Anyone messes with me and the whole camp goes.
Come on, child. Burn me.
Put those torches on the floor and back off.
Back off. Way off.
You. You'd have done the same thing. Don't argue with him.
Where's the rest?
Come on in it. It's cool, McReady. It's cool, man. Come on.
Yeah. Yeah, man. Just relax.
Anybody touches me. Here we go.
Not breathing. One time a doc.
Get him in here and bring the others.
Now. Nobody gets out of my sight.
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 Nick. Briana.
Hello, everybody. It's another episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie. I'm Steve.
And I'm Nick. And today we are talking about the classic horror
from 1982, John Carpenter's the Thing. 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. 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? 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. 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, Nick? No. 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.
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. But no, I've seen it. So, yeah, this was great.
I'm so psyched to talk about this one. Fantastic. That's good stuff. 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. 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.
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. 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.
Were the Razzies won by. They were run by Ennio Morricone's ex wife.
Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Like that blew my mind when I saw this.
I thought the score was awesome. Like, the mood of this movie was great the
whole way through. Yeah. And it's, it's dark and it's. Honestly, here's, here's how you
know the score was good. 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. 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. 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. So they've hopefully, you know, made up for that a bit in the.
The post release era. I certainly think, you know, if nothing
else, Kurt Russell collaboration gave
us so many other great John Carpenter collaborations. That's right. If nothing else,
that's, you know, something we can. We can sort of thank the thing for providing
for us. Right. 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. The credits first
dropped before it shows anything. I just love that the
only actor listed as Kurt Russell. Right. 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. 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. And I might have my
years backwards, but was an Escape From New York before this? I can't actually remember.
What I'm trying to think was that 81 maybe? Yeah. Because I know that that's
two of the maybe four major Carpenter, Russell, you know, collaborations.
And I know they came close together, but I think that this was after Escape
from New York. Okay. Not 100% sure, but I do just. Love that it's like
Russell, like, right to the point. 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? 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. 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.
That's the only effect that kind of looks stupid in this movie. Oh, really?
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. 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. This is not Star wars
caliber. No special effects. We didn't have Industrial Light and Magic.
Working on this one, but significantly better than the stuff in the Last Starfighter.
Yeah. So we can at least say that. And that came out a couple of
years later, even. So. Yeah. But yeah, so. 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. 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. This,
they're pretty isolated. And so the first thing we get. 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. Absolutely, yeah. 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. 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.
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. 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? Right?
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. Right. And we don't really know like, what exactly they're studying.
Just general science, I think the sciences. You know, I think they're just, they're down
there looking at Antarctica. Yeah. What can we find down here? What's happening down here?
We study the weather, study the movement of the climate. We'll try to
like, dig for stuff, like, who knows, right? 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. 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. A pool table with a ping pong top. That's right.
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. 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. 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. 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.
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.
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. You have many months still out here. One has to assume
what Wilford Brimley wanted to play chess. 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. Isolated area.
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. 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. Chill out.
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. The dog is
basically running straight for their base. The Americans. Yeah. 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. But they're kind of in the
neighborhood, right? 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. You now don't
have glass window. You're going to set it move. Dude, that's a computer
ruining style move. 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. 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. And the guys are like, okay, now we have two dead guys
and an exploded helicopter here, right? Y. What the is going
on here? And this dog and like, what, what is all this? So this
dog was not one of their like stable of dogs. Exactly. Yeah, the dog came
from the Norwegian. The dog was one of the Norwegian stocks. Okay. 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. 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. This middle aged
man has a nose ring, like a full on loop
nose ring. 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. They're like,
I'm sorry, you can't work in Cleveland anymore. We're going to ship you out to
Antarctica. Sorry, the Mayo Clinic does not allow for nose rings on our physicians.
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.
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? 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. I mean, you're not going to be like the
most like socially adept person if you
take that kind of position. Right. Like you're running from something or you're being pushed
away from something. It's like the futuristic version of the French Foreign Legion or something.
Yeah. So, but yeah, so basically.
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. 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. 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. Right. That they've found. And he's wandering the base.
