First we had a novel “Who Goes There”, published in 1938. Then we had a brilliant (and one of my personal favorites) – John Carpenter’s “The Thing” made in 1982, one of the best horror movies ever, with special effects that stand out even by today’s standards.
In 2011, Hollywood decided it was time for a remake…or a prequel, doesn’t matter. They made another “Thing” which technically is a prequel to the 1982 film, but really looks like a remake to me (you can read the review on it here). Anyway, We had novel – original – prequel. Is it time to think about a sequel? Even if not, we can still dream a little…
First idea. Sequel, story takes place shortly after MacReady and Childs get rescued. They are taken to some military base, where one of them (Childs, maybe) turns in the thing, and starts replicating everyone. MacReady has to pair up with the remaining soldiers (or some cute female doc) to kill the thing and save the rest of the people at the base. Others do not trust MacReady, as he behaves strange (which is up to the viewer to decide why), and they suspect him being another replica of the thing.
Second idea. Same as the first idea – story takes place shortly after MacReady and Childs get rescued. They are taken to some military base, where one of them (Childs, maybe) turns in the thing, and starts replicating everyone. In the middle of all this chaos, MacReady, who once again, has to battle the thing pairs up with Kate Lloyd, who got saved too, and ended up at the same base. So, in this idea, the leads from both “Things” are paired up to battle the ultimate, shape-changing enemy.
Third idea. Story takes place in our time, decades later, where scientists are conducting experiments in a secret research lab. The research is being funded by a private source (maybe a millionaire or something), and the rest Hollywood can figure out themselves. The point of this idea – get the Thing out of the isolated area (remote antarctic lab) and put it into the “urban jungles” so to speak, and see how people would have to fight it then.
Fourth idea. Not really an idea, but a few more thoughts on The Thing itself – it would have been interesting, in my opinion, to see/show how the thing mates, or behaves differently, in other words – to somehow expand this creature, to make it multi-dimentional (not just replicate and kill). And also, it would have been cool to see how a mutated/replicated thing behaves (the half human – half thing creature), what it does, how it sees real humans, how it looks at the surrounding environment, etc. The real “shapeless” thing concept should be kept, but the replicated mutant thing should be exploited more.
If you have any other ideas on how the third possible “Thing” movie should be made, feel free to put it all in the comments.
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how about Soviets???
Who goes there was based around Cold War Paranoia, why not inject alittle of that into the mix
Spoiler
Carter mentioned, just before he was bbq’d, that there was a Russian base close by,
why not have them be a research base, which is a front for a soviet spy station.
what if, the reason the radio’s were not working in the first 2 movies was not due to the Weather, but rather the Soviets were intentionilly jamming the signals, to limit communication
Because in the prequel when the Snowcat breaks through the ice at the preface, the Soviets also hear the Distress/Warning Signal comming from the Craft.
They conduct covert Survalance on the Norweigan Dig site and bide there time.
then of course the events of the Movies play out and the Soviets move in, wanting to exploit the Tech they can salvage from the Ship and also the Biological Warfare advantages the Thing presents cannot be ignored (Alien…anyone?).
Kate is recovered First and Confined,
A Badly frostbitten Mac and Childs are stumbled upon later, and we go from there.
the Thing in Carters Crashed Chopper could have survived and serve as the Antagonist this time round.
throw into the Mix an undercover American Spy who has been working within the Soviet/Russian base and you have a healtly Dose of Paranoia and Distrust all round.
Call the Sequel “the Thing” . . . just because…thats what the other two movies are called….it wont anyone….Swear!!!
Just my 2 cents.
Dave, I think it would have been wiser to use “Russians” maybe, instead of Soviets, since if the sequel is set in present times, there’s no Soviet Union. And I like the “thing in Carter’s chopper survived” idea, this could have been used.
yeah, if its set present Day,
But if they choose to use 1982….
the Chopper Crash Thing is the only one left that we Know about…Unless either Mac or Childs are also things
Russian/Soviet Camp!
That is all.
The ideas are really under developed and not surprising really. I think the leads from previous movies should not be used (but maybe referenced). Your ideas regarding the thing itself dont work: ‘how it mates’ it is a viral micro organism. infecting and replicating IS how it mates. its behaviour when not imitating is mindless and instinctual, when its imitating intelligent beings the intelligence is imitated (from the neural connections).
There is no human/thing hybrid etc, just the thing imitating a human, and they wont even know they are a thing unless they remember dying in an attack or being infected in a wound.
What would be interesting is seeing everything from the infectees point of view, with the instinct for preservation, he/she might believe he/she can control it until some sort of cure can be found, only to discover horrifically that he/she cant and that he/she in their effort to stay hidden as human to avoid being burnt alive only allowed the real humans to get close enough to get infected (maybe someone they really care about).
Well, the ideas are just that – ideas, they are undeveloped since I am not in the middle of making another “Thing” movie:) Just expressing my personal thoughts:)
As far as ideas on the thing not working – you’re saying, it’s a micro organizm that infects, replicates and its behavior is mindless and instinctual, bot I suppose you state all that based on what you saw in the original film. I was thinking about making “the thing” less primal, by expanding its functions.
Since in the prequel we see (as far as I remember) the Thing as a creature that the Norwegians find, and they also find that space ship, it means the thing is not really that mindless. Creatures from outer space just don’t fall to earth in their spaceships. Another idea, in my opinion, would have been to have a child get replicated. Original and prequel did not have that one.
