Something in pictures. “The Thing”: the most hated cult film The thing from another world comic read
Artist: John Higgins (Watchmen, The Killing Joke)
Color: Jay Photos
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Year: 1991
Arctic night. Snow, wind, deadly cold. A huge fire is burning down. Bones crackle, the remains of a hostile alien creature. A person won't last long here.
- What do we do? - these are the words of Childs, the black giant.
Chuckling, he passes the bottle to his friend. He takes a sip and laughs too. They, the only survivors, laugh because they understand that nothing will happen: the radio has been dead all these days, the last coals are burning out - what is left of "Outpost 31"... The whiskey has run out. There is nowhere to wait for help, no one. The White Desert will return to normal, exterminating the uninvited creatures that hacked its body.
The heat is running out.
Life ends...
And the film ends. Open, but only by a couple of millimeters, the ending puzzled and upset many. The creature is defeated, but the heroes must die. Why such injustice?!
There have been whispers about a sequel for a long time. Some of the ideas belonged to John Carpenter himself. However, Chuck Pfarrer, a novelist and screenwriter, a former Navy SEAL, decided to tell us everything to the end. Enlisting strong visual support in the form of John Higgins, who previously drew for 2000 AD and has colored such cult classics as Watchmen and Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, Pfarrer breaks down the ajar door and The Thing From Another Universe begins.
Two lonely figures barely drag their feet through the storm. One barely supports the other. And then the larger silhouette lowers its barely alive partner onto the snow and moves away, disappearing behind a white curtain.
MacReady wakes up on a Japanese icebreaker. Is he still alive? How did he get here? Is he still human? Where's Childs?
It didn't work out as a psychological horror. The result is a rather brutal, but not very dynamic action movie with an ending that almost exactly repeats the ending of Carpenter’s creation. You get the impression that before your eyes they showed a trick with pouring from empty to empty, because with the same success you could have written nothing at all. Did the Navy SEAL lack imagination? Maybe.
What really impresses, however, is Higgins' skill. And even though the artist does not have a photographic memory at all (McReady and Childs are very vaguely similar to Kurt Russell and Keith Davis), the picturesque stylization of the comic book as a poster for the 1982 film will cause applause from real fans of this film - the same color scheme, the same emphasis on contrast the play of light and shadow... This is not cheap graphics, but a truly beautiful, stylish work, which is not so far from, say, John Bolton.
True, Higgins has the same problem as Pfarrer - lack of imagination. A masterful job, yes, but the Thing looks like an ordinary monster, it doesn’t inspire admiration like Rob Bottin’s makeup, it doesn’t have that crazy asymmetry and aura of a nightmare, and the scary face on the cover of the first issue is painfully reminiscent of Norris after the transformation.
WHO GOES THERE? (1976)
In 1976, the comic "Who Goes There?" was published. (“Who’s Coming?”) based on Campbell’s story of the same name, which formed the basis for Carpenter’s film “The Thing.” The comic was published by Whitman Publishing Company under the WHITMAN COMICS brand in the first issue of the STARSTREAM series.
The WHITMAN COMICS brand was widely known until the 80s. Whitman Publishing Company was part of Western Publishing (also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Co.). Western Publishing has a wide range of products and brands, including Gold Key Comics and Walt Disney's Comics and Stories.
COMICS FROM DARK HORSE
After the release of the film “The Thing” (1982), comic books appeared, produced by the Dark Horse company. Dark Horse was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson. They are well known for their comics based on popular films such as Star Wars Alien, Predator and Terminator.
Dark Horse is also widely known for publishing the comics Frank Miller "Sin City" and "300", Mike Mingola "Hellboy", John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke "The Mask" - all of which were subsequently filmed. Dark Horse published the cult manga (Japanese comics) Akira, which was adapted into an anime.
It is no coincidence that the comic book series based on Carpenter's film was called "The Thing From Another World" (like the 1951 film), and not "The Thing". The fact is that under the name “The Thing” comics from “Marvel” were published, telling about one of the characters of the “Fantastic Four”. The comics have nothing to do with the 1951 film.
The Thing From Another World(1991, 2 issues)
The comic describes the events taking place immediately after the end of the film "The Thing". The nightmare is not over - the polar explorers are again being terrorized by an alien monster. MacReady enters the fray again...
