"There are significant differences, too. For where Alien boasted an on-board computer nicknamed ‘Mother’, a female protagonist and an egg-born nemesis, The Thing is set in an all-male environment, and is as much a study of masculinity in crisis as an update of the sort of siege scenario that Carpenter had already played out in Assault on Precinct 13. The first time we meet chopper pilot and hero RJ MacReady (Carpenter regular Kurt Russell), a loner who lives apart from the rest of the crew’s quarters in a shack outside, he is in the rec room, pouring himself a scotch on ice, and resuming a game of chess – not with one of his companions, but with the computer. “Poor baby, you’re starting to lose it,” he comments, before the Chess Wizard checkmates him. With his masculine ego damaged, MacReady’s response is to pour his drink into the computer’s circuitry, frying it with the words, “Cheating bitch.” It is a misogynistic slur (accompanied by an absurd destructive act) against the only presence on the station that might be deemed female – for the Chess Wizard, despite its masculine name, has the distinctive voice of a woman (in fact Carpenter’s then wife Adrienne Barbeau). With that word ‘bitch’ still ringing in the audience’s ears, Carpenter cuts away to the husky outside, racing from its armed Norwegian pursuers to the relative shelter of the American station – and through the magical implicature of editing, we infer that this new arrival is also a bitch, come to invade this male community with her feminine otherness – even as it smuggles in all the alien cells that will be these men’s ultimate undoing."

"While The Thing is now regarded as the pinnacle of practical and visual effects, its power comes equally from its oozy tactile quality and disturbing flights of twisted imagination; a dog splits in two, a chest undergoing an autopsy grows fleshy jaws and bites a surgeon’s arms off, a head sprouts spider-legs and toddles off. The Thing became Bottin’s labor of love and it nearly killed him. “I wanted this stuff to come out great,” he remembered. “So I actually lived at Universal for a year and five weeks, without taking a day off. I’d sleep on the sets, in the locker rooms, in the labs. I ended up in hospital at the end of the show.”"

"Clennon: I think I saw the film at a cast-and-crew screening. Alien was still fresh in my mind. That film was very effective because you had a clear fix on who each of the characters were. So when the alien was stalking a particular crew member, you had an emotional investment in that character. Take Harry Dean Stanton and his kitten, for instance. You really didn't want the alien to shred him or his kitten. In The Thing, [screenwriter] Bill Lancaster had written scenes that introduced each of the 12 men. And we shot those scenes — maybe two, three minutes total — but John left that material out during editing. I felt the audience didn't have a chance to identify each character before they got sucked up into being a Thing. It was a little fuzzy at first: "Who's that guy? Is he the biologist? The geologist? The company doctor? Should I care?" I think that made it harder for a general audience to get involved in The Thing. Maybe that's why Alien had a broader appeal and drew bigger crowds into the theaters. Then again, The Thing has its own integrity. It's a colder, harder, darker world. The outpost culture is totally male, and the outlook at the end is grim and pessimistic."

"Carpenter: I'm always concerned about safety, so any time you set somebody on fire … jeez. We also held our breath every time the actors used [flamethrowers]. [Laughs] These things shoot gasoline and are on fire! And these are actors. You just don't know. They might turn around to ask you a question and burn you up. We trained the actors to put out the fire during the scene in the dog kennel. They ran in and put it out. They actually put out the fire too quickly. But I didn't worry about it then … and I usually worry about everything."

"Clennon: It was all happening in front of us: We didn't have to imagine some post-production [computer-generated] effects and then pretend to be shocked or mesmerized. Rob Bottin gave us all we needed to be well and truly freaked."

"Masur: There were two sets that were refrigerated, but I didn't work on either of them. There was the Norwegian camp, and then the room with the ice block. Those sets were on the same stage. They figured out how to make the sets look very cold from the original The Thing from Another World. You have to keep the sets at about 40 degrees, just above freezing. And then you have to spray humidity into the air. It's the humidity that makes it possible to see the actors' breath. But most of the time, we were working in full Arctic gear on a nicely air-conditioned sound stage. It was only horrible when we went outside."

"Clennon: We wasted hours and hours of rehearsal time discussing fucking metaphysics! Some of the actors were obsessed with this question: When you become the Thing — when the alien takes over your mind and body — do you know that you've become the Thing? Or do you just go on thinking that you are your old self? I couldn't see the point of solving that silly riddle. What difference was it going to make in anybody's performance? The story's point was that every creature looked, sounded and smelled exactly the way it did before the alien took it over."

"Masur: During rehearsal, [Keith David] and I started talking about how our characters felt about each other. That’s how we [knew we didn't like each other.] Like in the scene where Childs pulls a gun on my character and I pull a knife on him. Mind you: In California, it was really hard to get a knife that would flip open. I wanted it to be a buck knife, so I got one at a survivalist store. And while I was there, I also got a little attachment so you could flick the knife open with your thumb. I oiled the hell out of that knife and cut my hand several times."

