The Thing

A closer look at the story

In the freezing isolation of Antarctica, a team of American researchers examines the empty, wrecked base of their Norwegian colleagues. What they find there is beyond anything they could have imagined: a terrifying shape-shifting alien organism that can take on the form of its victims. Once the creature begins to infiltrate the team, the biggest question for everyone at the cut-off station becomes whether the person beside them is really who they seem, or something wearing their face. In a nightmare where trust has disappeared entirely, MacReady and the others fight to stay alive. Directed by John Carpenter and written by Bill Lancaster, the 109-minute 1982 film stars Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley and Keith David in a science-fiction horror classic.