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Popular Culture Review
alien nature. The ensuing fight employs the more advanced technology of 1982,
creating a monster worthy of the descriptions in “Who Goes There,” a tentacle,
shape-shifting monstrosity that seeks any form to defend itself while attacking
both dogs and men. In this version, it is a flame thrower that finally dispatches
the monster.
It is only at this crisis point that the team, at Garry’s command and
under Blair’s expertise, realizes that the alien cells are still living and that it had
been hiding in the dog, as a perfect imitation. As in the original, Blair realizes
the stark possibility of the destruction of humanity in approximately one year’s
time if the Thing reaches civilization. He also finds through the same computer
projection that the chance of a crew member being infected is 75%. With those
odds and the high stakes, he sets about destroying all the equipment in order to
isolate the crew and ultimately kill all the potentially infected people, meaning
everyone. Again, the team takes a more conservative approach, disarming and
isolating Blair and trying to devise a test to separate the infected from the
healthy.
As in the original version, the Thing is extremely insidious, capable of
stealth and deception. As a perfect copy, it moves seamlessly among the crew
members, hearing everything they say and planting suspicion among them. The
only power it lacks from the original version is that it apparently can’t read their
minds. However, it always moves to thwart any test that would identify it,
destroying the clean blood samples in the medical supply room. It simply, like
the Ayatollah Khomeini, refuses to follow rules of human negotiation. It quickly
becomes clear that it is at least a match and maybe more against human
ingenuity. Since, as in the original, both Dr. Copper and Garry, are implicated in
the destruction of the blood samples, they are bound and drugged, as MacReady
with the help of Fuchs tries to devise a definitive test. Devising the test is far
more difficult than in the original.
In another innovation, Norris has a heart attack, forcing MacReady to
release Dr. Copper to try to revive him. As he works desperately, the Thing
bursts out of Norris, killing Copper. It takes a particularly hideous, spider-like
form, using Norris’ head and tentacles, splitting off into two separate creatures.
Only the flame thrower can destroy these two monstrosities. After control is re
established, MacReady realizes that a simple hot needle in a blood sample, the
same test from the original, will identify the monsters. The test works, flushing
out Palmer who also reverts to alien form, killing Windows in the process. After
both are burned, the test confirms that all remaining members are human,
leaving only Blair isolated in his cabin to test. Once again, this task is far more
difficult to achieve, with a storm raging outside.
When the team reaches the shed where Blair is confined, they discover
that he has escaped but that below the floor he has nearly completed a miniature
space ship, a small duplicate of the one in the ice. At this point, the remaining
members under MacReady’s leadership realize that there is only one sure way to
defeat the monster, to destroy the entire compound, virtually committing