Line #51 Film/TheThing2011


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_thing_prequel_8369.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Somebody was attacked!"''
4	->''"But it seems... everyone is fine..."''
5
6	''The Thing'' is a horror film from 2011, directed by Creator/MatthijsVanHeijningenJr, written by Creator/EricHeisserer, and starring Creator/MaryElizabethWinstead, Creator/JoelEdgerton, Creator/AdewaleAkinnuoyeAgbaje, Creator/KristoferHivju, and Creator/UlrichThomsen.
7
8	This film is a {{prequel}}/remake to Creator/JohnCarpenter's classic ''Film/TheThing1982'', which focuses on the Norwegian camp that discovered the shapeshifting alien creature first.
9
10	Like the other movie, a house based on the film was featured in the Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights of 2011.
11
12	!!This prequel provides examples of:
13
14	* TheEighties: Downplayed. The year is 1982, but you honestly wouldn't be able to tell aside from maybe the hairstyles and a 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.
15	* AbsurdlyIneffectiveBarricade: One character hides from the Thing in a storeroom, but there's only a pair of swing doors keeping anything out. All he can do is stop them moving, in the hope that the alien won't realise someone has gone inside. It doesn't work.
16	* 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".
17	* AdaptationalDumbass: The extraterrestrial in this film sabotages his own chances of winning more than once because it goes for an animalistic, wrathful approach. Loudly roaring and transforming in public when a more stealthy approach ala the 80's film would have sufficed. The biggest example of this is when [[spoiler: It crashes the helicopter it was boarding out of the need to kill a potential witness, instead of simply staying put until he could reach civilization.]]
18	* AirVentEscape: Kate temporarily escapes the alien on the spaceship by fleeing down a vent it's too big to follow. The alien gropes for her with its tentacles, [[spoiler:eventually {{Ankle Drag}}ging Kate into the open. Unfortunately she's managed to get her hands on a grenade.]]
19	* AlienAutopsy: After the alien that emerged from the ice is incinerated to death, Dr. Sander Halverson orders an autopsy to be done on the remains. This allows everyone present at the autopsy to discover its most recent victim at the time, Henrik, in the process of being absorbed by the creature, as well as [[ChekhovsGun establishing some facts that would become important later on]][[note]]Kate finds a titanium plate ''outside'' of Henrik's arm, foreshadowing that that the Thing [[spoiler:can't absorb and imitate inorganic material]] and allowing her to eliminate suspects just by checking to see if they have [[spoiler:dental fillings and/or body piercings]]. Kate also takes and examines a tissue sample under a microscope and sees the alien's still living cells absorbing Henrik's cells and taking on their appearance, causing her to deduce that the Thing can imitate the life forms it assimilates and realize that the Thing is still among them in the form of a human.[[/note]].
20	* AmbiguousSituation: The Thing and the saucer. [[spoiler:It's not revealed if the Thing was the ship's maker or if it simply assimilated its original pilots like it did to the humans here. The first plan for the film was that the Thing was certainly a different lifeform that assimilated the pilots, but the director ultimately left it ambiguous just in the 1982 film.]]
21	%%* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Sander Halverson]].
22	* AuthorAppeal: The producers and sfx crew Studio ADI were huge fans of the original. The producers reportedly stated that doing a remake would be "like painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa." And Studio ADI were extremely enthusiastic about creating animatronics akin to Rob Bottin's, though unfortunately [[ExecutiveMeddling that didn't quite work out.]]
23	* BadassAdorable: Kate is intelligent, brave, level-headed, and played by the attractive Creator/MaryElizabethWinstead.
24	* BellyMouth: the Thing loves to pop out of the chest and turn the ribs into teeth.
25	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Carter is cornered by the Two-Faced Thing with only a kitchen knife to defend himself, when Kate turns up with a flamethrower.]]
26	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: {{Subverted}}. Derek is [[spoiler:directly set-up as The Thing's first victim, but it completely ignores him after breaking free. He later survives a seemingly fatal helicopter crash, and ultimately doesn't end up dying until the mid-point[=/=]climax of the movie where ''all'' the secondary characters get slaughtered]].
27	* BodyHorror: Due to CGI, there's a LOT more gore, tentacles, fangs, teeth, and bodies splitting apart then in the original. The [[spoiler: two-face thing]] is the embodiment of this trope.
