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Clark: I dunno what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is.

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Trivia

The TV edit of this film includes lots of footage that was purposely left on the cutting room floor, such as when the dead Norwegian on the table blinks, and so on. The TV edit also has narration. This version is edited so much that director John Carpenter has publicly stated that he finds the TV edit embarrassing and a disgrace to his movie. See more...

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The Thing (1982) - 32 mistakes

Directed by John Carpenter, starring David Clennon, Keith David, Kurt Russell, T.K. Carter, Wilford Brimley (add more)

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Sci-fi, Thriller

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Factual error: When the infected Palmer starts his transformation into the Thing, he has a series of fits and the creature 'falls', or leaps upward onto the ceiling. Watch closely...you can see a piece of paneling also 'fall' upward, when it should have fallen down.

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Visible crew/equipment: When Norris and MacReady are climbing down into the crater that has the spaceship in it, you can see in the right corner of the screen a crewmember climb up, then look startled and drop back down behind the ship. Only visible in the widescreen version.

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Other: The brief chess game (four moves) shown in the beginning of the movie makes absolutely no sense. For instance: There are no white bishops on the board, but after the human player taps a few buttons, the computer says that he just moved one. Within the two moves described first, the positions of the pieces change completely. In addition, some pieces are now gone and there are new pieces on the board. It's like an entirely different game. The final move is said to have been made with a black rook, which is impossible. In the shot shown before this move, there is not a single position available to that chess piece that would result in an instant checkmate. Nothing in the editing indicates that these few short shots are supposed to be viewed as separate games.

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Continuity: When the crew is outside and they're going to lock Blair in the tool shed, you can see someone nailing wood across the window on the front of the shed. The pieces of wood are horizontal. In the next shot (inside the shed), if you look at the window in the background, the strips of wood are vertical. When Mac goes back outside, the wood is horizontal again.

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Visible crew/equipment: After MacReady says, "The generator room," toward the end of the film, he, Garry and Nauls walk down a flight of stairs. Then Garry and Nauls walk down a set of three steps whilst Mac is holding a flare. As they walk the shadow of a guy holding a boom mic is clearly visible on the floor.

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Visible crew/equipment: At the end of the film, where MacReady is about to fight 'the thing' you can see the shadow of a guy holding a boom mic, on the ground just behind him.

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Continuity: When Mac is locked out of the complex by the rest of the team, who think he may be a 'Thing', Childs uses an axe to try and chop open one of the doors, leaving a HUGE hole in the middle of it. Later Childs returns to that same door and the hole is significantly smaller and at a completely different location on the door.

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Factual error: In the kennel scene, MacReady fires at least 7 shots from a pump shotgun. That particular shotgun can only hold 5.

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Continuity: Just a couple of minutes into the movie, Gary shoots dead the crazed Norwegian and the camera returns to MacReady. Now watch closely: When he gets up to help injured Bennings, he and his Jim Beam bottle are covered up to the hilt with loads of snow. But on the next shot, a split second later, his clothes are miraculously clean and the whiskey bottle as dry as you can possibly get it.

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Factual error: The last time Doc tries the defibrillator on Norris, he uses it on the abdomen instead of on the chest.

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Continuity: When the dog, aka the The Thing, is led into the dog pen for the first time we see the floor is covered in a thick layer of straw for the dogs to sleep on. This is seen every time except when Childs uses the flame thrower. We get a wide shot of the pen as it's lit up in flame and it's visible that the floor is now completely bare of any straw. There are also none of the recently deceased dogs that were lining the floor, being converted into Things.

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Continuity: When Kurt Russsell first goes to the crazy guys' shack, he puts a bottle down with the label facing forward. When he leaves it is facing the other way.

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Continuity: When the Doc and Kurt Russel enter the burnt Norweigan building the door closes itself behind the Doc. It closes and opens several times over the course of the scene.

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Continuity: When the three men are shown finding the UFO from the front, their hoods are down. In the next scene, from behind, their hoods are over their heads.

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Continuity: When Kurt Russell first looks at the chess game, amount of ice in his glass changes between shots.

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Continuity: When they are all outside and MacReady has separated the three most likely suspects and orders that they be tied down and tested, he comments at that time that they are to be hit by a storm in six hours. Cut to the scene where Mac is dictating into his recorder and he comments that the storm has been hitting them hard for 48 hours. However it is the same night and at best, maybe only an hour has passed.

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Continuity: When the thing is on the lab table, and the severed head starts walking away, Mack torches it with a flamethrower. At one angle, you can clearly see that fire is not coming out of the hose. It is just a fire going off in the doorway.

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Continuity: Each man only dribbles a few drops of blood into the petri dishes as their blood samples. But when the test is administered, there is a lot more blood in each dish, enough to cover the entire bottom.

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Factual error: When going to the Norwegian camp, MacReady finds several cans marked "kerosin", and thus can easily deduce that they contained kerosene. However, there is no such word in Norwegian. The cans would have been marked with the proper Norwegian word "parafin".

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Plot hole: As the gun-toting Norseman approaches the buildings, Garry smashes the single-pane window with his handgun. It is inconceivable that the glazing in a structure near the South Pole would be single-pane glass, that could be broken so easily.

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