is discovered to be alive since we didn't see his death on screen
>>217254563It looks fine in the actual movie.
>>217254588I disagree and I say this as a huge fan on matte paintings
>>217253495>muh suspension of disbelief
>>217254621Eh, it’s a fairly short shot. It’s not like they linger on it in the movie.
>>217253758you have like the skeleton of a point, but you just keep coming across as retarded sorry
>>217253335Maybe it was using other parts it found in the base as well and maybe it isn't a flying saucer but something else.
>NOOOOOOOOOOOO you must accept everything as it is dont you dare claim this amazing classic movie is anything other than 100% perfect jesus christ /tv/ is becoming worse than reddit
>>217254717It conveys that the thing is intelligent and was attempting to make an escape to a more populated place. No reason to get hung up on it as a major flaw in the plot.
>>217254757OP is calling it a 'major flaw' in the plot and it isn’t.
>>217254757I hate it when people bash the prequel. Yeah the cgi sucks but it's not a bad movie.
>>217253335>a creature that has absorbed the memories of thousands of other lifeforms cannot make a shitty spaceship out of makeshift parts that can just get it into space so it can hibernate againseems more believable than a bunch of monkeys building a spaceship in the best conditions.
>>217254803It’s not the worst, but there’s also no real reason for it to exist. I’d rather just watch The Thing 1982 again.
>>217254565> Thing Sequel i thank god every day we never got a sequel
>>217254005how did the thing survive?(im assuming it had to have survived for the videogame to have a "plot")
Adulthood is realizing The Thing from Another World(1951) is the superior version
>>217253335Thought the thing was building a machine to escape Antarctica and get to the rest of civilization in order to spread itself
>>217254843> how did the thing survive?even one tiny partial of blood means it can live. if you think the didn’t have back up copies for later used around you are silly. only a complete nuking of the entire antarctica would stop it
the thing is great. i watched it like 50 times. shit is so cash
Escape from New York is the only true great Carpenter movie sorry not sorry I said what I said
>>217254843part of the dog thing escaped though the ceiling as it knew it was going to be destroyed soon.
The puppet in the blood testing scenie is comical.
>>217254961The Thing is like Jaws. Yeah some of the puppetry may look a little silly, but the fact that it’s actually there for the actors to see and react to is better than CGI.
>>217254961the only practical effect I truly dislike is that double faced corpse at the start, it's just too solid/hard-looking and the completele lack of movement and how long it lingers on screen straight up makes it look like a silly haunted house sculpture
right here macready got taken over by the thing. the signs are all there. we get the camera, the empty hall behind him. something is watching him.
>>217255045so why does he spend the rest of the movie trying to throttle the thing's plans?
>>217255017anything is better than cgi. cgi can only work in extreme darkness and closes ups. i will take puppets, anamtronics, paintings of backgrounds over cgi crap any day of the week.
>>217255068the thing doesn’t know other things are things. the things don’t care about the survival of other things. i said this once and said it again, the things could have killed everyone at the start. it was doing a scientific experiment on humans to see how they react.
Invasion of the body snatchers is similar to the Thing. The 70s version with Donald Sutherland is excellent. Much darker than the original. “They get you while you sleep” is true to our reality.
the real thing is the friends we made along the way
The only thing I like about Carpenter is his soundtracks
>>217253402because the whole situation is full of compromises as the men argued over everything.
>>217253946yes because they establish earlier that the thing makes a perfect imitation *except it doesn't respirate*really thought it was kind of silly at the time but glad it came relevant at the end
>movie has zero w*men in itautomatically based in my book
>>217253946>>217255222dont forget he has no problem drinking from macready's bottle when they made a big point out of only eating from cans so they dont share fluids
>>217255391it didnt matter because they were both fucked
>>217255391Good observation. The passing of the bottle at the end has an obvious significance or else why include it? In the beginning when the dog jumps on the one dude and licks him, then that guy immediately drinks from a bottle was important to figuring out who would be contaminated.
