John Carpenter, during the 80's, might have been one of the most underrated directors around. His remake of the Thing, for example, was utterly derided by critics at the time. Now? Considered one of the best horror films of the 80's and easily one of Carpenter's best.
A helicopter is pursuing a husky across the broad ice of Antarctica. The two pilots seem rather intent on killing the pooch, dropping grenades and firing rifles at it. They chase the animal into US Outpost#31, who take a dim view of the two foreigners firing away with machine guns in their general direction. Meteorologist Bennings (Peter Maloney) gets wounded in the leg, prompting station manager Garry (Donald Moffat) to shoot the (later learned to be) Norwegian dead and accidentally blow up the copter.
Clark the dog handler (Richard Mauser) takes the strangely calm husky into the kennels while the team tries to figure out what's going on. Radio man Windows (Thomas Waites) can't raise anyone due to the weather. Dr. Cooper (Richard Dysart) is concerned. The Norway team has only been on the ice for eight weeks, far less than them. Fearing cabin fever, Copper gets pilot RJ MacReady (Kurt Russell) to fly them out to the Norway station.
They find the station in shambles. All the buildings are burnt or blown up and every man is dead, some clearly at their own hands. What baffles the men is a large block of ice that looks like something was hacked out and a burnt mass of twisted flesh. Neither man has either idea what the thing is, as it looks like several men fused together. Taking the remains back to camp, they have biologist Blair (Wilfred Brimley) look over the thing. He's stumped; inwardly it looks human, but outwardly? No idea.
They get an idea that night though. That husky that Clark locked up? Turns out it isn't a dog, as it transforms into a hideous fleshy thing and absorbs the other dogs. When their weapons fail to do anything, MacReady calls for Childs the mechanic (Keith David) and tells him to bring a flame thrower. The fire works, but half the creature manages to escape out into the snow.
Blair takes a look at the remains and comes to a different conclusion. Basically, what they are dealing with is an alien, capable of mimicking an organism down to the tiniest detail. Heading back to the Norwegian camp, they find what the doomed men had dug out-what appears to be the wreckage of a genuine flying saucer. Norris the geologist dates the ship as being at least 100,000 years old.
While this is going on, Blair comes to a grim conclusion: to ensure humanity's safety, none of them can leave the snowy wastes.
A total masterpiece on every level. The effects, while gory, are done so masterfully and viscerally. The thing creature seems to be really alive, adding to the horror. The performances are all tops, with Russell and David leading the way, although Brimley does a surprising good twist as the concerned Blair.
The film is utterly grim and the stark bleakness of the landscape helps sells that.
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