"Masur: My character's defining characteristic was that he wasn't really interested in people, but rather loved working with dogs. I got the idea for the character's personality from working with Jed the wolf-dog. There was a little room off to the side in the sound stage. During the rehearsal period, dog trainer Clint Rowe brought Jed the wolf-dog in to get him used to the sound and smell of people. He was a young dog, so he was very jumpy. I worked with Jed and Clint for an hour on the first day of rehearsals and every day after that. It worked out very well during shooting, too. Jed would come and stand next to me, and he wouldn't do that thing that dogs do where they look back at their handlers. If you watch the scenes between us, he's never looking at my hand for a treat. He's just there with me; he's making his own choices. That’s what makes his performance so spooky."

"Look closely at your neighbour ... Trust no-one ... They might be THE THING [UK video box]"

"Anytime. Anywhere. Anyone."

"The ultimate in alien terror."

"Look closely at your neighbors. Don't trust anybody."

"Man is the warmest place to hide."

"[from TV spot] Its origin: alien. Location: Antarctica. Age: unknown. Intent: survival. Destination: MAN."

"[from theatrical trailer] Twelve men have just discovered something. For 100,000 years, it was buried in the snow and ice. Now it has found a place to live. Inside. Where no one can see it. Or hear it. Or feel it."

"[from teaser trailer] Some say the world will end by fire. Others say it will end by ice. Now, somewhere in the Antarctic, the question is being settled forever."

"Blair: Hey, wait a minute. Wait a minute, man. I want to come back inside, don't you understand? I'm alright, I'm much better. And I won't harm anybody. Now you gotta let me come back inside."

"Windows: Are you guys gonna listen to Garry?! Are you gonna let him give the orders?! I mean, he can be one of those things!"

"Norris: This is just what it wants! To pit us against each other!"

"Garry: [after passing the blood test] I know you gentlemen have been through a lot. But when you find the time... I'd rather not spend the rest of the winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!"

"Clark: I don't know what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is."

"Norwegian passenger with rifle: Se til helvete og kom dere vekk. Det er ikke en bikkje. Det er en slags ting! Det imiterer en bikkje. Det er ikke virkelig! Kom dere vekk, idioter! (Get the hell away. That's not a dog. It's some kind of thing! It's imitating a dog. It's not real! Get away, idiots!)"

"[the Thing roars at MacReady] YEAH, FUCK YOU TOO!!! [throws stick of dynamite]"

"[on finding a partially-assembled spaceship beneath the tool shed] Blair's been busy out here all by himself."

"We're gonna draw a little bit of everybody's blood... 'cause we're gonna find out who's The Thing. Watching Norris in there gave me the idea that.. maybe every part of him was a whole. Every little piece was an individual animal.. with a built-in desire to protect its own life. You see when a man bleeds.. it's just tissue. But blood from one of you Things won't obey when it's attacked; It'll try and survive. Crawl away from a hot needle the same."

"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. It'll fight if it has to, but it's vulnerable out in the open. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won."

"[talking into tape recorder] I'm gonna hide this tape when I'm finished. If none of us make it, at least there'll be some kind of record. The storm's been hitting us hard now for 48 hours. We still have nothing to go on. [turns off tape recorder and takes a drink of whisky. He looks at the torn long johns and turns it back on] One other thing: I think it rips through your clothes when it takes you over. Windows found some shredded long johns, but the nametag was missing. They could be anybody's. Nobody... nobody trusts anybody now, and we're all very tired. Nothing else I can do, just wait... R.J. MacReady, helicopter pilot, US outpost number 31. [turns off recorder]"

"I'm born again!"

"Peter Vere-Jones - Lord Crumb's Voice"

"Dean Lawrie - Lord Crumb SPFX Double/3rd Class Alien"

"Doug Wren - Lord Crumb"

"Peter Jackson - Derek/Robert"

"Mike Minett - Frank/3rd Class Alien"

"Craig Smith - Giles/3rd Class Alien"

"Pete O'Herne - Barry/3rd Class Alien"

"Terry Potter - Ozzy/3rd Class Alien"

"Human meat for intergalactic hamburgers"

"Crumb's Crunchy Delights."

"Watch out Aliens... ... here comes Derek!"

"One thing the aliens hadn't counted on was Derek, and Dereks don't run!"

"Lord Crumb: [drinking bowl of alien vomit] Aren't I lucky, I got a chunky bit!"

"Lord Crumb: [Sniffing on bowl of alien vomit produced by Robert] Mmmhh, exquisite bouquet, Robert!"

"Coldfinger: I think this is a job for real men!"

"Barry: I think Derek's turned his toes up, guys."

"[after trying to fire on Barry with an empty gun] Oh, sod it!"

"The sad news is that we will be heading back to nalak not with six of our co-workers in a state of permanent death. They died today, murdered by some real arseholes."

"I think the gruel is ready!"

"Tomorrow we're having you for lunch!"

"I'm sure you'll be pleased to be leaving this shitty planet!"