Mike Richardson took a rather original path, inviting Chuck Pfarrer, a Hollywood screenwriter, who, at the time of the creation of the comic, had written the script for the film “Navy Seals” (1990) starring Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn, to write the plot of the comic. Pfarrer subsequently wrote scripts for big-budget Hollywood films, including Hard Target (1993), The Jackal (1997), Virus (1999) and Red Planet (2000). But Pfarrer was not familiar with the comics industry, and at first wanted to refuse Richardson’s offer.
Chuck Pfarrer
Chuck Pfarrer remembers how he agreed to participate in the creation of comics: “Around 1990, I had just returned from Spain from filming Navy SEALs. Mike Richardson contacted me through my agent. I knew nothing about comics: never read them as a kid, never read them as an adult, never even touched them. Mike said “Great! You're the guy we're looking for." I still tried to refuse my participation. I said, “I’m a movie writer, I can’t even imagine how you create comic books.” Then Mike said the magic words: “We don’t want you to write a comic book. We want you to write a screenplay for the sequel to John Carpenter's The Thing. Mike then showed me some of the amazing works of the artist John Higgins, painted not with pencil and ink, beautiful, elegant. It really was like a movie. And I said, “Where should I sign up?”
Dark Horse gave Pfarrer carte blanche, and the writer got really excited about coming up with the story. Pfarrer, when writing the plot, preferred multiple viewings of the film to reading the script. He watched the film about 20 times, taking notes. The artist John Higgins did the same. In the end, Pfarrer was very pleased with working with Higgins. It is worth noting that Higgins is a fan of horror films, although he does not like all horror films, but those that have original ideas and a plot that gives rise to fantasy. Among these films, according to Higgins, is “The Thing.”
Chuck Pfarrer on his comic book ideas: “When watching The Thing, when three people are in a room and two of them are infected, you have to think that two are infected for one. But the trick I'm trying to apply is that they don't work together, they compete. They are more than happy to snitch on each other. This makes them less vulnerable because they have to develop themselves. Something chews its own leg if necessary. And these clues were given in Carpenter's film, but he didn't go all the way to the end and talk about it."
John Carpenter praised Pfarrer's comic, admitting that its plot could well form the basis for a sequel to the film.
Inconsistencies with the film's plot
- The authors of the fan site http://www.outpost31.com note that Outpost No. 31 (the American research station where the events of the film “The Thing” take place) was located quite far from the coast. Therefore, the icebreaker could not pass so close to the research base, and therefore could not pick up MacReady.
- It is unclear why MacReady took a blood test while on board the ship. After all, this test is important not for yourself, but for those around you. Whether MacReady was a creature or a man, he would have known who he was. And you need a test if you want to prove to someone that you are human. But on board the ship he did it secretly, without showing it to anyone. The question is - why?
- The comic exaggerates the danger of the alien creature, as it is reported that you can become infected even with a simple touch. One of the soldiers simply touches the frozen (!) body of the alien (while the soldier’s hand is in a glove!) and becomes infected. All this is doubtful and does not fit with what we saw in the film (remember the autopsy scene?).
The Thing From Another World: Climate of Fear(1992, 4 issues)
A direct continuation of the events of Chuck Pfarrer's comic book. Something is reaching South America...
The open ending of The Thing From Another World hinted at the possibility of a sequel. However, neither Pfarrer nor Higgins took part in the creation of Climate of Fear. John Arcudi, best known for his comics “The Mask,” later filmed with Jim Carrey, as well as comics based on famous movies: “RoboCop,” “Terminator,” “Aliens” and “Predator,” took up the matter. Accordingly, both the drawing style and the ideas for the plot changed.
Divergence of ideas...
Chuck Pfarrer, although he did not continue his 2-part comic, left an open ending, in which MacReady, having escaped from the submarine, was left lying on a drifting ice floe. Subsequently, Pfarrer admitted that, according to his idea, MacReady is Something. This is also indicated by Mac's final line that he needs to sleep (i.e. freeze and wait until he is defrosted). But Arcudi abandoned the idea of making Macready a monster. As a result, MacReady is rescued, and he again enters into battle with the Thing.
The end of the comic "The Thing From Another World"
June 1982 can be called a fantasy movie lovers' dream come true. With a break of just two weeks, “The Extraterrestrial,” “Blade Runner” and “The Thing” were released in American theaters. Three iconic paintings, each of which is rightly considered a classic. But only “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” was an immediate success; the other two films had to go a long way before they found their audience.