>>217253335I thought the asteroids-style computer simulation of how the thing works and how long it's gonna take for it to infect the entire world was more ridiculous
>>217253335>I'm sorry the movie might have a lot of other merits but the fact we're supposed to believe the thing was secretly making a flying saucer out of helicopter parts is just beyond laughable and takes me out of it.I don't see why, the thing clearly can keep the memories and knowledge of everything it's assimilated, and it was clearly on a spaceship prior to Earth, depending on what it's absorbed in the past it might have a complete working knowledge of spaceship engineering from the various aliens over hundreds, thousands, or even millions of years, who knowsI think it was probably just trying to see if it could make one out of what was available and hit some critical stage where it didn't have the right parts or materials anymore.>>217253402I think it was probably because everyone in the group could clearly say that Blair was too dangerous to be out walking around but they hadn't reached the point where they were just tying up anyone remotely suspected because they weren't sure if how big the problem might be yet. Clark is the other prime suspect and is still able to just walk around.Like right after they lock Blair up, they find the blood sabotaged, know there absolutely is a imitation among them, and tie up Clark, Gary and Copper, so they're down like almost half the group and I think by then, especially with the blizzard going they were some combination of too tired, too scared and not wanting to shake things up which like trying to take Blair back to the main compound, he might do something again or create an opportunity for danger.But I agree, honestly best plan would have been just to get everyone in the same room and everyone has to do everything together. No separate rooms, no one goes out of sight of anyone, if someone has to take a piss all 10 of them have to go to the bathroom too until an imitation tries something or Fuches figures something out to set up a test.>>217253883I think this is the stupidest thing in the whole movie.
>>217253946It actually does it's just harder to see from how he's lit, but there's still like little whisps of fog you can see, easier to see in the later 4k UHD editions and such.
dont hate me for saying this but I think body snatchers is better than the thing
>>217253335filtered
>the thing was secretly making a flying saucer out of helicopter partsWas this in the movie or am I being trolled
>>217254837The only idea I thought was good was like a bunch of people in a government bunker somewhere like Day of The Dead knowing that The Thing has pretty much taken over the world and trying to figure out what to do about it and dealing with supposed survivors while also losing it in the bunker with constant suspicions of each other and no one trusting each other.
>>217255698They discover that Blair was a thing and had been attempting to build a crude ship when they go to check the shack he was locked in. It’s not a major plot point or anything.
>>217255044The only ones I have issue with are the occasional stop motion shots when the Blair-Thing is getting the detonator, and not the effect overall, but on occasion they'd use green blood or viscera instead of red and I think it'd just look much better if when the Norris thing head detaches it's red instead of green, and same with the Dog thing when it's shot if they'd used red blood instead of green.
The blood test was a fraudGary was a thing from the beginning. He kills the Norwegian to silence him. Prove me wrong.>inb4 but Blair merge with himThe thing merges with other stuff, it was merging with Gary thing to make a bigger thing to beat macready
>>217255698"blaire's been busy out here all by himself""what is it?""its a ship of some kind, he stole the parts from the helicopter""smart SOB put it together piece-by-piece."
>>217255713Id watch it
>>217255542I'm more forgiving of it at the time simply because that was just the level of tech in 1982.
I like the 50s version. Idea of a plan based lifeforn was interesting
>>217255795digging that giant bunker under the shed in such a short time is almost as ridiculous as the ship itself
It's a pulp sci-fi story from almost a hundred years ago. The silliness is inherent and part of the fun.
>>217254450DamnRIP in peace
>>217254450lol n*gg*rHope he didnt reproduce
>>217255921I always figured it'd transform parts of itself to make it easier to shovel things out or whatever once it's away from anyone, it could just take whatever form it needs to help accomplish its tasks. It only stays imitated as Blair when it knows it's being watched or thinks it might be.
>>217256050still needs pliers and screwdrivers tho
I wish the movie had the priest from short story or a character playing a religious character. It drove the point home that the imitation was so perfect it could even imitate religion/faith to keep up its charade.
>>217253335it's so funny how dweebs try to act like this b movie shlock is supposed to be some kind of masterpiece
>>217256169>When you ask a friend if Hellboy is any good, you're not asking if it's any good compared to Mystic River, you're asking if it's any good compared to The Punisher. And my answer would be, on a scale of one to four, if Superman is four, then Hellboy is three and The Punisher is two. In the same way, if American Beauty gets four stars, then The United States of Leland clocks in at about two.- Roger Ebert
>>217256279glad he is dead
>>217256427Ebert had a lot of bad takes, but that is a good way to critique films. The Thing is a masterwork within its genre.
