Movies in Movies Wildcard: The Thing (1982)

Gathered together from the cosmic reaches of the universe, here in this great screening room with comfortable recliners, are the most powerful forces of good ever assembled. Keith!

We're also talking about the last quarter century, and I was just like, oh yeah, prior to 2001. Jesus Christ.

Terry! Or I happened to be having an erection and all of a sudden the movie turned on next to me and I was like, no, no, no, wait, please! Derek!

But yeah, the Ewok movie Battle of Endor opened tons of doors. And the power twins, Zap and Jordan, with their magical lemur snort dedicated Welcome back to Fumbling Their Way Through Movies, one forgotten gem at a time. This week we trust nobody with 1982's The Thing. This is Fumbling Through Film.

Well, now, radio's gone.

So are the choppers.

Yeah, we're completely cut off. All we can do now is hole up till spring, wait for the rescue team.

No, we don't wait. Somebody in this camp ain't what he appears to be. Right now that may be one or two of us.

By spring it could be all of us.

So how do we know who's human? What if I was an imitation? A perfect imitation? How would you know if it was really me?

Is there some kind of test, Doc? Well, yeah, possibly. I've been thinking about a blood serum test.

What's that?

We could take a sample of each person's blood, could mix it with uncontaminated blood. I suppose if there's a reaction, we'd know who isn't human.

Hello and welcome to another one-of-a-kind, genre-defining, brand new episode of Fumbling Through Film, the only show that dares to bring together 3 dudes to talk about movies. These, these movies, they aren't just any movies.

Nope, nope, nope.

For these are the ones we've either missed, overlooked, or feel are simply worth revisiting. And now that I think about it, that is any movie. I, I was willing to go on to Terry's side until I said those, those 3 qualifiers.

Well, we'll cut that out of the script next time.

I can't. I got a little lock on my sheet here. It cannot be deleted.

I thought, I thought of, uh, of another, uh, possibility of a movie as well as the— hey, I swear I've seen this thing like a bunch of times, but Never. I, I don't know.

A movie you think you've seen but you haven't. Yes.

Or these are the ones we've missed, overlooked, think we've seen but really haven't, or feel are simply worth revisiting.

Or completely forgot, uh, everything about it.

Like, I'm—

that's, that's happened a lot with some of these movies that we've, uh, that we've watched over like the last 18 months.

That—

sure, good number of them where I'm like, oh yeah, this would be a good rewatch.

No.

Yeah, I don't know what that is.

Okay.

My name is Derek. I know what that is. It's my name. And I'm a fumbler. Joining me here in the Fumble Dome is the Prime Minister. I almost said a funk of fumbling and film, Keith.

Hey, hey, what's up, KG? Fumbler extraordinaire. If you check my blood, I'm the real thing.

You're the real thing? The real thing. Uh-oh.

Like, no, I know, I'm sorry, bad wording. I'm the, I'm the real, uh, me.

Freudian slip. That's something the Thing would say, I think.

Um, the Thing would say, the Thing would say it's clobbering time, but, uh, I'm saying it's me.

That is the Thing. We're talking about the Thing.

Yeah, it's a bit of a different cadence.

The other one with the perfect cadence is Dr. Abe Kansas, is Terry.

That's right. That's how you can always tell it's me, is with my perfect cadence.

Perfect cadence every time.

Yeah, but I mean, if you were perfectly, you know, replicated, then still be perfect. We'd never know.

It's a good point.

I, I, I think even though they say that in this movie, there was not a perfect replication, any one of them.

I feel like I could still tell, you know. I would just know if I was there. I'd tell you right away who was the thing.

Well, I mean, the one guy's chest opened. Okay, we'll talk about it later.

Was he the thing, you think?

Yeah, yeah, it's easy to tell who was a replicant. The ones that like mutated and turned into weird-ass creatures.

This would be a very different movie if it was Ben Grimm. He was invading the camp and it's like, well, which one of us is the thing? And it's like Ben Grimm in his big trench coat and hat. He's like, I don't know.

Everyone, everyone's just turning to stone, basically.

Like, you know, keep an eye on Ben.

No, you just gotta figure out which one's the Thing, but you can't tell because he got a trench coat and his hat on.

No pants still, but this big trench coat.

He's made of rock.

He's— mm-hmm.

What's up? Yeah, ask, have you seen him? Nah, Stretch, ain't seen him.

So the Thing isn't like super tall, like Ben Grimm's the Thing isn't super tall. He's like a normal-sized person, just he's really thick and made out of rock, right? So like, the rock part—

He's like NFL lineman big.

Yeah, but he's not like Hulk big, the Thing.

Is he not? I thought he was kind of that big.

No. I think it depends on version. There are some versions where he probably is, but for the most part, yeah, he's just like a big NFL left tackle type big, but made out of rock.

So that's why he can pull off the trench coat and hat.

Because, yep, it's like any big dude could wear a trench coat and a hat.

Exactly. Most big dudes wear trench coats and hats. That's why it works.

Especially if you don't look at his, you know, rock feet, then you'll never know.

Or his big rocky hands.

Yeah.

Or, yeah.

Or those big adorable blue eyes. His baby blue eyes.

Yes, baby blue rock eyes. Everything is rock. Uh, you know what else is rock?

Rock solid, this podcast. Rock solid, this podcast.

You're right, Terry. Uh, and because we're so rock solid, we know exactly what it is we do here, so we should tell others. Just so they know, every week we watch movies, but not just any movie. Every month one of us chooses a theme, a genre, a guiding light, some sort of test for our blood because it'll react to electricity and fire in a different way, I think.

Anyway, sounds right.

We choose movies that adhere to those blood tests and— I don't know why that's funny to me— blood tests and/or themes. And then on the 4th week, like this week, we truly fumble. But this month is DTF, Down to Fumble. Y2, year 2. M8, the M stands for month. And that was a Keith month.

Yep, yep.

Keith, let the people know what it is we've done this month.

The fumbling inception. We watched movies inside of movies.

We did. Movies that occurred in other movies. Well, I guess they didn't occur.

They were just— Shown.

Shown in other movies.

They canonically exist within the movie's universe.

because it was seen on screen in that movie.

Yes.

Was screen in on screen in on screen. Yes. Right. So it's the inception, right?

Like a good example would be in True Romance, they go and watch, uh, The Street Fighter, which was what I picked for week 1.

Yes.

Sonny Chiba's The Street Fighter.

1975.

Was it '75 or '74? It don't matter. And then dub 2 was Terry week, and he did The Thing from Another World, which was featured in the movie Halloween.

Little kids were watching it.

Appropriate for little kids, I think.

Oh yeah.

Not too scary.

Kids love it.

Kids love it. And then I chose Gilda, which appeared in Shawshank Redemption because it has, uh, Rita Hayworth. Rita Hayworth doing that thing with her hair, doing that shit with her hair. And then we spun the wheel, and the wheel gave us John Carpenter's The Thing, which is essentially a remake of The Thing from Another World.

Yep, pretty much.

Which is based on a short story by John J. Jingleheimer Schmidt.

Yeah, there's something like that.

Something like that.

This is one of the few times that I'm, I'm happy that I lost the wheel spin because, uh, the best— based on watching, um, the other one, I was excited to actually sit down and What I assume was a rewatch of The Thing, a long overdue rewatch.

Well, that's a good lead-in here, Keith. Now, before we talk about our viewing of John Carpenter's The Thing, or we deep dive and take us closer to John Carpenter's The Thing than we could ever dream, did any of us have any previous knowledge, history, and/or experience with John Carpenter's The Thing?

