Line #13 YMMV/TheThingFromAnotherWorld


1	!![=YMMVs=] in the [[Film/TheThingFromAnotherWorld 1951 film]]:
2
3	* AdaptionDisplacement: Both the novel and 1951 film are overshadowed by Creator/JohnCarpenter's [[Film/TheThing1982 version]] today.
4	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is the Thing the vanguard of an AlienInvasion, as the soldiers speculate? Or is it a frightened being stranded alone on an alien world? Viciously attacked immediately upon regaining consciousness, and justifiably working to defend itself like Carrington believes?
5	** One ''might'' believe that at first, but the alien had many opportunities to either leave or make its peaceful intentions clear. It didn't do either.
6	** On the flip side of this, the team lead by Captain Hendry. Are they really valiant defenders of Earth's humanity? Or are they intolerant small-minded bigots that attack whoever and whatever they don't understand?
7	** Notice even the teams' most innocent and jovial comments are laced in a condescending or dismissive tone when it comes to the Thing. Not once does Hendry ever reprimand the young solider for shooting the alien when it awoke. Not to mention everyone noting how creepy it looks while frozen. It's obvious from the beginning they're not "bad" people. But it's very apparent that they're products of their time.
8	*** More specifically, by destroying the pods, were they eliminating an invading army from outer space? Or murdering innocent alien infants? The fact that it was the professor and not the Thing who was growing them doesn't help to clear up the issue.
9	* DirectorDisplacement: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_from_Another_World#Director There is some controversy]] on whether Christian Nyby really directed the movie or producer Creator/HowardHawks was calling the shots.
10	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
11	** Nikki, for her FairForItsDay characterization and good chemistry with Hendry.
12	** Bob the crew chief is decently impressive for coming up with the idea to try and burn the Thing with kerosene and helping figure out the "electric flytrap" at the end.
13	* FairForItsDay: The female lead really only exists as an added love interest (though to be fair [[Literature/WhoGoesThere the movie didn't have a whole lot in common with its source material, so this is one of the more minor changes]]). However, she is probably one of the most memorable characters in the movie. Much like Hildy Johnson, she is sharp-witted, intelligent, and far from submissive. Even while most of the choices are put in the hands of the men, she gets a few moments (a memorable case being when the fact that she wasn't involved with an argument among the men allowed her to be the first to notice [[spoiler:that the Thing was cutting off the heat]]). Also despite being in a horror movie from the 1950's, she manages to avoid any kind of DamselInDistress situation and never once screams in the movie (the only time she actually raised her voice was near the very end, and that was because she was trying to alert the protagonist to a very legitimate problem).
14	* MemeticMutation: "Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!"
15	* NightmareRetardant: The buildup for the Thing is incredibly skillful - the scene where they find the flying saucer, for example, is still one of the more chilling images in any movie. That said, the Thing itself is basically a clumsy albeit strong dude made of plants who slowly stumbles in the heroes' direction. [[FairForItsDay At the time, lumbering monsters were the thing as opposed to today's speed demons.]]
16	** Save one scene, in which The Thing is [[spoiler: [[JumpScare right behind the door]]!]]
17	** There's also the scene where The Thing gets doused with gasoline and [[ManOnFire set ablaze]], and continues to rampage around a cramped, darkened room, setting everything else on fire in the process.
18	** Part of the problem is time. A lot of the Horror techniques we see [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife every day]] were ''[[TropeMakers invented]]'' in this movie. In the early 50s, they were absolutely shocking. The fact that it still can give chills so many years later is a testament to how well it was done.
19	* NarmCharm: "An intellectual carrot! The mind boggles..."
20	* SignatureScene: The crew spreads out to stand at every edge of the ship they find to determine its shape, and end up in a circle. So iconic it was repeated in the remake in the Norwegian team’s tapes.
21	** The Thing being set on fire. The scene is so iconic the remake homages it twice.
22	* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The scene in which The Thing is set ablaze still holds up to this day. Dousing the Thing with kerosene, having a flare shot at it, as the ''entire room goes up in flames'', and there ''are no stunt doubles''. [[note]] For any character except the monster, that is.[[/note]] This scene notably was the first ever to feature someone set on fire while wearing a full body flame retardant suit -- but it also had ''oxygen air tank'' inside, meaning he was very much in danger of dying! To up the scene's tenseness, the Thing swipes at Nikki, who is fending it off with a pillow, setting it ablaze -- and ''then'' another kerosene attack sets the room ''further'' on fire, including where the actress was. Few similar scenes have matched it since.
