The Thing : Something that's bothered me for years

Why didn't Mac and Norris explore the inside of The Thing's spaceship when they came upon it in the ice? The hatch was wide open so why didn't they go in? Damn you Carpenter, yet another missed opportunity to learn more about The Thing!

DEFINITELY!

Of course, it would have been fantastic to explore A LOT more of the THING had there been less urgency; i.e. horrific unspeakable mutilations.

Like, when Palmer, Mac and Norris went to the main ship, it would have been great to snoop around in there as well. Hell, even get more specifics on what the Alien can and cannot do.

Unfortunately, the prequel had a chance to really take advantage of that - it did not.

IMDB - Because some Trolls need more than just a bridge

It could have also opened up the plausible scenario of Mac being infected, if Norris was indeed infected at that point & he & Mac investigated the ship alone.

Mac is proved to be human during the blood test (along with Windows, Nauls, Childs, and Garry). He could -only- be imitation afterwardand there is only 1 brief period that could have happened (when the complex is destroyed). Carpenter points this out in the commentary, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.

That's assuming the blood test actually works. We don't know if it does.

Don't listen to the negative ones; their arguments are irrational.

Yeah, it does. It's confirmed in the commentary. One of the very few things said to be a fact ;-)

Yes, this used to bug me that they never explored the inside of the ship. My guess is budget limitations?

It would have been great to at least seen a little bit of the ship and it's alien architecture like the giant space jockey in Alien and leads us fans to more interesting theories.

A little off topic, I don't really consider the 2011 premake canon, but at least we got to see a little bit of the inside. It does always bugged me that UFOs are usually made of nothing but alien looking metal and nothing else. I would think UFOs and their pilots have some personality. Aliens can't all be monotone boring creatures that want to kill all humans. Think of a space shuttle. They have rooms and decks for different functions and some paraphernalia lying around everywhere.

Would you recognize alien paraphernalia and decor if you saw it?

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Would you recognize alien paraphernalia and decor if you saw it?

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I'm sure it would be more than clean sleek metal.

But not exploring inside of the ship is a great idea because it keeps you wondering for 34 years, right?
Maybe they were afraid to go inside the ship, or maybe they ran out of time, they had to return tho the base.

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But not exploring inside of the ship is a great idea because it keeps you wondering for 34 years, right?
Maybe they were afraid to go inside the ship, or maybe they ran out of time, they had to return tho the base.

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True, but I did wish we saw maybe a hint of it kind of like seeing the creepy space jockey in Alien.

Whatever there was to learn in the ship didn't do the Norwegians much good.

I think Carpenter was trying to say something a bit subtly there any way. I mean Garry blows the Norwegian's head off without hesitation.


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uhm directly to the story- I'm fairly certain the storm was getting much worse and they were limited on time if they wanted to get back to base safely and not uhm, you know freeze

but beyond that think about it: they've discovered a Norwegian base that has been totally destroyed, its members found in nargly terrible deaths- and then what appears to be some sort of strange giant craft that they may or may not even have recognized as 'alien' at the time

my point being is I'm not sure if the first reaction would be going around putting your nose into some strange machine when the people who found it are all dead and you have no idea what it is.

the logical thing in my eyes would be to go back and tell the rest of the crew and then return again to investigate further after the storm ends.

Obviously at the point in which they realize they're dealing with some sort of alien creature when the body defrosts at their camp its like, yeah, duh, would have been nice to know what the hell that big thing was. but hindsight is 20/20

she fell through a hole, and was never seen again

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uhm directly to the story- I'm fairly certain the storm was getting much worse and they were limited on time if they wanted to get back to base safely and not uhm, you know freeze

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What an annoying person you are.

Anyway, uhm, maybe, uhm, they might find some, uhm you know, alien weaponsduh.

I wonder if it was ever considered at all. Like, is there some unseen storyboard art out there somewhere.





Back off! Way off!

Interesting discussion. Speaking of which, imagine what storyboard artist extraordinaire Mike Ploog could have done with The Thing's spaceship?

They do show the inside of the ship in the 2011 prequel. That makes up for the crappy CGI and the bland characters.

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It's possible that Carpenter did film scenes inside the spaceship.

Back in the 1960s, 70s and 80s there was a horror/science fiction magazine called Famous Monsters. As a kid, I had an issue of this magazine that came out around the time The Thing came out.

They had a big article about the film. One of the photos in the article was captioned, "Inside the alien ship" or something like that. The photo was kind of vague. It looked like the edge of a round conference table with some kind of screen or instrument on it. There was no real detail you could see.

I wish I still had the magazine and the other issues I had but they are long gone.

I don't know if the magazine had their information wrong or if Carpenter actually did film some scenes in the alien ship. It's been a while since I listened to the DVD commentary with him and Kurt Russell. I don't recall them saying they filmed anything inside the ship.






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