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THE THING (1982) - 13 theories explored, you decide
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- Опубликовано: 15 авг 2024
- Interpretations of John Carpenter's The Thing vary wildly. This video gathers and explores all the major theories and offers some new ones of my own.
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00:00 Introduction
00:39 1. It's a girl !!!
10:05 2. Racial invaders
18:33 3. Ultimate consumer / capitalist
22:25 4. Communism / cold war
29:20 5. Spirituality vs nihilism
35:50 6. Aids / covid
39:38 7. Dangers / limits of science
47:00 8. Danger of denial
50:25 9. Power of the individual
53:52 10. Importance of responsibility
56:33 11. Tactical Intelligence
1:03:37 12. The great trust dilemma
1:11:40 13. An imitation world
Made this vid early last year. Posting now while I'm busy working on my book and game.
You may also notice a lot of my vids are no longer searchable on YT. I'm taking anything that the YT algo no longer recommends to new viewers and making those vids still free to watch, but accessible only by their links on my website. Along with other free material on my site that's never been on YT at all, you'll find dozens of hrs of extra vids and articles, alongside a couple of hundred hrs worth of items that can be ordered as dl's. Site link in video description.
Cheers folks. Hope you enjoy.
Rob :)
This is the first video that's been recommended to me for a long time so you may be right there. You did pop up though.
@@lepterfirefall I def know that if I post a couple of short experimental vids the algo recommendations plummet. A shame because I often consider those experimental vids much more important than the usual film analysis stuff. That's why I'm shifting my gaming vids over to the Ager Games channel too. Might even make one of my channels exclusively for psychology only content.
On the shot with the blow up doll at MacReady's computer, is the icon on his computer supposed to represent a Trojan Horse? Isnt that a wonderful metaphor for The Thing? Sneaking its way in somewhere hiding inside something else. Trojan Horse, baby!
yes! nailed it on why you chose not to use 'black' and 'white' or refer to the US as 'America'. well done, sir. excellent channel. really top notch, Mr Ager.
I seek out your work and am more than happy to check your website for your new material. I can't think of a better way of controlling the algorithm that wants so badly to control you! Thanks for all you do!
My late mother took me to see the thing in 1982, the cashier literally spent 3 minutes trying to talk my mother out of letting me in...even offering to give the money back. I was 13 & LOVED it. I was amazed at adults getting up and walking out first dog thing.
Never ONCE, in my dozens of times watching this film since, did i think that the film was racialized in any way!!
That’s an awesome memory, your mom was a cool lady
@@acespectre5461 TY!
This movie absolutely freaked me out as a kid. My parents were AWOL. :D
It's all on the dog scene for sure. Anyone I show this film damn near vomit or try to leave. It's like the grossest bit of the movie too they really weren't messing around
I fast forward the dog scene but that's just the dog lover in me.
Religion, politics, race, sex, gender, economics... this film transcends them all. Why? If the organism reached civilization, none of it would matter. There would be nothing left. Just a planet with imitation life.
Haha
Cosmic Horror in its finest. Imagine if it managed to escape? 💀
@@vee-bee-a The story actually continues in some comics.
@@collativelearning Cards on the table, here: my general worldview is very liberal, but I do agree with your assessment that as far as this film is concerned, many of the subtexts or motivations that people are trying to shoehorn in simply don't fit.
Your comparison of the Thing being akin to a black hole that consumes indiscriminately is quite appropriate - it doesn't care if you're black, white, gay, straight. trans, bi, rich, poor, left, right, whatever. And this is reflected in the writing - it's very "big picture," the fate of all life on the planet is at stake.
@@vee-bee-aLovecraftian at it's finest
1:01:25
Regarding the generator, honestly, the most chilling scene of the film is them realizing that Blair *TOOK* the generator and destroyed it.
"The generator's gone."
"Any way we can we fix it?"
"It's *GONE* , MacReady."
That generator had to have been pretty damn large and heavy, which makes finding out that it's literally gone all the more terrifying.
The Norwegian yelled in the beginning is not easy to understand because it's very dialect "Det ekkje ei vanli bikkje!!!" "That's not a normal dog"
You have dialects of Norwegian? 🤨
No it was gibberish. As stated in the commentary track.
@@frankenjstein9371 I feel like that might not be true considering there are transcriptions/translations that make perfect sense as far as I'm aware. It'd be pretty strange if some gibberish they made up fit so perfectly.
@@tigerburn81Yes, why wouldn't they ?
The norwigian guy , how get Shot in the beginning , was a born German . It sounds a little bit German . His Name is Norbert Weisser . As a German I den das , many acters in Filme , how play germans , are Not German . You can hear that ,because of there Funny German speaking .sorry for the Bad english...I am German. .
I always thought that Mac shoots the dog in the grasp of the thing as a mercy killing because it is clearly in pain and has no hope of survival.
"Man's Best Friend" ends up becoming it's "Greatest Enemy."
That was always my understanding,as well.
Agreed.
For both reasons:
1. Killing it to prevent imitation
2. Mercy killing
Remember, this is an actual existential threat to all of humanity.
MacReady had a generalized understanding of the modus operandi of this alien species...
This is why Rob Ager gives it proper context.
I always took it as “god damn that thing is disgusting kill it immediately” dog people 😂
Criminaly under rated channel
Some of the most underrated channels are among the best on RUclips. Rob Ager is one of them.
@@QuothTheRavenclaw11 i know i,v subbed to him for 8 years
@@QuothTheRavenclaw11can you recommend some more?
Couldn’t agree more with you here one of the reasons I subscribed to this channel
@@octagonseventynine1253 Sure thing:
Stevie Richards Show, (Wrestling podcast and analysis from former WWE wrestler)
TheChoiceVoice, (Casual guy just reviewing movies and being blunt and honest, pretty funny as well.)
