Behind The Scenes of John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’

A story of psychological horror and isolation, featuring scares like you’d never seen before with its ground-breaking practical effects, it’s fair to say, John Carpenter’s renowned cult classic The Thing truly is “The Ultimate in alien terror”.

However, just how much went on behind the camera for this revolutionary masterpiece? From explosions on set to alternate endings being shot and even a crew member being hospitalized, we’ll be looking at what went on behind the scenes for one of the most influential horror movies of all time.

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Tobe Hooper Was Originally Attached To Direct

It’s hard to imagine what would have happened in the world of horror (and practical effects for that matter) had John Carpenter not brought his vision for The Thing to audiences. . . but this was very nearly the case.

Producer Stuart Cohen and Universal studios started looking into making The Thing back in the early ‘70s, at which point Carpenter wasn’t an established director. So, instead, they approached Tobe Hooper and Kim Kenkel who had recently made a horror hit The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974).

However, this was somewhat of a passion project for Cohen who wanted the story to better reflect the original novella, John W. Campbell Jr.’s Who Goes There? – which centred more around trust – as opposed to the original movie The Thing From Another World (1951). Unfortunately, this is where he and Hooper didn’t see eye to eye, Cohen reflected in his blog:

Their [Hooper & Kenkel] initial enthusiasm dimmed upon reading the novella. The issue of trust didn’t particularly interest them as an overall theme. They also worried about their ability to dramatize the mechanics of assimilation and didn’t want to be constrained by its use.

Cohen described Hooper and Kenkel’s draft as being more of an “Antarctica MOBY DICK” story. Not only that, but Hooper’s Moby-Dick-Thing wasn’t able to shapeshift either! Due to this, the project was ultimately shelved, but thankfully, after his success with Halloween (1978) and the similar vision he shared with Cohen, Carpenter was brought on board. The rest is history.

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John Carpenter Wanted To Make It More Like The Original Short Story

John Carpenter’s first introduction to the mythology of The Thing was when he saw the re-release of the original theatrical version The Thing From Another World (1951). In high school, he then went on to read the original short story written by John W. Campbell Jr., titled Who Goes There? It was here that he realised although both were set in Antarctic isolation, there were a lot of differences in the two versions, Carpenter cites in an interview his thoughts on the 1951 original:

He was kind of a vegetable that could reproduce various life forms, but he wasn’t the imitator, the creature that could imitate any life form from the original story.

And it was the imitation aspect of the creature and the “who did it?” approach from the original novella that fascinated Carpenter the most. So he took the idea to writer Bill Lancaster who would go on to write up the script for Carpenter’s vision.

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It Was Shot In British Columbia

It’s no secret that a lot of methods are used to give the allusion of certain locations onscreen, whether it be camera angles, miniatures or in more recent years, CGI and green screen. However, although The Thing may not have been shot in Antarctica, the external shots were actually filmed on a real-life glacier.

To achieve the look for their Antarctic setting, the crew began scouting for locations nearby that could pass for an Antarctic ice camp. It was then they stumbled across Stewart, British Columbia, Dean Cundey (director of photography) reflects in an interview:

They opted for Stewart, British Columbia because it was purportedly one of the highest snowfall areas, accessible easily.

During the summer, six months before shooting, they were able to build the set before winter kicked in. Aside from having to build it from a certain angle to hide trees in the background, the location was perfect, John Lloyd (production designer) reflects on the final results in an interview:

I was extremely happy with all that, you know, I thought it looked right.

This particular location certainly made for a harsh shoot, having to leave cameras outside to avoid the lenses misting, the risky journeys to and from the set and most of all, being in genuinely freezing conditions, John Carpenter confirms in an interview:

We had no comforts and it was a dangerous spot, make no mistake about it, we were in a very dangerous spot.

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Kurt Russell Was A Last-Minute Choice For Macready

Although Kurt Russell’s Macready is now just as iconic as the creature itself, originally, Russell wasn’t even considered for the role. As well as previously working on Escape from New York (1981) together, Russell and John Carpenter were also good friends. Initially, not being part of the project, Russell instead gave some suggestions for who he thought would be a good fit for the character.

Eventually, after realizing he wasn’t finding what he was looking for and with only a few weeks to go before production began, Carpenter asked Russell if he’d be interested in the part, Russell reflects in an interview:

I guess it was about three weeks to go or a month, maybe less than that, he [Carpenter]came to me and said “would you. . . what would you think about playing it?” and so then I really read it and said yeah I thought it’d be a lot of fun.

