The Thing Themes

The handout lists 4 themes of alien invasion movies and two different interpretations by scholars named Biskind and Jancovich. Which of the listed themes apply to The Thing? Why? What scenes reveal those themes?

I think that the theme that The Thing tries to portray is the Invasion Narrative theme that says the importance of the new power elites vs. post-war decision making. It explains how there is a need for the military, scientists, and experts in science fiction to work together in to overcome the different crises proposed to them (i.e. Nuclear War), or else the world will be in grave danger. It is argued that the only way to defeat the alien is for the scientists and the military to work together. But this movie really puts this to the test, both sides do not want to work with eachother. In this movie, the conflict between the science power elites and the military power elites are against eachother by showing both sides not communicating with eachother, the military thinks they can solve the problem with violence and the Scientists just wanted to experiment on the thing, and neither was backing down. One example of this is when the alien escaped, the scientists, mainly Dr. Carrington, conducted experiments without the consent of the USAF, igniting another conflict. Dr. Carrington believed that the alien could be reasoned with while Captain Patrick Hendry wanted to kill it believing that it couldn't be reasoned with and it came to the Earth to take over. But in the end, the scientists' knowledge of the alien helped the military defeat the alien showing how both sides can in fact work together.