Transcript

Intro Clip

Anyone messes with me and the whole camp goes. Come on, child. Burn me.

Intro Clip

Put those torches on the floor and back off.

Intro Clip

Back off. Way off.

Intro Clip

You. You'd have done the same thing. Don't argue with him.

Intro Clip

Where's the rest?

Intro Clip

Come on in it. It's cool, McReady. It's cool, man. Come on. Yeah.

Intro Clip

Yeah, man. Just relax. Anybody touches me. Here we go.

Intro Clip

Not breathing. One time a doc.

Intro Clip

Get him in here and bring the others.

Intro Clip

Now. Nobody gets out of my sight.

Steve

It's 2 dads one movie. Shocktoberfest. A celebration of the spookiest movies of the 80s and 90s. Now here are your hosts, Scary Steve Paulo and Nightmare Nic. Briana.

Steve

Hello, everybody. It's another episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie. I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

And today we are talking about the classic horror from 1982, John Carpenter's the Thing.

Steve

This is our third episode in our Shocktoberfest theme month as we look at spooky and scary movies for the entire month of October. October. This was my pick. This is a movie that I actually only saw fairly recently in 2021. For whatever reason, I got.

Steve

I got a bug up my ass to go back and try to watch as many really classic horror movies as possible that I hadn't seen yet. Obviously it didn't cover all of them or anything, but, like, you know, I went back and watched stuff like, you know, the Nightmare on Elm Streets and Friday the 13th that I missed scattered throughout the series. And, you know, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I'd never seen it. That was fun. And this was one that came up pretty much as often as the Exorcist, which is a movie I love and have seen numerous, numerous times when people are asked like, hey, what is like the best horror movie ever?

Steve

This was one that would come up. You know, obviously lots of people have opinions on it, but this is a movie that would come up almost as often as the Exorcist. Yeah. You know, and I think that a lot of people really, for. For very good reason see John Carpenter in general as obviously being a master of horror.

Steve

He has done it in so many kind of different sub genres in so many ways. He gave us Michael Myers as a character, all this stuff, but this movie really just screams Carpenter. It's just, you know, one of. I think one of the best kind of creature features ever made, and I'm super excited to talk about it. Was this one you had seen before, Nic?

Steve

No.

Nic

So, yeah, I was telling you, for some reason, kind of like your thing with the Jacob's ladder and the lawnmower Man, I had in my head that, yes, I've seen this. I don't need to see it, because for whatever reason, I didn't like it as much as I was supposed to or whatever. And then of course, I put it on and I realized I don't even know what I was thinking about. But I have not seen this.

Nic

And this rules, like within two minutes of this movie. I was like, huge mistake to have not seen it so far. So, dude, I cannot wait to talk about this one because this has been recommended again by people who I know, whose opinions I really respect on movies, and they said it was good. And for whatever reason, I was just way more convinced that I have already seen it and I do not need to revisit it. And I couldn't tell you anything about it.

Nic

But no, I've seen it. So, yeah, this was great. I'm so psyched to talk about this one.

Steve

Fantastic. That's good stuff.

Steve

Yeah, let's go ahead and just jump into the facts so we can get into talking about. About the thing. So John Carpenter's the Thing was released on June 25, 1982, with a no surprise here, it's John Carpenter. R rating. Running time of 109 minutes.

Steve

Directed by the one, the only, the great John Carpenter. Written by Bill Lancaster and John W. Campbell Jr. Starring Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley and Keith David. Scores very highly regarded film. Rotten Tomatoes 85% IMDb 8.2.

Steve

148th on the list of the top 250 all time IMDb movies. However, we get a little bit of a mixed review from our friend Siskel and Ebert. Gene siskel, thumbs up. Mr. Roger Ebert, thumbs down. And I don't know what to think about.

Steve

Roger Ebert now. Won't speak ill of the dead, but not a great look. Not a great look. Raj did not win any awards as far as I could find. However, it was nominated, I wanted to call out that it was nominated for a Razzie for worst musical score by Ennio Morricone, which I think is ludicrous.

Nic

Were the Razzies won by. They were run by Ennio Morricone's ex wife.

Steve

Yeah, I guess so.

Nic

Yeah. Like that blew my mind when I saw this.

Nic

I thought the score was awesome. Like, the mood of this movie was great the whole way through.

Steve

Yeah. And it's, it's dark and it's. Honestly, here's, here's how you know the score was good.

Steve

I can Explain it with an adjective you wouldn't normally use to describe music. But it fits this perfectly. It feels cold, the score feels cold, and the movie set in Antarctica and like, it just absolutely fits so perfectly with this bleakness and this darkness in the movie. I thought it was really wonderful. So I was shocked to learn that, yeah, I was nominated for.

Steve

Did not win, thankfully, some other composer won for worst musical score, so. So that's good. On a budget of $15 million, which, like, good God, I know, it was 1982, but how did they do this with only $15 million? The box office take was just 19.6 million, 1.3 times the budget. That's a disappointment pretty much by any way that you measure it.

Steve

But, you know, it's a cult classic. Lots of cult classics did very poorly in the theaters and. And this one is no different.

Nic

So they've hopefully, you know, made up for that a bit in the. The post release era.

Steve

I certainly think, you know, if nothing else, Kurt Russell collaboration gave us so many other great John Carpenter collaborations.

Nic

That's right.

Steve

If nothing else, that's, you know, something we can. We can sort of thank the thing for providing for us.

Nic

Right.

Steve

So, yeah, so that's. Those are the facts on the thing and let's just dive right in. Yeah, the setting is gorgeous. I mean, really, the movie kicks off with just this beautiful cinematography of when.

Nic

The credits first dropped before it shows anything.

Nic

I just love that the only actor listed as Kurt Russell.

Steve

Right.

Nic

And like, Kurt Russell was known at this time, but he wasn't like, carrying. It wasn't like a big enough star that you'd be like, oh, it's Kurt Russell and nobody else. Because the other people were notable.

Steve

I know, but. But you got to remember, Kurt Russell was a child star too, right? He started in the 60s with. In like, Disney films. Kurt Russell had been on the scene for, like, quite a while by the time this movie came out.

Steve

And I might have my years backwards, but was an Escape From New York before this? I can't actually remember.

Nic

What I'm trying to think was that 81 maybe?

Steve

Yeah. Because I know that that's two of the maybe four major Carpenter, Russell, you know, collaborations.

Steve

And I know they came close together, but I think that this was after Escape from New York.

Nic

Okay.

Steve

Not 100% sure, but I do just.

Nic

Love that it's like Russell, like, right to the point.

Steve

And then, of course, I always appreciate that John Carpenter is one of the few auteurs out there who would absolutely always put his name before the Title, right?

Steve

Yeah, it's John Carpenter's Halloween. It's John Carpenter's They Live. It's John Carpenter's the Thing, you know, which works for me. So. But yeah, but we actually forgot, we don't start off in Arctic.

Steve

We do start off in space and we get the really cool effect of the movie title burning away in front of our scene, which is great. But a spaceship, some kind of flying saucer is hurtling, obviously not in control, hurtling towards Earth and kind of disappears into orbit before we get the title card. And basically, I don't know if we see it crash land in Antarctica or what sort of inferred that it does, but basically that's what happens. It crash landed Antarctica.

Nic

That's the only effect that kind of looks stupid in this movie.

Steve

Oh, really?

Nic

Oh, I feel like the spaceship thing is kind of like, like I could have done. I could have done without that part. But it's important. It is important.

Steve

We do need the indication that there is something extraterrestrial at foot. Right. That we need that. And I, you know, I mean, look, it's 1982. Yeah, it's not the best.

Steve

This is not Star wars caliber. No special effects.

Nic

We didn't have Industrial Light and Magic.

Steve

Working on this one, but significantly better than the stuff in the Last Starfighter. Yeah.

Steve

So we can at least say that. And that came out a couple of years later, even. So. Yeah. But yeah, so.

Steve

So then we kind of cut to current day. It's Antarctica. It's gorgeous. I mean, really, just the cinematography, this movie is beautiful. Yeah, A lot of white snow, obviously, but it's just, you know, it's.