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Rob Bottin Was Only 22 When He Did The Special Effects For The Movie

The practical effects in The Thing broke ground like never before and changed the game forever going forward, so you’d think it would be a skilled veteran that was responsible? Quite the contrary, it was young newcomer Rob Bottin – originally a protégée of Rick Baker (special effects artist for An American Werewolf in London) – who was only 22 years old when designing the practical effects for The Thing. Bottin originally had an encounter with John Carpenter on the set of The Fog (1980) and he managed to sweet-talk Carpenter into letting him have a role for that particular film. After that, it wasn’t until Carpenter saw Bottin’s work on The Howling (1981) that he brought him on board to do the special effects for The Thing.

Not only that but Bottin was given full creative control when designing the alien and he certainly delivered. It was his brainchild to make the creature an amalgamation of everything it had embodied, Carpenter reflects in an interview:

He [Rob] came in with a wild concept, which is that The Thing can look like anything, it doesn’t look like one monster, it looks like anything, and out of this changing shape, this imitation comes all the creatures throughout the universe that The Thing has ever imitated and it uses these various forms.

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The Set Was Refrigerated

Although when filming external shots, the cast and crew were overlooking an actual glacier in British Columbia, the interior shots were filmed at Universal Studios in California. This meant having to simulate cold breath coming from the actors to make it look like they were actually in an Antarctic setting. Eventually, it was found that the best way to do this was simply to refrigerate the entire set. They found that as long as the humidity was up, they were able to find the perfect balance and not make it too cold.

Unfortunately, when the movie was being shot it just happened to be one of California’s hottest summers, which proved slightly problematic when the actors broke for lunch, Richard Masur (Clark) confirms in an interview:

We got so tired of changing to go to lunch, that we would just go to lunch in our complete wool outfits in this brutal heat.

Thankfully it was normally air-conditioned wherever they chose to eat so they didn’t have to suffer for too long.

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Keith David Filmed With A Broken Hand

Keith David (Childs) – who would go on to star in another John Carpenter previous movie, They Live (1988) – had an unfortunate accident which resulted in his hand being broken, just before filming began.

Not wanting to cause a fuss, David simply showed up, ready to shoot, regardless of his injury. Thankfully, the crew noticed his swollen hand and advised him to get it seen to. After receiving the necessary medical treatment, David proceeded to film (with his hand still broken). So as not to notice his injury, David was given a glove painted to match his skin colour, but the injured hand was often kept out of shot.

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They Had To Be On Guard With The Dog On Set As It Was Part Wolf

One of the memorable forms The Thing took was that of an Alaskan Malamute in the first act. Although the real dog (who was named Jed) wasn’t nearly as dangerous as his onscreen counterpart, the cast and crew still had to be cautious. The reason for this being, the dog itself was part wolf and it was the wolf side of the dog which was the most dominant. Jed would never bark or growl, however, whenever he gave a certain intense look to someone, that meant he was spooked and everyone had to be on guard, Richard Masur (Clark) reflects in an interview:

You never knew what was going to spook him, he was not very experienced when working around people, so we had to really lock the set down whenever Jed was on the stage.

This resulted in one of the more basic scenes – which involved the dog walking past all the characters and under the table – being the most difficult and took two weeks of rehearsals before shooting.

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An Amputee Was Brought In To Achieve One Of The Movie’s Most Infamous Scenes

Although there are numerous iconic special effects used in The Thing, one scene, in particular, tends to stand out the most. The scene in question is the shock fans got when Norris’ (Charles Hallahan) stomach opens before biting off Dr Cooper’s (Richard Dysart) arms. Not only was this very surprising, but it looked so realistic (even by today’s standards). So, just how did they manage to make it look like Cooper had bloody stumps where his arms once were? Well, that’s easy. . . he did (sort of).

In order to achieve the brutal sequence, they brought in an actual amputee, who had lost both of his arms prior in an industrial accident. From there they simply fitted him with prosthetic arms and a mask to make him look like Cooper. A bit of a risky scene to film, to say the least, as a hydraulic press was used to sever the fake arms from the stand-in. A foot (or fake arm in this case) out of place and there could have been quite the mishap, Rob Bottin (special effects) reflects on that particular scene in an interview:

That’s a really good shot in the movie, you know what I mean? That one was really tough to do and very inventive, you know, very tough to do, I would even be scared to do that again.

