The Thing From Another World is a science fiction & horror alien film. After an unknown object crash-lands near an Alaskan research station in Anchorage, the U.S. air force investigates. They gleefully discover a large U.F.O. buried under a sheet of frozen ice when they reach the impact site half a day later. Throwing all sense out the proverbial window, they use explosives to uncover the craft from its icy grave, destroying the alien ship in the process. Oops.
Got any biscuits to go with this in-flight coffee?
Mush! We have to recover the crashed U.F.O before they crew finishes all the tea cakes back at the outpost!
Let us place extra explosives to be sure, we don't want to look foolish now, do we?
But all is not lost!
The men find a being, presumably the alien pilot, frozen in the ice sheet, not too far away. Wielding pick-axes, the men hastily excavate the poor frozen extra-terrestrial, and haul it back to base.
Nikki: Anybody around here want some coffee?
Hendry: No, but you can come in.
Nikki: That's the only reason I brought it. I was hoping you'd ask me.
The alien pilot is kept on ice, and by accident it melts! The alien awakens and terrorizes the outpost occupants.
Lt. Ken McPherson: What if he can read our minds?
Eddie: He'll be real mad when he gets to me.
Why couldn't I just land in the tropics?!
There is clearly a difference in opinion between the military and the scientists, on how to deal with the situation. At some point the former questions the sanity of the latter, making a well-placed comparison with how things turned out with the atomic bomb -- an interesting view of public opinion of the time, albeit told through film.
Okay so we agreed the scientists are insane for wanting to keep The Thing alive, the military are gun-ho for destroying it. Can we at least all agree what we are watching for movie night?
A Brave Encounter
The soldiers come to the realization, as do everybody in monster movies -- The Thing must be stopped at all costs. Who better than the U.S. air force living in the toughest place on earth!
After multiple failed encounters with the creature, a suitably powerful solution is tried, to much victorious and self-congratulatory praising.
Dr. Vorhees: Arthur, what if that aircraft came here not just to visit the earth, but to conquer it? To start growing some kind of horrible army? Turn the human race into food for it?
Dr. Arthur Carrington: There are many things threatening our world. New stars, comets shooting through space... There are no enemies in science, professor, only phenomena to study. We are studying one.
Hold the door! It wants our tea cakes!
See I told you! He forgot the popcorn. Now what are we going to do?
I am sure this mega bug zapper worked yesterda ... BZZZZZZZZT
The Thing From Another World is a fun and entertaining film. Even though the crew had to work around budget and technology limitations, their approach yielded good results, like relying on the mystery of the imagination by not showing close-ups of the monster.
This film is one of those cult classics that influenced many other works, including Carpenter's re-imagining in "The Thing" (1982) starring Kurt Russell. The prolific phrase uttered by Scotty in the last scene, "Keep watching the skies!", is referenced by many other works.
Ned "Scotty" Scott: Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!
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