Steve

It's very, very pretty and very bleak. And I think, you know, it's obviously very important that we really get a sense of how isolated these people are. How, you know, there is only so much they can do with regards to reaching out to anyone else around them. They obviously have a radio, they have a helicopter. They have, you know, other mechanic, other mechanical equipment to potentially move around, but it's like they're not, they're not near anyone.

Steve

This, they're pretty isolated. And so the first thing we get.

Nic

In this really good shot to just the, the shot of the, the helicopter flying and how it's a little shaky and like, I don't know, it's. It makes it tense, like right off the bat.

Steve

Absolutely, yeah.

Steve

And the helicopters flying. There's two men flying in a helicopter. There's a pilot and there's a man with a rifle. Rifle with a scope. On it.

Steve

And we realize very quickly what he's shooting at. He's shooting at a dog or a wolf. It's not 100% clear initially, but some kind of malamute or whatever is running through the snow and being shot at by this helicopter. Now, listener, if you've listened to other movies before, you know, other episodes of this podcast, you know that I've talked about how I do not do well with any, anything where a dog gets hurt. It's not, not, not high on my list of, of things to watch.

Steve

But this is one where, you know, it's a movie that I absolutely, I was like, look, it's okay. I know what happens. So it's okay. Obviously we learn quickly that this dog is not what the dog seems to be. So, okay.

Steve

But there's still even knowing what I. Watching it multiple times. It kills me that they're shooting at a dog like always, just like, you assholes, why are you shooting at the dog? Even knowing how it plays out?

Nic

Right?

Nic

But yeah, and then I think it cuts like, as they're kind of pursuing this dog and chasing the dog in the helicopter, it cuts to some of the boys at the scientific research station that they're at.

Steve

Right.

Nic

And we don't really know like, what exactly they're studying. Just general science, I think the sciences.

Steve

You know, I think they're just, they're down there looking at Antarctica.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

What can we find down here?

Nic

What's happening down here?

Steve

We study the weather, study the movement of the climate. We'll try to like, dig for stuff, like, who knows, right?

Steve

It's just, it's. There's a lot of research centers and a lot of research stations in Arctica, and this is one of them. Basically.

Nic

They have one of the sickest man cave situations I've ever seen. I mean, if you're going to be like a bunch of dudes who just have to like, bro it up for four months through the winter in Antarctica, like looking through microscopes, you may as well have like a good poker table.

Nic

A pool table with a ping pong top.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

I don't know if you've ever been involved in moving a pool table, but if I had to move one like from my house to another house next door, I would be like, fuck it, I don't want this. Imagine taking one out to Antarctica. Oh my God, what a night.

Steve

I choose to believe that they, that they assembled it there. They, you know, they laid the felt, everything. They had to put it all together by themselves. But. Yeah, but yeah, we're introduced to a handful of the characters here.

Steve

And it's a large group. It's a group of like 11 or 12 guys. Right? Like, and so there's cooks and there's like, you know, scientists and doctors and there's dudes, like, hanging out. And one of the people that we see is Kurt Russell, sporting the best beard I've ever seen in my life.

Steve

Probably really amazing. Congratulations, Kurt, on the beard. But he is playing like a computer chess. Yes. And it looks like the whole computer is just a chess playing computer.

Steve

Right. Again, this 82. It's not like you put a disc in the thing to play a game. It's a chess computer. And it beats him.

Steve

And he's not happy about it. And he literally says cheating bitch, and pours his J and B scotch into the computer, which is. Well, now that's ruined.

Nic

You have many months still out here. One has to assume what Wilford Brimley wanted to play chess.

Nic

Like, what if someone else wanted to use that? That, to me, is a bullshit move. I mean, throw the glass up against a wall, watch it shatter, deal with that satisfaction, and then sweep it up. Like, then you're okay. But yeah, I didn't like Kurt destroying, like, a key piece of entertainment.

Nic

Isolated area.

Steve

Like, why would you do it? Like, first of all, dude, just accept that you're not that good at chess. Like, move on with your life. Get better.

Steve

Like, it's like, that's like my son screaming at the game on his Xbox. Like, dude, just get. Just keep practicing. You'll get better. It'll be fine.

Steve

Chill out.

Nic

So the Norwegian chopper now has kind of gotten the attention of the guys that are in the base here. Because it's circling the base, Right.

Steve

The dog is basically running straight for their base. The Americans.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And they're kind of like, what's going on? They could see on the tail that it says Nord or something like that. And they know that there's other research stations around. So that's kind of like who their colleagues are out there is people that are still a very long helicopter ride away.

Nic

But they're kind of in the neighborhood, right?

Steve

Exactly. And in all likelihood don't speak the same languages. Are from countries all over the world. Like, there's that element of it, too.

Steve

But one of the people, one of the doctors, I think, recognizes that it's Norwegian. Basically like that. Which is funny because in that several of the characters over the beginning of this movie refer to them as Swedes or Swedish or everybody goes Norwegian. He Keeps saying they're Norwegian, they're not Swedish, but. Yeah, but basically the, the helicopter lands near the base as the dog has run and is now basically interacting with the Americans.

Steve

And one of the guys, the Norwegians have been also, they've been shooting, but they've also been dropping grenades to try to blow the dog up as he went flying. And the guy with the gun gets out and starts charging towards the base, but the pilot has a grenade and he ends up dropping it in the snow and can't get it out because it falls down through several feet, it looks like of snow and blows up himself and the helicopter. And so now the Norwegians aren't getting back.

Nic

No, no. And just to the tension of the scene, it is very cool that we don't have subtitles of what the Norwegian guys are saying or anything.

Nic

So we're in the same like, what the fuck is going on position. This helicopter comes in and they're coming after our dog.

Steve

Well, you know, it's not our dog, but they're coming after a dog. And that doesn't make any sense. And of course then the Norwegian goes to shoot at the dog and like grazes one of the Americans in the leg.

Steve

Actually shoots. I mean he doesn't get. It's not a bad gunshot, but it hits him and he falls and it's like, well, now they've shot at us. And so now they have to treat this like they're under attack. And so the captain, Gary, he ends up like knocking the glass out of the window, which is like, bro, it's Antarctica.

Steve

You now don't have glass window. You're going to set it move.

Nic

Dude, that's a computer ruining style move.

Steve

Exactly. But he busts out the glass and actually shoot with one of the best freaking single pistol shots I've ever seen in my life.

Steve

Just hits the Norwegian right in the, right between the eyes and puts him down. So at least now you know the threat from the Norwegian helicopter crew is, is, is dealt with. Yeah, they won't be shooting at the, at the dog or anyone else anymore.

Nic

And the guys are like, okay, now we have two dead guys and an exploded helicopter here, right?

Steve

Y.

Nic

What the is going on here?

Steve

And this dog and like, what, what is all this?

Nic

So this dog was not one of their like stable of dogs. Exactly.

Steve

Yeah, the dog came from the Norwegian.

Steve

The dog was one of the Norwegian stocks.

Nic

Okay.

Steve

Like, and we would learn later why they were trying to kill it, but like, yeah, it's. Yeah, basically they're there now. They kind of welcome the dog in, but the dog's kind of just wandering the camp or whatever.

Steve

We get introduced to a bunch of the other folks, the other research folks. One of the things I always thought was interesting. So there's a doctor named Copper who's the doc basically of the group. There's a couple of scientists and obviously biologists type scientists, but there's one who they keep referring to as Doc. And I always have been blown away from ever since I saw this movie like in 1982.

Steve

This middle aged man has a nose ring, like a full on loop nose ring.

Nic

The most progressive thing I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, seems so strange. You know what, though? Maybe that's why he got pushed out to Antarctica.

Nic

They're like, I'm sorry, you can't work in Cleveland anymore. We're going to ship you out to Antarctica.

Steve

Sorry, the Mayo Clinic does not allow for nose rings on our physicians.

Nic

And then one of the other guys, TK Carter of Saved by the Bell of Fame, is going around on roller skates, which I enjoy. You got to love the roller skate person in the movies era.

Steve

Absolutely. There's always somebody. In general, I love this crew of scientists and researchers and whatever. I've always. Ever since I've saw the thing for the first time, I've debated whether or not I feel like this is my favorite sort of crew of misfits or is it Alien?

Steve

Is the crew of the Nostromo in Alien. Alien. Because they're both like similar, kind of like really smart, sciencey people, but who are also like, you know, cast offs or sort of, you know, afterthought type folks that are all kind of put together because they're all a little crazy. And well, you have to be.