The Thing the norwegians find had already infected and imitated the space ships crew, that was stated by the director many times, and so the thing didnt build the saucer, the aliens it was imitating did. It was stated long ago that the ship contained samples of life forms from many planets,and one of those samples was the thing, which infected the crew.
On the subject of my statements regarding the nature of the thing, in both movies (1982, 2011) its a virus. It doesnt need expanded functions, its already the most lethal apocalyptic alien virus ever encountered, and its mindlessness makes it simply more terrifying as it exists purely to spread and replicate. You cant reason with it, it doesnt understand reason, or empathy or guilt. It just attacks and infects, hopping from life form to life form, settlement to settlement, continent to continent, planet to planet using its victims as transport. Like real viruses do.
The thing CLEARLY isn’t a mindless creature. It constantly showed intelligence through deception.
I agree on the whole story takes place shortly after MacReady and Childs gets rescued and are taken to some military base, maybe the russian one from the prequel, but I think both MacReady and Childs turns in the thing, giving the chance to see how the things works and hunt with one another as it has not been shown in any of the movies, also a new hero maybe a tough as nails sgt who has to battle the thing pairs up with Kate Lloyd, who got saved too, and ended up at the same base. So leads on into a horror/action do to the soldiers and soon to be multiple things fighting it out in an all out war.
Basically I kinda view it with the difference like Alien with Aliens. After the ultimate showdown showing the true form of the thing (Due too having the necessary organic material it didn’t have in the first movies aka humans) where our hero sgt takes it down with his dieing breath with napalm or c4 or something flashy, Kate Lloyd surviving once again gets rescued by some shady Gov types who upon executing the remaining soldiers or scientists who they deem not important to keep alive (you know, no witnesses) confiscate the only living remaining cell of the thing for future studies.
SO what do you guys think?
These ideas are too expected, a proper Thing sequel should up the ante, much like Aliens did to Alien.
MacReady should barely survive and be taken to intensive care, while he’s recovering, Childs should be dead and his corpse should thaw and make it’s way to a major metropolis with minimal incident. Maybe taking a few people with him.
After recovering and no one taking him seriously, MacReady should make his way to the city expecting to see the Thing going crazy and killing everyone, only to find it’s fully integrated with people going about their business. The challenge for the movie would be finding out just how many people are infected and stopping them before it’s too late.
Maybe the final battle could be some mega creature of massive size that’s living in the sewer or in an office building or bank vault (epic scale) and emerges while all the people who are infected run towards it and keep adding to it’s mass. Think Tetsuo in the AKIRA finale.
I only recently watched both of the films (though I had watched the prequel first instead of the original) and a sequel is needed. I couldn’t have imagined watching the original all them years ago and not find out what actually happened to Mac and Childs. Plus I want Kate to still be alive.
Maybe Kate does actually make it to a base in her Snowcat where Mac and Childs had also survived and then they make it back to America or something. Then maybe the thing is traced back with her through Childs or perhaps another character also making their way back with them (the thing from the helicopter crash manages to survive the conditions and makes it to the base but manages to remain undetectable) and she goes back to the lab where she was at the very beginning. Kate then takes Mac and Childs with her to show a more in depth study of The Thing as they want answers,
People within the lab then find out about what had actually happened in Antarctica and then shut down and isolate the whole building to ensure that no one escapes with that information. Mac could then notice that Childs no longer has an ear ring in (it was clear that by the end of the first film he wasn’t a mutant because they cant imitate metal) making him a start of the thing. Kate and Mac have to then have to kill the thing as well as fending off the people who want her dead because of the information she has. During the course of this an un-usual course of extremely cold weather starts to hit giving The Thing incentive to escape in to the cold weather.
Or only Mac survived and then has to live with the conditions of what he experienced which turns him mad as he starts to see things that may or may not be real.
All comments are good. Let’s go a little deeper. (sequel startup) It’s a intergalatic virus unlike anyone on earth has came across. the space ship was an alien ship that acquired the virus and was heading back to it’s own solar system to destroy the virus when “something” happened that allowed the virus to escape within the ship thereby killing the original aliens. As the “thing” exits the crashed ship, an automatic beacon comes on (see where I’m going), the thing tries to walk through the snow and freezes. (short images of prequel and 2nd movie appear).
Scene opens with helicopters coming to get Kate then fast-forward to another scene with helicopters coming to get Mac. Fast forward to present day (technology and science improved since 1982). Movie writers fill in the blanks here. Also include how the signal from the crashed ship makes it way to the alien life form and they dispatch another ship to investigate knowing how viral the virus is, they watch earth for all of these years (kinda like making sure the virus doesn’t awake and mutate to kill earth or they would have to destroy the planet to save the solar system). Movie writers fill in the blanks here.
Also include the US, Europe, China, ….ok the Russians (they have been observing since day one) come together to attempt to exploit the technology advances of the ship but China doesn’t like sharing and (Oops) releases the virus and the virus gets out of control because they moved it to a warmer region. The aliens are monitoring and they reveal themselves because with their superior mind they have calculated humans are doomed within 90 days and now this virus will be a planet of virus with technology looking to expand. The aliens help earth kill the virus. Movie writers fill in here.