Perhaps one of the most famous scenes from John Carpenter’s The Thing is when Dr. Copper tries to save Norris using a defibrillator, only for the chest cavity to burst open, bite off the good doctor’s arms, and then cause a serious mess all over the place. Oh, and its head turns into a fucking spider creature.
But what you might not know is just how much work exactly went into creating that scene. And that’s where CineFix comes in as they’ve released a video that shows just how much effort it took to pull off the visual chaos of that moment.
The video below runs through archived interviews with director John Carpenter as well as FX guru Rob Bottin as well as uses scenes from the film, storyboard shots, concept art, and more, to dissect this scene. It’s honestly incredibly fascinating to see what went on and it only increased my appreciation of this sci-fi/horror masterpiece.
Check it out below and leave a comment with your favorite John Carpenter scene!
