Product Description

Members of an Antarctic research team are killed off by a frozen alien they uncover.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1104 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-08-05
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Black & White, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 87 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
With its modest special effects, lean plot, and small cast of lesser stars, this 1951 thriller remains a sturdy blueprint for fusing horror and science fiction. The formula has been employed countless times since, fleshed out with more extensive and elaborate production values, and manned by higher profiled marquee names, but the results have yet to improve on The Thing from Another World, Howard Hawks's lone foray into sci-fi.

The story begins as military airmen are dispatched to a remote Arctic research station where scientists have detected the crash of a spacecraft. An effort to retrieve the saucer-shaped vehicle fails, but the team returns to the station with the frozen body of its sole occupant. When the extraterrestrial pilot is accidentally thawed, the crew, headed by a tough-talking pilot (Kenneth Tobey), grapples with a massive, chlorophyll-based humanoid (James Arness) thirsty for blood and in no mood for galactic diplomacy.

Hawks takes only a production credit for this low-budget exercise, but his filmmaking style transcends Christian Nyby's nominal direction: rapid-fire, overlapping dialogue, an ensemble of comrades whose professionalism is tempered by wisecracks, and unsentimental female characters (embodied by feisty romantic interest Margaret Sheridan) recall Hawks's signature works, while propelling the plot over any potential gaps in credibility. It's hardly surprising, then, that The Thing from Another World remains among the most influential science fiction movies ever shot, or that it remains exciting entertainment a half century later. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

an alien carrot...
While some of the dialog is a bit silly,... "an alien super carrot" for example, this b/w classic still holds up today. While the movie is only a few years shy of turning 60 yrs old, the style of overlapping dialog that was mentioned in an earlier review, is as smart and fast as any Quentin Tarantino film today. The pace is perfect and never lets up. A must for any fan of 50's sci-fi.

Sci Fi doesn't get any better
There are over a hundred reviews so I don't have much to add. Somewhere Stephen King wrote an essay on this movie. I only remember one thing he pointed out. Notice that there are essentially two groups: the military and the scientists. America was in love with its military (who had just won WWII) and wasn't too sure about its scientists (who had just invented The Bomb). That really shows in the movie. Every time I see this movie I notice subtleties I missed before.

They really capture "cold" in ways other movies haven't, especially "30 Days of Night" which deals with a similar topic--a murderous force set loose in an island of warmth in a sea of deadly cold.

Must see movie. Black and white at its best.

The Thing From Another World
This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I would recommend it to any sci fi buff. there are seens that are not in a previous copy i've seen. It's a great movie--I don't want to give away the plot if you have not seen the movie.