Larry Koehn

Other mistake: When the captain comes face-to-face with the Thing for the first time, the upper right frame becomes blurred once the door starts opening until it closes followed by a scene change. Very odd except maybe they were trying to hide the minicharges to create the bullet holes after they close the door. The implanted charges are very visible when the scene is not blurred. Also there is a small charge in the wooden frame of the door near the door handle. (00:57:32)

Larry Koehn

Revealing mistake: The Thing takes a swing at the captain after the captain opens the door. As the Thing swings his arm, he takes out a chunk of wood out of the door. If you step through the frames on the DVD, you can see the wood leaving the door a full second after the Thing has hit it. A small explosive charge that was not in sync with the actor. You can also see the outline of where the wood comes off before he swings his arm. And one more thing, his arm does not touch the door or even comes close to where the wood comes off - a safety precaution I presume. (00:57:33)

Larry Koehn

Continuity mistake: The main actress has her hair parted in the middle. When the Thing is set on fire, he takes a swing at the actress hiding behind a mattress and her hair is not parted (stunt double). The hair is parted again after the Thing escapes. (01:10:30)

Larry Koehn

Revealing mistake: If the scientists are near the North Pole, their shadows would be very long. But the scenes near the saucer show the men having very short shadows; thus, they are in Hollywood (naturally). (00:21:55)

Larry Koehn

Visible crew/equipment: When the airplane flies over the area where the saucer skidded in and became buried in the ice, you can see the equipment used to clear the snow and smooth out the ice (at the narrow end of the ice). You can also see the tracks from the machine criss-crossing the circular portion from the aerial shots. (00:16:20)

Larry Koehn

Visible crew/equipment: When the scientist finds the saucer near the North Pole, the panorama of the sky reaches only to a certain height. When the camera pans upward, as the smoke billows up from the explosive charges, the backdrop of the sky disappears and the real sky appears above the Hollywood backlot. (00:22:55)

Larry Koehn

Visible crew/equipment: The panorama, at the saucer, has several very visible vertical seams which they tried to paint over by making it appear as clouds. (00:22:00)

Larry Koehn