image credit: ScreenRant.com***Spoiler Alert***
The first showing of Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s The Thing (2011) at the Burbank AMC movie theater attracted many moviegoers. At $6 per ticket, moviegoers got to watch a great horror movie at a bargain price. Hollywood studios are cranking out the end of the world movies to feed the demand.
The remake of John Carpenters' The Thing (1982) utilized modern movie technology to improve the Alien/human shape-changing scenes; however, the current The Thing (2011) rendition remained true to the original. The cheesy special effects resembled The Faculty (1998), depicting the Alien/host virus transfer through blood, consumption and or absorption. The Thing (2011) reprised a classic science fiction horror movie with extreme accuracy.
A European team of researchers plow across the ice cold snow in the desolate Antarctica continent. The driver and passenger engage in a joke session, whereas another researcher monitors frequency waves leading the research team to a mystery visitor. The signal grows strong, influencing the yellow vehicle to stop in its tracks. All of a sudden, the ice floor breaks and the research team descends down a tight icy crack hole. An enormous THING of some sort fills the space.
Beautiful starlet Marie Elizabeth Winstead graced the silver screen as the experienced researcher Kate Loyd. Dr. Sander Halvorson (Ulrich Thomson) invites Kate to join his team in Antarctica. He withholds important details to keep the research top secret. Therefore, Kate must accept the research offer to avoid losing out a chance in a lifetime. Adam Goodman (Eric Christian Olsen from Hot Chick fame) plays an research assistant to Dr. Halvorson.
Kate, Sander, and Adam fly to Antarctica. American helicopter pilots Braxton Carter (Joel Edgerton) and Jameson (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) toy around with Kate, asking her about the awfully bad NBA Cavaliers team and warning her of the Norwegian roommates awaiting her arrival. The research team greet Kate, Sander and Adam. Moments later, the research team enter the dark cave. To their amazement, an Alien craft crowds the hollow underground ice tavern.
The research team make a discovery, finding an unknown specimen frozen in the ice floor atop. Sander makes the announcement of delivering the specimen to the research headquarters. A dark clawed being remains perfectly preserved in the thick block of ice. Sander recommends they take a tissue sample of the being. However, Kate challenges the notion that such an act is dangerous. Sander confronts Kate, warning her that he will not tolerate her insubordinate defiance toward his orders.
A research member drills a hole into the block of ice. The drilling scene is intense, considering that moviegoers have no clue on what to expect once the drill bit pierces into the Alien being. Immediately after collecting the sample, the researchers celebrate the historical discovery in their bar. They drink a variety of hard liquor and beer. Sander congratulates his research team on finding and delivering the Alien specimen intact. He tells them that they will become important figures.
Jameson walks into the room where the Alien being is frozen in a block of ice. Another researcher scares him to the point in which he must take a deep breathe to regain his composure. Seconds later, the Alien being projects out of the ice, and out through the ceiling. Jameson runs to the bar, panicking and incoherent. He attempts to find the best way to inform the research team, telling them that their Alien specimen escaped. The research team scold Jameson for joking around, but it is clear that something has gone awfully wrong.
The research team arm themselves with firepower. They disperse into groups to find the Alien being. Nobody knows what to expect, especially after the Alien is now alive after thousands of years. One research member, Colin (played by Jonathan Walker) is unexpectedly dragged underneath the building foundation and consumed. The Alien being digests a human in a fascinating way, according to Sander's autopsy comment.
Juliette (Kim Bubbs) leaves the autopsy, apparently sick to her stomach. She tricks Kate into believing another member cleaned up the bloody mess in the bathroom. Juliette transforms into a human/Alien form. Kate maneuvers through the room to escape the Alien. The research crew cooks the Thing into Alien jerky.
A helicopter escorts a sick member who watched the Alien devour his fellow researcher. Kate learns that her cell mutation notion is proven with the Alien assuming the shape of its host. She discovers the Alien is unable to replicate organic material through finding bloody fillings on the bathroom floor. She warns the helicopter to land.
Moviegoers are confused as to which helicopter crew member is infected. Instead of Olav (Juan Gunnar Roise), the Thing is another crew member. His face then breaks apart, revealing the Alien form within the human flesh. Nonetheless, the chaos causes the helicopter to crash on the backside of the mountain. The research team accept the fact that everyone in the helicopter is dead.
As The Thing movie progresses, Kate begins to realize the research team is not safe. The Alien being can take shape of any living human and animal form, replicating a host as depicted in Terminator 2 and The Faculty movies. Kate warns that no research member can be trusted, expecting everyone to show their teeth fillings to prove they are human. The breakdown in trust remind moviegoers of the mutiny in the Crimson Tide (1995) movie. Sander realizes Kate is now the decision maker in the crisis.
Another human transforms into an Alien. Half of the research crew is lost, including Kate's good friend Adam. The Thing begins to go after research members. Sander is eventually devoured, and then reemerges as himself again. Kate and Braxton go after Sander, knowing that his contact with any human beings will cause millions of people to die.
Kate's goal to save mankind makes for an intense ending, Moviegoers are left in the dark; therefore, the writers and the director can create suspense throughout the metaphysical horror movie to entertain us. The Thing is portrayed as an end of the world movie, depicting the effects of Alien cells breeding within human beings. We sense that somewhere in an icy block of ice is the beginning to the end.
Nevertheless, The Thing will reveal a surprise twist at the end of the movie. Watch Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s The Thing (2011) with care because the gruesome scenes will make you jump out of your seat. The Thing delivers a grotesque model of what Aliens are capable of doing once they make human contact. You will leave The Thing thinking about whether life as we know it can end through an Alien virus. I highly recommend The Thing, giving the movie 5 stars out of 5 stars rating.
Original publication date: October 15, 2011
2011 1982
