John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ at 40, With John Carpenter!

Setting the table on ‘The Thing’Sean Fennessey and Chris Ryan on the flop that grew into a cult favorite

The Thing 1982

Carpenter's eighth film and first for a studio (Universal), scripted by 'Bad News Bears' writer Bill Lancaster from the story 'Who Goes There?' Ryan calls it all steak and no sizzle: action as character, twelve men and a shape-shifting alien in Antarctica. Rob Bottin's practical creatures (built when he was 22), Kurt Russell as MacCready, Wilford Brimley's meltdown, Donald Moffat's 'tied to this couch' line, and Ennio Morricone's score. Flopped on release, later read as an AIDS-era paranoia artifact and a reference point for practical effects.

The Thing from Another World 1951

The 1951 Howard Hawks production Carpenter's film reworks; Hawks is the director he cites most.

Alien 1979

Ryan's closest touchstone: working people doing a job until something inexplicable upsets the apple cart. Carpenter, though, shows the monster under fluorescent light instead of hiding it.

Blade Runner 1982

Released the very same day as 'The Thing'; both were mostly ignored, then reappraised as more formative than the year's hit.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 1982

Opened weeks earlier and took over 1982, blowing the doors off the darker genre films around it.

John Carpenter on ‘The Thing’

John Carpenter on

The Thing 1982

Carpenter's own favorite of his films. He talks reception ('devastating,' a backlash after Halloween built him up), showing the monster fully instead of in shadow, Bottin working himself into the hospital, wanting 'less notes' from Morricone, and the hopeless ending he refused to soften: 'There's no happy ending to this. We're fucked.'

John Carpenter on

Halloween 1978

The hit that made his name and opened the studio doors to 'The Thing'; he scored it himself, contrary to what Universal assumed he'd do.

John Carpenter on

Escape from New York 1981

He'd just wrapped it and went straight to a Universal office to sleep on the couch before starting 'The Thing.'

John Carpenter on

The Fog 1980

Where he first worked with Rob Bottin, who played the ghost Blake.

John Carpenter on

Prince of Darkness 1987

Part of his Apocalypse trilogy; Fennessey calls it his most underrated film and Carpenter agrees it was a kick to make.

John Carpenter on

In the Mouth of Madness 1994

The third Apocalypse-trilogy film, an idea he only recognized as a trilogy after 'The Thing' showed him he was drawn to end-of-the-world stories.

John Carpenter on

They Live 1988

Cited as the go-to example of his films being easily read as political commentary.

John Carpenter on

It Came from Outer Space 1953

The monster movie he saw as a kid that hooked him on the genre for the rest of the 1950s.

John Carpenter on

The Howling 1981

Bottin's prior effects work before 'The Thing.'

John Carpenter on

Once Upon a Time in the West 1968

Carpenter calls Morricone's score maybe one of the top three of all time, his favorite going into their collaboration.

John Carpenter on

The Eyes of Tammy Faye 2021

His pick for the last great thing he's seen: Jessica Chastain's Oscar-winning performance.

Also mentioned raised along the way

The 2002 cult-classic test City of GodMinority ReportThe Lord of the Rings: The Two TowersSpider-ManBowling for ColumbinePunch-Drunk LoveCatch Me If You CanAdaptation

Carpenter's other films Big Trouble in Little ChinaStarmanAssault on Precinct 13Memoirs of an Invisible ManGhosts of MarsVampires

Points of comparison JawsRio BravoA Nightmare on Elm StreetFriday the 13thNetworkPredatorJurassic ParkRaiders of the Lost ArkThe Bad News BearsPoltergeist

Kurt Russell and the cast, elsewhere The Hateful EightThe FirmClear and Present DangerPatriot Games

Morricone's Hollywood run The UntouchablesThe Mission

Also name-checked The Journey of Natty GannMiami ViceThe Black PhoneTop Gun: MaverickAmbulanceTitanicThe Hurt LockerNope

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV Mr. MayorMasters of Horror

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