Lancaster's original ending had MacReady and Childs turn into the Thing. In the spring, the characters are rescued by helicopter, greeting their saviors with "Hey, which way to a hot meal?". Carpenter thought this ending was too shallow. In total, Lancaster completed four drafts of the screenplay. The novella concludes with the humans clearly victorious, but concerned that birds they see flying toward the mainland may have been infected by the Thing. Carpenter opted to end the film with the survivors slowly freezing to death to save humanity from infection, believing this to be the ultimate heroic act.Carpenter filmed multiple endings for The Thing. In the alternate take, MacReady is rescued and given a blood test that proves he is not infected. Carpenter said that stylistically this ending would have been "cheesy". Editor Verna Fields was tasked with reworking the ending to add clarity and resolution. It was finally decided to create an entirely new scene, which omitted the suspicion of Childs being infected by removing him completely, leaving MacReady alone. This new ending tested only slightly better with audiences than the original, and the production team agreed to the studio's request to use it.It was set to go to print for theaters when the producers, Carpenter, and executive Helena Hacker decided that the film was better left with ambiguity instead of nothing at all. Carpenter gave his approval to restore the ambiguous ending, but a scream was inserted over the outpost explosion to posit the monster's death. Universal executive Sidney Sheinberg disliked the ending's nihilism and, according to Carpenter, said, "Think about how the audience will react if we see the [Thing] die with a giant orchestra playing". Carpenter later noted that the original ending and the ending without Childs tested poorly with audiences, which he interpreted as the film simply not being heroic enough
>>217253335>Not that greatWorth a watch anyway.
>>217256109That's stupid though. The story is so much better when it's just a confused alien being doing what it can to survive these hostile creatures. It's not some perfect world-ending giga-monster intent on genocide. It can take over other beings and imitate them to hide from danger but it's not infallible. The more you guys try to press ideas like "oh, it's so perfect that it truly thinks that it's a human and doesn't even know it's a thing!" the stupider the concept gets
>>217255921>ridiculousOne ridiculous SOB.
>>217253335I mean, if you watch the original from the 50's, that was a fairly low-budget B-movie at the time, it wasn't really considered a great sci-fi thriller when it came out, sci-fi in general was seen as a lesser genre, more for kids than for grown-ups, and even still, The Thing was considered a mediocrity even in a genre with lower standards. The Carpenter remake is a LOT, LOT better than it's source material, and it is a GOOD movie, an entertaining movie that a lot of people enjoy immensely. You can say it's overrated, but it might be that YOU are trying to hold it to way too high of a standard. It's just a popcorn flick, it's not high cinema.
>>217256793I don't know how everyone gets so defensive when OP clearly states the movie has lots of merits, he's not trying to discredit it. It's a perfectly valid criticism imo
>>217254164>>217254262In The Thing prequel/remake (2011) you actually see the alien in a completely alien form waking up and jumping out of that block of ice. It's one of the few cool novelties in an otherwise mediocre movie with little reason to exist
>>217256833My issue is that OP is treating it like it’s a major flaw in the movie, which it definitely isn’t. It’s just a brief scene to show what the thing was potentially capable of.
>>217256692There's some TV broadcast or cable version where there's some added voice over in the start, but also IIRC reuses some of the footage of the husky to imply the Thing escaped again after the end of the movie.
It's a great film, but nowadays I prefer the original. It's a truly remarkable film.
>>217253335I watched this for the first time on New Year’s Eve and thought it was incredible
>>217256833My criticism of his criticism is also perfectly valid.I don't know why you get so defensive over me defending it. We can go round and round, here.
nauls is dead>>217257146
>>217253335it is better than Alien in every single way
>>217256877I wouldnt bother making a thread out of it but I do believe despite it being a relatively small scene it has pretty major implications that kind of break some of the feel of the movie. While for the most part you get this really tight claustrophobic cabin fever drama where everyone is on edge(including the thing which you get the sense is also just desperately trying to get by and survive the only way it can via impersonation) and every moment is crucial, suddenly there's this "actually no, completely out of the way of the heart of all action the thing has secretly been digging a gigantic hideout and transforming an helicopter into an alien spacecraft with garage tools". It falls so outside of the essence of the thing and gets you questioning that "damn if it had that much freedom and wiggle room to act why not like make some efficient inorganic weapons that could efficiently kill a few idiot humans, or build some antifire armor, or why not repair the chopper and take it to the norwegians where you would be free to do whatever since they could not get to you anymore". Idk at that point it's like there's a huge disconnect between the power level of the thing and the way we've seen it act up to that point.