23
24	!![=YMMVs=] in the [[ComicBook/TheThingFromAnotherWorld comic series]]:
25
26	* AssPull:
27	** Both Erskine and the helicopter pilot suddenly turn out to be infected in the second half of the first comic, even though the Pybus-Thing didn't seem to get close enough to either of them to infect them, and there would have been no reason for them not to assimilate [=MacReady=] while they were trying to find the Argentinian base. One could argue that one (or both) of them became a ZombieInfectee during the fight with the Pybus-Thing and we just didn't see it, with full assimilation not happening until after they'd been found by Childs and the Argentinians, but this leads to another example...
28	** Pybus himself is implied to have gone from being fully human to being fully assimilated in a matter of minutes, all from touching a Thing's remains ''through a glove''. On top of that, he then destroys the evac helicopter for no readily obvious reason, other than to provide an action sequence.
29	** The revelation in ''Eternal Vows'' that Things can not only change their own form at will, but kill someone and change the victim's body into a copy of their own, is something that comes out of absolutely nowhere.
30	*** It's not that it's impossible, just that it makes no sense whatsoever for the victim to become a copy, but ''not'' a thing.
31	* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: The first series is praised for a borderline realistic art style that even mimics the movie. It's even pointed out as an advantage over the follow-ups going for more traditional designs that would fit any superhero comic.
32	* BizarroEpisode: ''Eternal Vows'' differs from both the film and the previous two comics in so many ways (particularly in the first issue, which doesn't feature [=MacReady=] or anything else readily identifiable from its predecessors) that many fans have speculated it wasn't actually a ''Thing (from Another World)'' story originally, and was hurriedly turned into one so that Dark Horse could shove it out the door before the license came up for renewal.
33	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
34	** Agapito from ''Climate of Fear'', due to his badassery (including ''slicing off his own arm'' and being hardly slowed down) and being by far [[GenreSavvy the most intelligent]] original character from any of the four comics.
35	** Pablo the cook, also from ''Climate of Fear''; despite only having a brief role in the first issue, he shows himself to be a decent man who cares for the sheep at the base, and when he gets ambushed by the Sheep-Thing, he manages to go down fighting by shooting desperately at it even as it's absorbing him into its body, alerting the rest of the base's personnel before the Sheep-Thing has the chance to ambush them.
36	** To a lesser extent, Detective-Sergeant Rowan from ''Eternal Vows'', for being a rare instance of a helpful and comparatively intelligent authority figure despite being a DecoyProtagonist.
37	* InferredHolocaust: In ''Climate of Fear''. The Thing has made it not just to South America, but a pretty well populated jungle. Given that the film made it very clear it was game over if the Thing ever made it out of the Antarctic (due to the sheer amount of available animal biomass outside the near-lifeless continent for it to assimilate), then regardless of what happens to the ones that take over the humans it's probably a safe bet that there are Things assimilating everything around them and getting ready to take over.
38	** It gets worse in ''Eternal Vows'', where The Thing has reached the populated island of Stewart Island / Rakiura in New Zealand. To quote Linkara, "Well, I can stop now, story's over! The Thing is in a modern city! ''End of the world, ma!''"
39	* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: The biggest criticism of the first comic is that it doesn't really add much over the film, other than [=MacReady=] taking on the Thing with a lot more in the way of military hardware.
40	* {{Narm}}: ''All'' of the miniseries aside from ''The Northman Nightmare'' suffer from a severe case "writers-take-silly-dialogue-or-actions-as-threatening-itis", with a few notorious examples include:
41	** [[spoiler:Childs]]-Thing. Not only does it look like an offensive [[spoiler:black]] stereotype, it also goes full on Rambo in one of the most unintentionally hilarious sequences in the whole of the franchise.
42	--> '''The Thing''' (For some reason): ''"Run Mac, Ruuuuuuuuuun!"''
43	** Dr. Viale pining over [=MacReady=] while admitting she's only known him for a ''day''.
44	** The Things' bizarre fixation on having been a fish in ''Eternal Vows''.
45	** Jenny-Thing's hair springing up like it was electrocuted whenever she's assimilating people.