28	* BondVillainStupidity: [[spoiler: During the final confrontation with the Thing, it pulls Kate out of hiding in order to take her out and make its escape, but instead of starting to assimilate her as soon as it grabs her, the Thing decides to back up and charge at her, giving her a chance to toss a grenade at it.]]
29	* BookshelfDominoes: [[spoiler:Kate is trapped in a room with the Thing between her and the door. She knocks down several shelves into the alien, giving her a chance to get past.]]
30	* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Derek shoots Peder in the head when Peder nearly incinerates him with a flamethrower.]]
31	* CallForward: Being a prequel, this film details the events that transpired in the Norwegian camp before [=MacReady=]'s crew showed up to investigate. Some elements that are common to both films include:
32	** The fire-axe, and how it got stuck in the door.
33	** The UFO, discovered in a massive chamber underneath the ice.
34	** The two face-thing, and how it eventually appeared in its melted state.
35	** The block of ice, and what it looked like before it was found by [=MacReady=].
36	** Who ended up being the suicide victim found with his throat and wrist cut.
37	** [[spoiler:Those flamethrowers they give the Antarctic teams sure do have a bad habit of failing at critical moments]].
38	** Lars is the only one of the Norwegians who can't speak English and knows where the grenades are. Sure enough, [[spoiler:it's him at the beginning of the original film who shouts useless warnings in Norwegian at the Americans and tries to toss a grenade at the Thing]].
39	** Things love the chest-mouth thing they pulled on [[spoiler: Norris]].
40	** Also comparing stored blood with blood samples taken from everyone. [[spoiler:In the prequel the Thing hastily burns the lab -- whereas the Thing at Outpost 31, knowing in advance that this test will likely be used on it, has the time to destroy the stored blood in a way that implicates the camp leader.]]
41	** There is also a combination ChekhovsGun ContinuityNod, because [[spoiler:at the end of the 1982 film, Childs still has his earring]].
42	** In the original, Garry the base commander was the biggest suspect for being The Thing. [[spoiler: He turns out to be human, but here Edvard, Thule Station's commander, ''is'' the Thing. The Thing changes up tactics between the two films and decides to simply frame Garry rather than assimilating him.]]
43	** 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 prequel, [[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.]]
44	* CanonCharacterAllAlong: [[spoiler:Five (or should we say [[FusionDance four]]) of the characters here appear in the 1982 film. Lars is the Norwegian who gets killed by Garry, Matias is the pilot who accidentally kills himself by mishandled grenade, Colin is the man left in the camp who cut his wrists, and Edvard and Adam are the fused Thing that gets transported back to the American camp and later assimilates Bennings.]]
45	* CatScare: Carter knocks over a can while searching a storeroom for the Thing.
46	* 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]].
47	* 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.
48	* 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]].
49	* 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.
50	* CombatTentacles: Used by the Thing to kill or wound several people, usually as a prelude to assimilating the surviving biomass when it has time.
51	* ContinuitySnarl:
52	** In the original film it was shown that the Norwegians had to blow up the layer of ice that covered the flying saucer with explosives and filmed the operation on a video recording that [=MacReady=] would find. In the prequel, none of that happens and instead the ship itself melts the ice after being briefly re-activated.
53	** Design-wise, the flying saucer in the prequel looks very little like the one from the original movie, sporting a more OrganicTechnology esthetic.
54	* CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel: Although it used a lot of animatronics and other practical effects, nearly all of them are overlaid or enhanced with CGI, making it seem at times that the movie uses no practical effects at all. The two-face Thing is a great example of this, as it was a fully-working animatronic, even when it "absorbed" someone else.
55	* ACrackInTheIce: The movie opens with the Norwegians in a snowcat homing in on a Distress Signal. [[spoiler:They discover where it's coming from when the ground opens beneath them and they become wedged in a crevasse with their headlights shining down on a FlyingSaucer.]]
56	* CutTheJuice: Once the Thing goes on its kill rampage, the lights go out and the humans have to search using hand torches.
57	* 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 monstrous 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.]]
58	* DistressSignal: How the Norwegians find the FlyingSaucer. The signal sounds even more creepy and otherworldly than the signal in ''{{Film/Alien}}''.
59	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[spoiler:Juliette-Thing emits otherworldly moaning and the upper half of her body rocks back and forth as her tentacles thrust in and out of Karl's abdomen.]]