I blacked out basically 99% of that movie. Uh, over the years since it originally came out. But I swear to God, I've seen this movie at some point in time. There's— I, I can't imagine that I've not actually ever seen that movie until now and just assumed I had. And like, every time I was thinking like, so I'm gonna watch it, I saw that already, check mark. You know, I, I don't— I, I have to have seen this movie, but I'm very familiar with it and everything.

But it's okay, it's okay to admit that you hadn't seen it before, and that's fine.

But I, I, I don't think that's true though. I just— maybe I haven't seen it since like 1983.

You watched it in '83?

Well, it came out in '82, so I probably saw it. I probably didn't see it in theater, but I probably saw it.

You saw it as a 7-year-old?

Whenever, whenever it eventually came on TV, I probably saw it, and probably like an edited version on something on WGN or something like that. I, I, I can't imagine I haven't seen it, but it's also Again, like stuff someplace away in my mind, covered by a billion other things at this point.

Buried deep within a hundred thousand years' worth of ice, perhaps.

Possibly.

Yeah.

Hundred thousand years' worth of movies at at this rate, plus two seasons of monsters really kind of baffles a lot of us.

Yeah.

Yeah. So it it's in there somewhere, and but it seemed like a very fresh watch to me.

I've seen this this several times. I really like this movie. John Carpenter is one of my favorite directors, so. Yeah, I have a lot— big fan, actually. Watched this quite a few times.

I knew of it, uh, but a lot like RoboCop, I'd never seen it. I'm, I'm not too, uh, proud to admit that. I'll live with that shame. I righted that wrong. This movie came out when I was 6, right? 7, whatever. Like, I was too young to have watched it when it came out. My parents wouldn't let me watch rated R movies until I was In my 30s. So that, that—

You're in your 30s? Wow.

So, so I just, it just missed it. And it was one of those things where it's like, I think I need to watch this movie. I own it. I owned it on digital. I know I own it on DVD, but I had never watched it previously. And I was going to watch it when we did the other one, but I was like, whoa, but it might come on the wheel and I don't want to spoil my wheel view. Exactly.

And it did.

That was good thinking.

Mm-hmm.

There's many movies I've decided not to watch just in case it happens to show up on the wheel or on our grand big spinning wheel at the end of the year.

Yep.

I'm always like, well, maybe I shouldn't watch this. Yep.

It's going to be on the wheel at the end of the year, but I don't want to spoil it. Boyos, you guys can take a seat.

Relax.

Mm-hmm.

Don't mind. Yeah, I'm not— I'm a little on edge because I don't know why the ropes are involved.

I am going to tie you both to a chair while I take us closer than you could ever imagine to John Carpenter's The Thing. Another pending Fumbler's Deep Dive. All right, John Carpenter's The Thing. This son of a bitch came out on June 25th, 1982. It is rated R. It's an hour and 49 minutes long. A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims. Gets an 8.2 on IMDb, which is—

wow, 1982.

Oh, you're right. And it's an 85% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Probably the year Keith saw it.

Yes. This movie opened to $3.1 million on a roughly $15 million budget. That $3.1 was good enough for 8th that weekend. You guys ready for the top 10 for that week?

Oh yeah, I would love to.

What what weekend was that?

June 25th, 1982.

The 82.

82 is probably pretty stacked.

Yeah, it's pretty stacked week. Oh, just a lot of classic films.

Hold on. It's not 1984, but it's got to be up there.

Hold on your butts. Number 10, Bambi. Whoa! Number number nine in its opening week, Megaforce. Wow. I have no idea what that is.

I don't know what that is. That's a forgotten in time kind of thing.

Uh, it's, I think, a traditionally bad, uh, like a, um, traditionally bad movie. No. Um, like, uh, one of those like really bad movies that people will still— yeah, famously bad. Thank you, Terry. Um, that people will still watch. I, I want to say, uh, our boy Dave Champa and his crew last summer watched it as like one of their summer movies. It's like really, really bad.

Yeah, well, since we're wondering, I'll tell you right now. Story about a rapid deployment defense unit that is called into action whenever freedom is threatened.

This is different than Delta Force. This is Mega Force.

This is Mega Force. Stars Barry Bostwick, Michael Beck, and Persis Khambatta.

I swear I thought you were gonna start by saying stars Barry Bonds. I don't know why.

Nope, Barry Bostwick. And it looks terrible. Like the poster looks terrible.

That's a shame.

Megaforce. Anyway, that opened up at number 9. 8, The Thing. 7, Poltergeist. 6, Annie. 5, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Number 4, Rocky III.

Yes.

Number 3, Firefox.

Oh, the web browser that finally came out.

It is. Number 2, opening that weekend, Blade Runner.

Oh, cool.

And number 1, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Oh, that's right, E.T. came out.

Yes, E.T. dominated that summer, I do believe.

Yes, just like E.T. would dominate the thing in real life.

Yes, if E.T., if it ever came back, would dominate our summer again, we would probably be enslaved by that little guy.

Well, yeah, if he showed up to Earth, we're all screwed.

Yes.

He's like the real-life Grogu.

Uh, Lego, uh, Lego just released an E.T. set. You can build E.T.

Oh my gosh. Does it actually fly? Does the bike fly?

Uh, no bike with it. It's just—

Is he life-size?

Oh, it's E.T. himself?

Yeah.

Does the finger glow or does the heart turn on?

Uh, it may. I didn't, I didn't look that deep into it. I wasn't going to get it unless maybe it's on clearance at some point. Uh, but it does look pretty cool. It looks very, very—

Does the neck extend?

Oh, I hope not because that's creepy.

Does he have like, um, customizable clothing he can put on to disguise himself much like Ben Grimm, the Thing? Hmm.

I think— but E.T. does like wear a dress and makeup and stuff.

Yeah.

And it's a wig.

And during the Halloween scene when they go out, uh, he sees somebody dressed up like Yoda and actually like stops and recognizes Yeah.

Yeah, it's his dad.

There's a recognition there.

Baby Yoda. It is.

The Thing finished its theatrical run with $20 million in the bank.

Wow.

In 2011, Adam Smith from Empire Magazine said this about The Thing. The Thing is a peerless masterpiece of relentless suspense, retina-wrecking visual excess, and outright nihilistic terror, or nihilistic. I never knew how to pronounce that. I'm gonna say nihilistic. Nihilistic terror.

That sounds right.

With the exception of, of, of the nihilistic terror part, the rest of that I kind of would like on my tombstone when I'm gone.

I wish nihilistic terror was on mine.

I want nihilistic terror like in quotes in between my first and last name, and then the rest could be peerless masterpiece of suspense. Derek the Nihilistic Terror Glasscock. That's me.

Terry, the, the Dr. Dre of Kansas, the King of Men, the Nihilistic Terror. Yeah, I have all those on there.

I—

you should get a shirt with it at least. But in 2007, Variety had this to say: if it's the most vividly gruesome monster ever to stalk the screen that audiences crave, then The Thing is The Thing. On all other levels, however, John Carpenter's remake of Howard Hawks' 1951 sci-fi classic comes as a letdown.

Wow.

I agree. There's a couple words in that sentence, classic and letdown, that are— that could be flipped. Howard Hawks' 1951 sci-fi letdown.

Yeah, yeah. I think that guy or whoever wrote that—

It— there was no name. It was like Alan Smithee of reviews.

Yeah, you don't want to It just said variety writer. You do not want to be known as the person who doesn't like the thing.

