Legendary filmmaker John Carpenter is currently doing the press rounds to promote his TV series Suburban Screams, which is available to watch on the Peacock streaming service. (You can read our review of Suburban Screams HERE). A lot of interviewers are taking this opportunity to ask Carpenter questions about his 1982 classic The Thing (watch or buy it HERE) – and The Late Show host Stephen Colbert was no different. When Carpenter recently appeared on The Late Show, Colbert revealed that The Thing may be his favorite movie and that he considers the film to be his “happy place”. You can watch Carpenter and Colbert discuss The Thing for several minutes in the video embedded at the bottom of this article.
When asked about the famous ending of the movie and whether or not there’s an “absolute answer” to who is or isn’t “the thing” at the end of the film, Carpenter said the answer can be found if “you watch it really carefully, and you send me a check in the mail.”
Carpenter directed The Thing from a screenplay by Bill Lancaster, which was based on John W. Campbell Jr.’s 1938 novella Who Goes There? (You can find out more about the adaptation HERE.) The film has the following synopsis: In remote Antarctica, a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. When they take in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings and canines in the camp and they discover that the beast can assume the shape of its victims. A resourceful helicopter pilot and the camp doctor lead the camp crew in a desperate, gory battle against the vicious creature before it picks them all off, one by one.
Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, T.K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, and Thomas G. Waites star.
Watch Carpenter and Colbert discuss The Thing in the video below, then let us know what you thought of their conversation by leaving a comment. Is The Thing your happy place?
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