46	* NarmCharm: Agapito. Dude's a seriously overthetop badass, cutting off his own arm to prevent assimilation and chewing [=MacReady=] for his "cowardice". He is a walking action protagonist cliché, and you ''will'' love him for it.
47	* NightmareRetardant: ''Eternal Vows'' for the franchise. Remember, every time the original movie or [[Literature/WhoGoesThere book]] frightens you, you can comfort yourself knowing that the Thing just wants to live in Stewart Island eating cats and maybe walk around as a naked woman every once in a while.
48	* TheScrappy: The comics introduce several characters that are not particularly well-liked:
49	** Commander Les Erskine from the first series is widely disliked for being pretty much every negative military right-winger nutjob condensed together. He acts irrationally from the get-go, being hostile and even making death threats to [=MacReady=] practically unprovoked, ''remaining'' hostile even after he learns about the Thing and what it can do, and generally inducing an IdiotBall that keeps the plot going. Even when [[spoiler:its revealed he's infected [[StupidEvil he goes on a rampage and sabotages his own means of escape]], reducing The Thing to yet another rampaging monster with none of its cleverness in the movies]]. Even as a HateSink he doesn't particularly work because its implied that his actions are justified from a narrative stand-point, complete with a brief AFatherToHisMen attitude that doesn't go anywhere.
50	** Dr. Sabia Viale from ''Climate of Fear'' due to being a token female character, constantly displaying extreme stupidity, and an attraction to [=MacReady=] which comes out of nowhere in the third issue, and then is never followed up on in the fourth.
51	** Almost all new characters in ''Eternal Vows'', from the main couple who have creepy incestual overtones that don't act the least bit bothered when they have to kill other people to survive ([[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic The summaries describe Jenny as a conflicted, tragic character, by the wall]]) to the creepy pervert that assimilates a woman with implied tentacle rape. The only exception seems to be Detective-Sergeant Rowan, [[EnsembleDarkhorse who is generally liked by fans]].
52	** Douglas in ''Questionable Research'', for being an immoral scientist that's treated as the voice of reason.
53	* {{Sequelitis}}: None of the comics are considered nearly as good as the film. Within the series though, ''Eternal Vows'' is generally considered to be a major drop-off in quality from the first two stories due to how badly it butchers continuity with the film and earlier comics. ''Questionable Research'' is more of a ContestedSequel, with some fans disliking it for being short and somewhat clichéd, along with the idiotic behavior of the characters, but others praising it for staying true to the spirit of the film and yet telling its own story.
54	* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Despite having noticeably worse art quality than the first comic (and ''Eternal Vows'', for that matter), many consider ''Climate of Fear'' to be the best of the four stories, for being the truest to the film and also doing some original things with the Thing. Some also consider ''Questionable Research'' to be this too, or at the very least superior to ''Eternal Vows''.
55	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Given that the first volume of ''Eternal Vows'' does not feature [=MacReady=] and partially focuses on Detective-Sergeant Rowan, he could have very well been the protagonist of the story instead of a supporting character. Indeed, Linkara theorized in his review that if the rumors of ''Eternal Vows'' being a DolledUpInstallment were true, then Rowan was likely the original protagonist of whatever the story started out as, before being supplanted by [=MacReady=] during rewrites.
56	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
57	** ''Eternal Vows'' has some interesting ideas -- setting the story mostly from the Things' point of view and having differing factions of "feral" Things and ones with more controlled behavior -- but they mostly fall apart in execution due to the writer clearly not understanding the film that well.
58	** ''Questionable Research'' develops on the film's storyline and captures its mood well, but its short length and the disproportionate amount of time given to the scientists just yelling at each other prevent it from being as good as it could be.
59	* TheWoobie: Cruz from ''Climate of Fear'', who has a brief HeroicBSOD after he shoots Dr. Deseado dead in defense of Agapito. It goes FromBadToWorse when it later turns out that [[spoiler:Deseado was infected, and likely assimilated Cruz and fellow soldier Escobar when they tried to bury his "corpse"]]... although there's enough ambiguity that it's possible that [[spoiler:Cruz ''himself'' was actually the infected one, and knowingly shot Deseado dead, then infected his body while there was still enough life for a Thing infection to take hold]], which would make it a subversion of the trope.
60

Context YMMV / TheThingFromAnotherWorld