Nic

I mean, you're not going to be like the most like socially adept person if you take that kind of position.

Steve

Right.

Nic

Like you're running from something or you're being pushed away from something.

Steve

It's like the futuristic version of the French Foreign Legion or something.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

So, but yeah, so basically.

Steve

So Kurt Russell's character, McCready, they call Mac and the doc Copper. They are going to. Copper wants to go to the Norwegian base to find out what's going on. Yeah, like, why were they doing this? We now have.

Steve

Right. They said they've got two dead Norwegians and a blown up helicopter and we don't know what the hell's going on. We got to go find out. And so Mac agrees. He's the helicopter pilot.

Steve

He's all right. I'll fly you out there. So Mac and the doc go and look, you know, go. They're going to go to the Norwegian base. They go to take off and we get a really interesting scene with the dog.

Steve

Right. That they've found. And he's wandering the base. Yeah. And he wanders into somebody's room.

Steve

And we only see a silhouette of this person. And it does sort of like by only seeing the silhouette, I feel like we eliminate a handful of people. Like there's a couple of people whose hair is very different. So it's not them. Whatever.

Steve

But it really does not make it clear who is this dog wandering into the room with. And it isn't. I really love it because it isn't even all that ominous at first. It's weird that we see only the man's shadow, but it's not. It doesn't really give us an indication that something bad is happening.

Nic

We have no. No way, like, no reason to think that the dog. There's anything wrong with the dog. Is that he was being chased.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

I do want to say here, Kurt Russell Mack getting into the helicopter. He has this special, like crumbled sombrero slash like Pharrell's hat looking thing that he wears. He is covering probably the best haircut I've ever seen with the worst hat I've ever seen. It is unbelievably shitty. It's the.

Nic

And impractical.

Steve

Right.

Nic

Because if you want a hat that's going to blow off your head, dude, that is your hat.

Steve

You know what it looks like? I don't know if you know if you're familiar with the mascot of The San Francisco 49ers, Sourdough Sam.

Steve

It's Sourdough Sam's hat. That's literally what it looks like.

Steve

Oh, man. So, yeah, so they land at the Norwegian base and it's like all smoking and destroyed. It looks like the Lars's farmstead on. On Tatooine. When Luke gets back with Obiwan and the, you know, stormtroopers have blown it up, it's just all smoking and terrible.

Steve

So they land and they're looking around and they find this like, fire pit with a corpse in it that is just the most crazy looking. What the fuck am I looking at? What kind of body part is that? Why are there two of those people.

Nic

Like just kind of melted.

Nic

Melted together?

Steve

Yeah. It's really crazy. But they see this crazy thing and they're like, that's insane. So they need to go and, you know, kind of start looking through the rest of the, of the base and kind of like, what can they find?

Steve

They don't really find anything of that much interest. Although Doc does find a bunch of papers, obviously written in Norwegian. But he's like, ah, we should collect this in case we want to do. I mean, you know, they obviously didn't have Google Translate back then, but maybe they can get them to somebody who can translate them. But then Mac later, deeper in, finds this room with this huge block of ice where it's like a big chunk of it out of the middle has been cut out.

Steve

And so it's like, okay, that's weird. And they find that and they find a bunch of VHS tapes and they basically take those with them. So they take the corpse back with them, they take these VHS tapes with them, the notes, whatever, and they go and they fly back. In the meantime, we see there's a couple of characters. So Palmer is the guy with the curly, the white guy with the curly hair.

Steve

And then you mentioned, was it Carter from Saved by the Bell? Right. He's the. They're like roommates. He was like the cook on this.

Steve

And Palmer, they're watching like, I don't know if it's like Price is Right or.

Nic

Yeah, some game show, let's Make a.

Steve

Deal or something, whatever. But he's seen it, so he switches the thing. But he pulls out the most comically large joint to smoke.

Steve

I mean, it is like, it looks.

Nic

Like it's Max Katie in Problem. Child sized.

Steve

Yeah, but it also looks like a sushi hand roll. Like it's so big it just lights on the end.

Steve

So I just thought that was funny, this enormous joint. Good old 1982.

Nic

If you're at the Norwegian base and you're like picking up, you got their research and stuff. But like we're not going to come back here very often, wouldn't they also look to see like what kind of like man cave type stuff those guys had? Like, they must have had access at least like a stack of Playboys or like some, some, you know, a soccer ball.

Nic

Like just some stuff to play around with potentially. It's still, you're still here for four months, so as much as helicopters have blown up, you're still going to be.

Steve

Here for a long time. Because it turns out, no, they won't.

Nic

But you're still here for at least.

Steve

At least a few days. No, but no, it's a good point. Other than I would think just, you know, they're throwing the corpse in the back of the thing. I don't know how many people the helicopter could take or like how much weight. Right.

Steve

So there is that element of bringing.

Nic

That corpse back because that again, looks.

Steve

Multiple people or whatever. But, you know, but they are all scientists at heart, right? I mean, that is the point.

Steve

They're researchers. They're scientists. Even Mac, who's technically more of a. A helicopter pilot with a rifle or the shotgun, that's sort of his, his gig is just like, you know, but, but yeah, so he, he, they go back and the dog is allowed to just like wander the like, rec room, like the man cave kind of area. Right.

Steve

So this guy's playing cards, this guy's playing pool, like, whatever. They got the music playing and the dog's just wandering until one of the guys is kind of like, hey, you know, like, can you put this dog away? And so there's one guy there who's like in charge of the dogs. And this makes sense.

Nic

The bigger.

Nic

The bearded dude, the big bearded guy.

Steve

Exactly. And so if you are going to, to be in Antarctica, it makes sense to have like a pack of sled dogs, basically. That's essentially I think, what they are. Right.

Steve

But they have a kennel and it actually looks like a decently nice kennel. It's like big. It's like got straw on the floor, like whatever, you know, a lot of space. So they send the dog in there and immediately all the other dogs are super not okay. They get real weird.

Steve

They don't like this new dog. They can tell there's something wrong. And literally the moment the human being moves around the corner and leaves, the dog starts to chase change. And it is one of the very.

Nic

Shocking, like extremely shocking.

Steve

There is a way, and I don't get. I don't know if this was like, if this was done with like reversing the camera at times to get this effect. But there is a way that tendrils fly out of these things in this very wiggly, crazy way that is just so unsettling and unnerving and gross and kind of like just makes you feel terrible about it. But basically it starts grabbing the other dogs, wrapping its tentacles around their necks, like all this crazy stuff. And the dogs are making a ton of no noise.

Steve

Yeah. So the guy comes back to like, see what's going on, and he shines the flashlight on the. This. Well, what was the dog in the middle of the kennel? And it is now this morphing piece of flesh that is just crazy looking and just covered in tentacles and grabbing the other dogs, like all this Wild stuff.

Steve

And it even attacks at him. But he's able to, like, shut the. The gate or whatever, and he starts screaming for people to come help. And so Mac, you know, comes and it's just like, all this stuff, like the fact that, first of all, the fact that the dude, like, walked into the kennel without shining his flashlight that he was holding on it. Like.

Steve

Like, wouldn't you shine the light into the kennel before walking into it? He's almost attacked and killed by this thing. Right. And he was alone. He would have been completely sol.

Nic

I know they're not careful enough, but also, I guess they have no way, no reason to believe it's as crazy as it is.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

When the dog. When the dog morphs into the thing, the way that the head kind of almost opened up, like a Venus fly trap, like this really creepy. Oh, that's a good effect there.

Steve

Yeah. It almost looked like the Demogorgon from, like, Stranger Things or something like that kind of style. But. Yeah.

Nic

Oh, my God.

Nic

Well, so before this, though, because they had brought the. The body back on the helicopter, right. We had Wilford Brimley's case. Blair start to, like, perform an autopsy and get a look at this. And this is where I was kind of like, what kind of science are they doing?

Nic

Because you just have, like, an autopsy guy on him hand who wasn't the regular doctor.

Steve

No, but I. I think he's, like, a biologist.

Nic

Yeah, they're probably all. To some degree.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

But also, why are biologists there? What biology is out in Antarctica. So, yeah, they basically have, like, two guys that could do. Could do autopsies there. That was kind of good.

