"IT'S NOT HUMAN. YET": 5 FUN TRIVIA ABOUT THE THING (2011)

Last night my boyfriend and I watched The Thing (2011) and I was fairly surprised how good the movie actually was. I'd suspected it to be too much of a remake even though it's produced as a prequel to 1982 John Carpenter's The Thing. There were a few scenes that were strikingly resembling sequences from the 1982 movie (like the human/alien group testing scene and the dog in the kennel, etc.), but for me these contributed more to the a prequel, although déjà vu, kind of feeling than being rip-offs. Most of all the 2011 movie is true to the basic premise; being absurdly sticky and icky.

Usually I'm not a fan of science fiction horror films but since I really liked the 1982 movie (much due to Kurt Russell's hotness!) I was positively surprised. I'm very thankful that they actually cast born and bred Norwegian actors. Usually Scandinavia is a misinterpreted term and a grey spot on the map for a lot of people, especially Americans. Some have a really hard time grasping the fact that Sweden, Norway and Denmark (here not counting Finland and Iceland) are three different countries with their own, but very similar, languages. The mistake of casting a Danish guy to play the role as a Swede (like Allan Hyde who plays Godric in True Blood; his Swedish is awful for the single reason that he's Danish!) is very common. In The Thing (2011) they've cast good, neutrally accented Norwegians and I was delighted to be able to understand all their comments and jokes (I don't know if there's a subtitled version?).

Apart from the computerized monster and digitialized effects (80's effects were so much better!) this is a really good movie where the ending scenes intertwine with the opening scene of the 1982 movie in a really smooth and effectual way.

5 FUN TRIVIA ABOUT THE THING (2011)

OBS! THIS POST MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!


5. The research team's station is named Thule Station. Thule is mentioned widely in European literature and maps, as a region in the far north. The modern interpretation is that Thule could be identified as Norway, which would make it a fitting name for a Norwegian station in the Antarctic. The term "ultima Thule" in Medieval geographies refers to any distant place located beyond the "borders of the known world". Thule is also mentioned in the first stanza of Edgar Allan Poe's poem Dream-Land.

Thule map

4. I'm guessing most people who aren't from Scandinavia perhaps won't notice this, but the station's medical officer and leader of the research team, Dr. Sander Halvorson (played by Ulrich Thomsen), is Danish not Norwegian, and therefore speaks Danish with the team. This is not explained on neither IMDB nor Wikipedia, which I find really interesting.

Dr. Sander Halvorson, The Thing (2011)

3. I haven't read the 1938 science fiction novel Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr., nor seen the 1951 movie adaption The Thing From Another World, which supposedly isn't an as faithful film adaption of the novel as John Carpenter's version from 1982. Apart from being adapted into three different movies, the story was adapted as a radio drama by BBC RADIO which was first broadcasted on 24/01/2002. The story was published in comic book form in issue 1 of Starstream, and Dark Horse Comics has released The Thing From Another World, a comic book in two parts that picks up the story where John Carpenter's movie left off.

The Thing From Another World (1951)

2. I read on IMDB that "in order to not try to compete with Kurt Russell's portrayal of the 1982 film's protagonist, R.J. MacReady, the character of Kate Lloyd was designed to have traits in common with the character Ellen Ripley from the Alien film series". This is really interesting as my boyfriend kept referring to scenes from the Alien film series through out the movie.

Alien (1979)

 1. My favorite detail was the song the crew's singing on the night that they've brought back "the thing" to their camp. At first I thought the song to be some kind of cultural joke from the American production company's side, since I recognize the melody from my childhood but always thought it to be a commercial jingle or likewise. It's not like Norwegians usually pick up a banjo and start yoiking every other second. But the melody is actually taken from "Sámiid Ædnan", the Norwegian entry in the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest, originally sung by Sverre Kjelsberg and Mattis Hætta. This song both contains lyrics in Norwegian as well as Sami yoik and the song title comes from a northern Norwegian Sami dialect. The song is a tribute to the Sami heritage and inspired by the Sami autonomy movement in northern Norway, and the lyrics are about the requirement of self-government.