Trivia: The film was originally banned when released in Finland.
The original movie, The Thing From Another World (1951), took place at the North Pole. This version takes place at the South Pole.
Donald Pleasence was the original choice for the character of Blair. Pleasence was unable to perform the role due to a scheduling conflict.
At the beginning of the film the Norwegian with the rifle is actually Kurt Russell's former brother-in-law, Larry Franco, who, needless to say, does not speak Norwegian. He spoke made-up gibberish instead of actual Norwegian. This is from John Carpenter himself in the film's commentary track.
The Norwegian dog in the film was named Jed. He was a half wolf/half husky breed. Jed was an excellent animal actor, never looking at the camera, the dolly or the crew members. Jed, however, is NOT the dog seen in the beginning chase scene, where the Norwegian is trying shoot him. Per Carpenter's commentary, this was another dog painted to look like Jed.
To give the illusion of icy Antarctic conditions, interior sets on the Los Angeles sound stages were refrigerated down to 40 F while it hovered around 90 F outside.
There are no female characters in the film. The only female presence in the movie is in the voice of MacReady's chess computer and the contestants seen on the game show that Palmer watches. A scene containing a blow-up doll was filmed and then left on the cutting room floor. According to John Carpenter, only one crew member was female but she was pregnant and this forced her to leave the shoot; she was replaced by a male.
For a scene where a character's arms are severed, a real-life double amputee stand-in was used wearing a mask in the likeness of the character. The audience focuses on the bloody stumps while the mask goes unnoticed.
In the close up shot of the United States National Science Institute Station 4 sign, a 'Smokey the Bear' sign can be seen.
The Norwegian camp scenes were actually the charred remains of the American site from the end of the film. Rather than go to the expense of building and burning down another camp, Carpenter re-used the destroyed American camp.
This is the first film in what John Carpenter calls his Apocalypse Trilogy. The other two are Prince of Darkness (1987) and _In the Mouth of Madness (1995)_ .
The opening title exactly duplicate's the original Howard Hawks film. To create the effect of the title, an animation cell with "The Thing" written on it was placed behind a fish tank filled with smoke that was covered with a plastic garbage bag. The garbage bag was ignited, creating the effect of the title burning onto the screen.
Based on the classic short story "Who Goes There?" by pioneering science fiction editor John W. Campbell, he is not credited in the DVD version until the end credits.
This film is considered a benchmark in the field of special makeup effects. These effects were created by Rob Bottin, who was only 22 when he started the project.
The 1998 "Special Edition" DVD is 128 minutes long. The initial home video releases (MCA Home Video) also listed the 127-minute version on the box but the tape itself contained the 109-minute version.
This is the first of John Carpenter's films which he did not score himself. The film's original choice of composer was Jerry Goldsmith, but he passed and Ennio Morricone composed a very low-key Carpenter-like score filled with brooding, menacing bass chords.
The flesh-flower that attacks Childs is actually an incredibly detailed effect. Its petals are 12 dog tongues complete with rows of canine teeth. Effects designer Rob Bottin dubbed it the "pissed-off cabbage".
The female voice on MacReady's computer was performed (uncredited) by the wife of director John Carpenter, actress Adrienne Barbeau.
In the scene where Norris' (Charles Hallahan) head separates from his body, special-FX designer Rob Bottin used highly inflammable materials for the construction of interior of the head and neck models. During the shoot John Carpenter decided that, for continuity reasons, they needed some flames around the scene. Without thinking they lit a fire bar and the whole room, which by now was filled with flammable gases, caught fire. Nobody got hurt, but the entire special effects model, on which Bottin had worked several months, was destroyed.
While discussing the character of MacReady, director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell discussed having MacReady be a former Vietnam chopper pilot who had felt displaced by his service in Vietnam. This ultimately did not make it into the finished film.
In August 2003 a couple of hard-core fans, Todd Cameron and Steve Crawford, ventured to the remote filming location in Stewart, British Columbia and, after 21 years, found remains of Outpost #31 and the Norwegian helicopter. The rotor blade from the chopper now belongs to Todd and rests in his collection of memorabilia from the film.
John Carpenter and Kurt Russell both admit that after all of these years they still do not know who has been replaced by the creature and when.