Steve

Yeah. So sorry.

Nic

Back to the dogs. I mean, incredibly nasty. And the.

Nic

Those tendril things add so much to the creepiness of it. It just, like, really hard to watch. But, God, they did such a good job to make it look cool, though.

Steve

Yeah, it's. It looks.

Steve

It looks like a pile of goo with spider legs. And it ends up, like, trying to jump up into the ceiling or whatever, but luckily they're able to get there. And. And Mac calls for Keith David's character.

Nic

Childs.

Steve

Yeah, Childs, bring the flamethrower. And sure enough, they light it up and they're able to kill it. And. And they realize, I think now. Now this crazy corpse that they did an autopsy on and couldn't find really anything remarkable.

Steve

Right. It was a set of organs. It looked human, like, whatever. And then now this dog thing, there's two things they seem to be able to figure out one is fire kills it. Right.

Steve

Because that's all they found. That the burned corpse, you know, the burn pit or whatever at the Norwegian place, like, and now this. So there's that. But this is also when, you know, there's like, Blair is able to kind of indicate like, that he's figured out that it was trying to change into the dog. It's part dog, part this other thing.

Steve

So it's taking on the cellular structure of whatever it's able to kind of attach itself to. And it's an interesting sort of the way they try to explain the science. I feel like they did a really good job. There's a piece of this. I really appreciate where they gave us enough info to be like, huh?

Steve

Okay, so that's what that does. But not so much that it's like. Like if you knew what you were talking about, you'd look at it and go, well, that's just a fucking load of shit.

Nic

They didn't over explain it to where it sounded dumb to somebody. Yeah.

Steve

As somebody who's worked for almost 25 years in software, every time I watch a movie and somebody talks about, like, tracing an IP address through the whatever, and I'm just like, dude, you sound like an idiot. You don't. But none of that is. What. None of that works that way.

Steve

Like, stop it. You know? So none of this was, like, so detail oriented that we were, like, able to poke holes. And it's more just like, hey, there's this alien thing. It copies these cells, tries to become the thing that it's copying.

Steve

Okay, good enough.

Nic

Good amount of explanation. Yeah, that was. And. And they, like, are pretty quick to kind of understand what this thing is capable of.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Nic

One thing. When they. When they go in and they torch it with the flamethrower, they put it out so quick. Yeah, I feel like.

Steve

Let it burn.

Nic

Let it burn a little bit, dude.

Steve

Let it burn.

Nic

I know, I know. The roof is on fire.

Nic

Wasn't me. Be popular, man. But we gotta let that burn.

Steve

I was. It's funny because I wasn't thinking Bloodhound Gang.

Steve

I first thought of Sublime. Let it burn Gotta let it burn.

Nic

Wanna, wanna let it burn and so this autopsy of the thing that Brimley is doing is kind of like the bug dissection and star troopers, like very.

Steve

Gooey and very naming organs, though. It's like we've got lungs and a spleen, kidneys and da, da, da, you know, and everything.

Steve

But yeah, it's so. So they. They do that. They Figure that out. But they, you know, it.

Steve

It's sort of like now they don't know who's been, like, alone with the dog. And they're kind of like, starting to question. Like, obviously the dog was trying to change into their dogs, but really, you know, Blair's theory is that, like, it. It's gonna want to be a person. Like, it's, you know, because they saw.

Nic

The human elements, the thing they brought from Norway.

Steve

Exactly. So they know it's tried to take over humans, maybe has successful done it at some time. And this is, I think, when they end up checking the VHS tapes that they brought back from Norway's base, the Norwegian Research center, and they see that the Norwegians found this crater. You know, they said something, you know, like, a few kilometers north of, like, where they were stationed, and they dug up metal.

Steve

It was a big chunk of metal. They even, like, blew up part of it, like, whatever. And so I know Mack. And then I remember which other. But a couple of other people, three of them, go out to go check out the spot where they believe that the Norwegians are doing this.

Steve

And so they go and they look and they find it, and they, you know, kind of like, look, I don't think they get into it. I think they just kind of investigate it. But then they're able to find nearby where that big block of ice was, like, cut up and taken to Norwegian. Like, it was clear. They, like, they excavated this body or whatever.

Steve

It must have been like the thing came out of the ice there. And so they start, you know, basically when they get back, they're explaining everybody kind of what they found. It's like, so, you know, basically one of the scientists who's there says, based on the ice that's above this, like, this could have been here for 100,000 years. Like. Like the amount of permanent ice.

Steve

It's like, this is a long, long time ago that this came here. And so that's sort of the explanation is like, well, that means that something, you know, either crawled out or got thrown, you know, from the crash or whatever, and ended up getting covered in ice and then just. Just purified. Not purified, but just embalmed, basically, for all that time, and was able to come back once the Norwegians dug it up and thawed it out. And one of the best lines for Keith David, the whole movie is here, where he goes, I just cannot believe any of this voodoo bullshit.

Nic

And I love that good old Keith David, man. The site of the saucer crash, like, this crater that they're in. I really love the way that they film this, where it was hand drawn and painted art to, like, show most of it with, like, you know, them actually in a setting. Like, I thought it worked really well together where it wasn't distracting, but also, like, you can't build that fucking thing. That's way too expensive.

Nic

So they did a great job with that.

Steve

Yeah, it's what they call matte backgrounds. They did it a ton in the Star wars movies. Like, almost every scene in Star wars that was at all at an angle, at a distance had some amount of matte backgrounds done where, you know, 90% of the stormtroopers in the scene were actually just drawn, you know, painted, and everybody else was a person kind of thing. Yeah.

Steve

And I agree. It's another example of, you know, when you have somebody like Carpenter. I feel like Sam Raimi is the same way. There's other filmmakers we've seen the same way where it's like, you know, make. They deal well with being restricted by the technology.

Nic

It's almost like, okay, if you need a $50 million movie made for $15 million, like, this is your guy that'll figure out a way to do it.

Steve

Exactly, exactly. And so, yeah, it's very, very cool. I think at this point is when Blair does his. He does like a simulation right on the computer.

Steve

And so he's. He's sort of like, again, I don't really know what he would be using to do this or, like, what sort of, like, parameters he was putting in, but the idea was he was watching it. This is what it does to cells. This is where it takes over different things, whatever. And it was like, if the thing basically analyzed and said if the thing gets out to populated areas, that it would take 27,000 hours to overtake every single human being on the planet.

Steve

Yeah. Basically complete human species eradication. Eradication in 27,000.

Nic

Like three years.

Steve

Yeah, I did the math.

Steve

Yeah, exactly, about. About three years, give or take. That's not very long. Crazy. That's very fast for, like, the whole.

Nic

World, the whole planet.

Steve

Exactly. Like, it's pretty outside of Madagascar, which is very locked down, as we know from. From all those games we've played over the years. But.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, so. So there's that. And then I think at this point, so I just. My next note is it's alive. So I think the thing comes back.

Nic

Oh, yeah, well. And, you know, when he's talking, I think Blair is. Is talking about it. And I think, Max, like, we ought to just burn these things Right. And this is.

Nic

He's like, well, we can't just burn the find of the century that's going to win somebody the Nobel Prize. That's right. Never hold out for a Nobel Prize if everyone's going to die.

Steve

Yeah, there's that. You only have three.

Steve

Only have three years to enjoy it at that point.

Nic

Yeah. So I think it's alive because we see that there's still some activity in these, like, burnt remains.

Steve

Oh, that's right. They go to put it in the store room.

Nic

Yes, that's what.

Steve

They go to put it in the storeroom. And then sort of starts to move a little, and one of the guys leaves the storeroom and the other one stays and basically gets attacked by it. Right, right.

Nic

And so then they're.

Nic

They're looking for this guy Bennings, who's like, one of the guys, balder, like kind of redhead, bearded guy. Looks a little like William Montgomery, if you're a fan of the Kill Tony regulars. So, basically, yeah, he's running out, and they're like, I think it got. Got Bennings. This isn't him.

Steve

Right.

Nic

And they come to a point outside where they've surrounded this guy, and he has these kind of, like, creepy, like, Total Recall Taxi Driver hands.

Steve

Yeah. Like, he hasn't fully changed. Yeah.

Nic

He hasn't fully morphed yet. Kind of gives them a look, and they, you know, take him out with the flamethrower.