60	** Likewise, the way that [[spoiler:Edvard-thing looms over Adam on all fours,]] then lowers its body on top of his while pressing its face against his also feels uncomfortably reminiscent of sexual assault.
61	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: While the Thing is prevented from escaping in its UFO, everyone but Kate and Lars are dead. Kate's nowhere to be found when help arrives at last, and Lars goes after the last Thing (in the form of a husky). If you've seen the original film, you know what happens to him - and it fails to prevent the deaths at the American base]].
62	* DoomedByCanon: [[spoiler: With the possible exception of Kate, who may have driven to the Russian station 50 miles away instead of coming back to what she believed was an empty camp, everyone is obviously going to die either before the movie begins or at the start of the next movie (Lars and his pilot).]]
63	* DrJerk: Dr. Sander Halvorson [[spoiler:though of course [[AssholeVictim he gets his.]]]]
64	* DwindlingParty:
65	** Henrik is eaten by the original Thing and partially assimilated.
66	** Griggs is assimilated by the original thing off-screen.
67	** Olav is killed when the Griggs-Thing transforms in a helicopter and causes the helicopter to crash.
68	** Juliette is assimilated off-screen at some point.
69	** Karl is killed by the Juliette-Thing.
70	** Edvard is assimilated off-screen at some point as well.
71	** Peder is shot in the head by Derek when he tries to burn him and Sam.
72	** Jonas is partially assimilated by Edvard-Thing's hand.
73	** Derek is killed by the Edvard-Thing.
74	** Adam is partially assimilated by Edvard-Thing, thus both of them become the Split-face thing.
75	** Sander is assimilated by the Split-face thing.
76	** Carter is assimilated by the Sander-Thing offscreen.
77	** Colin commits suicide by cutting his wrists and throat at some point.
78	** (This death occurs in the 1982 movie.) Lars is shot in the eye by Garry when he tries to kill the Dog-thing.
79	** (This one also occurs in the 1982 movie.) Matias accidentally blows himself and his helicopter up with an incendiary grenade.
80	* EatenAlive: Henrik is pulled into the Thing found in the ice.
81	* EvilDetectingDog: Lars' dog sits on the block of ice being towed back to base without issue, but when the block starts melting, the dog is shown whining and gnawing at the wire of its cage to get out.
82	* {{Expy}}: Sander is a tribute to ''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.]]
83	* 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 thing finish assimilating him, leading it to become the split-faced Thing brought back from the Norwegian camp in the original]].
84	* FinalGirl: [[spoiler:Kate survives the events of the film, but her fate is left unknown]].
85	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: [[spoiler:When Carter and Kate plan to take one of the snowmobiles to get to the Russian base, there's a subtle change in Kate's expression when she suspects that Carter has been replaced with the Thing, plus the fact that 'Carter' takes some time to start the vehicle and is possibly figuring out how it works.]]
86	* ForWantOfANail: An ill-timed flamethrower malfunction indirectly leads to [[spoiler:the death of everyone except for Kate, and arguably even the events of the 1982 original]]. Had the flamethrower worked properly when [[spoiler:the Edvard-Thing decided to reveal itself]], then they'd have quickly been able to kill it and been forced to MercyKill [[spoiler:Jonas]], but the only Thing left at that stage would have been [[spoiler:the Husky-Thing, which they'd have had a much better chance of catching with most of the personnel still alive]].
87	* ForegoneConclusion: [[spoiler:Being a prequel, you know it's not going to go well for most if not everyone involved. Especially for Lars, see Downer Ending above]].
88	* GratuitousFrench: A rather "suprenant exemple". The first shots show Olav trying to get a clear signal with a kind of sonar. We can see the sonar has English entries written on it, [[TooLongDidntDub despite being used by Norwegians]]. But for no reason, you can also read "Sensitivité plus grand que 2 mV". [[BlindIdiotTranslation Sadly]], the sensitivity is "plus grand''e'' que" 2 mV.
89	* GenderFlip: Kate Lloyd (Winstead) is essentially a female {{Expy}} of R.J. [=McReady=] mixed with a dash of Ripley from ''{{Franchise/Alien}}''.
90	* GoryDiscretionShot: [[spoiler:The Two-Faced Thing assimilating Sanders.]]
