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Submit Your Thoughts On The Thing For The Deepest Dive! (Patreon)

Published:
2020-10-19 19:55:54
Edited:
2020-10-19 19:59:28
Imported:

Content

This week we're kicking off The Deepest Dive on The Thing and we need your comments to fuel our discussion that'll air on Wednesday. For the first discussion Ben Hanson, Leo Vader, Javy Gwaltney, and Mike Mahardy are tackling the original 1948 short story Who Goes There? by John W Campbell and the 1951 film The Thing From Another World. Please don't spoil anything about the 1982 film in the comments, we want folks to be able to experience that film fresh.

Also, because we're continuing to grow, please keep your one comment to around the length of a tweet. We want to get to as many comments as possible. We hope you understand.

Please submit a comment below with your specific thoughts on the original book and film. Let's talk about your favorite moment, thought experiment, dog, or thing, please get specific. The more specific you are, the higher the odds of us reading your comment during the discussion. We'll finish collecting comments on Tuesday morning.

We'll be looking for your feedback on these topics on these dates...

- The Thing (1982 film) - 10/26

- The video game (2002), tabletop game, and prequel film (2011) - 11/2

You can watch us record The Deepest Dive live on Tuesday at 5pm Central if you're at the $10 Backstage Pass tier on Patreon. The link will be in the Backstage Pass tier on the Discord. Thanks for your support!

Comments

Anonymous

**Re-posting here just in case it got missed on the Deepest Dive announcement post. To start off, John Carpenter's "The Thing" is one of my favorite films ever, second only to the original "Alien". I had never read the original story or seen "The Thing from Another World", so this Deepest Dive was very exciting for me. I really enjoyed "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell Jr. I loved how methodical the author was with the science behind everything, lending more weight to the "science" behind the science-fiction. I was intrigued by the seemingly psychic aspects of the original version of the creature with it invading the dreams of the humans. I thought the story also conveyed the sense of horror and paranoia well. It makes the reader not sure who they can trust, which is an important factor of the story. It was a great story and I can see how it provided a fantastic basis for the media adaptations to follow. As for "The Thing from Another World" directed by Christian Nyby, I thought it was fine. It held up pretty well and I enjoyed watching it. However, it was surprising to me how much had changed from the original story to this version. I was especially disappointed with the change of the design/concept of the titular "Thing". Nothing about this film version captures the terror of the creature from the original story. While I think the film itself has a fair amount of creepiness and suspense to it (especially for the time it was made, despite limited technology), it's disappointing that the creature is reduced to a super-strong "carrot" and average movie monster when the original creature and premise are so much more interesting. With that major change, it makes the movie a fun classic film, but a fairly poor adaptation of the original material in my opinion. I also agree with Dylan about some of the other changes to the film, including his mention of the American-military-ized nature of the film version, as well as recognizing other aspects to make it appeal to a broader audience, such as the romance subplot. I'm really looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts, and excited for the weeks to come. Thanks!

Anonymous

Hey did anyone listen to the audio version of Who Goes There? I found it on youtube narrated by Edward E. French and I thought he did a great job at playing each character. Also the addition of the eerie music and howling of the wind here and there adds a lot to the ambiance.

Anonymous

Hey everybody! Thanks for motivating me to engage in the material. I know of The Thing in pop culture but am otherwise unfamiliar to the media. I had to prioritize my time and didn't find enough to read and watch the movie. So I read the short story, and, criticism aside, loved it. I never knew how The Thing looked, so if you'll permit me the description in the short story: A single throw of the tarpaulin revealed the thing. The ice had melted somewhat in the of the room, and it was clear and blue as thick, good glass. It shone wet and sleek under the harsh light of the unshielded globe above...The broken half of the bronze ice-ax was still buried in the queer skull. Three mad, hate-filled eyes blazed up with a living fire, bright as fresh-spilled blood, from a face ringed with writhing, loathsome nest of worms, blue, mobile worms that crawled where hair should grow. There are more bits throughout the novella but this is the main chunk that's helped me imagine it. Cheers! - Geoff aka Groffles

Patrick Polk

I hadn't read "Who Goes There?" before and I loved it. My favorite part of The Thing has always been the psychological aspect of not knowing whether your friends, or possibly even yourself, were secretly existentially-threatening monsters. I loved that the short story was very focused on the distrust, and didn't lean heavily on gruesome creature horror. Another thing I liked about the story is that it was so tight, moving briskly and not overly holding your hand at all. It often would not directly spell out important plot points such as what precisely happened to the dogs and cattle, or exactly how poor Connant's fate played out. It kept me on my toes and made sure that I was paying close attention. Thanks for putting together this Deepest Dive!

Anonymous

I'm a bit of a classic movie guy and I had never seen this - absolutely loved it. What I found most interesting was the dialogue - it was quite unique for the time. Lots of people, quick back and forth, snappy and natural. Almost like an early version of Sorkin.... I did some reading about Hawks style and he was a bit of a pioneer in that regard. Pretty cool! (Also interesting how they went very different from the short story - I assume due to Hollywood preferences and limitations of the time - the 82 film is much more like the short story)

Patrick Polk
>>46177424

This is completely off topic, but man I feel like tons of old movies have amazing, quick dialogue. Maybe you will disagree, but what about like The Apartment or All About Eve? I am only modestly into old movies, so I'm no expert, but in my mind they are more focused on quality dialogue than modern movies, so fast-paced dialogue like this was more of a characteristic old timey feature, rather than an exception. Anyway, have a good day!