Steve

They burn him.

Nic

Really brutal. Brutal death.

Nic

But, you know. Yeah, I do like Kurt Russell just flamethrowing stuff. You could fill a lot of screen with that.

Steve

Yeah, yeah. So.

Steve

So they have to burn Bennings because it's not Bennings anymore. It's the thing. So they do that. And I believe this is when Blair loses his shit. Is that kind of.

Nic

So they can't find Blair.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Right. And then they go and they see that the. The chopper has been disabled.

Steve

That's right. So he's destroyed a bunch of stuff in the helicopter.

Nic

Yeah. And now he's kind of in the communications room with an ax and a gun, just destroying all the equipment, saying, like, look, I. I just did the math. I single checked it.

Nic

It's definitely correct.

Steve

I'm super confident in my experimental algorithm. Yeah.

Nic

You know, this. This computer.

Nic

I know it's not as good as your chess computer, but it is a. And. And he's like, no. Like, we're not leaving here. Like, this shit dies here with us.

Nic

Like, we can't risk the entire world.

Steve

Yep.

Nic

Destroyed.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So, yeah.

Nic

He's. And he's going crazy. And this is a really tough part. Like, there's a big struggle because you're like, yeah, probably. But also, is there another way we can figure it out that doesn't involve all this shit or maybe we'll need.

Nic

So, yeah, I mean, he's taking crazy measures.

Steve

Absolutely. Yeah. And then. And so basically, like, they capture Blair, I believe.

Steve

Right. And sort of like drag him. Knock him out and drag him out to Mac. To the tool shed. Yeah, basically.

Steve

Right. So because they say, well, you put him in your. In your shack, Mac. And he's like, I don't want him in my shack. Let's put him in the tool shoot shed.

Steve

So they lock him up out there. And he basically says, like, I'm fine now. You should let me back in. Yes. Or whatever.

Steve

And it's like, yeah, okay, pal, you can stay out of here. You got. You got heat, you got electricity, you got food, you got water. Stay here.

Nic

Oh, and he killed the dogs, too.

Nic

Oh, that's right. And by just like killing him with an ax and leaving the ax in them.

Steve

I don't.

Nic

There's a lot of axes lying around here.

Steve

Well, I feel like axes are the kind of thing you would want.

Steve

Men. Yeah. If you were in.

Nic

I think it's important. But I. I would say that like.

Nic

Like it's implicit that if there's 12 guys and 12 axes, each one is kind of like one per guy. So if you're burning five axes in a. In a tirade, like, people are going to be pissed at you.

Steve

I mean, I'm already etching Wonder Boy into the side of my axe handle because that one's mine. But like.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So they're trying to figure out, like, we need to. We need to find a way to prove that the ones that are still here are human.

Steve

Right.

Nic

How do we prove who's human and who's.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Infected. And one of the ideas that they come up with is the doc, I think, says, hey, like, we could test our blood. Like, we have blood samples from everybody. We could test it against our blood now.

Nic

And if there's differences, you know, then you're suspect of being infected by this.

Steve

Yeah, exactly. So then they go to find their stash of blood that. That copper is talking about, and it's been destroyed. Like, all of the.

Steve

The refrigerator was opened or the freezer, whatever it was, is opened. All the bags have been, like, cut open. Like, it's all. It's all gone. Yeah.

Steve

And, you know, the only people that were Present when they were talking about this were like, Mac, Gary, the captain, Copper, the doctor, and I think one other person. Not even 100% sure which person, but there weren't very many people around when they were talking about that. So it's sort of like, well, who would have the incentive to do this? And then they started asking, well, also, who had access? And it's like, well, Gary's the only one with the key, but he gives it to Copper whenever he asks for it.

Steve

And Copper's like, I always give it right back. Like I, you know, but, but. So they're kind of like not sure what. And so one of the guys just like Windows goes and kind of loses it. And he runs to try to find a gun, basically because he doesn't trust anybody.

Steve

Yeah, Gary's the only one who normally has a gun on him, like all the time. And so he's like, first of all, terrible trigger discipline by Gary. His finger is literally sitting on the trigger, not like down the side or anything else.

Nic

He already got to shoot a guy though. So, yeah, he's feeling himself, feeling good.

Steve

Yeah, he's. He's going crazy. But basically it comes down to like, they get the gun away from Gary and Mac gets the gun. And my first thought is MacReady is the drunk who like dunked whiskey all over his computer for losing a chest. Is this the guy we want in charge?

Nic

Yeah. Is this even tempered guy that we have?

Steve

Yeah, this is the stable person that we want really. You know, with access to the weaponry and sort of like in charge of everything. Probably not the best choice, but yeah, at this point.

Steve

So this is when Fuchs, I think, finds macready's clothes or like, because what they realized, basically. So we kind of skipped past this.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

They found that when the thing changes into you or changes you, whatever, it tends to like tear the clothes. Like, because it's.

Steve

Your body changes so radically. Right. It's like subsuming you that the clothes kind of get left behind. Yeah. And so, you know, there was like a pair of long johns that got found.

Steve

But, you know, it didn't have anybody's name in it. Could have been anybody's kind of thing. But then like Fuchs, one of the guys does find a ripped up like that piece of clothing with McCready's name on it. So that's a little sus. We're not sure about Mac at that point.

Nic

So Mac is kind of taking the lead here and he's deciding what to do and he's saying like, we're gonna find out who's who. We're gonna shoot people up with morphine. You know, these guys who had access and everything. One. One thing in this movie I thought was interesting is.

Nic

And it adds. It definitely adds to the movie, and it makes it more tense for some reason, but I thought it was a little bizarre. They don't use flashlights ever. It's always a flare.

Steve

Yeah, it's true.

Nic

But it's like the effect of the flare is like, you know, the lights about the same. But it's like you almost have a mini countdown going on because something's, like, burning through, and it just adds to, like, the fucking. You know, is that gonna go out? Like, what's going on? It could catch something on fire.

Steve

Right.

Nic

Rather than a flashlight, which is just kind of boring. So it's almost like adding a little extra drama to them, just, like, walking around there.

Steve

Well, and it was funny to see that and watch this and realize that after. After, you know, a few weeks ago, we watched the movie Cape Fear.

Steve

Yeah. And in that movie, Robert De Niro's character, like, lights a road flare and holds it while it's dripping some kind of horrifically hot substance all over his hands. So is that what road flares do? And therefore, should you really be care. Even with a gloved hand, no drip flares.

Steve

These were the no napalm kind of flare.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

That's good. I'm glad they were using the safe flares.

Nic

So.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So Blair. I mean, we keep kind of going back to Blair a little bit, and, you know. No, I swear I'm fine. Fine.

Nic

Like, just let me back.

Steve

I want to. I want to come back in. I want to come home is basically what he's saying. Max.

Nic

So, like, it seems like the guys generally all live kind of in that main building where the man cave is and the dogs were and everything.

Steve

Right.

Nic

Except that Mac has his own dwelling.

Steve

Which they never really explain why.

Nic

No, they don't really say why.

Nic

But if you're somewhere that's super duper cold all the time, you definitely want to be elevated.

Steve

Yeah. Like, bizarre.

Nic

It's the most nonsensical thing in the world that he's, like, freezing his ass off in this, like, wooden tower.

Steve

Is this the landlocked Antarctic research station version of a crow's nest?

Steve

Like, is he meant to be, like, on lookout maybe? Is that kind of the idea? I don't know. But it is strange. And they never really talk about why.

Steve

Yeah. Yeah. But basically, they're out outside at one Point. And he notices that the lights in his shack are on. He's like, I left those off.

Steve

I turned them off when I left. So now we got to go look. I think he takes nulls with him. The T.K. carter character.

Steve

Yep. To go with him and check it out. But yeah, it was when. When he. He comes back in and basically is like, I had to cut Mac loose.

Steve

Yeah. Because he. We got up to his shack and there was, like, ripped up. There was another pair of ripped up clothes. Like, he talks about, like, whatever.

Steve

And I found it, and he didn't see me find it, and so I left and I cut it off because I think Max a thing. Yeah. And so he, like, Mack ends up coming back in and is basically like. Breaks through a door or whatever to get in and is like, now this is when he's, like, holding dynamite with a flare. With a flare next to it, which.