That man was fired shortly after, and they don't actually reference him by name.

They had to put him into the, um, whatever it is where you have to lose your identity and go live somewhere else.

Witness protection?

Yeah, they had to throw him in witness protection after that.

This movie was directed by John Carpenter. Writer, composer, director. He has 33 directing credits going back to 1960. 2, such things as Halloween, Escape from New York, They Live, a TV movie called Elvis, which I'm assuming is about Elvis. Yeah, he did another TV movie called Body Bags.

Oh yeah, but also about Elvis.

In 2001, he directed Ghosts of Mars.

Oh, with Ice Cube?

Yeah, I don't want to put out all the good John Carpenter stuff out there because it's We can't deep dive it, so, or we can't, uh, wheel spin it.

You've already mentioned it. It's too late.

Anyway, uh, Ghosts of Mars. In 2176, a Martian police unit is sent to pick up a highly dangerous criminal at a remote mining post. Upon arrival, the cops find that the post has become a charnel house.

Wow.

Stars Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, and Pam Grier.

Yuck.

Yuck.

I believe Jason Statham's in that too.

He probably is. It sounds like a Jason Statham movie.

Well, then it's gotta be awesome.

And it's got a great premise. It's just not a good movie.

I saw it in theaters. It's terrible. It's a very bad movie.

Statham doesn't make bad movies.

Well, that's a lie.

Yeah, that ain't true.

Look, I may not, I may not, I may not go to the theater to see everyone, but when they hit streaming, I watch it almost immediately.

Doesn't mean it's good.

He's, he's on my shortlist of people that I, I really enjoy watching in movies.

I feel like he's been on a good run lately, but his early stuff, not always the best.

This movie was written by Bill Lancaster, Lancaster, and John W. Campbell Jr., who we talked about a few weeks ago, who wrote the short story.

Hmm. Yes.

Bill Lancaster has 8 writing credits going back to 1976. He wrote The Bad News Bears, The Bad News Bears Go to Japan, then The Thing. And then the rest of his other 5 writing credits are based upon The Thing or Bad News Bears that he gets credit, character credit for.

Yeah.

Okay. 2 defining works.

Yeah. The Bad News Bears and The Thing. That's it.

The, uh, the original Bad News Bears is really good.

I've never, I've never seen Ghosts of Japan though.

No, neither have I.

I'm sure it's great.

How could it not be?

Can't, can't not be great. Yes. This movie stars Kurt Russell as MacReady. He has 110 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1962. He did an episode of Dennis the Menace, an episode of Gilligan's Island. 2 episodes of The Fugitive and movies like— he played Bart in Superdad, Morgan, Morgan Two Persons Bodine in The Captive: The Longest Drive 2, uh-oh, Reno Hightower in The Best of Times. He was the voice of Ron in 2025's Smurfs.

He was.

Yes, he was. But in 2005, he played Steve in Sky High.

Yes.

Set in an era where superheroes are commonly known and accepted, young William Stronghold, the son of the Commander, aka Steve, and Jetstream, tries to find a balance between being a normal teenager and an extraordinary being. Stars Kurt Russell, Kelly Preston, and Michael Angarano.

That's a high school classic right there.

Yeah, not to be confused with the Japanese Sky High, which was a detective hunts a killer who is removing girls' hearts. Oh, his own fiancée falls victim to the killer. The detective discovers the otherworldly intentions of the killer and is helped from beyond the grave by his fiancée.

That's right. That sounds amazing.

And wait, can I say, like, And I mean, I obviously, I understand we weren't— because there's no wheel or anything, we've, we kind of skimmed over some of the stuff there. But man, this is, this is right in like prime Kurt Russell.

Sky High?

No, uh, The Thing.

Yeah, there's a lot of good classic Kurt Russell flicks.

That's that early, early '80s, you know, uh, Kurt Russell might be like his most Powerful decade of acting when he, when he was at his peak. I mean, you know, look, nobody can pull off a hat like he wears in this and not be at the peak.

Oh, that hat was outstanding. Yeah, I was looking at that, I was like, boy, that's a good Halloween getup right there.

That'd be another great category, uh, movies where people wear cool hats.

Yeah, cool hat movies. We'd watch The Thing 4 times.

I'm driving down.

Yeah.

This movie also stars Wilford Brimley as Blair.

Yes.

Fun fact, Wilford Brimley was 48 when this movie came out.

The youngest I have ever seen the man.

But he still looks old as hell.

Well, yeah, he came out the womb looking like a 50-year-old man. He looks so young in this movie compared to everything else.

He's like haggard 48. That's why I wanted to see how old he was when I did the math. He's 48.

Yes, he aged very quickly and he stayed that way.

He has 79 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1969. He did 10 episodes of The Waltons, 46 episodes as Gus Witherspoon in Our House. He did an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger, which we watched a clip from. Because Walker said I have AIDS. And he did movies like Cocoon, Cocoon: The Return, I believe, The Path of the Wind. But in 1985, he played Noah in the TV movie Ewoks: The Battle of Endor.

He was in that?

Marauders raid the Ewok village and steal a power supply they believe to be magical. Wicket helps Cyndle escape the evil witch Charle, and then they befriend a hermit who may help them save the village. Stars Warwick Davis.

Who was he in this? He was evil.

He was wicked.

No, not Warwick Davis. This other guy we're talking about, Wilford Brimley.

He was Noah. I think he was the hermit who saved the village.

Who—

I don't know what kind of hermit lives on the Forest Moon of Endor, but it's that guy.

Well, maybe Conan will run into him as well in that other movie idea that we had.

Maybe.

Maybe. Yeah. I don't know. Wilford Brimley might play Conan. Conan the Hermit.

Wilford Brimley as Conan.

That's kind of awesome. Like old king, like even past King Conan, like old, like retired Conan maybe.

Yep.

All right, all right. So this this comes out in in eighty-two.

Mm-hmm.

And then when does when did Cocoon come out?

Like because I think it's mid-eighties, like right around eighty-four, eighty-five, something like that.

Eighty-five.

It's it's he is Wilford Brimley's most powerful decade is the eighties.

That is true.

Yes.

You can't deny that's his most powerful decade.

He looks like a super old man during Cocoon.

Yeah, he's a retiree.

Yeah. And in this one, I mean, he still looks somewhat old, but it's still like insanely young looking.

Yeah, he's only like 50 when Cocoon came out.

Yeah, but I mean, he looks— he's always looked 70 as far as I know.

He's younger than we are, Keith, in Cocoon.

He looks like—

but he's gray hair, mustache, and then he's had like 30 years of diabetes commercials after that. So I mean, yeah, eating oatmeal and stuff like that. Yeah.

Did he do the Bartles and James commercials too?

He probably did. I think so. Yeah.

If he did the Ewok film, he probably did a lot of other things.

But the Ewok movie Battle of Endor opened tons of doors.

Yeah, yeah. I'm just saying, if he's willing to do that, he's willing to do a lot.

It's Star Wars. Would if you're an actor, would you not be willing to do something Star Wars? Especially in the '80s.

Come on. Yeah, Star Wars most powerful decade. Yeah, I guess I probably would.

I signed the contract, then they hand me the script. Ah crap!

Yeah, I would just pull a Christopher Nolan type actor thing where I'm not going to read the script. I'm just gonna sign up.

Yeah.

And then you get it and you're like, oh, who am I? Uh, I gotta help Charl and Cyndal do what?