Solidrev, (Another casual guy reviews games and is also quite blunt and funny to listen to.)
JesterBell (Former professional comic reviewer, gives a lot of news on what's going on within the entertainment industry, what the problems are, and points out some of the flaws in modern mainstream entertainment. Also reviews movies and shows. Her uploads are quite consistent, having videos coming out every couple of days.)
Those are my personal recommendations. If you don't like them, I'm sure you can find plenty. RUclips dislikes people being honest and not always playing by the terrible algorithm's rules.
1:09:04 No, the time setting isn't vague. After the opening credits and right before the opening shot of the cliff, the movie clearly states that this takes place in Antarctica, Winter 1982. After the encounter with the Norwegians, MacReady remarks that it's the first week of winter.
I think Mac calling the Norwegians Swedish is just there because it is funny.
It's an american thing to do
These old school serious film analysis videos that lack any fancy schmancy editing/background music are always such a comfort to watch. Ironically, they have this unsettling vibe about them and this documentary vibe, which feels like the topic at hand is an actual real life thing and not just a movie or show. Idk, these vids are always so intriguing and comforting to watch for me while idk, drawing, building legos, etc...
Also bro, your voice is impeccable
I enjoy guys like Mauler and the Little Platoon who use the more frenetic editing and joke insert style you mention but I see your point, Rob has a very distinctive analytical voice and his style definitely lends him a more mature and academic feel.
It's quite convenient because I can't be bothered with meaningless editing embellishments like swipt sound effects and unnecessary eye candy CGI graphics. If what you're saying is interesting people can visualize it anyway, which makes the experience more personal to them .In fact I often switch off any video I click on that has all those by the numbers excessive editing tropes. It's clutter that distracts from whatever good stuff they might be saying. Cheers :)
@@collativelearningexactly!! Idk, it's weird, I'm only 16 and it's odd that I am so into this type of content, i've always assumed that the modern way of making RUclips vids (incredibly embellished with fast paced everything, annoying sound effects, chill/upbeat background music, etc.. from RUclipsrs like Mr. Beast or something) are all so that children or people my age won't get bored easily and zone out/exit the video because most people have quite unfortunately very short attention spans nowadays takes to TikTok lol
but like, I remember man, I looooved watching all your Full Metal Jacket analysis videos, oh and the Pulp Fiction Golden Watch one. I just love how seriously you take it, it's like we are uncovering a mystery, like archeologists trying to piece together a story based on clues etched all around a cave. Like it's so fun listening, finding out about hidden things on the screen that I won't notice on my own and learning about different theories based on the hidden things from a movie, it's so eerie, to see how there might be things hidden in plain sight that can drastically change the meaning of the story or show a perhaps different perspective that the movie makers cheekily hid just for the sole purpose of maybe someday, analytical people can find and revel about it
@@_neon-xeon_3966 If you're thinking like that at 16 you're way ahead :) I've actually been considering making a video about all those phony video editing tropes.
Nah, I disagree. I think what's mostly missing is a 5 minute intro followed by a sponsor message, with a few ads thrown in for good measure. ;)
It's a mistake to assume that the spaceship in the beginning of the film belongs to the Thing. Blair-Thing attempting to make his own craft, being a 100% indication that the previous craft originated from the Thing's race, remains a tenuous assumption.
In fact, that the first spacecraft appears to be in distress and crashes on Earth, may be an indication that the Thing 'escaped' or had been 'let loose' and assimilated the non-Thing alien race that actually originated the first craft.
Like many things, we are left, intentionally, to wonder about these possibilities. Great video, as always.
Yeah that's a wonderful source of mystery surrounding the whole story. Where the hell did this world eater creature evolve?
Excellent point. It was after many viewings that I considered this.
@collativelearning I'd speculate it's like the Xenomorph. A biological weapon designed to eliminate an entire species while leaving the infrastructure.
I have a different theory on the VD poster being part of the movie set. “They aren’t labeled, chum.” is a poster warning men that you don’t know who carries this disease. This is the same warning given to the members of the team. They don’t know who is carrying the disease (the Thing). It’s almost an ironic poster, warning of a different hidden monster you can’t see (although a much less dangerous monster.) But it ironically parallels the same threat each man on the team faces with the Thing in their midst.
nice
You're absolutely right. The poster is meant as a self-referential trope, like the Minotaur poster in The Shining.
I love that this is an international take. Adds major context from other cultures.
I’m surprised in the Dangers of Science section you didn’t mention the conversation between Windows and Bennings. They are in a room with the Thing as it’s defrosting and Windows says (I’m paraphrasing) Why don’t we burn that thing? Bennings replies “Are you kidding? That’s going to win someone the Nobel prize.” So, the motivation is to benefit science and scientists, rather than do, what seems to be, the common sense thing, and destroy something that is dangerous and unknown. The result is that Bennings is instantly killed, with the Thing trying to absorb him and imitate him.
Good point.
Would be interesting if the Thing so perfectly cloned everyone that upon cloning the entire team, the outpost just continued operating as usual.
That might have been its original plan. After all, why “make waves” by needing to call in a rescue team?
@@robertbusek30 The true sequel is just them being productive as a team
@@OgYokYok Just like "Project 2025", huh?
Or is it "Invasion of the body snatchers, MAGA edition"?
@@hadara69 Someone always has to add a "fuck Trump" comment to something that has nothing to do with the matter
@@Unncle_Ruckus Another comment that I'm responding to here should CLUE YOU IN:
"There are plenty of third world aliens flooding over at our and proliferating at our expense. On that theme, us being replaced is quite accurate to the movie."
Why don't you tell me who brought it up first then, Sir? 🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐
i actually appreciate how the film makes practically nothing of race between the main characters, race rarely seems to be an issue in Carpenters movies as far as i have seen and I laud him for that as he has quite a diverse range of movies
Maybe he wants to suggest that when presented with a real threat, we set aside our differences and work together.