Nic

He'S like, dude, you're gonna accidentally do it. Like, I was so nervous by how that stuff was almost touching the whole time.

Steve

Two Dad's one movie flashback. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Underneath the church in Italy.

Steve

Holding the torch above the gasoline as it's just dripping in.

Nic

Oh, my God. Right?

Steve

It's like, wait a minute. It.

Steve

This is bad.

Nic

This bad movie. This movie, whatever rating it ends up getting gets a zero rating for fire safety.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Smokey the Bear is not a fan of this movie.

Nic

Although in Antarctica, good place to start a forest fire.

Steve

No, no, no, That's a good point. Wildfire is not a big problem in Antarctica. That's true.

Nic

So now I think one of the.

Nic

One of the other guys has kind of, like, passed out during this whole drama with Matt and get him up on the table. So what's going on with this guy? And they come out and they've got, like, the defibrillators. They try to charge. And this part made me show.

Steve

Gross.

Nic

It's so gross. But basically, he. As he puts his hands down with the defibrillators, the stomach pretty much opens up, bites his. Bites the guy's arms.

Steve

Yes, Copper. The doctor now has both of his arms from, like, halfway up the forearm removed.

Nic

He got Michael Ironsided.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

Right.

Steve

So. But he doesn't get to go run. Run his roughnecks afterwards. No, it's. It's definitely, like, freaky and horrific.

Steve

And so we find out. Okay, so Norris was a victim at some point. Right. Because this is a thing. This is not Norris.

Steve

And I don't think we've been given really any indication that maybe Norris was a thing. Like we've gotten little hints, like Blair, there have been hints about Gary. There have been hints about where it's trying to make us think maybe this person, maybe McCready, like we're finding things. You know, I feel like the thing with McCready is like. Like he's the closest thing we have to an audience.

Steve

You know, Avatar in the film. And so I feel like for the most part, the movie gives US information as MacCready gets it most of the time. Like there's a few places where it isn't true. But I felt like it would have been very hard to pull off MacCready having been taken over early on, you know, but with everybody else we don't know. And so clearly Norris was, you know, subsumed at some point.

Steve

I don't know if he was the first one, you know, for reasons we'll get into later. I think I know who that first one was, but I'm not 100% sure. I think we're never supposed to for sure was the whole idea. Right. But basically they start to burn him, but what they didn't realize is that his head is like coming off and it's now got the little spider legs.

Steve

You know, it's like the thing can be any piece of the creature that's taking over. So as they're burning and flame throwing.

Nic

Cell is important to kill. Yeah.

Steve

So as they're flame throwing Norris's body.

Steve

Right. His head has walked underneath a desk to like hide. And I think it's the funniest thing when it kind of starts just trying to walk out the door. I'm just going to walk out the door. Yeah.

Nic

Just sneak it out like.

Steve

And then luckily somebody turns and sees it and they nuke it with the flamethrower as well. But it's like, man, that little spider guy really thought he was just going to head out the door.

Nic

That spider effect is really, really creepy. There's tension.

Nic

Right. Because Mac is still like, I'm in charge, even though 5 seconds ago I was threatening to blow us all up with like a flare and dynamite and stuff. So people are skeptical and nobody trusts anyone.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And.

Nic

And one of the guys has grabbed. Clark has grabbed a scalpel, I think.

Steve

Oh, yeah, table.

Nic

And he's kind of holding it. We kind of keep cutting back and forth.

Nic

He's doing like the Arthur Fist, but he's holding a scalpel.

Steve

Well, he's the guy who is like the dog guy.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

So it's like we also have reason to Kind of suspect him a little bit because we know he spent time with the dog.

Nic

Right.

Steve

When the dog arrives. So is, you know, his Clark could be a thing. Yeah.

Nic

We don't know if we see the guy that the dog went into the.

Steve

Room or whatever, but he tries to go attack Mac with the scalpel and Mac just gives him one right between the eyes.

Steve

And just. That is the most accurate magnum or whatever revolver, Gary's gun that. Now Mac has that two. It's been fired twice and both shots were in between the eyes. Kill shots.

Steve

Yeah. It's the most amazing magical revolver that's ever existed. But anyway, they figure out these other blood tests.

Nic

Yep, yep, yep.

Steve

And so the theory is if, if every cell, if every part of the thing can become its prey.

Steve

Right. That means every cell is kind of its own thing, its own organism. So the theory that they have is if we heat up, you know, a needle or whatever, like a coil of some kind and put it in some blood, the blood will react. Even the blood should try to defend itself. Right.

Steve

Versus human blood. It's just liquid. It'll just. Just whatever. And so I think the first person they test is like Palmer or somebody and like, and he's clean.

Steve

And I thought for sure Palmer was like one of the. The guy, you know, one of the things or whatever.

Nic

Yeah. Oh, they have a terrible way of drawing the blood. This is, this is definitely.

Nic

Okay. It's easier to film this way if you just drag a blade through your hand so that the fake blood can come out. But if you're ever trying to do a blood test to see if your. Your man man cave buddies in Antarctica are the thing, you should use like a needle or something that's like a little less invasive than, hey, let me slice the middle of your palm and just have you drip it in.

Steve

No, it's the thumb and it's just the pad of the thumb.

Steve

And all I'm thinking is that's going to be so uncomfortable while it heals. Like, there's got to be other ways like, like, you know, doing like blood tests, like other fingertips that aren't as. As necessary.

Nic

That's a grinpong paddle thumb. We get a lot of pong to.

Steve

Play up here, but yeah, lots of, lots of dirty pocket knife thumb cutting going on. It's very gross.

Nic

But this scene is incredibly tense though, because like you said, we're not given a ton of information as to who actually is the thing at this point.

Steve

Right.

Nic

We have some.

Nic

So just every test that they're doing and then the guys are getting more and more upset, you know, understandably. But also like if you weren't the thing, you wouldn't, you know.

Steve

Well, if you're not the thing, you.

Nic

Got nothing to worry about.

Steve

Right?

Steve

Thing. Oh, I realize your Palmer actually was the thing. Palmer's is the blood that they. That reacts. I'm pretty sure, now that I think.

Nic

About it, like his Palmer's like the sheriff guy?

Steve

No, no, that's Gary.

Nic

Oh, Gary. Okay.

Steve

Which one is the guy with the curly hair?

Steve

Is Palmer the one that had the joint with like the jean. The vest, Jean jacket or whatever?

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

I feel like his was. Because he's the one that like then breaks out.

Steve

He freaks out. He breaks out of his chair that they've held. Held him in and actually ends up eating Windows's head. Yes.

Nic

He like flies to the.

Nic

The ceiling and all this. It's really crazy.

Steve

Yeah. Cuz Windows, they tested him first and he was clean. And then Palmer was a thing.

Nic

And the flamethrowers aren't working either.

Steve

Right.

Nic

So he's there and they're trying. And that's another great thing with T tension. Cuz they don't look like they fully don't work.

Steve

No.

Nic

The whole time they look like they're just about to work and you're just like get them.

Steve

Get. Exactly. And everybody's screaming at Mac to to and.

Steve

And. And ns to. To nuke them with their windows. I think at one point has a flamethrower. They're trying to get it to work and it's not.

Steve

Finally they're able to sort of like burn Palmer. But then they have to kill Windows too. Because now he's been attacked by this thing and it's in. So it's like you're gone too, buddy. So it's like they're just losing people left and right.

Steve

Right. Like copper is. Copper recently died. Clark got shot in the head. Now they know, you know, Norris was killed.

Steve

He was a thing. Palmer was a thing. Windows probably a thing. We're down to like.

Nic

It's running out of guys here.

Steve

We got Mac, we got Gary the boss. We got Childs, Keith David's character. I think we still have Nulls. The other black guy, he's still there. And Fuchs maybe.

Steve

Maybe Fuchs is the other nerdy one with the glasses.

Nic

Blair. But he's out in the thing.

Steve

He's out in the shack or whatever. But yeah, we are.

Steve

We are running low on crew here for sure. Big time. But yeah, but he. But then Gary is Clean. And that one actually surprised me.

Steve

I remember thinking for sure, Gary, at some point. And it's like, nope, he's clean.

Nic

So, yeah, after, after Paul Palmer kind of transitions to the thing and he eats windows and they hit him finally with the flamethrower. Then it does like a Kool Aid man through the wall to outside, which again is like you're in Antarctica. Like, is this what your walls are made of?