91	* HateSink: The film makes reasonably clear that at no point are we supposed to sympathize with or like Dr. Halvorson. [[spoiler: He's not even the Thing, [[FinalBoss not until the film's climax of course]], he's just a [[SmugSnake snide]], unhelpful DrJerk with a [[ItsAllAboutMe fragile ego]] and [[LeaderWannabe issues with not being the person in charge]].]]
92	* HellishCopter: [[spoiler:The Thing transforms while aboard a helicopter in flight, causing it fly out of control and crash.]]
93	* HopeSpot: The ending offers the slightest of slight ones - Kate [[spoiler: and Carter have stopped the Thing from escaping,]] head back to the snowmobile, and are going to head for a Russian research station about fifty miles away. [[spoiler: Then Kate notices his earring's missing... If Carter was telling the truth about the Russian base, Kate ''might'' survive and, even if Mac and Childs die (or one of them is the Thing), then [[CantStoptheSignal word will get out]]. But if he was just taking her away in a random direction... The script for the film implies that her situation is 'hopeless,' meaning she's doomed. Then again, she's on foot in the script, while in the movie she has a vehicle, always assuming she knows which direction she's supposed to go and has enough fuel to get there.]]
94	* IdiotBall: [[spoiler: The Thing, after it exposes itself, can't help but to assimilate anything in its path, even when it puts it in danger. For example the Juliette-Thing stops to assimilate Karl, leaving it exposed in the hallway. Also the Carter-Thing could have easily killed Kate and simply drove to the Camp by itself, but doesn't in the interest of preserving its cover, despite Kate being clearly suspicious. Kate herself makes some bad judgement calls like ordering everyone to split up despite not being enough weapons to go around.]]
95	* IDontPayYouToThink: Kate objects to taking a tissue sample from the ice-bound alien. Her boss reprimands her for questioning his authority in front of the others. "You're not here to think. You're here to get that thing out of the ice." Why he tells the ''scientist'' he specifically brought down for this find that ''he doesn't want her to think'' is a good question.
96	* ImmediateSequel: [[spoiler:The ending to this movie is roughly ''minutes'' before the beginning of the 1982 movie]].
97	* ImpostorExposingTest: It's theorized that Thing blood will react when exposed to human blood, so a test is quickly created in order to see who's human or not. [[spoiler: The Thing then sets fire to the lab, destroying the test, and forcing the humans to use a more primitive method of seeing who has dental implants or not, since Kate found out the Thing is unable to imitate inorganic material]].
98	-->"So I'm gonna die because I floss?"
99	* ImposterForgotOneDetail: This is how Kate realizes that [[spoiler: Carter]] has been infected at the end of the movie. The Thing cannot replicate metallic objects and Kate [[spoiler: knew from earlier in the film that Carter wasn't assimilated because he was still wearing his earring. The Thing gets wise to its weakness by the end and thought to put the earring back on after [[KilledOffscreen killing Carter off screen]], but put it on the wrong ear.]]
100	* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: Sam carries a Beretta [=92FS=], which wouldn't have been available in 1982.
101	* 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. Also, the Sanders-thing is able to repair one of the disabled snowcats even though this is extremely unlikely to be a skill Sanders himself possessed]].
102	* ItWasThereISwear: Kate realises the Thing has assimilated a human [[spoiler:when she finds blood in the shower. When she goes back after the helicopter crash, the shower stall has been cleaned up. While this removes the evidence, it also tells Kate that the Thing is still among them, and wasn't just on the helicopter.]]
103	* JumpScare: A cheap "Boo!" scare which makes the one directly following much more unexpected.
104	* LetsSplitUpGang:
105	** After the Thing is fully revealed and everyone believes Kate, the expedition still ends up splitting into teams of two even after it's been made abundantly clear this is a terrible idea. It turns out that [[spoiler: ultimately nothing bad comes of this tactic, but it was still rather careless on their part.]]
106	** Earlier in the movie, they split up to search for The Thing after it has just escaped from the ice. [[spoiler: Henrik is murdered by The Thing and it is implied this is when it assimilated Griggs.]]
107	* LoadBearingBoss: The flying saucer's power system shuts down after both its control system and the Thing is destroyed.
108	* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
109	** [[spoiler: If the American pilots hadn't escaped, overpowered Lars and taken over the base while also killing Peder and destroying the only other flamethrower in the process, the Thing probably wouldn't have had the necessary chaos to continue its spree.]]