Who is this guy? There's a— I'm a hermit who lives on the forest moon of Endor.

Who are these little hairy men? I don't get this. I don't get this at all.

I've never seen Star Wars before. Wait, is this a sci-fi film or what? Are these a bunch of little Bigfeet?

Oh, too much. I can't handle it.

How many moons are there for Endor?

Oh God. Yeah.

Don't ask me.

Wait, is this the forest moon of the planet Endor?

Endor, or is this forest moon called Endor?

What do you mean there's 8 different moons of Endor?

Each one its own biome. It doesn't make any sense. Finally, this movie stars Keith David as Childs. Yes, we've talked about him in the past. Uh, he has 417 acting credits in TV, games, and film going back to 1979. Yeah, 417. Lots of voice acting. 74 episodes of Gargoyles.

Oh yeah.

18 episodes of Spawn. 13 episodes of Community. He did 21 episodes of Live Spots and Astronauts. Don't know what that is. He was Captain Anderson in the Mass Effect games. And he did movies like, in 2025, he played Mr. Bob Shank in Portal to Hell. In 2023, he played Willy the Wonker in American Fiction.

Oh no. Willy the Wonker?

Yep.

Yeah.

In 2017, he played Valentine in Savage Dog. But in 1997, he did the voice of Apollo the sun god in Disney's Hercules.

Oh, really?

Yeah. The son of Zeus and Hera is stripped of his immortality as an infant and must become a true hero in order to reclaim it. Stars Tate Donovan, Susan Egan, and James Woods.

I don't remember that at all. I don't remember him being in that.

Yep, he played Apollo.

I don't remember Apollo in that either. Huh, it's been a long time.

He's one of those— he's a classic voice.

Oh yeah, for sure.

He did, uh, some kind of voiceover part in, um, Spider-Man: Brand New Day also. Yeah, yeah, there's some small little, little bit there of it. But yeah, he's such a, such a classic voice. And again, this is like somebody I've seen in a whole bunch of things, but always way so much older. Uh, and he's another young, like, young version. Like, you almost couldn't tell it was him at first.

Yeah, to hear him talk, you're like, oh, I know that guy.

Yeah, voice of a generation.

Oh, I— it's hard to say what his most powerful decade is, but it might be the most recent one. He's got so many things in the last— his— yeah, it's insane.

His voice work alone is like iconic.

Yes, he— maybe we need to have— give him like a most powerful like quarter century.

That's true. I think we should give him that. Yeah, the 2000s.

He deserves that.

Yeah, he does deserve that. I think we'll make up a little plaque and mail it to him.

We should. And I would love to see his reaction when he got it. The Fumbler's Awards for the Most Powerful Quarter Century. No, Keith, the, the award for Keith David's Most Powerful Quarter Century.

Goes to Keith David.

Goes to Keith David for the last 25 years.

You're like, really? Other nominees include Keith David from 25 years prior, the previous 25 years, 1970, or yeah, whatever.

Or just pick a random 25 years that overlaps those 2 as well. Yeah, we just think the last 25 is the most powerful.

We just— yeah, it's not that the math just lined up really nicely. It's that we just particularly really like your roles.

All right, you guys ready for some John Carpenter's The Thing fun facts?

Yes.

Sure.

First fun fact, John Carpenter himself has stated that all of his films, this is his personal favorite.

Okay, makes sense, makes sense. Might be his best, debatably. I don't know.

It has become a tradition in British Antarctic research stations to watch the thing as part of their midwinter feast and celebration held every 21st of June.

Wow. That'd be fun.

On the summer solstice?

On the summer solstice, they watch the thing in Antarctica.

That's kind of cool.

Man, if I— I would love to go and spend like a month in one of those places.

Yeah, I, I would love to go to Antarctica.

I think that'd be fun. I love the cold. I mean, obviously there's a point where I don't, but like Yeah, just being, just chilling. I mean, assuming I don't have to work, I could just chill.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want like, or I mean, if I'm working, I'm like helping them out with something there, you know, but I'm not, nothing major. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm the guy.

Yeah. Putting out speakers, live podcasting.

Maybe I'm the one making, I'm making drinks or something like that at the bar. But yeah, really, man, I would love to just go and hang out at like one of those places for, you know, a couple weeks or so. It's the middle of nowhere.

There's lots, lots of stuff going down in Antarctica, not just the penguins and stuff like that, but you got The Thing and you got The Thing from Another World. And then also, what's it, Lovecraft's Mountains of Madness takes place in Antarctica as well.

Forget about them.

Yeah, the elder creatures buried in the ice.

The Terror, he's up there too.

Yeah, and June 21st in Antarctica, it would be Like all dark all the time, I think, right? Because this winter there would be the longest day without sun.

Yep. Yeah, that would be quite the vibe.

That'd be spooky.

Do a Thing marathon. Watch Thing from Another World, The Thing, and then The Thing.

The Thing Again? Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't think it's called The Thing Again. I just added that part there.

I think it's called The Thing Before.

It is like a prequel, right?

They also want— they also watch That Thing You Do.

10 Things I Hate About You.

And that's a good one.

Other, other things as well.

Yeah, many other things.

And the rest. This film is considered a benchmark in special makeup effects. The effects were created by Rob Bottin, who was only 22 when he started the project. I was like, ooh, Rob Bottin, what's he done? Well, he's done makeup or special effects in 43 projects going back to 1976. Things like Man Beast: Myth or Monster, RoboCop, Total Recall, The Howling, Piranha, Kentucky Fried Movie. But in 1998, he did the demon makeup and the lounge lizard's designs in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Wow.

An oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer traveled to Las Vegas for a series of psychedelic escapades. Stars Johnny Depp, Benicio del Toro and Tobey Maguire, adapted from the novel by the same name— of the same name by Hunter S. Thompson. More fun facts: Kurt Russell was almost injured in the scene where he blows up the alien Palmer with a stick of dynamite. Apparently he had no idea exactly how big of an explosion it would produce, and the reaction that he has in the movie is genuine.

Oh wow, he almost blew himself up with dynamite.

Apparently so. And they used real dynamite, which is alarming as well.

I mean, thank God he used his most powerful time. Yeah, they think a weaker, weaker time— Kurt Russell's gone.

Yeah, if he was in the '90s, Kurt Russell's dead. He was almost injured in this scene.

Yeah, he was almost injured. You know, he would have just been destroyed a decade earlier or a decade after.

Yeah, he probably had a bunch of shrapnel embedded into his skin. He just plucked it out. Like no big deal.

Yeah, probably bounced out like bullet, you know, like Wolverine healing bullets. Just probably just like—

yeah, exactly.

That's—

he stood up, he flexed a bit, and then just— yep, they all just— shrapnel dropping out.

They all just came out. The Norwegian camp scenes were actually the charred remains of the American site from the end of the film. Rather than go to the expense of building and burning down another camp, John Carpenter reused the destroyed American camp.

Smart man.

That's clever.

That's movie magic right there.

Cyclical in a way too.

The sound effects in the autopsy scene on the split-face thing was accomplished with paper towels soaked in egg yolk.

It's almost nastier than the thing himself.

Agreed. I hate eggs.

My favorite foods.

Right, that's just the eggs.

Top 3 favorite foods.

Now here's the thing, I would probably eat like a battered dip paper towel tube. Uh, paper towel, if there's deep fried and stuff like that, you know. Oh sure, usually they do like it, you'd go egg and then flour and then egg again and then panko and then deep fry the— that's how I deep fry my paper towels.

I think the Wisconsin State Fair had that.

