What Is The Thing? | The Evolution of Science Fiction

If you’ve heard of HP Lovecraft then you might know about his novella, At the Mountains of Madness. It tells the story of a group of scientists on an expedition in Antarctica, where they discover the remnants of something ancient, and incomprehensible, something not of this earth.

HP Lovecrat’s story went on to inspire many works of science fiction, including John Campbell’s “Who Goes There?”, a science fiction horror story about an isolated group of scientists in Antarctica who discover a buried alien spaceship. “Who Goes there?” itself went on to inspire several adaptations, 1951’s The Thing From Another World directed by Christian Nyby and produced by Howard Hawks. 1982’s The Thing, directed by John Carpenter, this is without a doubt the most famous adaptation of this story, and the most famous version of the story in general.

Peter Watt’s story however has a take on the story that is different from all the others, It takes place entirely from the perspective of the lifeform itself. Throughout the story you view the world through its alien mind, you listen to its alien thoughts.

Stories and their interpretations are born out of the times we live in. The particular society or culture at any given time is going to affect how the same stories are presented. You can trace this story all the way back to Lovecraft and each time that it is presented a unique element is added. This is what we will explore in this video. What Does The Thing Represent? What is the thing? What is each version of this story trying to say and how are they different from each other? In this video we will explore how shifting societal fears such as paranoia, fear of the unknown, identity, and empathy shape the themes and interpretations of the story over time.

🎵 Music by Jamez Dahl:

📚 Get These Books! Affiliate link*

🎥 Mentioned Videos:

🎬 Other Playlist

Feel free to leave a comment like and subscribe! Thanks For Watching!

[PrimeAdvance]

"The creature... Doesn't see itself as malevolent, in its eyes it was on a noble mission. Almost a religious pilgrimage throughout the universe, In its eyes it was helping!"

Fascinating *Reloads flame thrower*

[baronjutter]

I notice that despite your winter wear and frost, I don't see any fogged breath. Thing confirmed.

[ArAnXx]

respect to Quinn for flying to antarctica to make this video

[chriscooper]

Love how you trace the basic ideas through their successive iterations. It makes one appreciate both literature and history more fully.

[benthomason]

In the blood test scene of the 1982 movie, there's a split-second shot where the character about to be outed as a thing has an extremely human look of resignation on it's face; as a biology major I've always been very fascinated by this movie, but noticing this moment was the one time it actually managed to scare me.

[madmalone]

I argue also that 'The Things' show how an overwhelming personality can't understand how others don't want to be part of it.
The Thing's "communion" is just everyone's else all consuming wave.
I feel this is pointed out by how it looks at our focus the "ever searching spot light" as a scary element to it.

[mayav]

“I just understand them in the context of the time he was living” BRO. THANK YOU. this is SO important.

[sawg]

The fact that in The Thing's eyes that he was helping makes him even more dangerous and horrific.

[seldonplanB-]

Never knew The Thing was originally inspired by a Lovecraft story, but it absolutely makes sense!

[loganjelinek]

"The Things" also most certainly takes the cake for most bone-chilling final line in any short story I've read in quite a while.

[ChristopherShields-lj]

The tagline for the John Carpenter movie read "Man is the warmest place to hide." and that still whigs me out to this day and I'm 55yo.

[peteg]

"The Thing" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" are sorta in the minority of alien invasion stories, in one respect: The humans have no chance to win, and defeat the invader. The invader gets here, before the humans are really aware of it, and once that happens, it's essentially game over. They are both "don't even bother resisting" type stories.

[WiggidyWack]

One thing I really enjoyed about reading "Things" was that, through the perspective of the alien, it's existence might not be incompatible due to its physiological or psychological differences, but its similarities to humanity on matters of expedition and colonization. Whether this was due to an already missionary-like ideology of the alien before the crash landing on earth, or slowly mutated into something else as a direct result of "communion" with humans and life on earth, by the end of the story it's clear the Thing is merely an infinitely more capable lifeform of carrying out intentions nearly identical to human beings. Its choice words in describing how it will achieve this goal at the very end are particularly chilling and resonant.

What's equally chilling is that, from the perspective of "Things, " both parties are clearly capable of communication and completely forego any attempt at true "communion." The Thing has absorbed multiple humans at a certain point in the story, and even comes to some kind of understanding on how they differ in function from itself. Despite being fully capable of perfectly mimicking human behavior, including speech, it makes no effort to communicate through human methods which it justifies by the threat of violence it has suffered (attempting to "commune" only through its own methods.) Meanwhile, from the perspective of Carpenter's film, the grotesque first appearance of the alien and the threat of it spreading uncontrollably across all life completely overrides any attempt to communicate neutrally with the alien, despite the fact they're all aware of an imposter amongst them that is capable of speech. Both parties came to understand one another through wildly different methods, but neither was really seeking any resolution but the subjugation/destruction of the other. For me, this was the neat bow that tied together the idea of incompatibility by near identical intentions. The differences describe the already obvious fact that The Thing is more capable than humanity in that department, and will always win out in a contest hinged on said intent.

Whereas "Who Goes There" is a triumphant framing of humanity as the more capable, "The Thing" and "Things" are the more honest assessments. While the former states there is something inherent to humanity that could overcome such a threat, the latter two convey a fearful speculation that a drastic and radically new approach for humanity would have to emerge if we were to overcome identical intentions from something infinitely more capable of them. A lesson ironically packaged in a story about humans being assimilated into a new alien lifeform. Love it!

Great video, looking forward to the next one!

[davidgab]

The other guy in the story about Robert Scott's expedition is Amundsen, who was experienced and planned his expedition very well. Scott rushing to beat Amundsen took many unnecessary risks and cut corners. And he knew well that Antarctica is inhospitable and dangerous place. Well, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

[carcosa_swamp]

I've never clicked one of your videos faster. I can't get enough of this story.

[davidkelley]

When I was a child the 51 versions of The Thing & The Day The Earth Stood Still were absolutely my favorite movies.

[erikscottdebie]

The creature seeing itself as helpful—especially on religious pilgrimage—gives it an interesting colonization subtext.

[ArAnXx]

the dangers of human curiosity being a theme in lovecraftian horror is an absolutely amazing plot device and one of my favorites, reminds me of this quote from Bloodborne where the church discovers old one blood and immediately starts using it to heal people(which spoiler alert, is obviously a bad idea)and this like intellectual leader who's very educated and is all about learning and planning things through before taking action, says something like "we are born by the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood, fear the old blood, our eyes are yet to open"

[sub-jec-tiv]

The script treatment for the never-greenlit Del Toro version of Mountains of Madness is really interesting, as it stylistically/thematically reconnects that story to the 80s version of The Thing, in a kind of cosmic horror ‘full circle.’ It would be an excellent ‘changeling’ horror flick with a few action scenes in the snow. The script is available online, check it out!

[bigjoeswelding]

I love listening to these videos. My work is welding in ethanol and waste treatment plants and the creepy and lovecraftian ideas are perfect with the backdrop of endless piping and forgotten systems deep in concrete pits