The skeleton crew at the South Pole Telescope station have a tradition every winter-over of watching this movie, and the other two adaptations on the very first night after the departure of the final plane of the season.
The final line of dialogue, where Scotty admonishes his radio audience to "Keep watching the skies," became an iconic quote considered to be emblematic of the 1950s sci-fi film genre, as it evokes the flying saucer hysteria of the day as well as the Red Scare and the threat of nuclear war. It has been reused as is and referenced in modified form countless times by movies, TV shows, theatrical productions, song lyrics, book titles, and websites, usually with humorous intent.
Close-ups of "The Thing" were removed. It was felt that the make-up could not hold up to close scrutiny. However, the lack of close-ups gave the creature a more mysterious quality.
Originally, it was intended to make the creature a shapeshifter, as in the novel, but the limited budget forced the filmmakers to drop the idea. Early conceptual sketches depict a very plant-like looking creature, with one of its limbs seemingly undergoing a transformation into a human hand.
Directors Ridley Scott, John Frankenheimer, Tobe Hooper, and John Carpenter all cited the movie as a key, influential film in their lives. Carpenter famously re-adapted the film into La cosa del otro mundo (1982), making The Thing a shapeshifter like it was in the novel. A prequel of the same name La cosa del otro mundo (2011) detailing the Norwegian team finding the crashed ship buried in the ice and the events that transpired prior to The Thing making it to the American outpost.