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Materials Used For A Special Effect Resulted In An Explosion On Set

During the infamous chest opening scene, the creature detaches its head in quite a gruesome fashion to escape the fire. When its neck stretches, the skin snaps and exposes these green, gooey veins underneath. To achieve the exposed green anatomy, Rob Bottin (special effects) made a concoction which consisted of melted plastic and bubble gum, something you certainly wouldn’t get away with these days, Bottin reflects in an interview:

And the whole time it’s giving off fumes like paint thinner and lacquer thinner and all this kind of stuff.

Unfortunately, for continuity – as the creature is being set on fire at this point – during the close-up shot, John Carpenter wanted to show fire under the lens. For this, they had to set up a fire bar under the camera, which works the same way as a gas fireplace. As soon as the cameras were rolling, they had a lighter ready to ignite the flames under the camera – all the while the room was filling up with these explosive fumes – Carpenter yelled action, the lighter was ignited and the whole room went up in fire!

Thankfully, no one was hurt and just looked like something from a cartoon, with all their faces covered in soot. However, Bottin’s attention was then drawn to the Norris replica, he reflects in an interview:

And I’m staring down at the body and I’m in shock because since, the one-take deal only. I look down at it and I go “oh my god, IT’S ON FIRE!” right? “IT’S ON FIRE!” and then John [Carpenter] says “Don’t just stand there, put it out, you idiot!”

Bottin was able to put the fire on the replica out in time, but it took a whole day to reset everything to go again.

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Rob Bottin Ended Up In Hospital With Exhaustion

With a lot of crew members and actors, you’ll see them go above and beyond when it comes to dedication to their craft on certain productions. However, Rob Bottin, the man responsible for most of the ground-breaking make-up, special effects and creature creations in the movie, certainly takes the cake. So much so that whilst working on The Thing, he moved into Universal Studios for an entire year. Not only that but he worked seven days a week, never took a day off and would often get what sleep he whilst could on set.

When production finally wrapped, Bottin was in a pretty sorry state, he reflects in an interview:

I ended up, you know, working so hard that I ended up in the hospital. At the end of the show, John [Carpenter] looked at me, he said “You don’t look well, somebody take this guy to the hospital.”

Thankfully, since then Bottin doesn’t run himself into the ground (as much) anymore.

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The Opening Title Sequence Was Done Practically

Although The Thing was more like the novella, John W. Campbell Jr.’s Who Goes There? as opposed to The Thing From Another World (1951). Certain tributes were made to the original movie, one of which was the opening title sequence.

The opening scene sees a spaceship enter the earth’s atmosphere shortly followed by ‘THE THING’ title, which burns itself onto the screen. Although these days computers can easily create that kind of sequence, visual effects artist Peter Kuran took a more practical approach. The title sequence was achieved by putting the design of the title on an animation cell, placing it behind a fish tank filled with smoke (without any fish inside it of course), covered it with a trash bag, placed a light behind it and set it on fire. This gave the eerie title sequence that lit up our screens back in the early ’80s.

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An Alternate Upbeat Ending Was Filmed Just In Case

The ambiguous open ending for The Thing has since just added to the numerous reasons fans love the movie. However, at the time the film’s editor, Toddy Ramsey felt the “downbeat” ending was somewhat nihilistic. So, he suggested they film a more upbeat conclusion to protect themselves just in case the original ending didn’t go down so well.

The alternate ending saw Kurt Russell in an office type setup having survived the traumatic ordeal, then going on to get a blood transfusion, so you know he’s not infected. When the first couple of previews were shown, John Carpenter decided against testing the alternate upbeat ending on audiences, feeling he had achieved what he set out to do. And it certainly seems he made the right decision!

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It Flopped At The Box Office

Despite the tremendous fan base it has now, at the time of its release back in 1982, with a worldwide total of just $20 million, John Carpenter’s The Thing was, essentially, a box office flop. Dean Cundey (director of photography) blames another movie – regarding a certain Extra-Terrestrial – that was released a couple of weeks prior as the reason for The Thing’s bad reception from audiences, in an interview:

At the time, we also had a very friendly alien that came to visit the earth in the form of E.T. and it was a case of an audience, at the time, feeling probably more comfortable with a friendly alien and the fact that the, sort of, dark edge of The Thing was something that wasn’t so appreciated at the time.

Thankfully, since its release and with the help of VHS, The Thing is now regarded as a cult classic in the world of, not just horror, but film in general.

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