I think that race is used slightly symbolically in They Live and nothing else. Like I believe the two main characters being black and white were done deliberately, but for the most pro-human reason a film director could do.
That was the world back then. Makes you think.
@@christiangottsacker6932Race is involved in a few of JCs work but never overtly. That's why it's so effective. The entire walk to the homeless camp from the work site in 'They Live' is definitely about race IMO. Not racism per say but just the general mistrust we carry for each other, even when we're literally in the exact same situation(Economically/Financially etc.) I just find their interactions thru the film as absolutely hilarious and JC knew what he was doing. If he had either bring race up, it immediately loses it's punch. Instead it's just simmering beneath the surface. Once we(Both races) see the truth, we see were both pawns in the game. Class-ism is the real enemy.
@mk-ultramags1107 I agree, I feel like that fight in the gutter was on the nose, seeing as it lasted forever.
As for Childs: I used to think he was a Thing. however: throughout the film he looked only after himself. The POV shot before he is seen walking into the night before the lights go out from being the generator being consumed : In order for the time to work, the POV Blairmonster goes downstairs to destroy the generator and implies that Childs hears something gets spooked and runs off to avoid having to face it alone. I do not believe Childs was infected. The only way Childs being a Thing would work is if the Blairmonster replicated him, separated from him and then went down and cut the power AT THE SAME TIME Childs walks out the door. Unlikely but possible. Childs likely was human. A great youtuber Movie Timelines made by Josh Spiegel dispelled this on a 13 more Unanswered Questions on The Thing video which I recommend if you like Rob Agers channel.
Released same day as Blade runner. Incredible. Both very underrated. One of the best scifi horror movies along with Alien.
That was quite the year in cinema for teenagers going constantly/weekly to the cinema (me included). Fantastic & very different Movies, affordable prices. Good times!
It appears that if a movie doesnt have any bad in it, its not good. The irony in this. The movies you point out are horrible or filled with horror. Its what you like. Okay.
Very true.
Rip Shelley Duvall, just read she died from diabetes complications. Unforgettable in the Shining of course.
Ah no. Just looked that up. shame.
Rip
Sticking The Shining on tonight for sure ❤
To be fair to Mac in the final showdown, both Nauls and Garry weren't supposed to leave each other's line of sight.
The blame should go to Nauls for not alerting Mac.
Trust a woman to think there’s some dodgy reason that there weren’t women at an ice station back then 😂
My sister majored in wildlife biology and the first job she was offered was to monitor a fishing vessel in Alaska to monitor what they were catching. She was told she would be the only female on board and didn’t take the job. She became a landscaper and now runs a ski area office 😂
Making a big issue of male and female and gender way too much that the film never did and bringing in trans and race? None of these were issues in the 80s so I'm glad you made the whole video breakdown about 2024 perceived issues and shown how ridiculous it is when the actual film has zero of these politics.
The mechanics in Alien were black and white, no one cared.
The main cast of Predator was 4 white guys, 2 black guys, a native American and a Hispanic woman.
Race and gender do not come up in the film. In fact, I think Carl Weathers has more speaking lines than Schwarzenegger, being a more accomplished actor the film relies on him to do more of the dramatic heavy lifting, and there's almost no dialogue in the third act anyway.
This guy Rob has a tendency to read all kinds of shit into movies that aren’t there. It’s kind of annoying
@michaelbuick6995 exactly and that's in my top 3, along with Alien that had a female lead and Terminator that had a female lead. When it's done organically no one notices and you get great films.
@@theunknownatheist3815 seems like it.
Jeez. If only we were all God's gift to movie analysis like this dude. The discourse around this movie has reached the apotheosis of pretention.
I think there’s an interesting comparison to make between The Thing and The Shawshank Redemption, which similarly has almost no female roles but expresses the concept of women symbolically (the posters, the rebirth imagery, the name “mother” visible on Andy’s wall next to the Rita Hayworth poster etc)
Both groups of men are also imprisoned in an incredibly hostile environment…
I have a theory that people in Spielberg's camp payed off critics to deliberately trash the movie when it was released.
Something weird went on with this film's release. My Dad and I knew it was a classic on very first viewing. All my friends thought it was great. Hardly met anyone who disliked the film. And yet the reviews were so bizarely negative.
If we were going to go conspiracy on it, I'd say the press might have had it in for Carpenter because his previous movie, Escape From New York, was such a scathing attack on perceived hypocrisies in the US system, esp NY corporatism. They may have gone full revenge.
Might it have something to do with “E.T.” having been released two weeks earlier?
@@collativelearning You'd think given the winter setting, they would have released it around october / november time. A summer release just seems totally bizarre.
The very same thing happened to Heaven's Gate, audiences loved It but critics and Hollywood thrashed it
@@collativelearningThe ending in despair, after everything MacReady did upset me first time I watched it. This is probably why I don't watch it again and again.
The interesting thing is film's editor pointed this out to Carpenter and they also tried a brighter ending according to the wikipedia page:
"Carpenter filmed multiple endings for The Thing, including a "happier" ending because editor Todd Ramsay thought that the bleak, nihilistic conclusion would not test well with audiences."
I agree with that both as a part of the audience and as a film editor.
However, watching The Thing today, has the nostalgic element which they didn't by then.
Also not having any CGI, top quality practical effects, top notch acting, no bs film music and no forced agenda makes it a real delight. These factors are hard to come by nowadays.
Thank you for pointing out the true reveal of reviewers own beliefs (consciously or unconsciously) affecting what they find in the film.
its funny how some transgender and gay people say traditional male and female roles are toxic but they have sex changes and wear clothes to look more like they have those exact characteristics (wearing makeup, wigs, dresses....and vice versa) while also saying that's the way they truly feel inside. it's like some weird pissed off hateful jealousy of people who don't personally deal with that. some real contrarians out there.
