History Film / TheThing2011

* ItCanThink: [[spoiler:The Thing cleans up one of its murder scenes, attempts to extinguish itself after being set on fire using an oven's safety extinguishers (though this may be pure luck on the Thing's part), leads Kate into a trap, verbally escalates a MexicanStandoff situation resulting in survivors killing each other and creating enough chaos for it to act, and finally briefly manages to power up the ship]].

* ItCanThink: [[spoiler:The Thing cleans up one of its murder scenes, attempts to extinguish a fire (though this may be pure luck on the Thing's part), leads Kate into a trap, and finally briefly manages to power up the ship]].

* [[spoiler: Sander's insistence on taking a tissue sample from the frozen alien is implied to be what woke it up in the first place. After that, it was only a matter of time before it broke out of the melting ice.]]

* Sander's insistence on taking a tissue sample from the frozen alien [[spoiler: is implied to be what woke it up in the first place. After that, it was only a matter of time before it broke out of the melting ice.]]

* Sander's insistence on taking a tissue sample from the frozen alien [[spoiler: is implied to be what woke it up in the first place. After that, it was only a matter of time before it broke out of the ice.]]

* AcousticLicense: Averted during the helicopter ride at the beginning. Carter, one of the pilots, waves at passenger Kate to put on the headset next to her so that they can talk clearly.

* AndIMustScream:
** You really gotta wonder what however many eons frozen beneath the Antarctic ice was like for The Thing, which displays multiple times throughout the film it is a comprehending being. Mac was right, no wonder it wakes up pissed. [[spoiler: The first thing it does when the ice containing it has melted enough is violently explode out of it.]]
** While it's not ''exactly'' sure [[FridgeHorror how aware Thing victims are]] in both here and in the original film, the way it assimilates some of its prey certainly is this as detailed under FateWorseThanDeath.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Sander Halverson]].

* BadassAdorable: Kate, who is intelligent, brave, level-headed, and played by the attractive Creator/MaryElizabethWinstead.

* BilingualBonus: Averted with subtitles. However while all the Norwegians except Lars can understand English, the Americans can't speak Norwegian, and this adds to the tension at some points, like when the Norwegians under suspicion of being infected are urging a flamethrower-armed Peder to turn on the Americans, saying ''they're'' the infected ones.

* CatScare: Carter knocks over a can while searching a storeroom for the Thing.
* ChekhovsGun: It's discovered early on that the Thing cannot duplicate inorganic material, such as metal. This comes back when Kate [[spoiler: checks people's mouths to see if they have dental implants or not]]. It's also used to reveal that [[spoiler: Carter is a Thing at the very end of the film, due to his missing earring]].
* ChekhovsGunman: It is mentioned early on in the film that Thule Station's helicopter is being refueled at Halley Research Station. At the end of the film, it and its pilot, Matias, show up only to find the camp destroyed and [[spoiler: Lars]] the only present survivor.
* ChekhovMIA: [[spoiler: The husky. It appears he's dead at the beginning of the movie, but then we see him running during the credits, trailed by Lars]].
* TheCoconutEffect: One's breath doesn't fog in Antarctica (moisture in the air condensing into droplets when struck by the heat of one's exhalations is why it happens, but since Antarctica is a frost desert, there's very little moisture in the air), but people won't accept that "it's bloody cold!" without foggy breath.
* CombatTentacles: Used by the Thing to kill or wound several people, usually as a prelude to assimilating the surviving biomass when it has time.
* ContinuityNod[=/=]CallForward: Being a prequel, this is to be expected. Among them are:

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:We don't have any clue what happened to Kate at the end of the film, whether she made it to the Russian station or ended up freezing to death in the attempt. We ''do'', however, find out that Lars and the Husky-Thing were simply hiding while the climax took place. The script reveals that Kate will freeze to death, but it also has her on foot, as opposed to the film showing her with a fully-functional vehicle and plenty of fuel.]]

* [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled Better to Die Than Be Assimilated]]: A DeletedScene shows [[spoiler:this is why Colin killed himself. Hiding in the radio room, he hears a skittering noise (presumably one of the hand-Things -- the sfx hadn't been added to the scene) and deliberately cuts his wrists, then his throat.]]

* [[ImmediateSequel Immediate Prequel]]: [[spoiler:The ending to this movie is roughly ''minutes'' before the beginning of the 1982 movie]].