Nic

You suck.

Steve

This should be like 2 foot thick cinder blocks or something. Why can you run through the wall at all? I don't know. There's probably some good reason, some kind of structural integrity building on snow or something.

Steve

Right.

Nic

We don't do good reasons here. We do wild speculation.

Steve

Yeah. All right.

Steve

This is where I put the note actually about. After watching Cape Fear. I'm shocked anyone can use a road flare as a torch. Yeah. Because they do keep doing crazy.

Nic

One other thing about the Windows death, which. Which I thought was unfortunate. And, and my wife pointed out as we were watching this, so Windows is he had his head eaten and then they have to hit him with the flamethrower. But he's sitting right in front of the shelf with all like the jigsaw puzzles and books on it. So their entertainment once again just being destroyed.

Steve

I just don't think it's going to end up mattering. I'm not sure, but I think we can probably move forward with that. So now the generator gets blown. Right. The power goes out.

Steve

And I think they think it's possibly Blair. Like, did Blair get out? I think is kind of the thing. So they go investigate the shack and that's when they find that he dug down underneath the shack. Right.

Steve

They go down there and there is clearly something that Blair has been building.

Nic

Building.

Steve

It looks like a spaceship. I think it makes it clear clearly Blair is one, is a thing. He's not human anymore.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And so they decide, well, we can't let him escape. Like, we can't let this thing get built. And like, whatever.

Nic

Like, it's whipped up that spaceship pretty quick.

Steve

It's clearly got components from the, whatever the snow dozer or whatever they call the bulldozer thing and the helicopter. Like, that's one of the things he was doing, was not just destroying stuff, he was like gathering equipment as well. So I think that's part of it is he took pieces from these big vehicles and pieces of equipment in order to build this thing. But it still obviously was like crazy fast that it was happening. But basically they decide to go down into.

Steve

So they Blow that up. Basically. They like, literally, like, like, send down dynamite.

Nic

They're like, I don't know what this is, but it's got to go.

Steve

We know it's bad.

Steve

We know the thing is building it, the aliens building it, so we gotta let. We got. It's gotta go. Then they're like, all right, now let's go back into the base. Head down to the generator room, see if we get the generator started to back up.

Steve

Because if not, it's going to get. I think they say something. It'll get to negative 100 or something, and it's like. And then they realize, well, that'll kill all of us. But the thing survived 100,000 years in the ice.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

So all it wants is for all of this to freeze and. And then it can freeze and sleep and wait to be rescued someday.

Nic

Right.

Steve

I mean, that's.

Steve

That's sort of the thing, is that if Blair. We know Blair's the thing. I believe at this point, we also know for sure, Right. Right in the moment, that the four men who were left are men, are not. Childs we've walked away from.

Steve

He's meant to watch out for Blair, but Nalls and Gary and Mac have all gone initially to the shack, find the spaceship, blow it up, head back inside to the generator room. But they don't see Childs. And they're a little bit like, fuck, we don't know what's going on. But now it's like, we know Blair is the thing. Childs we don't know about because now he's missing.

Steve

But Nalls, Gary and Mac were cool. We know that. They're good. So they head down and they're basically just going to blow the whole thing up. They're like, if we blow the whole thing up and keep it burning, we can.

Steve

We can, you know, I mean, I guess their thought is we'll find him and kill him or he'll die in the explosion or, I don't know, something. Right. Is the idea. And I love this sequence. And not a very long sequence with the whole sequence underground.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

In the generator area in this old storage room. And all this stuff is so good and so creepy. They're running, you know, lines, detonator lines with the dynamite out to different areas. And at one point, Blair just pops up behind Gary in, like, the scariest kind of jump scare, whatever, and puts his hand on his face and immediately his fingers start to, like, dig into and kind of subsume Gary's face.

Steve

It's really backwards.

Nic

So creepy. But What a great job of the film. Like after it's already given us so much. We have this like totally unique death scene that we haven't really been shown before.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And they're trying to. Oh my God. I wrote down cheek glove.

Steve

That's what it looked like.

Steve

He was wearing his face as a glove.

Nic

It's like if you're cooking a turkey or something, you have to get your hands under the skin to put the seasoning. Oh my God. So I did not like that Mac, basically he had all this set up to explode. He had the TNT plunger.

Nic

I'm ready to be satisfied by watching that thing. Chekhov's TNT plunger is in place, you know, and then the thing is just like incredible in size at this point and power and basically like rips up the entire underground. Like, I don't think there was a floor underneath them.

Steve

You can see like wood is like flying up. So it's like there's a wooden floor underneath them.

Steve

But now he's underneath that and he's killed Nalls too. Like Nalls goes to follow. Like he hears something and he goes without saying anything, without calling out or talking, telling Mac where he's going. He just walks. And he gets taken as well by Blair.

Steve

So NS and Gary are both dead. And now it's like we're in the movie Tremors suddenly and it's like flying up underneath the ground.

Nic

Oh my God. Which is terrifying too. Just to see how like, oh, I thought this was kind of like a dude sized.

Steve

Right.

Nic

Right entity that we're facing. And now it's something that something else has this incredible amount of power and.

Steve

It like takes the detonator, the plunger and like grabs it from underneath. But that, that gives the opportunity for Mac to have the pack of dynamite and light it on fire and go, yeah, fuck you too.

Steve

He throws the dynamite in and it's just like, oh my God, what a. Like I simultaneously love and hate that line. Like I think it is like awesome and also so cheesy and bad. But that's per. I feel like that sums up John Carpenter's work.

Nic

But it's kind of like when we did the army of Darkness episode, we were talking a little bit how the Ash character is so funny. Bruce Campbell's character, because his reaction is more what a regular guy would say in that. Not somebody who had like this ultra clever thing to say, you know. So it's kind of like fuck you.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

Like Detective Crashmore and. Yeah, I think you should leave sketch. Right.

Steve

Exactly. Yeah.

Nic

So, yeah, so he. And the things are just like, it's opening into something, and, like, all this crazy morphing, it's really disturbing.

Steve

Hucks the dynamite in there and basically blows it up. Right.

Nic

Great toss.

Steve

And so then we see. I mean, basically we see the entire base explode for no reason whatsoever. Mac is walking outside now. I'm not really sure how that worked, but he's feeling pretty confident whether he should or not, that he's gotten the last of them. Right.

Steve

So he stumbles into this area where obviously the fire is burning. The entire base is burning. So it's keeping him warm enough for now. And he's got his bottle of scotch. He finds a bottle of Scotch, and he sits down, and around the corner comes Childs.

Steve

And there's actually a lot of sort of fan theories about this last exchange, where basically, if you think about it at this moment, Childs has no reason to believe Mac is or isn't a human. Mac has no reason to believe Childs is or isn't a human. Like, neither of them have any piece of information that would give them any indication about the other's status. So they are either two things talking to each other, which maybe that would be obvious to each other. And so, like, again, we.

Steve

We're confident that Mac didn't get taken, but we don't know about Childs, and the two characters couldn't possibly know about each other. Yeah. And so Mac just, like, hands Childs the liquor and he downs it, and they both kind of realize they're just going to sit there until they die. Like, they're basically. Nobody's going to come rescue them once the fire burns out.

Steve

It'll just drop to hundreds of degrees below zero or whatever, and they're going to die. And so they're just like, okay, might as well go out drinking J and B. Which.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

That's what you have.

Steve

That's what you have. But, boy, I can't really take a.

Nic

Run out to BevMo at that point.

Steve

No, you're pretty much stuck with whatever you've got, but that's fine. There's some theory, though, that this was actually an indication, basically, that the thing would never have drank alcohol.

Nic

Oh. Like the way that, like, vampires and fiction, like, don't eat or drink or.

Steve

Would have reacted very strangely to.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Or something like that.

Steve

Like, what would have, you know, something like that is, is because the way alcohol kind of attacks our. Our blood cells and our livers and everything, that it would have reacted negatively to it. And the fact that he just drinks it and hands it back to Mac is sort of an indicator that they are both still human. I don't know if that's an intentional thing or if that's sort of just like a fan theory or what, but it is something that I. It's in my head canon now that this was that Mack and Childs die knowing that they are still human and feeling confident that the last of the things has been blown up.