Yeah. And he wanders into somebody's room. 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. 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. 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. Yeah. 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. And impractical. Right. Because if you want a hat that's going to
blow off your head, dude, that is your hat. 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. It's Sourdough Sam's hat. That's literally
what it looks like. 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. 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. Like just kind of melted. Melted together?
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?
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. 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. 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. And Palmer,
they're watching like, I don't know if it's like Price is Right or. Yeah,
some game show, let's Make a. 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. I mean, it is like, it looks. Like it's Max Katie in
Problem. Child sized. Yeah, but it also looks like a sushi hand
roll. Like it's so big it just lights on the end. So I just thought
that was funny, this enormous joint. Good old 1982. 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. 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. Here for a long time. Because it
turns out, no, they won't. But you're still here for at least. 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. So there
is that element of bringing. That corpse back because that again, looks. Multiple people or
whatever. But, you know, but they are all scientists at heart, right? I mean,
that is the point. 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. 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. The bigger. The bearded dude,
the big bearded guy. 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. 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. 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.
Shocking, like extremely shocking. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Yeah.
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.
Yeah. It almost looked like the Demogorgon from, like, Stranger Things or something like that
kind of style. But. Yeah. Oh, my God. 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? Because you just have,
like, an autopsy guy on him hand who wasn't the regular doctor. No, but I.
I think he's, like, a biologist. Yeah, they're probably all. To some degree. Yeah.
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. Yeah. So sorry. Back to the
dogs. I mean, incredibly nasty. And the.
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. Yeah, it's.
It looks. 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. Childs.
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.
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. 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. 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? 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. They didn't over explain it to where
it sounded dumb to somebody. Yeah. 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.
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.
Okay, good enough. Good amount of explanation. Yeah, that was.
And. And they, like, are pretty quick to kind of understand what this thing is
capable of. Yeah, yeah, exactly. 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. Let it burn. Let it burn a little bit, dude.
Let it burn. I know, I know. The roof is on fire.
Wasn't me. Be popular, man. But we gotta let that burn. I was. It's funny
because I wasn't thinking Bloodhound Gang. I first thought of Sublime. Let it burn Gotta
let it burn. 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.
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. But yeah, it's so.
So they. They do that. They Figure that out. But they, you know,
it. 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. The human elements, the thing they brought from Norway. 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.
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. 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. 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. 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.
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. So they did a great job with that. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Yeah. Basically complete human
species eradication. Eradication in 27,000. Like three years. Yeah,
I did the math. Yeah, exactly, about. About three years, give or take. That's not
very long. Crazy. That's very fast for, like, the whole. World, the whole planet.
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. 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.
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. 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.
Yeah, there's that. You only have three. Only have three years to enjoy it at
that point. Yeah. So I think it's alive because we see that there's still some
activity in these, like, burnt remains. Oh, that's right. They go to put it in
the store room. Yes, that's what. 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. And so then they're. 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. Right. 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. Yeah. Like, he hasn't fully changed. Yeah. He hasn't fully morphed yet.
Kind of gives them a look, and they, you know, take him out with the
flamethrower. They burn him. Really brutal. Brutal death.
But, you know. Yeah, I do like Kurt Russell just flamethrowing stuff.
You could fill a lot of screen with that. Yeah, yeah.
So. 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. So they can't find Blair. Yeah. Right. And then they go
and they see that the. The chopper has been disabled. That's right. So he's destroyed
a bunch of stuff in the helicopter. 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. It's definitely correct.
I'm super confident in my experimental algorithm.
Yeah. You know, this. This computer. 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. Like, we can't risk the
entire world. Yep. Destroyed. Yeah. So, yeah.
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. So,
yeah, I mean, he's taking crazy measures. Absolutely. Yeah. And then. And so
basically, like, they capture Blair,
I believe. Right. And sort of like drag him. Knock him out and drag
him out to Mac. To the tool shed. Yeah, basically. 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. 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. 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. Oh, and he killed the dogs, too. Oh, that's right.
And by just like killing him with an ax and leaving the ax in them.