* [[StealthSequel Stealth Prequel]]: The film is both a prequel and a ''veeerrry'' subtle remake of the original. It was initially advertised as a remake until viewers saw that the plot points indicated that this took place prior to the events of the 1982 film and it's mostly confirmed by the ending.

* SurroundedByIdiots: Kate proves to be the only true threat to the thing throughout the entire movie.

* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Cross-Species Disease.

** In the blood test scene from the original, [[spoiler: Palmer]] has an extremely matter-of-fact reaction to his blood about to be tested because [[spoiler: he's The Thing and of course knows he will fail.]] In the remake, [[spoiler: Edvard]] has a similar reaction to Kate's fillings test, and doesn't even bother to show her his teeth for similar reasons. Sure enough, [[spoiler: like Palmer, Edvard is the only person in the room who actually was The Thing.]]

* [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled Better To Die Than Be Assimilated]]: A DeletedScene shows [[spoiler:this is why Colin killed himself. Hiding in the radio room, he hears a skittering noise (presumably one of the hand-Things -- the sfx hadn't been added to the scene) and deliberately cuts his wrists, then his throat.]]

** (This one also occurs in the 1989 movie.) Matias accidentally blows himself and his helicopter up with an incendiary grenade.

* ActionizedSequel: Well, technically an Actionized {{Prequel}}, but the principle's the same. Though there's only 5 minutes of difference in run time between them ([[Film/TheThing1982 the original]] runs for 104 minutes, this one runs for 99 minutes), this film has a lot more outright combat and man vs. monster scenes than the more psychological "sequel". A lot of that is due to ExecutiveMeddling, though.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:We don't have any clue what happened to Kate at the end of the film, whether she made it to the Russian station or ended up freezing to death in the attempt. We ''do'', however, find out that Lars and the Huskey-Thing were simply hiding while the climax took place. The script reveals that Kate will freeze to death, but it also has her on foot, as opposed to the film showing her with a fully-functional vehicle and plenty of fuel.]]

* DetachmentCombat: [[spoiler:An apparently unconscious Edvard is being carried off by two others when his arm drops off, scrabbles up to the face of the man carrying him and forces itself down his throat. As Edvard morphs into a monsterous form, the other arm detaches and scrabbles off. Both limbs are destroyed later, and as the Thing doesn't do this as a normal tactic it's probably a response to the body being fatally injured.]]

** (This one also occurs in the 1989 movie.) Matias accidently blows himself and his helicopter up with an incendiary grenade.

* {{Expy}}: Sander is a tribute to the ''Film/TheThingFromAnotherWorld'''s Dr. Carrington, according to the director. Both believe the Thing must be studied ForScience and refuse to understand its violent nature. [[spoiler:The major difference is that Carrington survived his ordeal, while Sander ends up getting assimilated.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: When the Thing assimilates some of its victims via direct contact, they're aware of what's happening, and are clearly in great pain during the process. [[spoiler: One of them, with a Thing lodged in his mouth, silently begs Kate to kill him]]. Another, [[spoiler: Adam, gets his face fused with the Edvard Thing, then dragged off before we see the the thing finish assimilating him, leading it to become the split-faced Thing brought back from the Norwegian camp in the original]].

* TheEighties: Downplayed. The year is 1982, but you honestly wouldn't be able to tell aside from maybe the hairstyles and vague pop culture nod here and there. The film also attempts to throw in Kate listening to [[Music/MenAtWork Men At Work's]] hit single of that year, "Who Can It Be Now" on a cassette player for good measure.

* AndIMustScream: You really gotta wonder what however many eons frozen beneath the Antarctic ice was like for The Thing, which displays multiple times throughout the film it is a comprehending being. Mac was right, no wonder it wakes up pissed. [[spoiler: The first thing it does when the ice containing it has melted enough is violently explode out of it.]]

This film is a {{prequel}} to Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''Film/TheThing1982'', which focuses on the Norwegian camp that discovered the shapeshifting alien creature first.

''The Thing'' is a horror film from 2011, starring Creator/MaryElizabethWinstead, Creator/JoelEdgerton, Creator/AdewaleAkinnuoyeAgbaje, Creator/KristoferHivju, and Ulrich Thomsen.