>>217257344nobut to carpenter's credit alien borrowed extensively from his student film
>>217253379>t. hasnt watched In The Mouth of Madness
>>217253495>UMM UMM UMM AKCHUALLY HERE IS HOW AN ALIEN WOULD ACTjust kill yourself
>>217255470the point of its inclusion is to reference the chess computer to drive home the analogy of how mac won vs the thing and the computer in the same way. it doesnt mean childs is the thing the whole point is to not know because the theme of the movie is paranoia.
drumpf is le bad
>>217253335yes it's retarded but I dare you to find a movie without any retarded shit
>>217255104>Invasion of the body snatchers is similar to the Thing.it's better even. the thing gets extra points for the cool setting
>>217256169Artfag snobqueer weighs in
>>217253335Filtered
>>217257344The Thing is literally one of the best movies of all time, and arguably the best horror film of all time.
babbys first paranoia whodunnit. since it has an action setting and goreporn plebs see it has the second coming
>>217258189Explain to the folks at home what you appear to think a 'whodunnit' story is.
>>217258211mystery fiction that primarily functions through keeping the audience(and the characters) guessing who's the hidden perpetratorbut of course your little brain thinks it has to be a literal murder detective storythe thing applies this tried and true semi-cerebral component to an action horror speculative fiction setting so you clap because your standard escapist shit can now be considered "deep"
>>217258114it's also the ultimate arctic/antarctic movie and best comfy movie to watch while it's cold
>>217254450wasted character. just disappears out of sight and that was that
>>217253335I LOVE the movie but that was eyeroll inducing
>>217253335T.K. Carter who played Nauls died today.https://deadline.com/2026/01/tk-carter-dies-69-1236678497/
They should have sat on this movie for a year. Opening it the same summer as ET was a huge mistake.
>>217258669how many times are we gonna get this post itt
>>217258580They filmed his death but cut it due to budget. Its pretty gruesome
>>217253859yeshttps://youtu.be/lSz7Qh6Rx5c
Cronenberg here. Carpenter is a gay and a loser and my filmography mogs his
>>217258802>They filmed his death>cut it due to budgethow does that make sense? its not like the special effects are post production
>>217258437The Thing isn’t a mystery and there’s no figuring out whodunnit because anyone and everyone could have already turned.
>>217254164they cut a very large block out ice out of the surrounding icethe thing was inside that block and busted out
>>217258880>there’s no figuring out whodunnit because anyone and everyone could be the murderanon...
>>217258913It didn't bust out. They cut it out and thawed it
>>217258929Yes, that’s what I said. There’s no singular perpetrator to be revealed at the end. It’s not a whodunnit.
>>217258949>There’s no singular perpetrator to be revealed at the end. It’s not a whodunnit.anon...
>>217259139I wanna come back inside
>>217259139What you’re talking about would be more like The Faculty/Body Snatchers where there’s a queen alien that controls the rest of the hive. There is no 'main' Thing.
>>217253335Fuck ya mudda zoomie.
>>217259162no dummy, a single person being "the killer" is hardly a requirement for a whodunithell "everybody done it" is basically its own trope
>>217259257But in this case there’s no mystery as to what was doing it. They knew they were up against an alien that could transform and figured out how to reveal who had been turned via the blood test. The Thing is a paranoia thriller, but I wouldn’t really say it has much of a mystery element.
>>217259302you're very dumb kek
>>217259317Classic 4chan reply.
>>217259302it works through the same devices and mechanisms if you analyze itthe premature suspects, the red herrings, the interrogation scenes, each suspect being tested, the misdirects, switcheroos, even the ambiguous ending where you don't for sure, it's all fucking there jesus christ
>>217253335it's also really small, toy sized, and stuck down there.
>>217259384Again, lots of paranoia sure, but not so much of a mystery.
>>217259422if the thing ate all the snow to make the tunnel it can also eat some more for an exit
>>217259432you're hopeless
>>217253611yah deese schmacks knowin how ta stick it with a schermug just really frazzled my geschmoigen, why couldut they of schmekkelled with the geschilger and then the thing would of leschlerkilgun
>>217259461No, I listened to what you had to say and I stand by it being more of a paranoia thriller with some mystery elements, but it’s not a whodunnit. What more do you want here?