Freud may not have been exactly right-but the Newsom cult prove every day that he was at least onto something.
That's not what queer and gay people say. ENFORCED male and female roles are toxic. Expecting everyone to conform is toxic.
That's all a psyop: the media/corporations/globalists started propaganda purporting all that 'toxic masculinity' bullshit. It didn't come about, organically. It's all social programming.
Alot of people don't notice Blair's face on the giant Thing at the end of the movie.
McReady being a Vietnam vet may originate from the novelisation by Alan D. Foster, I recall it being mentioned there
The way the Thing outwits the scientists isn’t surprising to me. I don’t think there’s any correlation between scientific intelligence and cunning.
He didnt outwit them all. Hollywierd always has a hero.
You’re probably right.
"cunning"? So you're saying they should all be sleazy conmen who know how to "run a racket"? WTF does that even mean? It played them like it would ANY group of humans who don't trust eachother.
Sounds like YOU don't trust science, foo....
True dat?
MacReady may not have been your stereotypical action movie hero for sure.
But he did have one of the most badass quips ever in movie history!
The Thing: Rrreearrrggghhhhh!!
MacReady: Yeah “Fuck You” too!!!
KABOOM!!!!!
A lot of these ‘interpretations’ sound like frustration that earlier films had the unmitigated gall to avoid being embroiled in the sacrosanct rhetoric of modern times.
They come off as some college assignment about analyzing the movie through their “personal lens”.
That's the problem. Too many people are plagued with an obsession with modernism and framing every aspect of life, history and entertainment around that.
They can't comprehend that the story and message of the movie is on the screen.
I love when people over analyze movies. Like they will say stuff like "Ah yes Halloween is deep and symbolic and is a metaphor for x y and z. And it actually means this and that when you look deep down into it."
And John Carpenter would just be in the corner like "I just wanted to make a movie about a guy with the knife that kills people on Halloween because that would be really spooky.... it's not that deep."
Like I don't mind analyzing film and whatnot but sometimes you got to keep in mind what was probably going through the heads of the creators when they were actually making the film. Because "ah yes the thing is actually a metaphor for racism and totally not because John Carpenter just wanted to remake the thing and make it spooky". 😂🙄😒
I think too many modern views are applied to a 40 year old cosmic body horror movie. The outpost lack of women and manly men might be more a reflection of how isolated military posts were always run before in earlier generations just like the original movie.
Lots of reviewers seem to perceive classic movies as being an impediment to the social views they want to currently promote. so they try to either reinterpret or attack the classics to fit with their faulty world view.
Military stations are without women because 'successful' military operations are absolutely compromised by their presence.
They are indisputably Agents of Change and the embodiment of 'chaos'.
This is no fault of theirs and they're NOT Responsible for our failings and vulnerabilities.
The irony is that the military operations are necessary, to effect the changes required, to support them, whichever 'side' they're on.
This statement is not 'antiwomen'.
The open and experienced mind can recognize that for the same reason Odysseus covered his men's ears, the men must be kept apart.
We simply Can't Handle It, when we're young, healthy, strong and virile.
We WANT Some and we'll abandon an important post, to Get Some.
These facts are True.
There were TWO women in the 50's version of the thing. The assistant to the insane(?) chief scientist and an older female scientist. Neither was an Agent of Chaos. The chief scientist's belief that his values overrule all other concerns, even human life, was the true embodiment of chaos.
As someone who's worked adjacent to artic bases, there really aren't many women, its gotten better, but in the 80s, the all male cast would have been a realistic depiction of one of those bases.
Exactly. Most people don't know that Garry is a Captain in the US Navy. He's referred to as "el Capitan" by Palmer. Also he's wears khakis like Navy officers wear. Plus, most of the Arctic and Antarctic expeditions and bases are run by the US navy.
A thought that just occurred to me. The thing as shown in the movie is completely psychopathic. It shows no hesitation in assimilating prey when it has the opportunity, in fact it does so at every opportunity, and the assimilation process is shown to be brutal. A purely amoral predator.
But when it assimilates a person it's able to assimilate knowledge and behaviour, such as being able to speak English, and retain or at least maintain the mannerisms, accent etc of the assimilated individual. Does this also include their sense of empathy? Could it accidentally "fake it till ya make it" and find itself doubting whether it should assimilate? Could it be "contaminated" with a conscience?
We don't see any evidence of it in the film but then again it assimilates a small number of people none of whom are particularly warm towards one another to begin with.
That's good food for thought! Another possibility: Maybe it acts like a parasite, influencing people's actions subconsciously so the victims don't even realize they're infected until it has to go into full attack mode. In that way, it'd probably twist someone's empathy into a belief that assimilating others is an act of kindness.
Granted, that'd mean each victim would have amnesia about when they were first attacked, but that's a common element in such scifi stories. Fun stuff to think about!
Or it's just like a complex weed.
One major trait left out of the 1982 movie from the original short story is that the Thing is telepathic. It uses this to fully assimilate it's victim's behavioral patterns making it's mimicry nearly flawless. So essentially the Thing at least in the original story still acts and behaves like the victim including their thoughts and beliefs but will still assimilate others once the opportunity presents itself. And at least one character from the book comments on how they believe that the Thing is pure evil in nature. This isn't given much credit at first but was taken more seriously later once they learn that even while frozen the Thing can still project it's own telepathic thoughts to those sleeping in close proximity of it
The computer chess game (and the hardware it's running on) date it to taking place in late 1978 at the earliest, and probably 1979-1982 or so. Of course there's lots of examples of 1970s and 1980s computers showing up in movies taking place in the 2000s+ but The Thing really feels like it was taking place in its time of release, and not the future. And the chess computer prevents it from being more than a few years in the past, unless it's in an alternate timeline where personal computers are invented earlier. Thanks for the great video, Rob!