Anonymous
>>46177424

Oh, I think you're right, I definitely didn't mean to suggest old movies weren't known for great dialogue - I probably didn't get my point across as I meant to. I kind of meant the style of it - there's almost like a rhythm to it, like music, but the way characters will dive in and out of the scene/dialogue is almost like there's not a camera and they aren't in a movie. Kind of like in The Newsroom from HBO or something. But in general, I totally agree - older movies have fantastic, witty, sharp dialogue and those two you mentioned are both great examples!

Anonymous

Alrighty Cohorts(or possibly not?), this might be a relatively long comment but here we go: So working chronologically startingf with Who Goes There, I like how at the beginning of the novella that it focused on the specifics of how a human sounded in the Antarctic environment, almost preparing you for paranoia that the rest of the story portrays. Also, the way that the scientist talks about life from nature seems very modern. He says that just because life takes a certain form, that doesn't necessarily speak to the intention of the lifeform (although he was wrong in this specific case). He mentioned that they suffered from something innately human: the fear of things that are different from you. I thought that was a pretty progressive view to see in a story of that time. I also enjoyed how the story never had a distinct change in perspective so you never truly got a grip on who was human and who was an imitation. It added a lot to the suspense. Oh, one last odd, yet kind of interesting thing. I was wondering why John W. Campbell would choose Antarctica of all places for the setting of his story. I searched "1938 Antarctica" to see if there was anything significant that came up and I happened upon articles about a German Antarctic expedition that took place in 1938 (the year of the story's initial release). This specific expedition was the third one by the Germans and there was territory that was disputed between them and the Norwegians in an effort to increase Germany's production of whale fat.....or was it?? But yeah just an interesting little tidbit I found. Now, as far as The Thing From Another World is concerned, I found it interesting that they chose to change the location to the Alaskan arctic and the north pole. It seemed like they wanted to use as much of the military as possible since WWII had just ended and Hollywood was looking to capitalize on the fondness the American people felt for the military after the war. I laughed when I saw the discount Frankenstein's Monster-looking alien they used but I was actually impressed when the oil to the compound got cut off and everyone's breath was visible. I'm having a ball with this deep dive yall. Im glad we did this!

Anonymous

Loved the short story but that movie was terrible. Ben, do you think Spielberg was referencing it in Jurassic park when Muldoon and Hammond both are having conversations at the same time at the raptor pit? I instantly thought of that scene when the guy on the radio is talking over the other guy. It was a weird moment and stood out.

Anonymous
>>46174251

I listened to a full cast audio drama version which was also on Youtube. It also included wind howling in the background through a lot of it, which definitely sells the atmosphere.

Anonymous

I am always surprised by old films when I’m reminded of how long pop culture has held onto certain themes. In this case it’s the idea of the scientist having no morals and only wanting knowledge, and the likable characters just want to burn things down.

Anonymous

Long time listener, first-time writer. Thanks for this excuse to finally read this! What immediately jumped out to me is how much this book dives into the pseudo-science of The Thing creature. I can't follow all of it, but it reminds me of something I love about the Resident Evil game, and the lengths they'll go to try to explain these insane viruses. Definitely enjoying the characters walking through their logic. Also The Thing from Outer Space is still a great film. I'll never forget seeing that door jump scare and fire stunt at The Heights theater together, Ben!

Anonymous

Who Goes There? was a bit too verbose for my tastes, but i wouldn't have guessed this was written in the 30's thanks to the timelessness of the story and setting. As The Thing From Another World, I was surprisesd with how the characters didn't seem too terrified by the fact that an alien was trying to kill them. I was expecting more screaming and close-ups of horrified looks, and just an overall B-movie feel, but the movie was better for avoiding that in my opinion. P.S. Kudos to the filmmakers for doing that wild "let's set the room on fire" stunt! In a weird coincidence, I had watched a Stuntmen Reacts video (https://youtu.be/tP0WJVzQ3J4) that featured said fire stunt not long before this Deepest Dive for The Thing announced!

Anonymous

First, on Who Goes there?: Do you think that it is implied that The Thing that they pull out of the Ice and see in the Ice is the Thing's true form? Or is this an alien that the Thing has taken over. As in, on that ship, The Thing went through the Crew and caused the ship to crashland on Earth and that it came out to a frozen wasteland and was irritated to find nothing to take over and froze there. On The Thing From Another World: It is interesting to watch this movie during the cold war that is so anti-science, or at least anti scientist and pro-military. It was made at the beginning of the cold war, and they chose to make it the North Pole instead of the South Pole seemingly just so they could make a comment about "the Russians always flying overhead" or something like that. Also weirdly Pro-Bondage sexy times for a movie made in the 50's. Thanks for doing a non-video game based Deepest Dive. I don't have time to play through most games in the time schedule that a deepest dive does but Watching a movie for a night and listening to an audiobook (especially one so short) while at work is much more doable! Thanks!

Lucy Yearwood

Laughed out loud at the line "Well, it applied for leave of absence and took it." when The Thing went for a jolly the first time