Steve

That's in my head canon. But I don't know for sure if that's. If we're meant to believe that or not.

Nic

Yeah, that's a tough one. That's a tough one.

Nic

Yeah. Because if the thing could eat a guy who had just drank a bunch of alcohol, it would be ingesting whatever alcohol is in their stomach. And we'll need a sequel. Just. Just explaining.

Steve

It's a little late for that, but.

Nic

You know, what a cool way for it to end.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

I mean, again, with. Especially with horror movies and stuff, you don't really want everything wrapped up in a neat little package at the end because part of the whole point of it is like, fuck, shit sucks.

Nic

And then the end of the movie, it's like, see?

Steve

Yeah, it's not.

Nic

And then it gets better. It's just like I told you, it sucks.

Steve

Yeah.

Steve

Yeah. The closest thing you get to a happy ending in any horror movie is that the monster, the killer, whatever, ever is dead. Right. The best you can hope for.

Nic

Right?

Steve

And most of the time you don't even get that.

Nic

No, no. Oh my God. This was, this was a. This is a really, really great one and such a fun one to talk about.

Steve

Absolutely.

Nic

Well, Steve, this was, this was your pick. So I'll take a first think about. Yeah, let's give this baby a rating.

Steve

The thing is, it absolutely is one of my favorite horror movies.

Steve

I. It's one of my favorite horror sub genres actually, in that it is the sci fi horror. You know, I include Alien in this category, Event Horizon in this category, Species, even Predator to an extent. You know, there's sort of the sci fi horror movie and I love that subgenre. And so.

Steve

And this is really one of the, you know, peak. I think along with Alien is probably like one of the peak early sci fi horrors that really, really works. And it's just fantastic movie. John Carpenter does fantastic work. Kurt Russell and Keith David are both wonderful.

Steve

Wilford Brimley's good in it too. The whole cast is good, but the interactions between Mac and Childs are fantastic. The way that they trust each other and then don't and then kind of have to. It really feels very real and it's a testament to the actors. I think the creature effects are incredible.

Steve

They absolutely hold up. The movie is 43 years old and absolutely these effects hold up. Like you said, the opening with this flying saucer, not the best, but everything else, all the practical effects, all the creature stuff is really wild and really fantastic. There is nothing about the thing that I that would keep me from recommending it to anyone unless they're just like, I hate horror movies. Yeah.

Steve

Okay. If you don't have the stomach for some grotesque creature, you know, effects, then yeah, this is not for you. But if you have a strong stomach when it comes to movies and if you have not seen the thing, this is absolutely. Should be top of your list to remedy that. That.

Steve

I absolutely love this movie. I'm a five out of five on the thing. I couldn't ask for anything from this movie other than what it gives us. And I love it and I stand by the 5 out of 5 on this.

Nic

All right.

Nic

Well, yeah, I mean this. I'm super psyched that you picked this one because I do not want to live in a world where I still haven't seen this.

Steve

Well, you're welcome.

Nic

I loved it. I watched it once and one thing I did, sometimes when I watch something for the podcast, I'll have my notes and everything.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Even if I haven't seen it before, and I thought for one I haven't seen before, I'm going to just try to watch it straight through and if I need to rewatch for notes, I can do that. But I want to, like, experience what it's like to just watch this movie.

Steve

That's good.

Nic

And God, am I glad I did that because I loved it and I could not wait to watch it again.

Nic

Like, I think I watched it a couple days later again. But yeah, everything you said, I mean, John Carpenter is able to, to create this world. Like the tension between not only the people and the monster, but the people in each other. The creature effects, the. The way that they capture this kind of like mid transition abstraction of it is just done in such a cool way.

Nic

Like it really took a lot of imagination and everything does still look cool and scary. Yeah, the head spider, like all this stuff is like very, very creepy and none of it looks cheesy that it's like distracting.

Steve

Right.

Nic

Because yeah, all the practical effects do very much hold up like they do. They do look really good.

Nic

I love young Kurt Russell. He's just stepping out of his computer wear tennis shoes era, you know, and seeing him kind of evolve into like, grit, like gruff man, Kurt Russell and, yeah. Keith David. You cannot go wrong with him.

Steve

Fantastic.

Nic

Yeah, so I'm gonna say. And also, you know, the score of the movie that got this Razzie nomination, it was cool. I thought the whole thing was great. I don't know what they were thinking.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So I am with you and I don't know if this is the first time this has happened, Steve, but I'm a five out of five on this as well. I really don't see if you like horror movies. I. It's, it's. I'd be hard pressed to pick a better one.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And also, I don't typically like real, like gore, grotesque stuff. Like, it. It's hard for me.

Steve

Okay.

Nic

And you know, like you said, with dogs getting killed, like, there's stuff in this that is very hard. But it's so cool and so well done. And then it's kind of removed from the real, real world because it's like, yeah, a dog got killed, but it's like some Antarctic alien dog. He's not gonna have a great life anymore. And it's not even a real dog.

Steve

The dog was killed off screen long before when the alien got it. Now we're just cleaning up the alien.

Nic

And the many other dogs are just on the side. But yeah, the thing. Five out of five for me.

Nic

If anyone hasn't seen it for sure see it, this is the time of year to see it. You know, we gotta get spooky. We gotta get shocking. This is like the kind of stuff we want to be watching, so I love it. Great picks.

Steve

Yeah. 10 out of 10 from the two dads. I don't know if this is this the Fugitive. Was that. Was that two fives that might have.

Nic

Been a little shy.

Steve

You might have been a four and a half on that one. I was a five on that one. But yeah, I don't know. We definitely don't have if this might be the first one or we're a straight 10 out of 10.

Steve

It's the thing. It's John Carpenter's the Thing. If you haven't seen it, you gotta go see it again. Unless you just really don't have the stomach for it, then I understand. But if you can take a bit of a trip down Grote esque lane, you absolutely have to do it with this movie.

Steve

So this was my pick. We've got a couple more weeks of Shocktoberfest coming. So, Nic, what is the next movie that we're going to watch in our Spooky Seasons series?

Nic

Yeah, so I'm gonna pivot again. And it's a movie that is definitely spooky, definitely shocking, meets the criteria that we like to see.

Nic

But it's also a movie that was, I think, like, very critically acclaimed, commercially successful, and more of kind of a mainstream movie that happened to have really horrific elements to it than your typical, like, stalker, killer, monster kind of movie. And I want to see how this plays is like a horror movie in that kind of discussion. So we are going to go to 1991. We're going to see Jody Foster, we're going to see Anthony Hopkins, and we're going to do a little Silence of the Lambs.

Steve

Wonderful.

Steve

Oh, my God, I love this movie. This actually my. One of my wife's favorite movies, movies of all time. And she doesn't generally like scary movies, but I love Silence of the Lambs. I probably.

Steve

It's probably been five or six years I've seen it. So this will be a good refresher. Absolutely wonderful. Definitely fits. You know, it might not be a traditional horror movie, but I do think that.

Steve

I think there's probably some debate. I bet you could find people who argue, no, that's a thriller. Others who argue, no, it's a horror.

Nic

Right.

Steve

You know, and it really could go either way.

Nic

And there's certain imagery in this, though, that that does tend to stick with you the way that horror movie stuff does.

Steve

But. And there's so much that ends up becoming almost cliche. But it's. But it was.

Steve

But it was fresh in this. Yeah, right. There's a lot of things that became kind of movie tropes or story tropes, but they originated here. And so, yeah, absolutely. Fantastic.

Steve

I know. Yeah, there's a lot of, like, you know, Oscar action on this one. It'll be great to watch that. So cool. Next week we will watch the Silence of the Lamps.

Steve

I love it.

Nic

Hell, yeah.

Steve

Well, that about wraps it up. So if you'd like what you hear, and we hope you do, please consider heading over to Apple or Spotify and leaving us a five star review. It really helps new folks find the show.

Steve

If you want to drop us a line, share your thoughts on an episode, tell us what we got wrong, or suggest a movie we should do next, you can do so at the showdadsone movie. Com. That's the number two and the number one. You can also follow us on Instagram @2dads1movie. Once again, this has been John Carpenter's the Thing, another episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie.

Steve

I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

Thank you so much for listening, and we'll catch you next week. Sam.