“The Thing” had the hardest time. Its failure dealt a heavy blow to John Carpenter's career, from which he never fully recovered. Let's remember how one of the darkest films in the history of science fiction was created, which is already 35 years old.
Birth of Something
It all started in 1938 with John Campbell's novel Who Goes There? She talked about a group of polar explorers who found an alien ship and its pilot frozen in the ice in Antarctica. The alien was able to copy the appearance, memories and personality of any organism he absorbed. The heroes, led by the deputy head of the expedition, MacReady, managed to identify the alien and save the world.
Campbell's story had a significant influence on the development of science fiction, and in 1951 its first film adaptation, “The Thing from Another World,” was released. The film was very different from the original source. The action was moved to the North Pole, and the alien turned into a humanoid plant feeding on human blood. Needless to say, this deprived the picture of the paranoid atmosphere of the story!
However, we must not forget that filmmakers in the 1950s did not have the technical capabilities to show a shape-changing creature. Despite everything, “The Thing from Another World” was a success and deservedly ranks among the main science fiction films of the decade.
The alien in “The Thing from Another World” looked like Frankenstein’s monster or Nosferatu
In the 1970s, a group of producers bought the rights to Campbell's story. At that time, science fiction was on the rise, and the producers quickly managed to agree with the Universal studio on a new film adaptation. All that remained was to write the script.
Finding screenwriters capable of pulling off such a project turned out to be difficult. The first candidates were Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel, creators of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. They composed several variants about which little is known. Hooper's script has been described as "Moby Dick in Antarctica": a certain Captain chases a large alien creature through the ice. Another of the rejected scripts took place entirely underwater.
In 1978, co-author of the story “Logan’s Run” William F. Nolan (no, not a relative of the now famous Nolan brothers) offered the studio his own version. In it, three aliens flew to Antarctica to retrieve from under the ice a huge spaceship, forgotten by their civilization thousands of years ago. In this version, the aliens passed from body to body in the form of a stream of energy, and the abandoned host turned into a mummy. Nolan's version was very similar to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which was remade the same year, so it's no wonder the studio didn't like it.
After a series of rejected scripts, it seemed that the project would remain a project. Everything changed after the release of Alien, which returned interest in films about alien monsters. After this, “The Thing” began to be promoted as “Alien at the Polar Station.”
The studio offered the director's position to John Carpenter, a longtime fan of The Thing from Another World. His candidacy was considered earlier, but then John had no commercial hits to his name. The phenomenal success of Halloween changed that. The producers believed in Carpenter and gave him the job.
In one scene in Carpenter's Halloween, The Thing from Another World is shown on television.
Preparing the script
Carpenter usually writes the scripts for his films himself. “The Thing” was an exception - at that time John was busy writing the script for “The Philadelphia Experiment” and could not take on another job. Fortunately, he managed to find the right screenwriter: Bill Lancaster, son of the famous actor Burt Lancaster. He and Carpenter didn't know each other before The Thing (and John usually only worked with friends), but they quickly hit it off. When Lancaster brought the first draft of the manuscript, Carpenter called it the best script he had ever read.
Carpenter and Lancaster reworked many plot elements. For example, in the original script, both MacReady and Childs were captured by the Thing, waited until spring and met a rescue helicopter. Carpenter found the ending too straightforward. In another version, MacReady and Childs, who had frozen limbs, spent the last hours of their lives playing chess. In this scenario, both heroes most likely remained human. This option also did not suit Carpenter and was reworked into the familiar uncertain ending.
However, chess played an important role in the plot. The scene at the beginning where MacReady plays with the computer essentially foreshadows the ending. Having lost the game, the hero cannot accept defeat and pours a glass of whiskey inside the car, destroying it. In the same way, throughout the film, MacReady plays a kind of chess with an alien, only instead of pieces there are living people. Something checkmates him, and then MacReady repeats his act. By exploding the base, he destroys the chessboard along with his opponent.
In preparation for filming, artist Michael Ploeg completed many detailed storyboards. It's easy to see how they coincide with the final film
Casting and filming
Carpenter did not cast stars in the roles, preferring good but little-known actors, which made it possible to give the film realism. The exception should have been MacReady. A number of famous actors were considered for this role - Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges (Carpenter later worked with him), Kevin Kline and Clint Eastwood. But none of the candidates satisfied the director. As a result, Carpenter followed the principle “when in doubt, take the one you know.” Just a month before filming began, he offered the role of MacReady to his friend Kurt Russell.
