History Trivia / TheThing1982

** The unused ending mentioned in FocusGroupending.

* DuelingMovies: With ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' and ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', which were released two weeks and three weeks respectively before this film. Sadly, ''The Thing'' lacked the mass-market appeal of the former and the established brand of the latter, meaning that it ended up grossing by far the least of the three, [[VindicatedByHistory though they would all go on to be remembered as classics of the Sci-Fi genre.]]

** Norris goes to Mac's shack and tells him that he needs to fly the helicopter over to Norwegian base.
** Mac and Doc checking the destroyed Norwegian base longer and right after they find the giant block of ice where the thing was frozen, they also find the body of one more dead Norwegian stuffed inside the closet.
** The rest of the crew sitting together and waiting for Mac and Doc back at outpost while two of them are at the Norwegian base.
** Mac moving his stuff inside the base because cold weather outside is too much for his shack.

** Blair checking the Dog-Thing's dead body longer while the rest of the crew is asking questions about it. When Blair mentions that the thing is not dead yet, everyone back off from it.
** Mac and Norris climbing out of the crater where the thing's UFO is located.
** Mac shows everyone ripped clothes that Nauls found in his kitchen, revealing that whoever was wearing it is a large person; however, most of the crew members are therefore suspected to be the things.

** Originally, Fuchs was found dead by Childs and Palmer inside their greenhouse, pinned to a door with a shovel impaled into his chest (in original script, he was killed in the same way but with with an axe). There is a picture that shows Fuchs impaled with the shovel on the door; however, there is also one picture that shows rather a Fuchs-thing, still impaled and looked to be burned, but smiling. While in the greenhouse they debate whether they should burn their marijuana crop - pondering if the Thing can imitate plant-life as easily as animal life.

** Mac and Nauls are checking the Mac's shack when suddenly Mac's blow-up doll flies out through the shack's destroyed roof, scaring the hell out of both of them.

* DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: For the scene where Dr. Copper gets his arms bitten off, two shots that each lasted only a few seconds, had an actual amputee standing in Richard Dysart's place wearing a mask in his likeness.

* DuelingMovies: With ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' and ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', which were released two weeks and three weeks respectively before this film. Sadly, ''The Thing'' lacked the mass-market appeal of the former and the established brand of the latter, meaning that it ended up grossing by far the least of the three, though they would all go on to be remembered as classics of the Sci-Fi genre.

* FocusGroupEnding: An alternate ending was made for this express purpose, where [=MacReady=] is rescued and confirmed to be human. This was idea of Todd Ramsay, the editor of the film. They never meant to include it in the final cut, but they felt it was better to be safe than sorry if the studio demanded a change. Otherwise, they'd have to go to the trouble of getting Kurt Russell back on the set. Since it was never used, the footage got scrapped.

* RecycledSet: The scenes at the Norwegian outpost were filmed last, using the ruins of the American station set after it was blown up to shoot the film's climax.

** Creator/{{Universal}} originally wanted Creator/TobeHooper to direct the film due to Hooper's success with ''Film/TheTexasChainSawMassacre1974''. Under Hooper's vision, the alien in question would lack {{Shapeshifting}} abilities and the plot would resemble less the original Campbell story ''Literature/WhoGoesThere'' and more ''Literature/MobyDick''. Stuart Cohen and the other producers, who wished for a more faithful adaptation, were unhappy with the script and turned down Hooper. The film production would go through more directors until the arrival of Creator/JohnCarpenter.

*** Though this is somewhat of a modern take on the situation. Back in '82, Russell's biggest achievements were playing the lead in ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' (not a financial success nor yet the CultClassic it came to be), being [[WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound the voice of an animated dog]] (in another unsuccessful movie) and playing the lead in a TV series axed after airing only 11 of its 15 episodes due to terrible ratings. In other words, he ''was'' the relative unknown face the script needed, but Carpenter was reluctant to reuse the same actor as his leading man (just like [[Creator/StevenSpielberg Spielberg]] and [[Creator/GeorgeLucas Lucas]] didn't initially want Creator/HarrisonFord to play Franchise/IndianaJones). However, Kurt Russell did still have some big name draw due to his earlier Disney films, and was the most stereotypically "leading man" type actor in the cast (to the point of getting full starring billing: Russell is the only actor to get billed in the opening credits).
** The ending was originally going to involve [=MacReady=] being rescued and having his blood tested to prove that he is human.

** Originally, Fuchs was found dead by Childs and Palmer inside their greenhouse, pinned to a door with a shovel impaled into his chest (in original script, he was killed in the same way but with with an axe). There is a picture that shows Fuchs impaled with the shovel on the door; however, there is also one picture that shows rather a Fuchs-thing, still impaled and looked to be burned, but smiling.

** German-American Creator/NorbertWeisser plays the Norwegian soldier chasing the Dog-Thing.