Oh, and I just saw someone point out that the film itself says Winter 1982. So, yeah. Not that it was really a major point anyway :)
It always irks me how everyone describes the characters in the film as "Paranoid". Paranoia is irrational suspicion and fear, no one in this film is irrational in their suspicions or fear, no one in this film is paranoid.
Once the The Thing is revealed, everyone's suspicion about one another is entirely rational as they know it can mimic living things perfectly and they are absolutely in a real dangerous situation.
Before The Thing is revealed, everyone is almost overly relaxed and casual considering they just had two random people show up at the camp and seemingly attack them and blow things up. One of them was shot and yet they're all sitting around casually playing cards and making jokes like nothing happened. They show no paranoia about one another before the reveal of The Thing.
Garry's shooting of the Norwegian seemingly attacking them is perfectly rational, the Norwegian just shot one of them while acting erratically and they try to throw a grenade in the crew's direction.
It's like a weird mind virus, man. One person says something, everyone else just repeats it.
That one guy, Windows I think it is with the curly hair, I would consider that the only instance of paranoia in the film during the blood scene but that was only after the fact he was swapped. After begging and squirming in the chair he finally turns into the culprit. The real paranoia was only in part of the thing since it was trying its hardest not to be found and when it was it would try to flee/attack.
There's other key moments of “irrational suspicion” for sure but I wouldn't exactly call it paranoia but rather accusations and skepticism.
The guy locked in the toolshed was also “paranoid” to a degree far more than the group but that's also most likely do to the fact he was thing-ified.
Just got the 4K disk, it’s glorious.
Omg new Thing video from you! I love hearing your breakdowns of films, especially my favorite movie.
Rob's spoiling us today.
I don't think this film has anything to say about gender. People are reading way too much into that.
It is called "The Thing".
Would be really cool if you could also do this with the shining.
Must be about a hundred theories on that film with al of them stemming from my 2007 article that blew it all wide open.
@@collativelearning Break it down to your favorite 10, you have to...
@@collativelearning The Native American genocide and the "Jack's just a gross, abusive drunk POS" are the best though. You did a great job of explaining all that already though! 👍
The interpretation of The Thing as a metaphor specifically for AIDS or Covid is unconvincing, but the creature spreads itself through assimilation so the theory that The Thing is about physical or mental contamination makes perfect sense. It's interesting that The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which has a similar assimilation theme, in their original versions and first remakes were made within just a few years of each other.
Rob's assumption that Childs is infected at the end is inconsistent with the Carpenter's obvious intention to make the ending ambiguous. We can offer guesses that Childs or MacReady might be infected, but it's impossible to assert that one of them is "really" infected in a fictional movie that doesn't want us to know the rest of the story.
I love that regardless of who views The Thing someone will always have an opinion or a different view point that brings unique conversation and dialogue to the table. Great job on this video!
I could hear about this movie forever...
I met John Carpenter and Keith David once but didn't ask any Thing questions 😔
My rule has always been that if you're in a room w/ John Carpenter & Keith David, it's totally fine to just let them talk about whatever the hell they wanna talk about because it's gonna be interesting no matter what
@@rjramrod😂
still to this day...The Thing is one of the only horror movies that makes me respect all the characters and the monster in it ( rather than roll my eyes and actually end up cheering for the monster.) Each and every one of them display such a broad degree of intelligence and complexity. Even the monster itself learns and adapts its strategy so quickly and constantly. The level of fear and uneasiness is maintained throughout its duration. The closest modern film that can compare to it even slightly is The Empty Man. Everything else nowadays...you are lucky to get anything more than just jumpscares.
So you respect the monster in it. Okay.
An almost feature film length Rob Ager upload - saves the day! Much appreciated, thanks a bunch! 🎉
The hat and later the revolver and holster Mac wears in the film gives him almost a classic heroic cowboy look from old Westerns.
My favourite movie ever - I have the original on BR, but I just 'located' a version which amazed me - denoised, playing at 60hz, and my mind was blown...
Any "hint" of where to find that, please?
@@srabow Not entirely sure I can post here, but sod it - it's on rarbg then look for the thing denoised.
That sounds truly horrible, blasphemous even, lol. I have the 4K now. I first watched it on TV in the early 90s.
@@Fedorevsky I was apprehensive too, tbh, but gave it a go and it really does look fantastic. I saw it first on a movie premiere, on ITV in the 80's, on a B&W TV lol. Still terrified me, think I was around 10-11 at the time.
@@MrFox-wn5jt I was around the same age, I think 11 or 12 watching it on a Norwegian TV-Channel. I really can't get into high frame rate for movies. It looks like it's sped up to me. My job is working with video so to me it's just sacrilege, lol, but of course to each their own. If you enjoy it more power to you!
These theories all sound like jokes.
The early one in the vid do. Get them out of the way first then gradually move onto the good stuff.
The blunders MacReady makes that you mention made me think: one could argue, that his blunders proves he's a HUMAN and not the thing. No human is perfect, etc (now that I think more, neither is the thing so there goes that argument). As far as the trust issue, the way I always saw MacReady was in the scene you mention in his shack. He throws his drink on his PC and calls it a "cheatin' bitch." I felt he took this job in the Antarctic--of all places--because he was betrayed by a "cheatin' bitch" and had to get away. There aren't any women around (which he probably doesn't trust now anyway) and keeps his distance from the others. Carpenter and Russell discuss MacReady's back story on the audio commentary but there is no mention of a woman (if memory serves). It's the way I always liked to see him though.
You have been one of my all time favorite RUclipsrs for so long. Thank you for uploading.
Grab your popcorn
Let me guess the 1st theory was the most recent? Because there was no females people just had to try to inject it in there somewhere.Gotta add that dei.
