John Carpenter's "The Thing"

Paper Summary:

This paper covers extensively the creation and reception of John Carpenter's ""The Thing," a largely unknown, but highly influential science-fiction film from 1982. The paper talks about the origins of the story, pre-production, the negative critical and commercial reception of the film, and the re-interpretation of it years later by audiences. Also, it discusses the metaphorical aspects of the film, like its parables to the McCarthy era.

From the Paper:

" "Antarctica, Winter 1982," a title card reads. A pulsing beat can be heard as a helicopter flies over a snowcapped cliff and down into an endless and bleak white valley. We see two men in the chopper, one flying the aircraft, the other scanning the landscape through a pair of binoculars Soon it is apparent what the men are pursuing: a sled dog, running quickly across the ice. The man in the passenger's side of the helicopter puts down the binoculars, and leans out the side, a large rifle in his hands. He begins squeezing off rounds madly at the sprinting husky, like a crazed Ahab after the great white whale. This hectically confusing scene is the opening of John Carpenter's 1982 film, The Thing, a chilling story about a research team at an Antarctic outpost, who suddenly find themselves at the mercy of a malevolent shape-shifting, body-absorbing alien. The Thing was a landmark science-fiction film that has inspired countless other movies and TV shows, and yet was totally unappreciated in its time, and has since yet to be given the proper respect it deserves."

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