“Nobody can be trusted anymore, and we are all exhausted.” The central theme of John Carpenter’s classic 1982 movie “The Thing” is expressed in these famous remarks by Kurt Russell’s character. As a shape-shifting alien invades an isolated scientific station on the edge of Antarctica, the movie transports viewers there. Because of the creature’s ability to mimic other life forms, the scientists at the base began to wonder who among them was infected.
This 1980s remake of a 1950s film, led by strong performances from a sizable ensemble cast, has established itself as a mainstay in Carpenter’s extensive filmography (rivaled only by flicks like “Halloween” and “Escape from New York”).
When it first debuted, John Carpenter’s 1982 adaptation of “The Thing” was a critical and financial failure. Critics couldn’t see the appeal of such a bloody, paranoia-inducing nightmare of a horror movie. Roger Ebert, a renowned reviewer, only gave the film two and a half stars. Carpenter never again made high-profile studio films due to unfavourable reviews.
Fortunately, the movie has developed a cult audience over time. It currently has a stellar 82% Rotten Tomatoes score with critics and an even greater 92% with audiences. One of the most lauded aspects of the movie is the cast, and each performer gives their parts a tonne of subtlety.
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Adrienne Barbeau
Adrienne Barbeau appears briefly in “The Thing” as the voice of the chess wizard computer that MacReady is using in the opening scene. You might not have even noticed it. Barbeau is subtly included in the ensemble despite the film’s reputation as having a predominantly male cast because she has worked with John Carpenter for a long time and was his wife from 1979 to 1984.
As Rizzo in the original Broadway production of “Grease,” as Carol in “Maude,” as Stevie in “The Fog,” as Maggie in “Escape from New York,” and as Catwoman in “Batman: The Animated Series,” Adrienne Barbeau has established herself as a legendary performer.
With roles in “Sons of Anarchy,” “Swamp Thing,” “Creepshow,” and “American Horror Stories,” to name just a few of her résumé, she has continued to be active in both television and video games over the past ten years. Additionally, Barbeau has kept up his voicing work in games like “Halo 4” and “God of War III.”
David Clennon
A large cast of characters divided across a few camps makes up “The Thing.” Palmer comes in because some people are blue-collar labourers while others are brilliant scientists. The character Palmer is portrayed by actor David Clennon as a low-key stoner assistant mechanic. By the movie’s conclusion, it is revealed that Palmer was a real thing. One of the most famous scenes in the entire movie is the tense blood test sequence, which is focused on the revelation that Palmer isn’t Palmer anymore.
Palmer is portrayed by David Clennon, despite the fact that a more obviously humorous actor like Jay Leno, Charles Fleischer, or Gary Shandling was originally intended to be cast in the role. Clennon received the role instead because he was able to depict both the absurd banter and the more complex dramatic passages needed for such a serious movie.
Clennon has been acting in movies since the 1980s and has roles in recent films like “Flags of Our Fathers,” “House of Cards,” “J. Edgar,” and “Gone Girl.” More significantly, he has continued to speak out on political problems ever since he actively protested the Vietnam War.
Clennon publicly denounced “Zero Dark Thirty” for its sympathetic depiction of torture after the film’s 2013 release in a statement obtained by Deadline. He highlighted that he could not support the film because he believed that torture was an act of criminality and condemned the presentation of torture as a necessary component of America’s fight on terror.
Donald Moffat
Donald Moffat, a British-American actor, portrayed Gary, the station commander, as the commander of Outpost 31 in “The Thing.” He was a stern, prudent captain who struggled to maintain composure when faced with the possibility that a space creature would infect his crew. He survives longer than most characters in the movie, but in the final engine room battle sequence, he nevertheless suffers a terrible fate at the hands of the creature along with MacReady and Nauls.
In the 1950s, actor Donald Moffat began his career as a performer. He even received training at the London-based Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In movies like “The Right Stuff,” “Babe Ruth,” and “Clear and Present Danger,” he enjoyed a long and successful career. He also gained popularity for his roles on television, including those in “Logan’s Run,” “Columbo,” “The West Wing,” and “Law & Order: Trial by Jury” (which ended up being his last role). Donald Moffat tragically passed away in 2018, just six days before turning 88, but he will always be remembered for his amazing acting abilities.
Keith David
Childs, played by the amazing actor Keith David, is the only other character in “The Thing” to survive the events in addition to R.J. MacReady. The irritable chief mechanic of Outpost 31, Childs, frequently argues with MacReady throughout the picture as their mutual mistrust grows. Fans are constantly debating whether Childs was actually infected by the conclusion. Even if there are several interesting hypotheses about the drink MacReady gives Childs in the film’s last scene, everything is still left purposefully vague.
Keith David’s reputation as an actor with a deep voice and a serious approach has allowed him to work for a long time after “The Thing” (which was actually his first credited role). David starred in a number of well-known movies, including “Requiem for a Dream,” “They Live,” “Armageddon,” and “Platoon.” With regular parts in programmes like “Community,” he has also dabbled in humorous performances.
Keith David has gained popularity in recent years as a voice actor for both movies and computer games. The Arbiter in “Halo,” Dr. Facilier in “The Princess and the Frog,” Spawn in “Todd McFarlane’s Spawn,” Flame King in “Adventure Time,” and the president in “Rick and Morty” are a few of the most notable instances of this. David has recently seen prominently in minor roles in Jordan Peele’s 2022 horror film “Nope” and the 2016 comedy “The Nice Guys.”
Kurt Russell
R.J. Macready, played by Kurt Russell in “The Monster,” is Outpost 31’s resident cool-headed helicopter pilot and one of the first persons to see the gravity of the threat an extraterrestrial thing offers to the team. Fans have long wondered whether MacReady survives or if he was a thing all along because he is one of the final characters still alive at the end.