Thank you for uploading this Rob.
Excellent timing. Can't wait to watch this when I get home. Liked already.
I got more out of this one video than hundreds of video essays where they basically just retell the plot for verbatim. Thanks!
wow what synchronicity. I just rewatched Thing over the weekend so it's fresh in my head
Such a good movie. I have been playing The Thing on PlayStation 2 lately. A very great take on the mythos.
@@drumyogi9281 Did you know they are remastering the game soon? can't wait i remember loving to play it as a kid and being scared crapless lol
@@TeslaEmperor Yes! I just heard about it like a week after I started playing haha.
I've seen it so many times since I first saw it in the early 90s that it's always fresh in my mind, lol.
I love this film.
Oh yeah, me personally, I love this film.
Ppl love what they hate and hate what they love.
I believe Todd Cameron wrote a prequel novel to THE THING about MacReady. I think it goes into his time as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, which would honestly explain why he was almost unbothered by the blood and gore from the creature. It would also explain Mac's alcoholism (coping with PTSD) and ability to remain cool when fighting the creature.
The fact that none of the men wear wedding rings could be down to a costumer/designer paying close attention to detail rather than anything to do with ‘meaning’ something: my wedding ring once slipped off my finger in a freezer chest in a supermarket, so when I started working in refrigerated meat storage rooms, I didn’t wear my ring to work.
Also, in long deployments it's preferable to have a group comprised of single people. Long deployments puts strain on marriages.
Thoughtful analysis, sir.
Thank You Rob.
Your work is in the top teir of YT material.
Anyone who thinks The Thing is about anything other than "cool scary ass alien" is just a frustrated film student desperately trying to sound smart.
Oh hell yeah! thank you for sharing this Rob!
Wake up babe, new collative video just dropped (it's 1hr +) 🙌
Rob + The Thing = 👌
Another excellent video analysis Rob, 10/10 as always. Not sure if others have pointed this out but just after the opening credits it does come up and say that this is set in 1982. I look forward to your future videos, keep up the good work.
I always thought Blair was being assimilated after the second autopsy when he is talking about the thing and that pencil he uses is touching the thing then taps his face with that pencil. He then does the calculation on the computer and that pencil, vodka bottle are shown when he gets the gun out. in my opinion he knows he is being assimilated then locks himself in his room and by time he is going nuts he has been totally assimilated. Also I personally think 2 characters are assimilated over a longer time than the likes of Palmer and Bennings, the other is Knowles who has chest pains and his heart stops, he goes with Mcready and what looks like Palmer in the helicopter when they find the ship in the ice, Palmer is always a dark looking figure in that scene and never fully shown as his face is covered and he is just a dark figure in the background when the two go down to check out the ship so they both can’t be things or surely Mcready would of been attacked. When Knowles heart stops and they try to revive him that’s when he is fully assimilated and the thing defends itself when the electric shocks are used to try to start his heart and the doc gets killed. They mention how it assimilates on a cellular level and I think that 2 characters are slowly assimilated and while Blair who is left alone, he has more time to do the things he does while Knowles doesn’t get the time to do anything but react to the shocks and is found out and destroyed. Also Just a thought about Mcready drinking from the same bottle as Blair then Blair looks at the bottle when Mcready leaves but I don’t think he has drunk from it after assimilation and maybe Blair thing thinks that would of been a way of getting Mcready as he is always drinking. Hope that all makes sense.
I want you all to note the whiskey bottle as a mode of transmission. It's in several scenes.
I like the idea that the J&B bottle might have a little more significance than initially thought. I always enjoy spotting them when they show up in Italian Giallo flicks from the 70’s, there is _always_ a bottle of it somewhere in those films!
I've got a short vid on that.
@@horrorfanandy4647 Right you are. I bet one of the same like 5 people they have dubbing most characters in those wonderful 70’s/80’s Italian horrors must have brought the bottle on set & filmmakers naturally just used it to save money!
Also hell yeah Black Christmas! Wonderful & genuinely creepy, underrated film. Everyone knows Halloween but it seems like only horror people really acknowledge the og BC at all. Which is really funny when you read about the proposed sequel…
@@ASSLEVANIA ill check it out!
@@mgabriel2636 I can’t recommend Black Christmas enough. It’s by Bob “Christmas Story” Clarke, predates Halloween by about 4-5 years and really blazed the trail for the slasher genre. It’s like og The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in that the film tricks you into thinking it’s bloodier/gorier than it really is. I would call it the prototypical slasher. Excellent film!
Bob Clarke also made another solid horror film in the 70’s called “Deathdream” or “Dead of Night” depending where you’re at. That’s like a combo of Pet Semetary and the Monkey’s Paw with some Vietnam veteran commentary permeating the film. That’s also a very solid and unnerving film I don’t ever hear folks outside of cult-classic horror geeks like myself talk about. Clarke only did 3 horror films, but he was so good at it that it’s a shame he didn’t do more.
Regarding the immigration theory: In the ancient world, there is a universal pattern - the image of a center, an anchor by which we interpret the world. That anchor is our home, our family, our tribe, our temple, but also our own center of consciousness. As one moves further and further from this center, one finds all that is not aligned with our identity. Initially, one finds the neighbor, that which we can still recognize first, but soon we find the stranger, the foreigner, and ultimately the barbarian and even animality itself. As we move away from that which we know, we fall into a space where things don't quite have identities. That's a great way to understand strangeness archetypically. The theory of immigration isn't entirely wrong because immigration involves our relationship with the unknown. However, these interpreters only grasp the archetype of the stranger in its current political manifestation. Strangeness is a spectrum with all kinds of extremes. A specific type of strangeness - whether slightly different or very different, whether dangerous or promising - cannot be regarded as representative of strangeness itself. "The Thing" explores an archetypal dimension of the alien in its extreme, that of all-destroying chaos. The migration interpreters do not recognize the higher, archetypal dimension and seek ultimate categorizations on lower levels such as politics.
