The Thing
It's not human. Yet.
The Thing (2011)
Production
Budget
$38 000 000
Revenue
$31 505 287
Director
Scenario
John W. Campbell Jr.
Author
Composer
Producer
Actors
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Kate Lloyd
Joel Edgerton
Carter
Ulrich Thomsen
Dr. Sander Halvorson
Eric Christian Olsen
Adam Finch
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Jameson
Paul Braunstein
Griggs
Trond Espen Seim
Edvard Wolner
Kim Bubbs
Juliette
Short description
A Norwegian research team working in Antarctica uncovers an alien spacecraft buried in the ice, with a frozen organism still inside. American paleontologist Kate Lloyd is brought in to examine the find. When the creature is freed from its frozen state, it proves able to copy any living thing it touches, and the isolated station turns into a place of suspicion and violence as the survivors try to work out who is still human.
Released in 2011, the film is a prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 movie of the same name, showing events at the Norwegian camp that precedes it. Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. directed from a screenplay by Eric Heisserer; it was the first of the two features he has directed, followed by The Forgotten Battle in 2021. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Kate, with Joel Edgerton as the pilot Carter, Ulrich Thomsen as Dr. Sander Halvorson, Eric Christian Olsen as Adam Finch and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Jameson.
Made for about 38 million dollars, the film took in roughly 32 million worldwide, less than its budget. On IMDb it holds 6.3 from around 154,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.3 from a much smaller number of ratings. A critics' score of 5.1 from 171 reviews sits below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Despite the film being set in Antarctica, British Columbia served as the filming location.
- Producers convinced Universal Studios to let them film a prequel to John Carpenter's science fiction film *The Thing* (1982), rather than a remake, believing that Carpenter had made an excellent film, and a remake would be like 'drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa.' The prequel was given the same title as the original film because no one could come up with anything better.
- There was an unimaginable number of screenshots from the first film on set, to make the Norwegian polar station as close to the original shown in the first film as possible.
- Studio representatives constantly interfered with the filming process, and director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. disliked it so much that he stopped making films for almost a decade. He subsequently returned to directing films in Norway, vowing to never work with American film studios again.
- The blueprints for the sets of John Carpenter's film were not preserved, and when determining the size of the Norwegian polar station sets to build, the filmmakers used Kurt Russell's height (176 cm) as a reference point.
- The special effects needed to bring the alien creature to life were filmed using animatronics at the director's insistence. In case the animatronics didn't look convincing (for example, with the creature's tentacles), computer graphics were planned. However, the audience reaction at previews was such that studio executives ordered the replacement of almost all animatronic special effects with computer graphics.
- The film's premiere was originally scheduled for April 15, 2011, but studio executives insisted on reshooting numerous scenes, adding new computer graphics, remounting the footage aiming for a "PG-13" rating (children under 13 are not advised to watch), and completely reshooting the ending. Some scenes were filmed just a couple of weeks before the October 14, 2011 premiere, and work on the computer graphics continued less than 24 hours before the postponed premiere.
- Ronald D. Moore wrote the first draft of the screenplay back in 2009, but the executives at Universal Pictures decided to give the script to Eric Heisserer for revisions. In 2014, Moore became a producer and writer for the series "Helix," which has a similar plot (a team of scientists at a polar research station fights a deadly virus that, if released, will destroy all of humanity).
- Actor Dennis Storhøi was cast in one of the roles, but after a week of filming, he went on a drinking binge and was fired. Scenes already filmed with the actor were altered during post-production – Ulrich Thomsen's face was digitally superimposed. Storhøi, in an interview with Norwegian media, vehemently denied the suggestion that he was fired due to alcohol abuse, claiming he left the project of his own accord.
- At the end of the film, you can notice Colin, played by Jonathan Walker, with his throat and veins slashed – and he appears exactly like this in the 1982 film. A scene was even filmed where he locks himself in a room, but hearing the approach of the alien creature, he slashes his veins and then cuts his throat. This scene did not make it into the film, but it can be seen in the 'BluRay' edition.
- The red axe that the character played by Joel Edgerton drives into the wall is visible when the Americans arrive at the Norwegian camp in John Carpenter's original film.
- Kim Babbes almost fainted while filming the scene of her own scream after transforming into The Thing. Before the filming, the director told her that her scream would likely not be included in the film, but her scream was so convincing that it was ultimately left in.
- Sam Carter is armed with a Beretta 92FS pistol, which is an anachronism. Beretta did launch the 92 series in 1982, but the 92F/92FS modifications were not available until at least 1983.
- One of the final scenes in the film shows the surviving Norwegian, Lars, chasing an infected dog alongside helicopter pilot Matthias. Lars is armed with a German Heckler & Koch HK33 submachine gun, while in the 1982 film, this character wielded a Heckler & Koch HK93A2. The main difference is that the Heckler & Koch HK93A2 is a semi-automatic variant of the Heckler & Koch HK33 for the civilian market.
- The main female character, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, shares more similarities not with the film’s protagonist Carpenter, played by Kurt Russell, but rather with Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, from the franchise that began with Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror film “Alien.”
- The alien ship was supposed to be revealed in more detail: The initial script featured cameras showing other alien life forms infected by “The Thing,” as well as “Pilots” – aliens who piloted the crashed ship. Thus, instead of the scene where Kate sees a hologram in one of the ship's halls, she was supposed to encounter that very “Pilot,” who had also been assimilated by “The Thing,” and in a fight with him, he is burned and blown up with a grenade. A full-size model was built and all scenes with it were shot, but the producers at some point abandoned this idea to avoid confusing the audience.
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Auditions in India
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Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
