The movie opens showing a Norwegian helicopter shooting at a dog.
Once in the American camp, the "dog" transforms and begins attacking the researchers and their dogs.
The creature reveals itself after imitating one of the researchers. This event creates paranoia and tension within the camp as everyone wonders if everyone is actually human.
Macready, determined to expose who is not who they seem to be, essentially takes the crew hostage and tests their blood to see if they are human. This test exposes/reveals the creature, who then kills another researcher.
Three of the remaining head to the generator room in search of the creature and to attempt to blow up the camp.
After blowing up the camp, Macready and Childs meet again. Neither of them are sure if the other is human or not, but both acknowledge and accept that their demise is unescapable, whether it be at the hands of the creature, relentless artic storm or each other.
John Carpenter's "The Thing (1982)," is about an American research team's terrifying, deadly encounter with a creature capable of imitating/become whatever life-form is consumes. Originally entering the camp as a dog, the creature then begins picking off researchers one by one, creating paranoia and distrust within the camp. The researchers are not sure if everyone is actually who they say they are, and tension and hostility continues to mount every time someone goes missing or dies. Carpenter effectively uses both silence and dramatic notes played by strings to add to the paranoid and mysterious mood of the film. The influence also actively adds a sense of hopelessness to the film as the researchers are stuck in Antartica during a snow storm and have no contact to the outside world. Carpenter also adds to the suspense by not explicitly showing the audience every time someone was consumed by the creature, so viewers were able to be surprised when The Thing revealed itself as one of the researchers.
Being a science fiction horror film, the movie continuously transitions from silent and mysterious to intense and terrifying. After a few researchers are killed by the creature, the main character, Macready, takes charge and seeks to find out who is human and who has been imitated. The researchers do their best to defend themselves and defeat the creature, however they are always caught off guard by another person turning out to be an imitation. The movie comes to a gloomy conclusion when the final two "survivors," Macready and Childs, meet outside the wreckage of the destroyed camp. Neither are sure if the other person is actually human, but they both acknowledge the end is near for both of them, whether the creature, the cold, or the paranoia kills them.
5 words: Deceive, frozen, imitate, paranoid, terrified.
thesis: A creature with the ability to imitate whatever life-form it consumes terrorizes a camp of American researchers in Antartica. Picking them off one by one, the researchers become paranoid and wonder if everyone is who they say they are, or if perhaps the creature(s) is among them.
