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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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Maybe it's just foreshadowing, but if you notice the scenes in the infirmary, the two tables are not operating tables, but portable autopsy tables. There are two of them, but nothing designed for "live" patients. Kind of makes you wonder about Doc's credentials. See more...

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The Thing (1982) - 33 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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Visible crew/equipment: When we see the huge dog alien, right before Childs burns it, a crewemember controlling the pupet is seen on the center of the monster's head.

Edit Submitted by Fireball
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Visible crew/equipment: Just after Nauls is told by Fuchs to turn down the music the film cuts to a tracking shot going towards the rec hall. At the very beginning of this tracking shot keep an eye on the lower half of the medical cabinet, and you can easily see the dolly that the camera is being pushed on as well. If you look just above the dolly you can make out the blue sweater sleeve of the crewmember pushing it.

Edit Submitted by Jack Vaughan Time
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Deliberate "mistake": When the Norwegian starts shooting at the dog, Childs jumps into the snow and you can see the shape before he jumps in where he's had to do this before on different takes.

Edit Submitted by Jack Vaughan Time
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Continuity: When MacReady is dictating his log into the tape recorder, in case no one is left alive, he stops the tape player at one point. He then starts the recorder again. If you watch closely, he presses only one button to start it recording. First of all, on these old style recorders, it was necessary to press both play and record at the same time for the machine to record. Not only that, when they show a closeup of him stopping the recording to play it back, both play and record are now depressed, without him having touched the machine again.

Edit Submitted by wizard_of_gore
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Continuity: When Palmer is revealed to be a thing, he shoots up to the ceiling. Windows is ready to use the flamethrower on him. He has the flamethrower pointed up to the ceiling, yet when Palmer falls to the floor, in that split second, Windows changes into a completely different position with the flamethrower.

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Character mistake: When MacReady is giving the blood test, the scalpel they are using is not properly sterilized after each person cuts themselves (shown when Nauls cuts himself, then when Windows goes next: all he does is wipe the scalpel on his pants). Using the same scalpel seems like an extremely stupid thing to do as Fuchs told MacReady that even a small particle of the Thing could take over a person.

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Continuity: When Childs takes an ax to the supply room door where MacReady has broken into, there is a shot of him hitting the door high up. Then there is the shot of MacReady almost frozen. When the shot cuts back to Childs, the ax marks in the door are not consistent with the shot from a few seconds before.

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Continuity: When Doc is trying to revive Norris and his arms fall into Norris' chest, he is wearing long sleeves down to the wrist. In the closeup of Doc's arms being ripped off, the sleeves are pushed up to the elbows and the forearms are bare.

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Factual error: Why would the Norwegians use thermite to unearth the Thing's ship? Burning thermite on ice will cause a violent explosion. An experienced winter crew filled with scientist and engineers would certainly know this.

Edit Submitted by Grumpy Scot
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Revealing: When MacReady burns the one "Thing" with the split head, in one shot it walks by MacReady in the foreground, and you can tell in that shot that it is just a still dummy burning, as it isn't moving at all. It just sort of floats past with its arms at its sides, while in the previous and next shots it is wildly moving around, arms flailing.

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Continuity: When the stray dog is placed in the cage with the other dogs and starts to mutate into The Thing, one of the other dogs start biting a hole in the fence. We get a clear view of the hole in one close-up, and in the next shot as The Thing sprays liquid on the dog, and the hole in the fence is much bigger.

Edit Submitted by Mortug Time
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Continuity: When the remaining men find Macready holding a flare to a bundle of sticks of dynamite, the sticks go from being loosely and haphazardly bundled together to tightly tied together and then back again in a matter of seconds.

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Visible crew/equipment: When Nauls is in the kitchen cooking and the camera moves towards to room next door, the shadow of the camera is visible on the right wall.

Edit Submitted by Mortug Time