Kurt Russell has mainta ined his acting career since the 1982 premiere of “The Thing” by taking on roles in both big-budget and independent films. With 1986’s “Big Trouble in Little China” and 1996’s “Escape from L.A,” he resumed working with filmmaker John Carpenter, although his résumé is full of even bigger starring parts throughout the 1990s and 2000s. His performances as Dean Proffitt in “Overboard” (in which he co-starred with his wife, Goldie Hawn), Wyatt Earp in “Tombstone,” Herb Brooks in “Miracle,” and Steve Stronghold in “Sky High” are a few of his best-known roles.
Russell has seen a little bit of a professional revival over the past ten years thanks to supporting parts in several huge blockbuster movies. In “The Hateful Eight” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” filmmaker Quentin Tarantino used Russell’s skills in two of these projects. As the father of Starlord in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” he has also joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Russell has also established himself as a recurrent character in the “Fast and Furious” series as the charming federal agent Mr. Nobody.
Richard Dysart
Dr. Copper was portrayed by award-winning actor Richard Dysart in “The Thing.” Copper, who served as the base’s medical director and a personal friend of MacReady, At the start of the movie, the two of them look into what occurs at the Norwegian camp. Copper is segregated by his increasingly paranoid companions as he is named as one of the culprits who destroyed all the blood samples at the outpost, eliminating any hope of a blood test.
Richard Dysart had a long and prosperous career in the entertainment industry, but he tragically passed away from cancer in 2015 at the age of 86. He has a great deal of acting experience and numerous film and television credits. His performances as Cromwell in “Wall Street” and Henry Sears in “Hard Rain” are a few of prominent instances of his work. Overall, his role as Leland McKenzie in the NBC legal drama “L.A. Law,” for which he received a Primetime Emmy nomination, stands out as the peak of his stellar career.
Richard Masur
Clark, who looks after the dogs at Outpost 31, is probably one of the more enigmatic characters in “The Thing.” Because of his proximity to the thing, Clark is instantly accused of being infected by Blair (in dog form). Richard Masur does a fantastic job portraying Clark as a cool, aloof loner who prefers the company of animals to people. His aloofness toward the rest of his team puts him in MacReady’s sights, and when he is shot dead, tensions are at their highest.
One of the best parts of “The Thing” is Richard Masur’s acting, who flawlessly captures Clark’s reclusive nature, love of dogs, and mistrust of other people. Masur is a committed character actor who has appeared in more than eighty movies during the course of his five-decade Hollywood career. His recent roles as Geoffrey Solomon in “The Good Wife,” Buzzy Rackless in “Transparent,” Bill Montgomery in “Orange is the New Black,” and Edward L.L. Moore in “Younger” are some of his most illustrious ones.
T.K. Carter
T. K. Carter portrays the cook Nauls in “The Thing.” Since Nauls is most known for skating around Outpost 31 on roller skates and appearing to not realise how serious their predicament is until it is too late, the character is primarily comedic. Nauls is more worried about someone leaving dirty clothes in his kitchen sink in one hilarious scene while the rest of the cast is talking about the enormous extraterrestrial UFO they discovered in the ice.
T.K. Carter is a performer who is better recognised for his varied television roles than his involvement in major motion pictures. He played the character of Mike Fulton in 24 episodes of the NBC sitcom “Punky Brewster,” which is one of his most well-known performances.
Carter has recently landed parts in a variety of programmes, including Lataurus Price in “Stumptown,” Thelonious Harkness in “How To Get Away With Murder,” and Councilman Johnson in “Everybody Hates Chris.” Additionally, he is active on Instagram, where he frequently posts about his work, particularly “The Thing.”
Thomas G. Waites
‘The Thing’ features a variety of characters, including some younger ones like Windows, in addition to cranky old guys and hostile shape-shifting aliens (played by Thomas G. Waites). Outpost 31’s silly radio operator, known as Windows, always sports sunglasses, even when inside. He is revealed to be a crew member who has short fuse, is lethargic, and is bewildered, and who is less prepared than most to deal with the pressure of a hostile extraterrestrial life form.
Thomas G. Waites, an accomplished actor who began his career at the Juilliard School in the 1970s, portrays Windows. Throughout his career as a working actor, he has played a variety of roles in movies and television shows, including “The Warriors,” “Miami Vice,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Oz,” “Homeland,” and “The Punisher,” to name a few. It’s interesting to note that Waites also runs an acting school in New York where students can experience the craft firsthand.
Wilford Brimley
Although you might not have realised it, Wilford Brimley was someone you had seen on both large and small screens. Brimley portrayed the paranoid senior biologist of Outpost 31 in “The Thing,” who rapidly deduces that the crew must have been infected by the shape-shifting alien. When he is the only thing left alive to cause havoc, his role in the narrative shifts from logical hero to infected villain. In general, Blair is one of “The Thing’s” more interesting characters since he walks a fine line between action and madness.
Wilford Brimley unfortunately passed away in 2020 from a kidney disease that he had been dealing with for a while. He received a two-two diabetes diagnosis in 1979, and through a series of advertisements for Liberty Medical and the American Diabetes Association, he notably rose to prominence as the disease’s public advocate. Wilford Brimley, who is no longer with us, had a long and prosperous career in entertainment, which he carried up until his passing with parts in movies including “Cocoon,” “Did You Hear About the Morgans?”, “Walker, Texas Ranger,” and “Seinfeld.”
Brimley was also well-liked for his frequent Twitter posts on which he made witty remarks about a range of subjects. In one funny interaction, Brimley made fun of “The Thing” by telling Antarctic scientists not to touch with a specimen they discovered buried in the ice.
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