Probably.

Actually, I had it on a stick this year.

It's kind of good for you because, yeah, paper towels don't really have a lot of like calories in them.

No, it's just fiber. It goes right through your system, cleans you out, literally.

Yeah, wipes you clean as he goes through, which is really nice.

Yeah, I recommend eating Bounty. It's, it's a quicker picker-upper.

It is a quicker picker-upper. And you could also, like, Bounty's got like, you can, you know, you can do like half sheets. You can also do quarter sheets of the Bounty.

Depending on how hungry you are.

Yeah. A team of 50 puppeteers operated the Blair monster at the end.

Wow. Holy crap.

50. That's a lot. And then finally, Kurt Russell came up with the final moment with MacReady and Childs during filming, as well as the final line of dialogue.

Nice. It's a great moment.

And A testament to his most powerful decade. I, I think what Kurt Russell did here was he told Keith David, you can slingshot off of my most powerful decade.

Yeah.

And into the new millennium and you could dominate the first quarter century if you want.

Yes.

Yes. There's a strong gravitational pull.

Yep.

That you can use as I fall, you will, you will fly.

I'll just fling you into the stratosphere. That's what happened.

Not to discount, you know, Kurt Russell's later works at all.

Or Keith David's, uh, just, uh, talent and ability.

Yeah, prior.

Yeah, prior to—

yeah, God forbid we discount his whole ability.

Yeah, prior to 2001.

If it wasn't for Kurt Russell, Keith David would be nothing.

Jesus.

We're also talking about the last quarter century. I was just like, oh yeah, prior to 2001. Jesus Christ.

We're old.

It's true.

That's true.

We're all old. Yeah. And only getting older.

That's the worst part. Yeah, not me.

I figured that out.

Terry's eternal.

Yeah, I've anti-aged actually. I'm actually getting younger. I started out really old. I'm kind of like an anti-Wilford Brimley.

You're Benjamin Button.

Anti-Wilford Brimley.

Yeah, I'm an anti-Wilford Brimley.

Makes sense. Not to be mistaken with my Auntie Wilford Brimley.

Yeah, do not mistake him with that, please.

She hates when you do that.

He's not my auntie. He's not.

Oh boys, we got really close there for a brief moment in time.

That's true. I think we got really, really close.

I was worried about the thing just reaching out and getting me. That's how close we got.

Those little slimy tendrils.

Yeah. Oh God, those look— I really enjoyed the, like, the little whips that came out and like, that was really cool. But here's the thing about The Thing. It's nearly 50 years old and it is beloved. It is a beloved movie. Yep. So therefore There are hundreds, if not thousands, of fun facts that have been submitted to IMDb for me to peruse. And some of them are— it's a lot, right? It's like, you know, it's like, uh, so at this moment in time, you'll notice that the screams, uh, are in— are non-continuous because it's like, I don't give a shit. That's not a fun fact. That is a nitpick.

You also get some fun facts where like, like they're just reworded differently.

Yes, it's the same thing.

Yeah.

Uh, uh, of all of his films, John Carpenter says this is his personal favorite, as opposed to John Carpenter has stated that all of his films, this is his personal favorite, right? Like it's always, it's the same thing over and over again. And there's so many of them and I just sifted through it. I grabbed some.

You picked out some fun ones.

But there's people that I guarantee that have dedicated their lives to this movie.

Yeah, it's one of those films that has like built up its reputation over time. Like, it's just people constantly are seeing it, getting it recommended to them.

Yep, getting it recommended. I think we're gonna say getting erections is what they're gonna say. No, no, but I bet you they are.

Well, no, I guarantee maybe a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, it could be 2 unrelated activities as well.

It's, it's only natural.

Yes. I watched a movie and I got an erection. They could not— they could not— just because one happens there when it's not related, right? Correlation is not causation.

There could be multiple ways this could have happened.

I just happened to be watching this movie.

Or I happened to be having an erection and all of a sudden the movie turned on next to me and I was like, no, no, no, wait, please.

Oh well, now I will always associate this erection with this movie now. In my erection log.

In your erection log?

Yes.

If I if this happens two more times, and it's something's gonna click in my brain. They gotta be careful. I'm gonna Pavlov myself.

Oh boy! All right, let's do it. Let's talk about the thing from 1982. John Carpenter's the thing from 1982.

Yes, please.

We're viewing. Uh, and because this is my first viewing, I'm gonna start with, God, it was, it was, it was really cool. I really like this movie quite a bit.

Yeah.

Loved it.

I, every time they show like anything with the creature and it's all like the practical special effects, I mean, it was like, oh, Derek's loving this.

And there was stop motion towards the end too.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Just a very brief moment of it, but it was there.

Yeah. The practical effects in this movie are outstanding.

Outstanding.

Looks awesome. Anytime it's transforming, it's like one of the most gnarly, disgusting, slimy things. Yuck. It's just so much creativity with like all the different like designs of the thing, like in its different forms. Yes, it's just insane because you never know what it's gonna do. Like, oh, it turned its stomach into a mouth and ate somebody.

Oh, that was crazy.

Yeah, spat out some crab legs and started crawling around. Like, you never know what it's up to. And I love the, the like kind of just otherworldly nature of this creature that just— it's seen— I assume it's been to so many other planets, just has us all like in its data bank and it's like, yep, all right, time to go crab mode or whatever, you know. And yep, it's cool. That's really cool. Or acid spitting mode.

So there's the one spot where the— their team finds the location where the The spaceship landed.

Yep.

And like, there's this— we're like, they're standing, they're looking down on it or whatever, and there's just like one part where it's like, okay, you can obviously tell they're just standing in front of like a picture of it or something, like a video, like, uh— Oh yeah, like, yeah, it almost looks like, like they just put the map painting.

Yep.

Yeah. And I'm like, outside of that, and also when the spaceship first slides through at the beginning, outside of those 2 things, like This movie like really like solidly holds up.

Oh yeah, for sure.

The, the practical effects are, are so, so good that like it doesn't matter that we've advanced and do CGI and stuff like that. These are just such high quality works that those are the only 2 times I was thrown off in the whole movie. I was like, ooh, that's a little weird looking. But all the rest of it, I was like, this is amazing.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. I agree. The only time that I thought it looked a little goofy was when the, uh, thing is eating somebody's head off. And like the body is like, oh yeah, the body's flopping around. Yeah, it was also awesome though. Like, I liked that they were like, here, look, here's what we're doing. And you're like, yo, okay, you know, like it's just an entertaining moment of the film. Like, I liked it.

I didn't mind the ragdoll body just hanging out of the thing's mouth. Uh, that was cool with me. That scene where they do the autopsy and the chest opens up and rips off the dude's arms to the elbows, and then they light it on fire, and then the head comes off. Yeah, yeah, that head was awesome because then it has like the, the whip tendril thing come out of its mouth, and then like as it's working its way to the chair, it's like, ah, like it's my— oh God, it was so cool.

It grows legs and it grows like little eye stalks out of its head.

Yeah, like the head's actually kind of like upside down a bit, so it's in those little two eye— the two eye things that pop up on the top, and it's like just kind of like Trying to like slowly scurry its way out when nobody's paying attention.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Just subtly this creepy head alien that's actually kind of big, just trying to tiptoe his way out of the room. I hope nobody notices me. I better grow these giant eye stalks just to help me blend in. Perhaps this is a natural native, uh, looking animal I've become.

The scene with the dogs.

Mm-hmm.