Other actors with whom Carpenter had already worked could also appear in The Thing. Lee Van Cleef (Hawke from Escape from New York) was considered for the role of Gary, Isaac Hayes (Duke of New York) could play Childs, and Donald Pleasence (Dr. Loomis from Halloween and the President from Escape from New York) could play Blair. -York").
“The Thing” can be called a 100% male movie. There is not a single woman in the frame, except for the voice of the chess computer. He was voiced by Carpenter's then-wife Adrienne Barbeau
Filming began in the summer of 1981. Some of the episodes were filmed on location in British Columbia, where the remains of the scenery are still preserved, and the opening shots with a flying helicopter were filmed in Alaska.
But most of the film was shot on sound stages in Los Angeles. To create the illusion of an Antarctic climate, the temperature on the site was maintained just above zero, although the heat outside was almost forty degrees. The actors were so tired of changing clothes that they started going to lunch dressed as polar explorers, throwing passers-by into a stupor. Richard Mazur, who plays Clark, appeared in the cafeteria for several days with a fake bullet wound on his forehead. It is not surprising that he dined alone.
Due to temperature changes, members of the film crew constantly caught colds
A pair of real flamethrowers were used during filming. Because of them, Kurt Russell once made fun of Carpenter: he wrapped himself in bandages and told the director that he could not continue filming due to the burns. Carpenter didn't appreciate the joke. Later, the actor actually almost received a serious injury. During the filming of the scene where MacReady blew up Palmer with a stick of dynamite, the pyrotechnicians miscalculated the power of the explosion, and the shock wave nearly knocked Russell off his feet.
Reviving Something
"The Thing" was a milestone in the history of special effects. Even after 35 years, its animatronics and models are still impressive and look more convincing than modern computer graphics.
The Thing itself was brought to life by Rob Bottin. Although he was only 22 years old, by that time he had worked on many films, including King Kong and Carpenter's previous film The Fog, where he not only worked on effects, but also played a cameo role. Bottin dreamed of getting into the picture again and persuaded Carpenter to give him the role of Palmer. But he refused, fearing that Bottin would not be able to handle two jobs at the same time.
While working on “The Thing,” Bottin used all the technologies and techniques of the era: hydraulics, pneumatics, radio-controlled models, reverse filming. And to make the autopsy scene more convincing, he used real animal organs. Fortunately, Wilford Brimley, who plays Blair, was a former cowboy and hunter, so he took it calmly. The rest of the actors didn't even have to act disgusted - it was genuine.
Initially, $750 thousand was allocated for the special effects of “The Thing,” but by the end of filming the amount had to be increased to one and a half million
For the famous chest opening scene, a hydraulic rig was created with a silicone replica of Charles Callahan's body. It took ten days. When everything was ready, the actor crawled under the table. Only his head, neck and shoulders were real in the frame. At the right moment, the installation tore the silicone chest. And Dr. Copper's bitten off hands were removed with the help of a disabled stunt double. Prosthetics filled with artificial blood and paraffin bones were attached to his stumps, and a silicone mask with the face of Richard Dysart was placed on his face.
The scene with the head being torn off was also filmed using a hydraulic mechanism - it was controlled by two assistants who were hiding under the table. Bottin had problems stretching his neck, and after much experimentation he found the right material - a mixture of melted plastic and chewing gum. But he did not take into account that these materials emitted highly flammable vapors, and the filming was carried out in a small, poorly ventilated room. When a gas burner was lit in front of the camera, simulating a fire, these vapors instantly flared up. Miraculously, no one was hurt.
However, one person still became a victim of “The Thing”: Bottin himself. Being a perfectionist, he worked seven days a week and slept on set for a year, bringing the effects to perfection. Carpenter became seriously concerned for Rob's life and almost forcibly sent him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with extreme exhaustion. The dog's transformation scene had to be completed by Stan Winston's urgently called team. He asked not to include his name in the credits, because the concept of the scene and the effects were created by Bottin, and he simply implemented them. Nevertheless, the creators expressed gratitude to Winston in the credits.