@@MrJamesC The Thing may be “all destroying,” but is it chaotic? It seems very deliberate in its approach to dealing with those who would destroy it. Perhaps the Thing might have started out as “chaotic” back at the Norwegian station, but maybe it became more deliberative as it assimilated humans?
@@robertbusek30 I agree with you in part. All in all, it is important where you stand. As viewers, we don't look over the action like a chessboard, but are anchored in the human perspective. There may be intrinsic motivations for the thing, but we don't experience them. We don't even know whether it perceives itself as a unity with all its forms. For us it appears as confusing and destructive and that is the point. The story is not a biological forensic analysis, but a story, even if it uses scientific allusions to appear more credible. There is no such thing as pure chaos, because the mere fact that chaos is perceptible requires an overarching conceptual structure. Chaos can therefore only be suggested. The Joker in Dark Knight, who also represents chaos, creates it precisely by acting very strategically while denying the existence of a plan. So by chaos I don't just mean absolute arbitrariness, but the chaos of, for example, inconsistency or the hybridity of the thing.
@@MrJamesC It would be interesting to see someone try to tell the story from the Thing's POV. I've often thought the same about the xenomorph from the original Alien film.
@@robertbusek30 I don't even think the Thing would perceive itself as all destroying, much less chaotic. It's a primal from of the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" assimilation. The destruction and chaos only occur at the point of human resistance.
@@robertbusek30 There's a short story retelling the film from the POV of the Thing. It's called "The Things" by Peter Watts. You can easily find it and read it online. Just search for it.
Been waiting for another video about The Thing from you for a very long time.
Simply the best YT channel, so much thought and passion in your videos. Love mate.
Rob your second to last point of people needing to have a level of paranoia towards people really hit home. I've mostly gone through life thinking people have their best intentions at heart which has resulted in being burned. All the better this psychological analysis comes from what is possibly my favourite film. Thank you!
It's a tough pill to swallow. For about my first thirty years I clung onto the belief that most people genuinely are interested in truth. Then I had to accept that a lot of the time people actively aavoid truth, instead seeking out lies that are convenient to themselves personally.
Humans will human and fear is very strong motivator in humans
LOVE longer videos!!
9:28 that part reminded me how in the original story Who Goes There? each individual Thing is referred to as selfish in it's inate desire to survive, unable to self-sacrifice like real humans.
Once again deep research in a great video. I can't thank you enough for your contribution in the sixth art. Will not stop promoting your videos in my channel.
Your work is top notch
I for one, cannot wait for the all-female remake.
If the Thing adopts a Chad-like form they'll kill each other to protect and possess it.
Didn't Tony from Hack The Movies promise that like three years ago now?
Strrrrrong powerful black female lead.
Where is the comic emoji? Ah here it is...🤮
Warching this the moment I'm off of work
This documentary was very thoughtful. The Thing has been my favorite movie since the night I watched it alone at 13 years old in 1983. That said, the theories proposed by people online, quoted and discussed by Collective Learning, are such utter hogwash that I found myself laughing and disgusted simultaneously. Just so damned dumb. Why? You give John Carpenter way too much credit, coupled with 40 years of dissection of the film. CL clearly has a grasp on reality, offering more plausible counterpoints to the random theories posted by folks who wish there were more answers that simply wont come. This movie is very sophisticated in it's simplicity and John Carpenter was both brilliant and insanely lucky with this film. It is just vague enough without being stupid ( Im looking at you, M. Night, Shamalamadingdong), it was cleverly filmed and forced you to watch closely to keep up yet straight forward enough for my 13 year old brain to completely understand and appreciate, yet it's still a treat for adults to get a first time viewing. It is truly perfectly made.
Always outstanding work
14 - It was all a dream. My favourite.
@@Myndir the camera pans out to show Outpost 31 is in a snowglobe; turns out this was all happening in young autistic boy’s imagination! St. Elswhere, you hacks!
Garry's shot at the beginning actually missed its intended mark and hit MacReady square in the head. The rest of the film is his descent into Hell where he's to be punished eternally for unspecified sins.
I used to read word up magazine
@@JAMSTAR111 hell yeah. Brings a whole new meaning to “You know very well who you are.”
@@ASSLEVANIA haha very clever!
Over an hour long free video on The Thing by Rob Ager. Can't beat that!
US characters and… “African” characters? It’s been a while since I’ve seen The Thing, but were those characters from Africa?
One of the many reasons it's an all-time classic is the fact there's no women in it, no damsel in distress, no love story. Predator is similar. There's a woman in it but no love stories. Edit: lol That's the first thing he mentioned. I commented before I even started watching the video.
Are you implying that a movie can't be a classic if there is a woman in it lol? Alien?? Terminator?? You're confused by movies that have a shoehorned feminist agenda with movies that just have regular, well written women characters in them. Not every woman in every movie is pushing a toxic feminist agenda. There is an important difference there that you're missing.
@@changotv5847 In what way did I imply that? Are you part of the w*ke brigade by any chance? You do know ppl find you rep*gnant?
@@changotv5847 If they'd put a woman and a love story and all that in there this specific film wouldn't have been as good perhaps? But I don't see why that would be worth pointing out, really.
Despite most people thinking Childs is the Thing, I found that if you watch the whole film believing that McCready is the thing from near the beginning,his actions, the deaths & the spread of the Thing seems to make a lot more sense. McCready giggling at the end when Childs takes a drink is because he's beat everyone in his game of chess. Just my thought & opinion.
Mac became infected shortly after making the tape recording. He then cut the power and used the cover of darkness to kill Fuchs before he could warn the others to prepare their own food.
Yes!
The dog licked Bennings’ mittens.