Is, is crazy. Like when it's doing that, kind of starts to like, you know, the face splits apart and then those little tendril things pop out a bit. You got the one dog's like biting through the, the metal fence trying to get out. Trying to get out. Yeah.

But then like, but then like the thing continues to like grow and grow.

And when they go in there, like hit it with like the flamethrower, like it's just like this giant wall and there's like one eye like kind of opens up on it. Or it stretches those— like, those big giant claws pop out as well. I think one of you mentioned earlier, like, there's so many different versions of what this thing eventually can and does look like as they're going through the whole thing.

What I love about this too is it just feels so, like, alien, you know? Like, a lot of alien movies are like the classic— they're like bipedal, like, whatever. This is such, like, an unthinkable entity. I'm like, what is it? I don't even understand how it operates. I don't understand how it works. This thing came in a spaceship, so obviously it's like smart, right? You know, like how— like how smart is it? Is it working on instinct? Does it have a plan? You know what I mean? Because it starts building a spaceship at the end. It's like it had— there's all this like weird, like the motivations, the way it operates. I'm like, it's just such a creepy thing too because it's just such a like so different from it. Like— how humans and animals on Earth have evolved. This, this is like a totally different reality that you would never even have crossed. It never crossed my mind that this could, you know, this would be a thing.

And like Blair immediately notices, he's like, and before he even gets turned into it, he's like, no, this thing, it can't leave here. It'll take over the world.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Like, did it crash here? Did it land here on purpose? Like, what was it doing? You know, like, is it trying to take over the world? Is it just trying to get home?

Yeah, because it wants to freeze itself so it can just wait for the whatever. Yeah, you say, right?

Yeah, I don't know.

I also liked a few of the— a couple decent nods to the movie we watched a few weeks ago. Yes, as well. Like when they do the big circle thing, like to spread out and stuff, and you can see on the, the video that they're all like kind of perfectly spread out. And like, I forgot all about that connection back to the, uh, to the original thing, or the fact that Flying around in that helicopter, just like unloading ammo left and right, and never hitting the dog who's just running in a straight line the whole time.

I'll be hard to hit a dog from a helicopter though with a rifle.

Yeah, yeah. Unless you're Sarah Palin or whatever.

They should have brought Sailor Palin.

So I know this is a remake of the thing. From Another World, which is— they're both based upon the short story, what it was called, right?

Yep, Who Goes There? Or something like that.

But there's part of me that wonders if it wasn't some sort of weird, like, spiritual sequel because of some of the things that they mentioned, or like, because some things like Keith mentioned, right? They're like, oh, they're showing like the footage from the Norwegian group and they're doing that circle, and then the— they're, they're chasing the, the wolf-dog thing, right? What if The Thing from Another World, they weren't American, they were Norwegian, and the creature like fucks up all those dogs, right?

That's true.

He hates those dogs.

Yeah, the dog is what it— like, it's a kind of takes what happened in that other movie and reworks it as like, this is— that was that base, and now it spills over into this movie. Yeah, this story. I, I, I, I know that's not probably not what it is, but I kind of like the idea of that's what it is.

Well, you can see the lines, the lines between the— yeah, the original and this. Like, you're like, oh, that's where he got this. Oh, that's where he got that. I see. You know, like, it's not—

And there was still that block of ice that it melted out of was just like the one in the other movie.

Yeah, you know, they use thermite.

Yeah, it just, it seemed to me like you, you could say, well, take that old movie and we'll— nobody's seen it, we'll just massage it into, uh, what happened before. Now this is what's happening now after it escaped in dog form.

And there's a lot of blood. They have a blood bank just like the other place.

Yeah, it's got to be a moment in the short story where they— because for them both to do that You know?

Yeah, yeah, gotta be. Blood's gotta be a strong element.

Gotta be a strong element.

I, I will say I really enjoy the, I guess, like the punch-ups of the storyline here. Well, like in the, the other one, he had the one main alien thing, but whatever those— it had things where like it was trying to grow. Um, they're trying to grow more versions of itself, like in the plant form. Stuff like that, where this one is the, you know, it's continuing to like replicate people and, uh, take over and spread that way, which I think is a much better story, uh, much better setup for that than the other one.

It has way more thematic sensibilities to it, whereas the other one you're just like, what are they talking about? And then it's like, they come from the sky, and you're like, what are you talking about?

Yes.

Yeah. This one, it's like the heads have got a very strong vision throughout, and you're like, I see what he's going for with this, you know, the paranoia and the superstition.

The, the tension and the scare. Well, there's obviously scary from the monsters, but like the, the bigger theme is the paranoia. Who do you trust and all those sorts of things, which the other one had nothing like that.

No, no, it should have. Like, because that's like the era, right, of the Cold War, the Red Scare. Like, that is what you would think that the old one would be like. It's like you don't know the person next to you might not be who you think they are, you know, that kind of thing. Then that's what this is to a T, and it's awesome. Yeah, it's just kind of funny that this one nails that so well, and I wonder if that was like an intentional, you know, like this is the thematic element. Maybe the short story has that thematic element very strongly in it. I don't know.

Maybe.

I don't know if you noticed this in that the last showdown where they're Try to get the monster in that tunnel or whatever, and then it burrows underground shooting the wooden planks of the walkway up into the air. I was like, that's awesome.

So yeah, that was cool.

That was cool.

Well, plus at that time, like you see like the little like tentacle things popping out and like one of them is just gigantic. Like there's 2 smaller ones that pop out and then they slide back in. Then just that other, like just huge one comes flying out. Yep.

And then that fucked up Blair at the end. The dog comes out of its side and yeah, it's a just a horrific creature. Sideways mouths and eyes and tentacles. The, the tentacle things, the little whips just shooting out and like wrapping around stuff was awesome. Yeah, it's like several times.

Shooting acid as well.

Maybe. I don't know.

The one dog, it shoots off that dog.

Oh yeah, it cuts to it and it's like all melted and stuff.

Yeah.

Disturbing. Very disturbing.

And the other part is like, outside of like the one guy, the guy gets like shot in the leg at the beginning. Outside of seeing him, like where they show like the creature getting him and like, then when they come back, he's not there anymore. They don't show anybody, like any of the key people ever getting turned.

No, no.

Throughout this. And so like, you're like, well, Blair is— he's been out in that one building the whole time. So now you're like, Jesus, how far into this was he no longer Blair?

Right. You never know.

His whole—

I mean, his whole thing is he's smashing up everything cuz he is like, like, we can't let this thing escape. At the same time, you're like, man, then he was isolated that whole time and still was out there like rebuilding his own little ship so he could take off and get the hell outta there.

Yeah. I mean, When Blair was going bonkers, he just— he was destroying all the radio equipment, right? So there's no way to communicate with the outside. He messed up the helicopter and the little truck thing they had to get parts. So he was making it so nobody could leave as well. So...

That's what's kind of cool too, when you're talking about like you never see someone get turned, is like you don't really know how it works either. Like No. Is it like a disease where he just gets in your blood and you're all of a sudden turned? Or does it have to like— because we see it like wrap around a guy at one point and it's like sucking on him or something and becoming him. And he does that with the dog. So I'm— I think it's a more involved process than that, but it's never quite clear exactly when it happens, right? When you become the thing or when you don't.

Yeah, because they're, they're like, oh, it could be in a— if you get a particle in you and you turn. So we see out of cans like All right.

Yeah, yeah, because, uh, yeah, because it isn't like— so, uh, Blair is watching like that one video type thing. It's just, it's like just one blood cell and it's like quickly just overtaking one and then the other.

