Preguntas Frecuentes

A group of scientists, led by Arthur Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite), stationed at a remote research station on the North Pole, join forces with Air Force pilot Captain Patrick 'Pat' Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) to fight off a blood-thirsty alien (James Arness).

The Thing from Another World is based on the short story "Who Goes There?" by American science fiction writer John W. Campbell [1910-1971]. It was first published in the August 1938 issues of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, of which Campbell also became editor. The story was remade as La cosa del otro mundo (1982) in 1982, and a prequel, also called La cosa del otro mundo (2011), was released in 2011.

When setting the Thing on fire doesn't work, they decide to electrocute him. Suddenly, they notice that it's getting colder inside the buildings because their breaths are beginning to condense. They conclude that the Thing has sabotaged their oil line but that it would be a trap to go outside and try to fix it, so they set up a final stand in the generator room where they can maintain control of the electricity. Betting that the Thing will try to sabotage the electricity and that it will have to reach the room by a certain corridor, they set up an electrical 'flytrap' in the corridor. Dr Carrington protests, arguing that it is more important to preserve the Thing for scientific investigation than it is to save their own lives. Captain Hendry orders his removal from the corridor. When the Thing comes advancing down the corridor, Carrington tries to save it by shutting off the generator, but they get it back up and running. Carrington then rushes forward and tries to reason with it, but the Thing bats him aside and continues to advance. When it reaches the center of the flytrap, the switch is thrown, and the Thing is electrocuted until its body is reduced to ash. In the final scene, the crew tries to convince Hendry that he should settle down with Nikki (Margaret Sheridan) while Scotty (Douglas Spencer) radios the journalists waiting in Anchorage for his report. 'Keep looking,' he warns, 'Keep watching the skies.'

For the most part, this is a very loose adaptation of Campbell's short story. The most obvious difference between them is the fact that the original story used a shapeshifting creature that could imitate other life-forms, while this film uses a vegetable alien that can reproduce other life forms. In addition, none of the characters in this film were in the original story, and the setting is changed to the Arctic, rather than the Antarctic. However, there are elements of "Who Goes There?" that are still clear in this film. (1) The sequence in which the scientists find the flying saucer plays out in a similar manner to the story, although the ship is implied to have crashed within the past few days rather than ten million years ago. (2) The sled dogs are the first to be attacked by the Thing. (3) The scene in which the Thing's severed arm comes to life may have been intended as an allusion to a concept from the original story; the idea that every part of a Thing functions independently, and any part of it that is disconnected becomes a separate organism (the discovery of which becomes the basis for the test used to determine once and for all who has been taken over). (4) There are arguably some similarities between the character of Dr. Carrington and the character of Blair from the original story, specifically his strong desire to unfreeze the alien, which ultimately leads to him being distanced from the rest of the team. In fact at one point in the story he is even temporarily confined for the safety of everyone else (although in the film he is only restricted to a few specific rooms rather than being locked in a shed outside) (5) In the original story, electricity was determined to be the best way to permanently destroy a Thing. In this movie, concentrated electricity is ultimately how the protagonists defeat the Thing. (6) A character near the end makes a remark about the Thing being telepathic, something implied in the original story.