Bennings grabbed the J&B bottle at the mouth. It’s reasonable to assume MacReady drank some of his whiskey after that.
Fuchs came up with the possibility of spreading via e.g. saliva and suggested measures to avoid it.
MacReady killed Fuchs and we don’t see him communicate the potential danger to others.
This is one of my favorite films and one of the favorite films of my father, who introduced me to it. I have seen it so many times throughout my life, including most recently with a packed audience at the Charles theatre, and have loved seeing your analysis of it. But never did I think I would be emotionally moved by this film. Your description of Macready’s sacrifice recontextualized the film for me and made me somewhat teary-eyed. I’ve always loved this film for its pragmatism and attention to detail but I had never thought of it as a triumphant victory until hearing that. Way to go
*THIS* is exactly why I subscribed to your channel!
Sophisticated and entertaining analysis of my favorite classic movies.
Could listen to you for hour after hour. 😊
This guy is the best on RUclips at what he does
Still my favourite horror film.
"The Light's Out" sequence was a whole scene cut out of the film because the film turned out bad and there was no time/money to re-shoot it. Surely you know of this already?
Child’s wasn’t an imitation. I don’t think either of them are at the end, but they have no way of knowing that, so they’ll both die not trusting each other and not knowing if they successfully stopped the creature. Like Mac says earlier in the film “I know I’m human… If you were all these things, you’d attack me right now. So some of you must be human too.” If one of them was an imitation at the end, they’d assimilate the other on the spot, there would be no reason to pretend to be human anymore, which it only did when it was outnumbered and couldn’t successfully attack them all at once.
4:10-5:09
What are you talking about
Listen to the words actually spoken instead of inserting dialogue of your own between the lines and you'll understand :)
@collativelearning i am my guy, now i dont know what your saying about inserting dialog and im still cpnfused at what tf you ment in that section
@@collativelearning what a hilarious straw man that you gotta say im 'inserting dialog'
Ha! Just received my John Carpenter's The Thing T-shirt today on Etsy as well! Perfect timing!
Cool, what does it look like?
@@TheLadyDelirium It has the Dog thing in the centre, its left side is half disguised and a view of Outpost 31 underneath it represents how calm it is... The other side is the Dog fully transformed with the Outpost underneath it in flames, obviously showing how wrong everything has gone. Cool design.
@@pionjohnkramer2128 That sounds awesome! It's great seeing interesting movie t-shirts.
Even though they make a lot of costly mistakes, it's more interesting when there is a level of thought put into what they are doing. MacReady is shown to be bad a chess but I doubt a chess expert would've fared much better.
Thank you so much, Rob. This video made my day.
Thank Rob, I'm out and about. I can't wait until I get home, so I watch this one. 🙂👍
@19:20 "Communism and fascism share this capacity to infect and subvert psychologically by pretending to be the friend of the intended victims."
Rob your commentary & analysis is oftentimes undeniably fascinating, and ultimately this is one of the biggest reasons why I've admired your work for so many years-I think your penchant for independent thought in particular is crucial to your ability to provide such unique opinions & perspectives like you so often do
But the quote above really betrays exactly how much you've just straight up blindly accepted everything that our capitalist system here in the West relentlessly tries to gaslight us into believing about communism-the real dead giveaway is this framing of capitalism & fascism as somehow distinct & separate from each other, when fascism is & always has been an inherent, inextricable & fundamentally essential part of the capitalist ideology to which communism is diametrically opposed-and it's disappointing that you haven't been able to see past this one big blind spot yet, especially in light of all of the legitimate & often truly incisive criticism I've personally seen you make of capitalism, particularly in your deconstruction of the Alien films
I'll always hold your critical analysis & film theory work in incredibly high regard, because it's easily some of the best & most insightful I've ever seen, but god damn is it frustrating to watch you constantly produce such phenomenal work and yet still remain so consistently unable to make that one final logical step in A.) questioning what our capitalist system tells us about how communism actually functions, and even more importantly, B.) understanding what it explicitly & deliberately doesn't tell us about how communist systems have historically always stood in direct opposition to both the absolutely horrific exploitation under the capitalist system in which we live, as well as the unspeakable atrocities fascists routinely commit in order to protect that system
Thanks for your thoughts. Of course though, I disagree. Imo if you've bought into communism then that's your blindspot and I'm the one who's aware of the reality. Antisemitism was common to Nazis and the Soviets. Go look up the Dr's Plot under Stalin and the genocide under PolPot or the racial elements under China's communist rule.
Not only is history full of recorded examples of such atrocities across the political spectrum, including communist regimes, but I've seen this in my daily life. i've met many people who identify as "against capitalism", but are some of the most selfish, tight fisted, lying people i've ever met. They borrow books and DVDs etc and don't give them back. Build up rent arrears and disappear owing thousands to small landlords who can't afford the loss. they cheat on their gf's or try to hit on women already in other relationships. They prefer not to work, instead expecting that others who do work pay taxes to give them a free ride.
The standard ideologies are BS. They're surface level labels conveniently used to hide one's own immorality, while poiting the finger elsewhere. And communism facilitates a level of financial and market monopoly into the hands of the undeserving few that corporatism can only dream of. In practice it's elitism posing as anti-elitism.
@@collativelearning100%
I wonder what an imitated person would say to the question of ,where are you from?, when did you get here? Being infected, you must know that your the thing because Blair was starting to build a spaceship. He must have been consciously aware that he is a thing. I wonder what they would have to say if they spoke before they turned
🎶 BUM BUM 🎶
🎶 BUM BUM 🎶
This movie is soo good. Fucking great such a classic! The whole cast of actors picked perfectly IMO
“Clark was human, which makes you a murderer don’t it ?”
God damn is Childs The Thing? I’ll never know for sure! So ambiguous! Love ambiguous ending of movies!