The Thing (1982)

In Antarctica 1982, a Norwegian helicopter pursues an Alaskan Malamute to an American research station. The American team witness as the Norwegian pilot accidentally blows up the helicopter. The surviving Norwegian shouts at the Americans, but they cannot understand him and he is shot dead by the station Commander Garry, after raising his gun towards the team. The Americans pilot, R.J. Macready, and Dr. Copper travel to the Norwegian base to investigate, where they find a charred ruin and frozen corpses. They discover the burned remains of a malformed humanoid corpse which they recover to the American station. Blair, their biologist, autopsies the remains and finds a normal set of human organs.

Clark kennels the Malamute with the station's sled dogs, where it soon metamorphoses, and absorbs the dogs. Alerted by the disturbance, the team arrives and Childs uses a flamethrower to incinerate the creature. Blair autopsies the new creature, and learns that it can perfectly imitate other organisms. The recovered Norwegian data leads the Americans to a gigantic excavation site containing a partially buried flying saucer, and a smaller, human-sized dig site. Norris estimates that the saucer has been buried for at least 100,000 years. Meanwhile, Blair grows paranoid, believing that the creature could assimilate all life on Earth in a matter of years. Fuchs confides to MacReady his concerns about Blair, and that Blair's research shows that the dead creature's remains are still alive at the cellular level. The station implements controls to reduce the risk of assimilation.

The "dead" creature assimilates an isolated Bennings, but Windows interrupts it before the process is completed and MacReady burns the Bennings-Thing. Blair sabotages all of the vehicles, kills the remaining sled dogs, and destroys the radio to prevent escape. The team imprison him in a tool shed. Copper suggests a test to compare each members blood against uncontaminated blood held in storage, but after learning that the blood stores have been destroyed, the men lose faith in Garry, and MacReady takes command.

MacReady, Windows, and Nauls later find Fuchs' burnt corpse outside and surmise he committed suicide to avoid assimilation. Windows returns to base while MacReady and Nauls investigate MacReady's disturbed shack. On their return, Nauls abandons MacReady in the snowstorm, believing he has been assimilated after finding MacReady's torn clothes in the shack. The team debate whether to allow MacReady into the base, but he breaks in and holds the group at bay with dynamite. During the encounter, Norris appears to suffer a heart attack.

Copper attempts to revive him with a defibrillator, causing the Norris-Thing to transform and bite off Copper's arms. MacReady incinerates the monster, but its head separates from the body and attempts to escape before MacReady burns that too. MacReady is then forced to kill Clark in self-defense when he refuses to follow MacReady's orders. MacReady hypothesizes that the Norris-Thing's head demonstrates that every part of the Thing is an individual life form with its own survival instinct. He sequentially tests blood samples with a heated piece of wire. Everyone passes the test except for Palmer, whose blood flees from the hot wire. Palmer transforms and infects Windows, before both are killed by MacReady.

Childs is left on guard while the others go to test Blair. They find that Blair has escaped, and has been using vehicle components to craft a small spaceship. They return to the camp to find Childs missing and the power generator destroyed. MacReady speculates that the Thing intends to freeze the remaining team members and return to hibernation until a rescue team arrives. MacReady, Garry, and Nauls decide to detonate the station to destroy the Thing. As they set explosives, Blair kills Garry, and Nauls disappears. Blair transforms into an enormous creature and destroys the detonator. MacReady triggers the explosives using a stick of dynamite, destroying the base.

MacReady sits nearby as the camp burns. Childs returns, claiming he became lost in the storm while pursuing Blair. Exhausted and slowly freezing to death, they acknowledge the futility of their distrust and share a bottle of scotch.