110	** [[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. In the long term a case of NiceJobFixingItVillain, since the Thing emerging at an isolated outpost is at least more manageable than if it were to inevitably revive at a more populated research center, where they were planning to transport and excavate it.]]
111	* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Cross-Species Assimilation.
112	* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: [[spoiler:When Carter and Derek stagger back to base after their helicopter crash, the mere fact of their survival is regarded as proof they're not human. It eventually emerges they are, but the understandable suspicion from the other characters gets them imprisoned and escaping at the ''worst'' possible time.]]
113	* NothingIsScarier: The Thing's original form within the ice block is vaguely insectoid, but we never get a very good look at it. Since it's a shapeshifter, it's probably not its "original" shape anyway, assuming it even has one. (Interestingly, it doesn't appear to be mimicking the saucer's pilot alien either if we consider canon its discarded model; maybe that was their equivalent of a husky?)
114	* OhCrap: The [[spoiler:Carter]]-Thing when it realizes it inadvertently gave itself away as a Thing.
115	* PoorCommunicationKills: To admittedly sort of unjustifiable levels. [[spoiler: Carter and Jameson just '''refuse''' to tell everyone what they did with Lars or that he's perfectly fine even after they are questioned about it multiple times and it could have helped to defuse some of the tension their escape caused. Even when Kate knows Carter is human and it's just the two of them, he ''[[IdiotBall still]]'' [[IdiotBall answers ambiguously when she asks him where Lars is.]] (Even though Lars if now one of the only people in camp left alive and they could use his help, not to mention they are essentially just abandoning him alone at the now practically destroyed camp while leaving him no realistic means of escape)]]
116	* {{Prequel}}: It starts three days before the events in Carpenter's film, and ends with [[spoiler: everyone but Lars, Matias, and Kate dead, and the Thing, in the shape of a husky, running across the snow, where it will eventually reach Outpost 31, and Lars and Matias will be killed; meanwhile Kate's fate is left uncertain]].
117	* PreviewsPulse: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1OpwEu7luk This trailer has two different ones]], a low one for suspense and a loud one for attack.
118	* RagnarokProofing: [[spoiler:The saucer is still functional when the Thing sets it on, despite it crashed millenia ago.]]
119	* RecycledTitle: In spite of being a prequel and not a remake, the film has the exact same name as the original.
120	* RetCon: What the UFO looked like and its condition at the end of the film. The manner of [[spoiler: the Split-face Thing's death]].
121	* RedHerring: Just like in the original film, [[spoiler: none of the characters seemingly set up to be the Thing actually turn out to be the Thing. In fact, before the final rampage only a couple of the base personnel were actually the Thing.]]
122	** In particular, Kate panics at one point because she is afraid [[spoiler: Olav might be a Thing from when his face was splattered with Henrik's blood when The Thing attacked him,]] as this character is about to leave the station with the American helicopter crew. She is correct that someone aboard ''has'' been assimilated, but it turns out it's [[spoiler: Griggs.]]
123	* RewatchBonus: A couple scenes which seem inconsequential on first viewing seem to reveal the timeline of the off-screen assimilations. [[spoiler: Griggs is outside by the helicopter looking for a case of "the good stuff" when the Thing breaks loose, and doesn't join up with everyone else until a while later after they start forming a search party; this is likely when he was assimilated. Later, when everyone is discussing Hendrik's death, Juliet leaves the room clearly distraught, and Griggs follows to comfort her. Juliet shrugs him off and walks away and Griggs continues to stare after her. Griggs likely followed her and assimilated her at this point. No scenes hint at when Edvard was assimilated, but as the commander of the base he'd be a top priority target, and was likely assimilated prior to the helicopter crash as the Griggs and Juliet Things would be killed off at that point.]]
124	* SamePlotSequel: The film is officially a prequel to ''Film/TheThing1982'', but recycles its whole plot, beat-for-beat, to the point that many reviews refer to it as a remake.
125	* ShoutOut
126	** The alien bursting through a wall into the snow while on fire is from ''Film/TheThingFromAnotherWorld''.
127	** On the flying saucer, [[spoiler:the Thing appears [[HeWasRightThereAllAlong to be part of the wall until it moves]], as per the xenomorphs in the Film/{{Alien}} series.]]
128	** Backstage photos of the Thing's "original" form in the ice shows it resembles the Martians of one of Carpenter's favourites, ''Film/QuatermassAndThePit''.