I don't. There's a lot of axes lying around here. Well, I feel like axes
are the kind of thing you would want. Men. Yeah. If you were in.
I think it's important. But I. I would say that like. 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. I mean, I'm already etching Wonder Boy
into the side of my axe handle because that one's mine. But like. Yeah.
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.
Right. How do we prove who's human and who's. Yeah.
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. And if there's differences,
you know, then you're suspect of being infected by this. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. He already got to shoot a guy though. So, yeah, he's feeling himself,
feeling good. 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? Yeah. Is this even tempered guy that we have?
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.
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.
Yeah. They found that when the thing changes into you or changes
you, whatever, it tends to like tear the clothes. Like, because it's. 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. 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. 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. 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. Yeah, it's true. 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. Right. 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. 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. 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. These were the no napalm kind of flare. Yeah. That's good.
I'm glad they were using the safe flares.
So. Yeah. 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. Like, just let
me back. I want to. I want to come back in. I want to come
home is basically what he's saying. Max. 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. Right. Except that Mac
has his own dwelling. Which they never really explain why. No, they don't really say
why. But if you're somewhere that's super duper cold all the
time, you definitely want to be elevated. Yeah. Like, bizarre. It's the most nonsensical
thing in the world that he's, like, freezing his ass off in this, like,
wooden tower. Is this the landlocked Antarctic research station version
of a crow's nest? 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. Two Dad's one movie
flashback. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Underneath the church
in Italy. Holding the torch above the gasoline as it's just dripping in.
Oh, my God. Right? It's like, wait a minute. It. This is bad. This bad
movie. This movie, whatever rating it ends up getting gets a zero rating
for fire safety. Yeah. Smokey the Bear is not a fan of this movie.
Although in Antarctica, good place to start a forest fire. No,
no, no, That's a good point. Wildfire is not a big problem in Antarctica.
That's true. So now I think one
of the. 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. Gross. 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.
Yes, Copper. The doctor now has both of his arms from, like, halfway up the
forearm removed. He got Michael Ironsided.
Exactly. Right. So. But he doesn't get to go run. Run his roughnecks
afterwards. No, it's. It's definitely, like, freaky and horrific. And so
we find out. Okay, so Norris was a victim at some point. Right. Because this
is a thing. This is not Norris. 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.
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. 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. 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. Cell is important to kill. Yeah. So as they're flame throwing
Norris's body. 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. Just sneak it out like. 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.
That spider effect is really, really creepy.
There's tension. 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.
Yeah. And. And one of the guys has grabbed. Clark has grabbed a scalpel,
I think. Oh, yeah, table. And he's kind of holding it. We kind of keep
cutting back and forth. He's doing like the Arthur Fist, but he's holding a scalpel.
Well, he's the guy who is like the dog guy. Yeah. 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. Right. When the dog arrives. So is, you know,
his Clark could be a thing. Yeah. We don't know if we see the guy
that the dog went into the. Room or whatever, but he tries to go attack
Mac with the scalpel and Mac just gives him one right between the eyes.
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. Yeah. It's the most amazing
magical revolver that's ever existed.
But anyway, they figure out these other blood tests. Yep, yep, yep. And so the
theory is if, if every cell, if every part
of the thing can become its prey.
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. 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. And I thought for sure Palmer
was like one of the. The guy, you know, one of the things or whatever.
Yeah. Oh, they have a terrible way of drawing the blood. This is,
this is definitely. 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. No, it's the thumb and it's
just the pad of the thumb. 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.
That's a grinpong paddle thumb. We get a lot of pong to.
Play up here, but yeah, lots of, lots of dirty pocket knife
thumb cutting going on. It's very gross. 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. Right. We have some. 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. Well, if you're not the thing, you. Got nothing to worry
about. Right? 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. About it,
like his Palmer's like the sheriff guy? No, no, that's Gary. Oh, Gary.
Okay. Which one is the guy with the curly hair? Is Palmer the one that
had the joint with like the jean. The vest, Jean jacket or whatever? Yeah.
I feel like his was. Because he's the one that like then breaks out.