Yeah, what's funny is that like whatever that was, that animation of the blood cell on, on the computer thing, the, the 100 pixel by 100 pixel screen, right? I bet you at the time it was probably like, oh, computers. And that's why they had them— had MacReady playing chess at the beginning. Oh yeah, computers are smart and they got computers that can do anything up there and they talk to you and all this kind of stuff. But looking back on it, man, 50 years ago, it's kind of—

Yeah, it ain't— that's like, it could not do that.

No, that's— whatever that simulation is, like, who programmed it?

It's very like '80s computer logic, I feel like.

Yeah. Yeah, when he's playing that computer, uh, chess game and then he pours the— yeah, the alcohol and he's like, you know, cheater.

I'd be so mad if I was the next guy. Yes, exactly.

That's what I was thinking. No matter like how like old and crappy it looks, I'm like, god dang it, we don't have that much entertainment up here, dude.

Yeah, yeah, you just destroyed our chess machine and plus it cost $10,000.

Yeah, that would be a little upset. That seems a little overboard.

But that's how you know who he is. He's reactive.

He doesn't like to lose.

Doesn't like to lose. Never. He reacts to everything, doesn't want to lose. And he, you know, who knows? He's, he's also just too cool.

And he's got a cool hat.

Very.

That hat, man, that hat was awesome. Like, I want a hat like that. I wonder if I can find one.

Oh, I'm sure.

So you can wear it on top of the hood that you also have up?

Yeah.

Yes.

Around wintertime, I'd be wearing that hat all the time. Yeah.

Yeah.

Especially up here. Hat like MacReady in The Thing. Here we go.

That's my—

RJ MacReady's iconic hat in John Carpenter's '82 film The Thing is an oversized chocolate brown fur felt western prospector hat featuring a distinct 4-dent military Montana crease, a wide brim, and unique woven or beaded pattern hat band.

We should all get one and wear it.

I, I might— I want to get one and wear it. If you guys join me, you can.

Every Sunday when we record, we'll wear them.

We put on our Fumblers t-shirts.

Yep, and our MacReady hats.

Here's the website. Baron Hats, it's called. Oh my God, it's $1,500.

What?

All right, we'll get one and share it.

Yeah, we just get it for like 2 weeks and we mail it.

That's if you get 100% beaver. If you get 100% rabbit, it's $1,250.

Can I get like 50 beaver, 50 rabbit?

I don't know. I bet you I can find a cheaper version than that.

Yeah, that's right. I'll just go make one myself. Yeah, I don't know. I'll learn. I got time.

Make one for me then, Terry. I found another place that does it and it's $440 to $880.

Oh geez.

And it doesn't even look like the hat. It just says, our take on Kurt Russell's hat from the thing.

Our take? Oh no, there's no take on that thing.

That thing is so cool. You can't have a take on it.

I mean, I don't need the hat that was in the movie. I just want a hat like that's in the movie.

Maybe I could just go rob Kurt Russell's like house and steal it. Nobody's got that thing still, right?

I'm sure when we give him the, uh, award for Kurt Russell's most powerful decade, uh, winner, uh, He'll, he'll think it's awesome and he'll just give us a copy. He'll give us his version of the hat that he already has in, in return.

Yeah.

Or the hat seems like something easy to give up.

Oh yeah. I mean, easily give up, give us, give us the hat or else. Well, boys, did we do it?

I think so.

Yeah.

Get through The Thing. John Carpenter's The Thing from 1982.

I suppose so.

If we did, what do we think?

A+. I liked it. Solid, solid movie. One of the better movies we watched, uh, in, uh, DTFY2.

Oh, I think it's one of our best ones from both DTFs.

Yeah, I'd say it's one of the most powerful films we've watched of a 2-year run.

Mm-hmm.

I think Gun could have been thought about that way too, but oh well.

No, this is, this is a top-tier movie, and it's a testament to how good it is that 50 years later, nearly 50 years later, it's still that good, right? You would think, because it is, it's a genre movie with lots of, lots of effects, and a lot of that stuff loses its luster over time. And even though that they are practical effects and they, you could tell they're effects, they're still awesome.

Yeah, they look great.

They're so awesome.

Um, yeah, and that's like the tragedy of this is like, I know it wasn't very well regarded when it came out, and it's like, it's such a shame. Like, imagine if like this had like just like launched John Carpenter's, you know, like he— in hindsight, John Carpenter's very successful, and Halloween was successful, but a lot of his movies after that were not really appreciated as much until later. And it's like, imagine if this— it would have totally— if this movie had been just like accepted for what it is now back then, I feel like his career would be entirely different.

Yeah, could be for sure.

It's a great movie. It's well directed, looks great, effects are great, everything about it's great.

Agreed. I'm glad we watched it. The wheel did not do us wrong this time.

For once.

Yeah, it actually swerved away from 2 maybe, uh, questionable picks and picked the right one.

Yeah, I mean, just because it just didn't pick Terry, so it was a good job.

It has been picking mine lately.

Yeah, this is my first win of the wheels since War of the Worlds. Since my other ones got vetoed.

Who did that?

I don't know. It could have been anybody. Could have been any one of us. All right. Well, we know what we thought. What did the internet have to say? On July 12th, 2009, Idle Primate had this to say. No matter how many viewings, I'm always on the edge with this. I was 10 when this film came out, 11 when I looked into seeing it while being dropped off in a screening room at a sci-fi convention. My eyes were wide open to terrifying films that I was far too young to see, and I'm always grateful for the experience.

He got dropped off at 11 to go watch this by himself in the conference.

Yes.

Cool.

He got— he had— he got— he's one of the guys with the erection problem watching this.

At 11?

Keith.

Keith.

To this day, the cold, the isolation, the pulsing soundtrack, the claustrophobia always feel to me to be perfect. If someone doesn't love this film, I always wish I could lend my eyes to see like I did.

Oh, I like that.

All of the acting is great. Stan Winston delivers a coup with his effects, and Carpenter is at the very top of his game. I don't want to discuss anything in detail, as I think the audience should always watch it quietly in a dark room knowing nothing. I have watched it countless times, and it never fails to draw me in with dread and intensity. I've been an acolyte in showing this movie to people, And I hope my comment encourages someone to watch it. It is magical and awesome in the absolute horrifying sense of the word and an essential viewing. 3 found it helpful. 2, not so much. 10 out of 10.

Good review. I like the lending my eyes to the haters.

Really enjoyed it. And, but not to be outdone, on June 28th, Of 2026.

Oh ho!

J.G. Korea Korea had this to say. J.G.C.O.R.R.E.A. Korea had this to say: Stick to the 1951 original version. This SF horror story has tense moments, but it takes too long to get to the point. And the long opening contains a lot of scientific exposition that didn't grab me.

Come on.

Yeah.

What do you mean? The first one does exactly that.

The first one takes forever to get to the end and there's lots of—

And then there's a huge exposition dump of, oh, the super carrot. Indubitably. It boggles the mind. It shouldn't.

It shouldn't. The creature's powers are truly terrifying in their implications. But don't seem entirely consistent throughout. That's also— some of the dialogue was rather odd. And the worst, The Thing, 1982, feels disagreeable to watch for several powerful interlocking reasons. It's not just scary, it's deeply unpleasant on a visceral and psychological level.

Okay, see, that's a quote you put on the DVD cover.

That is a selling line right there. Many critics and audiences found it too much, leading to its commercial and critical failure. Failure. Two found that helpful. Six not so much. One out of ten.

