The Thing

Factual error: Winter in Antarctica would not have a night and day as portrayed, with the amount of light changing so much during the course of 24 hours.

Factual error: The very first time we see Kate, when she is examining the extracted specimen, she is listening to music on molded plastic headphones that were not available in 1982. Smaller headphones such as these, designed at the time for listening to Walkman-like portable equipment would have had a metal band going over the head, holding the earpieces in place.

THGhost

Factual error: When they decide to disable the snow vehicles in order to keep anybody from leaving the base, they decide to disable the engines by cutting the spark plug wires with mechanics sheers. The only problem is that the engines in the snow vehicles (you can hear this to be true) are diesel engines - and diesel engines do not have spark plugs at all. The plugs in the movie were for gasoline engines.

Continuity mistake: In the 1982 movie, the alien ship is uncovered by the Norwegian scientists using thermite. (As seen on the films discovered by the Americans.) In the 2011 movie, it is uncovered when the Thing gets back into the ship and starts up the engines.

More mistakes in The Thing

Adam Finch: You know, I never believed in this shit.
Jonas: I always did.

More quotes from The Thing

Trivia: The fire effects throughout were done practically instead of digitally via clever in-camera effects and the use of special suits, gels and rigs allowing for precisely-controlled burns and for stuntmen to remain aflame longer.

Erik M.

More trivia for The Thing

Question: They find the thing trying to escape the initial crash but it froze. In the 1982 version, they find another thing in a similar manner. Does this mean Kate was infected but didn't know it but turned as she walked off into the night?

Answer: In the 1982 version they never find another thing in a similar manner. It's just the one creature. Whether Kate was or was not infected is irrelevant, she was not found in the 1982 plot.

lionhead

More questions & answers from The Thing

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.