Rob Bottin with one of his creations
Still couldn’t remove some things. In Lancaster's script there was an episode where the dogs captured by the Thing escaped from the camp, and MacReady, Childs and Bennings went after them on snowmobiles. The monster ambushed the heroes from under the ice and killed Bennings. The scene required two Things at once (a dog and an ice monster), and was considered too complex. Bennings received a “cheaper” death.
Another scene could not be realized to the end. Stop-motion animation was used to create the final monster, but Carpenter was not happy with the result. Compared to the other effects, the scene looked unrealistic. Therefore, the brutal murder of Knowles was completely cut out of the picture (we should have seen how the monster absorbed the still living hero), and the appearance of Blair the Thing was greatly reduced.
Blair the Thing was shown in more detail in a deleted scene
The work done by Bottin's team evokes sincere admiration. It’s not for nothing that “The Thing” is called the standard of films of the pre-computer era. The phrase “they knew how to shoot before” fits perfectly here.
The complexities of the soundtrack
Morricone and Carpenter
John Carpenter often writes the soundtracks for his films himself. But “The Thing” was a big studio project, and the producers told the director to handle the filming and entrust the music to someone else. The first candidate was Jerry Goldsmith, but he declined due to work commitments. Then Carpenter suggested the candidacy of Ennio Morricone.
In January 1982, Carpenter flew to Italy and showed Morricone a version of the film without the finished effects, and played the Escape from New York soundtrack as an example. Morricone agreed to write a series of thematic tracks that could be put together for the final cut. Two months later, Morricone flew to Los Angeles with a set of compositions. Carpenter chose a theme with a heartbeat and asked Morricone to simplify it. This is how the title track of Humanity Part 2 appeared.
But most of the material created by the Italian did not make it into “The Thing.” Carpenter and composer Alan Howarth recorded their own tracks, which were used in the film. Morricone asked Carpenter why he called him if in the end he did almost all the work himself, and the director amazed him with the story that Morricone's music was played at his wedding - thus he paid tribute to the composer. Carpenter himself, however, believes that the music from “The Thing” is entirely the merit of Morricone, and that what he recorded is a set of background sounds that can hardly be called music.
One of Morricone's unused tracks, which was later included on the Hateful Eight soundtrack.
Despite its simplicity, the soundtrack of “The Thing” has become as iconic as the film itself. Incredibly, Morricone received for it... a nomination for the Golden Raspberry anti-award. Many years later, the composer, at the insistence of Quentin Tarantino, included a number of unused compositions written for Carpenter's film on the soundtrack of The Hateful Eight (which, in fact, is an homage to The Thing). The Oscar Ennio received for this work can be considered compensation for historical injustice.
The most hated movie in history
“The Thing” was released on June 25 and flopped, grossing only $19 million against a budget of $15 million. There is an opinion that the release date is to blame for the failure: the film was released just two weeks after “The Extra-Terrestrial” and on the same day as “Blade Runner” and could not withstand the competition. But if you read the director’s memoirs and reviews from critics of that era, it becomes clear: if “The Thing” had been released even a year earlier, nothing would have changed. The public not only didn’t like the film, they hated it.
In those years, the United States experienced a recession, which affected the tastes of viewers. They didn’t want gloomy stories that reminded us of a difficult reality, but beautiful fairy tales with a happy ending. Problems began to arise during test screenings. After the screening, one girl asked Carpenter: “What actually happened in the finale? Who's the Thing and who's the good guy? The director replied: “Use your imagination” - and heard in response: “God, how I hate this!” On the next viewing, Carpenter directed a different version, in which, after the final explosion, it is shown that only MacReady survived. But the reaction of the audience remained the same, and he decided not to change anything.
There was a third version of the ending, filmed at the insistence of the producers: MacReady sits in a room, having successfully passed a blood test. Then a text appears on the screen, explaining to the most obtuse that the hero was saved. This option was so cheap that Carpenter never showed it to audiences.
Later, for showing on TV, an alternative introduction was attached to “The Thing,” where a voiceover spoke about each of the characters, and footage of a dog running away from the smoking ruins of the camp was added to the ending. Carpenter has no relation to this version and views it negatively
After the premiere, critics seemed to have a competition to see who could humiliate the film the most. The plot (obviously, illogical and idiotic), the characters (no empathy, empty scenery, cannon fodder) and even the special effects (disgusting and naturalistic) suffered. Here are some excerpts from reviews from 1982.
John Carpenter was not made to make sci-fi horror films. His role is traffic accidents, train crashes and public torture.