129	* ShownTheirWork: The production team went through ''Film/TheThing1982'' nearly frame-by-frame to piece together both an accurate recreation of the Norwegian base, and a story that incorporated every bit of damage shown onscreen.
130	* SoundOnlyDeath: The protagonists hears [[spoiler:Sanders scream as he's attacked by the Two-Faced Thing, so when they see Sanders drive off in a Snowcat, they know he's the alien and not just making a run for it.]]
131	* StarFishAliens: The Thing. [[spoiler:And not only that. In the "pilot version" of the movie, we do get to see the alien pilot of The Thing's ship, which is probably one of the most creative sophont alien designs ever put on film.]]
132	* StealthSequel: 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.
133	* StockFootage: [[spoiler: Some of the shots of the Norwegian helicopter chasing the Husky-Thing in the closing sequence is reused footage from the 1982 film (albeit recolored to match the color grading of the 2011 film).]]
134	* StockSoundEffects: That otherworldly distress signal is the same one sent by the ''Icarus I'' in ''Film/{{Sunshine}}''.
135	* SuperWindowJump: The Two-Faced Thing bursts through a window and attacks Carter.
136	* SurroundedByIdiots: Kate proves to be the only true threat to the Thing throughout the entire movie.
137	* TheUnreveal:
138	** While a shape can be seen inside the block of ice, we never see exactly what the Thing looks like when it landed on Earth (or even hints as to it's "original" shape. What few glimpses we do get suggest that it looks like [[spoiler: a massive, tentacled, multi-limbed insect of some kind]].
139	** Some fans theorized that the film would explain what the Thing was doing in the UFO. [[spoiler:While we do see inside the UFO, we never get a clear answer as to what its relationship is toward the Thing. Director van Heijningen originally intended to show that the Thing was an alien sample collected by the UFO's pilots that broke free, but the subplot was cut for pacing issues]].
140	* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: When Edvard is exposed as an imitation, Adam makes the mistake of making a break for the door in the rec-room to escape, only for him to trip and get wounded by the thing's tentacle, and then gets violently and helplessly assimilated and dragged away before Kate can torch it, which then becomes the split-faced thing seen in the original.]]
141	* TragicMistake: [[spoiler: If Carter and Jameson had not broken out of confinement, Kate's test likely would have cleared them. Instead, they incapacitate Lars, (right up there with Kate as one of the most competent characters, and already proven to be human) and end up creating a Mexican-standoff like situation which sees Peder, Jonas, Adam, Sander, and Jameson all killed or assimilated, and finally gives The Thing its big chance to escape.]]
142	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil:
143	** Most if not all of the trailers for the prequel have footage that clearly shows that [[spoiler: Griggs, Juliette, and Edvard are all assimilated and replaced by the Thing during the film.]] This is particularly egregious as it turns out they were the ''only'' characters that were secretly assimilated by the Thing. Also, recent television spots very briefly show [[spoiler: Carter being lit on fire by Kate in the snowmobile at the ending of the movie.]]
144	** In addition to [[spoiler: showing Henrik's death quite clearly,]] bits from several death scenes appear in the trailers, including those for [[spoiler: Jonas, Adam, Olav, and Sander.]] The trailer also spoils that [[spoiler: Lars will be the Norwegian rifleman from the original film.]]
145	* TurbineBlender: Played with. [[spoiler:Kate and Carter are walking across the hull of the spaceship when it powers up and they realise they're standing on the air intake vents, which start to flick sequentially to a vertical position. They run like hell, but Kate doesn't make it and falls screaming into the engine. She wakes up unharmed inside the spaceship, and the event only serves as an inadvertent LetsSplitUpGang.]]
146	* VomitDiscretionShot: During the autopsy when Henrik is found inside the alien's body, Juliette gags and runs out of the room. [[spoiler:It's likely that the Griggs-Thing assimilates her right after, as it is with her in the hallway right before she runs off alone, presumably to the bathroom where Kate later finds the bloody shower and fillings.]]
147	* WomenAreWiser: Juliette is the [[YouHaveToBelieveMe only person who believes Kate]] when she says the alien is disguised as one of them. [[spoiler:Subverted because she's already been assimilated and is intent on luring Kate somewhere quiet to do the same.]]
148	* WoundedGazelleGambit: [[spoiler:Edvard acts dazed and stunned by the Flamethrower explosion in order to get closer to two of the station workers.]]

Context Film / TheThing2011