The Thing from Another World
by Robbo
Posted on 24 November 2021
Rating -
The Thing from Another World, sometimes referred to as just The Thing, is a 1951 American science fiction horror film, directed by Christian Nyby, produced by Edward Lasker for Howard Hawks’ Winchester Pictures Corporation, and released by RKO Pictures.
The film opens in Anchorage, journalist Ned Scott, looking for a story, visits the Alaskan Air Command officer’s club, where he meets Captain Pat Hendry and his crew.
General Fogarty orders Hendry to fly to Polar Expedition Six at the North Pole, per a request from its lead scientist, Nobel laureate Dr. Arthur Carrington as they have radioed that an unusual aircraft has crashed nearby so Hendry pilots a Douglas C-47 transport aircraft to the remote outpost.
Several of the scientists fly with the airmen to the crash site, finding a large object buried beneath ice. As they spread out to determine its shape, they realize they are standing in a circle; they have discovered a flying saucer.
The team attempts to melt the ice covering the saucer with thermite, but a violent reaction with the craft’s metal alloy completely destroys it. Their Geiger counter, however, detects a frozen body buried nearby; it is excavated in a large block of ice and loaded aboard the transport. They fly out as an Arctic storm closes in on the site.
The ice block is accidentally thawed and the creature, still alive, escapes into the storm and is attacked by the sled dogs. The airmen recover the creature’s severed arm after the attack.
The scientists examine the arm, concluding that the alien is an advanced form of plant life. Carrington is convinced of its superiority to humans and becomes intent on communicating with it.
The airmen begin a search, which leads to the outpost’s greenhouse where they discover a sled dog hidden away, which has had all its blood drained, determining that the carnivorous plant creature feeds on blood.
Carrington, obsessed with the alien has taken seeds from the severed arm, using them to grow small alien plants by feeding them from the blood plasma supply at the base.
Realising that the temperature is falling rapidly; the furnaces have stopped working, sabotaged by the alien. The remaining humans retreat to the station’s generator room to keep warm and rig an electrical trap for the creature.
The creature walks into the trap and is electrocuted and reduced to a pile of ash.
Scotty is finally able to file his “story of a lifetime” by radio to a roomful of reporters in Anchorage. He ends his broadcast with a warning: “Tell the world. Tell this to everybody, wherever they are. Watch the skies everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies”.
Based on the 1938 novella “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, this film is a science fiction horror which features and alien rather than a traditional monster.
In a post Hiroshima, atomic age of UFO’s and spacecraft, The Thing reflects America’s feeling at the time, negative views towards scientists meddling in things they should leave alone.
The screenplay changes the fundamental nature of the alien. Campbell’s “Thing” is a life form capable of assuming the physical and mental characteristics of any living thing it encounters; this characteristic was later realized in John Carpenter’s adaptation of the novella, the 1982 film The Thing.
This films “Thing” is a humanoid life form whose cellular structure is closer to vegetation, although it must feed on blood to survive and the internal, plant-like structure of the creature makes it impervious to bullets (but not to other destructive forces).
Originally, it was intended to make the creature a shapeshifter, as in the novel, but the limited budget forced the film-makers to drop the idea.
Directors Ridley Scott, John Frankenheimer, Tobe Hooper, and John Carpenter all cited the movie as a key, influential film in their lives.
This film follows the usual horror tropes of a group of people cut off from the outside world being killed off one by one by an unstoppable entity and I find it very effective.
Again the film may be a little tame by today’s standards, and the main antagonist may appear to be nothing more than a giant carrot, but I still love this film. It has tons of atmosphere and plenty of action with the odd jump scare thrown in.
Overall this is one of my favourite films of all time and would urge anyone to see it.
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