Starlog Magazine
A stupid, depressing, overblown film that mixes horror with science fiction to create something completely incomprehensible. At times it feels like the film is fighting for the title of the most idiotic film of the 80s... It can only be classified as garbage.
The New York Times
An example of a new aesthetics. Cruelty just for the sake of cruelty.
Most hated movie of all time?
Cinefantastique magazine review title
The failure of The Thing was a blow to Carpenter. He took the criticism to heart - even though he considered it unfair. He was especially offended by the words of the director of “The Thing from Another World,” who joined the chorus of those vilifying the film.
According to Carpenter, his career would have turned out differently if The Thing had become a hit. After him, John planned to film “The Firemaker” - it was supposed to be his second collaboration with Bill Lancaster, who had already written the script, approved by Stephen King. But due to the failure of The Thing, the studio fired Carpenter and Lancaster and replaced all the actors.
Russell and Carpenter remained friends despite the setback
It took the director many years to regain the trust of Hollywood. And then Big Trouble in Little China happened. Unlike The Thing, the film was not panned, but it failed at the box office, ending Carpenter's career as a mainstream director. As for Lancaster, after “The Thing” not a single script of his was filmed.
Legacy "The Thing"
“Something” found a rebirth in the video. It was the tapes that helped the film finally find its audience. It took years, but the attitude towards “The Thing” began to change. The film began to be included in lists of the best and increasingly confidently called a classic. And a new generation of filmmakers, who grew up on videotapes, began to quote the film.
The open ending of the film has haunted more than one generation of viewers. Everyone is trying to figure it out. There are a number of unofficial and semi-official sequels to "The Thing" - comics, video games and short stories (one of them by the famous), and each offers its own interpretation.
Let's discuss the ending. Spoilers!
One theory is that Childs became the Thing because he couldn't see the steam coming out of his mouth (it actually did). According to another version, the bottle that Macready gives him contains not whiskey, but gasoline, and this is a test (although if Something takes over people’s memories, it should also know the taste of whiskey). According to the third, MacReady himself is Something and thus infects Childs...
When Keith David, who played Childs, was asked about the ending, he replied: “I don’t know about Kurt, but I’m definitely still human.” In the audio commentary for the film, Russell says, “At this point, all we can be sure of is that MacReady is definitely not...”, but Carpenter immediately interrupts: “He may be. We haven’t seen him for several minutes.”
Who is the alien and who is the man in the finale of “The Thing”? They don't specifically give us an answer.
In 2004, Carpenter revealed that he had come up with the plot for a sequel to The Thing. It was supposed to begin with the rescue of Childs and MacReady - the director was going to explain the aging of the actors by frostbite. But the studio showed no interest in the idea. And in the mid-2000s, the Syfy channel decided to film a four-episode television continuation, the action of which would unfold in the state of New Mexico. The idea died out - and thank God. The script for the series can now be found on the Internet, and the phrase “it can only be classified as garbage” fits perfectly with it.
As a result, instead of a sequel in 2011, we got a prequel. If it were successful, there would certainly be a continuation. But 2011's The Thing shared the fate of its predecessor and failed at the box office, burying plans to create a franchise.
The Prequel We Lost
The creators of the prequel initially made special effects in the spirit of the original, using animatronics. On the Internet you can find videos showing impressive monsters created for filming. But after reviewing the material, studio officials decided that the film did not look “modern enough” and ordered ready-made live effects, which took many months of work, to be replaced with cheap and inexpressive graphics.
However, even this is for the better. In addition to the plot, atmosphere and special effects, Carpenter's film has one advantage that most of its peers in the genre do not have. Secret. We are given exactly as much information as we need to understand what is happening, but leave a huge scope for versions. What was Something doing on the starship? Who got infected first? Is it true that one cell of Something can take over an organism? Does the infected person realize what is happening to him? How intelligent is Something? It absorbs the memories and skills of other organisms, but does it have self-awareness? Was it possible to destroy the alien - or is the Earth doomed?
Every fan has their own answers - and that's the beauty of the film. A sequel would ruin the magic of the open ending. “The Thing 3”, “The Thing 4”, “The Thing: The Beginning”, “The Thing: First Class” - do you need it? To paraphrase MacReady, sometimes the optimal strategy is to simply do nothing. No matter how strong nostalgia is, some things are better left as they are.
