The Thing

100 "I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. It'll fight if it has to, but it's vulnerable out in the open. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won. " The thing starts off with a desolate antarctic landscape that feels perpetual. The amazing thing about "The Thing" is it always leaves you with more questions than answers. The characters themselves each have their own methodology to pandemonium; for example Macready way of handling the situation is to drink away his life or to annihilate the entire camp. The music might as well be a character in the film its so vital. The score put together by Ennio Morricone and John Carpenter makes you feel tense, disturbed and ultimately terrified. I personally love how the song "Superstitious" plays which is so fitting and completely encapsulates the film. Each bit of dialogue is very quotable with lines like "First goddamn week of winter." or the surreal quote by Macready "We're not gettin' outta here alive. But neither is that Thing". But than you have the comedic lines like "I know you gentlemen have been through a lot. And when you find the time I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!" or "Maybe we'll just warm things up a little around here". One of my personal favorite shots in the film is when you can see a deep hole in the ground of a deserted spaceship while three men stare into nothingness. This maybe one of the most frightening shots ever capturing the complete solitude of the desert they are stuck in. A big visual motif i adore is the bluish-purple haze that pairs together with the darkness at night. It adds almost an uncanny feeling to "The Thing". The Things use of symbolism is absolutely genius on the Cold War. All the paranoia during that time of who could be a communist and singling people out is clever. And also the threats made by camp members to attempt to blow the whole camp up is just so sharp. Another major point of symbolism that is not addressed enough is how Macready represents the duality of man. There is this one particular scene where Macready's face is half blue and half red which i believe represents duality. The first thing it does is it poses the possibility that Macready is 50% human and 50% thing wagering the paranoia. The second thing it represents is 50% good and 50% evil because even though his character feels rather lifeless but you can see his redeeming qualities come through when he makes the speech on the tape recorder. In the same scene with the colors one of the best cathartic speeches in all of cinema is made with the line " Well, that's suicide! Not for that Thing. It wants to freeze now. It knows it's got no way out of here. It just wants to go to sleep in the cold until the rescue team finds it. Whether we make it or not, we can't let that Thing freeze again. Maybe we'll just warm things up a little around here. We're not gettin' outta here alive. But neither is that Thing". This film goes to show that regardless of Carpenters campy style he can be a controlling, thought-provoking and a masterful director.