[Bonus Vid] How Carpenter Slapped Together One of THE THING’s Scariest Scenes (Patreon)

In early drafts of The Thing, Bennings and Fuchs both die in ways that feel like they belong in a totally different movie. There's a big action spectacle on the ice, or a simple murder scene But as Carpenter and the crew watched rough cuts and argued about what the creature would and wouldn’t do, they fully realized the movie's central rule: The Thing doesn’t want to kill, it wants to hide. This bonus video breaks down the three versions of Bennings’ death, why the first two didn’t work (even when they did work as scenes), and how the final on-location fix became one of the clearest, scariest moments in the movie, because it finally shows the audience how assimilation can happen off-screen and you might not know who is human and who's a Thing.

Bennings' Death in Script

Ploog's Storyboards

Bennings' Death Filming

Fuchs' Death Script

Fuchs' Death

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