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. He like flies to
the. The ceiling and all this. It's really crazy. Yeah. Cuz Windows,
they tested him first and he was clean. And then Palmer was a thing.
And the flamethrowers aren't working either. Right. 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. No. The whole time they look like they're just about to work and
you're just like get them. Get. Exactly. And everybody's screaming at Mac to to and.
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. 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.
Right. Like copper is. Copper recently died. Clark got shot in the head.
Now they know, you know, Norris was killed. He was a thing. Palmer was a
thing. Windows probably a thing. We're down to like. It's running out of guys here.
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. Maybe Fuchs is the other nerdy one with the glasses. Blair. But he's out
in the thing. He's out in the shack or whatever. But yeah, we are.
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.
I remember thinking for sure, Gary, at some point. And it's
like, nope, he's clean. 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? You suck. 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. Right. We don't do good reasons here. We do wild
speculation. Yeah. All right. 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. 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. 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. 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. They go down
there and there is clearly something that Blair has been building. Building. It looks like
a spaceship. I think it makes it clear clearly Blair is one, is a thing.
He's not human anymore. Yeah. And so they decide,
well, we can't let him escape. Like, we can't let this thing get
built. And like, whatever. Like, it's whipped up that spaceship pretty quick. 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. So they Blow that up. Basically. They like, literally, like, like, send down
dynamite. They're like, I don't know what this is, but it's got to go.
We know it's bad. 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. 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. Yeah. 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. Right. I mean, that's. 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.
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. 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. 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. Yeah. 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. It's really backwards. 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. Yeah. And they're trying to. Oh my
God. I wrote down cheek glove.
That's what it looked like. He was wearing his face as a glove. 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.
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. You can see like wood
is like flying up. So it's like there's a wooden floor underneath them. 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. 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. Oh my God.
Which is terrifying too. Just to see how like, oh,
I thought this was kind of like a dude sized. Right.
Right entity that we're facing. And now it's something that something else has this incredible
amount of power and. 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. 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. 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. Exactly. Like Detective Crashmore
and. Yeah, I think you should leave sketch. Right. Exactly. Yeah.
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. Hucks the dynamite in there and basically
blows it up. Right. Great toss. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Yeah. That's what you
have. That's what you have. But, boy, I can't really take a. Run out to
BevMo at that point. 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. Oh.
Like the way that, like, vampires and fiction, like, don't eat or drink or.
Would have reacted very strangely to. Yeah. Or something like that. 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. 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. Yeah, that's a tough
one. That's a tough one. 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. It's a little late for that, but. You know,
what a cool way for it to end. Yeah. 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. And then the end of the movie, it's like, see?
Yeah, it's not. And then it gets better. It's just like I told you,
it sucks. Yeah. 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. Right? And most of the time you
don't even get that. 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. Absolutely. Well, Steve, this was,
this was your pick. So I'll take a first think about. Yeah,
let's give this baby a rating. The thing is, it absolutely
is one of my favorite horror movies. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. All right. 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. Well, you're welcome. 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. Yeah. 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. That's good.
And God, am I glad I did that because I loved it and I could
not wait to watch it again. 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. 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.
Right. Because yeah, all the practical effects do very much hold
up like they do. They do look really good. 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. Fantastic. 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. Yeah. 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. Yeah. And also, I don't typically like real, like gore,
grotesque stuff. Like, it. It's hard for me. Okay. 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. The dog was killed off screen long before when the alien got it.
Now we're just cleaning up the alien. And the many other dogs are just on
the side. But yeah, the thing. Five out of five for me. 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. 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. Been a little
shy. 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.
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. So this was
my pick. We've got a couple more weeks of Shocktoberfest coming.
So, Nick, what is the next movie that we're going to watch in our Spooky
Seasons series? 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. 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. Wonderful. 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. 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. 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. Right. You know, and it really could
go either way. And there's certain imagery in this, though, that that does tend to
stick with you the way that horror movie stuff does. But. And there's so much
that ends up becoming almost cliche. But it's. But it was.
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. 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. I love it. Hell, yeah. 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. 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. I'm Steve. And I'm Nick. Thank you so
much for listening, and we'll catch you next week.