Boo, I say. I wish I could lend my eyes to this man or woman who I wish I could gouge out this man's eyes. They don't deserve eyes.

No.

It's very few times that somebody goes and does a remake. of something makes all the parts of it that you kind of wish were in the original one better.

Yeah.

And he does this all the way through. Yeah, that guy is ridiculous.

I have nothing against remakes. I'm fine with them. I feel like if you get to remake a movie, remake a movie that is so-so or bad and make it good. Don't, don't remake a classic. And I don't think the 1951 version is a classic. It's fine. Prime candidate for a remake. Now, remake The Thing now? No, don't. Let it be.

They will.

I know, which is a shame. Well, we did it, boys. We got through John Carpenter's The Thing from 1982, but we also got through DTFY2M8.

Yeah, we did.

That's true. You know what that means?

What does it mean exactly?

Keith's got to bust out that big goddamn spreadsheet and we got to rank these.

We got—

I thought I could, I thought I could smell that Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

I heard it opening up. Keith, remind us what it is we're ranking.

All right, we've got, uh, you know, for Fumbler's Inception, movies inside of movies, we have The Street Fighter, The Thing from Another Planet—

Another World.

Another World, sorry. Gilda and The Thing. Nice. John Carpenter's The Thing.

John Carpenter's The Thing.

Yes.

Keith, it was your month to get your ranking.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's clearly a number 1 and that's the John Carpenter's The Thing. Um, after that, uh, I'm gonna go Street Fighter and then I'm gonna go, uh, The Thing from Another World and I'm going Gilda.

Wow. Wow. Interesting. Interesting. Terry, you got yours? I got mine.

I'm gonna go bottom up. Okay, lowest on the tier is The Thing from Another World. For me, it was okay, but just kind of not as amazing as I expected, especially with The Thing in my head already. Um, then I'd go to Street Fighter— enjoyable, but I really just did not like the main character. Then Gilda, which I liked quite a bit, and The Thing, which is just like top tier movie of all time.

Yeah, I'm almost on board with Terry's ranking. I'm gonna— I'm going the thing. I'm going top to top down. Actually, I'm gonna go bottom— a top, bottom, second, third.

Okay, sure.

The Thing, clear number one. One of the best movies we've watched so far, uh, in our not just DTFY2 but DTFY1 and Y2. Great. Then I'm going Street Fighter. Bottom.

Okay.

Not because it was bad, it's just whatever. Then 2 is Gilda. Really enjoyed it, liked it way more than I thought I was going to, uh, plus Rita Hayworth, top tier. And then 3 is probably more of a nostalgia thing because I remember watching as a kid, but The Thing from Another World. I mean, The Thing from Another World to me and Street Fighter, yeah, whatever, they could duke it out. But I think this Thing from Another World, I had a more sensical story at least.

I don't know.

Um, so that's number 3 for me. It's really, really goes 1 and then a few steps down, 2, and then 3 and 4 in the distance.

Yeah, I agree with that. They're pretty similar, those bottom 2, for me as well.

Yeah, but Gilda was a pleasant surprise.

Yep, didn't know what to expect but liked it quite a bit.

Nope. And The Thing, hot dog. Glad I watched it finally.

About time. Yeah, history has corrected itself.

Yes, it has. And now we're on a weird timeline branched off from—

Yeah, it's branching. Yes, nature's healing itself. It's, uh, finally things are getting better.

Yeah.

Climate change is being turned backwards.

Man. Those Time Bandits finally got away with this.

Oh, whoa.

Speaking of Time Bandits, will Terry give us something we can pick Time Bandits in? Because that's what the next month is, a Terry month.

Yes.

Terry, what do we have in store for us?

It's always tough picking a category. Will I pick a category that allows Keith to finally choose Time Bandits?

Hmm.

No, I don't think so. I don't know. Maybe, maybe Keith will find a way. You know, he's, he's unpredictable. Um, no, I, I really was diving deep trying to think of something. I had a lot of ideas trying to figure out what exactly I'm gonna do. And as I'm diving deep into the, the abyss, the ocean of topics I could find, something just kind of floated up and just stuck right in my face. And I was like, why not? We're doing sharks.

All right.

I found something scary down there in the water and it was sharks. And I was like, all right, sure.

All right.

So the movie I'm picking is a movie called Dangerous Animals from 2025.

I don't know what this movie is. And we're talking sharks.

They are dangerous animals, I've heard. But not as dangerous as you'd think. Hmm. Maybe we'll learn a little bit something within this month about sharks.

Maybe we will. I hope we do. But we're on to sharks, dangerous animals. I like how Terry's given us reptiles and sharks now.

I thought I'd go back to basics a little bit on this one.

Yeah, going back to your roots.

Yes, sometimes it's like I get, you know, I don't want to get too crazy. I need to keep it simple sometimes.

All right. It'll be interesting to see what you picked there because I do believe I already have mine picked out.

All right. Well, that's interesting. Okay. So we're doing sharks. We're starting with dangerous animals. Yes?

Yes. 2025, dangerous animals.

Okay. Well, we're doing that. We're on to sharks. We're on to DTFY2M9. Wow.

I can't believe it. We're already on M9.

The Ms are flying by.

Yeah, I can't—

we're on the M. Night Shyamalan.

Yeah, what a twist.

Oh, that's what I should have picked. Dang it. Shyamalan films.

I would have gone top to bottom on that one too, I think.

Well, yeah, you've probably already seen all those tops.

Yep. I don't know if there's 4.

No, there ain't. All right. Well, I guess that leaves us with nothing to do but to end this the way we end everything.

Yep, exactly.

So this is a phenomenal piece to turn up in the upcoming Box Score Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction. This is RJ MacReady's hat, played by Kurt Russell, from The Thing. Now, items from The Thing, artifacts from The Thing, props, costumes, they're all almost impossible to find. And there's a really interesting story about this particular hat, is that when Kurt Russell entered the wardrobe department for the first time and saw the hat sitting on his chair, he was like, no, no, no, I don't want to wear that. I'm not interested in wearing that hat at all. It was explained to Kurt Russell at that point that John Carpenter had actually already filmed some establishing shots, probably of a stunt double or a pilot perhaps, wearing this particular And that it was something that he had to wear. Interestingly enough, Kurt Russell is quoted in subsequent articles about the making of the film about how right John Carpenter is.

Thanks for listening to Fumbling Through Film. New episodes drop every Thursday. Got feedback or questions? Email us at [email protected]. You can see our films to fumble before you tumble into the grave and other musings on Letterboxd at Fumble Through Film. The through is T-H-R-U. You can also follow Keith on Instagram @kg3030lives and on Letterboxd @kg3030. Terry is on Letterboxd @terry2099. Derek is on Letterboxd @derek9nine. All original music is done by the Dr. Dre of Kansas, Terry, so hit him up for them bangers. Our new podcast logo is done by the delightful and talented Sanjay Vicky Nayak. You can find her on Instagram David Eichstein. That's Einstein with a K in there. We'll see you next week as we keep on fumbling.

Look, as long as sometime you let me off this fucking couch, that's fine.

No, I don't think the flamethrower is necessary either while you do the deep dive, but, uh, I think it's essential.

Oh, I think he's gonna— I thought he was making some s'mores.

I'm, I'm going to hold these marshmallows.

Hold them? Okay, yeah, here, let me just throw this very far away as I'm tied up.

That's how we're testing the blood. Here, hold this marshmallow in your hand.

I'm making s'mores.