The Thing from Another World

The Thing from Another World is a 1951 science fiction film about an Air Force crew and scientists at a remote Arctic research outpost who fight a malevolent alien being.
 * Directed by Howard Hawks (uncredited) and Christian Nyby. Written by Charles Lederer, based on the 1938 novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell (originally published under the pseudonym Don A. Stuart).

WHAT IS IT?taglines

Ned Scott

 * So few people can boast that they've lost a flying saucer and a man from Mars -all in the same day! Wonder what they'd have done to Columbus if he'd discovered America, and then mislaid it.
 * An intellectual carrot - the mind boggles!
 * Dr. Carrington, you're a man who won the Nobel Prize. You've received every kind of international kudos a scientist can attain. If you were for sale I could get a million bucks for you from any foreign government. I'm not, therefore, gonna stick my neck out and say you're stuffed absolutely clean full of wild blueberry muffins, but I promise my readers are gonna think so.

Dr. Arthur Carrington

 * There are no enemies in science, only phenomena to be studied.
 * We owe it to the brain of our species to stand here and die... without destroying a source of wisdom.
 * No pleasure, no pain... no emotion, no heart. Our superior in every way.

Dialogue

 * Capt. Hendry: Twenty thousand tons of steel is an awful lot of metal for an airplane.
 * Dr. Carrington: It is for the sort of airplane we know, Captain.


 * Crew Chief: Pretty spry for a guy with twelve dogs on him.
 * Lt. Dykes: ...and losing an arm.


 * Dr. Carrington: Miss Nicholson.
 * Nikki: Yes, Doctor?
 * Dr. Carrington: At 12:10 AM the hand became alive. The temperature of the forearm showed a 20-degree rise. Because of this rise in temperature I believe it was able to ingest the canine blood with which it was covered. I believe...
 * Ned Scott: You mean... You mean it lives on blood.


 * Lt. McPherson: Hey Pat! The heat's off in the mess hall!
 * Dr. Chapman: No more oil coming in.
 * Ned Scott: Pat, it's off in there, too. Could the tank be empty?
 * Dr. Chapman: Filled the day before yesterday.
 * Ned Scott: The main line could be plugged. You better run outside and fix it.
 * Capt. Hendry: And probably run smack into our visitor. He'll be waiting for you to do just that.
 * Lt. McPherson: We underestimate this guy.


 * Dr. Carrington: You're doing more than breaking army orders. You're robbing science of the greatest secrets that ever come to it.
 * Capt. Hendry: You'd better go back, Doctor.
 * Dr. Carrington: Knowledge is more important than life, Captain. We've only one excuse for existing - to think, to find out, to learn.
 * Ned Scott: What can we learn from that thing except a quicker way to die?
 * Dr. Carrington: It doesn't matter what happens to us. Nothing counts except for our thinking. We thought our way into nature. We split the atom.
 * Lt. Dykes: Yes, and that sure made the world happy, didn't it?


 * Ned Scott: All right, fellas, here's your story: North Pole, November Third, Ned Scott reporting. One of the world's greatest battles was fought and won today by the human race. Here at the top of the world a handful of American soldiers and civilians met the first invasion from another planet. A man by the name of Noah once saved our world with an ark of wood. Here at the North Pole, a few men performed a similar service with an arc of electricity. The flying saucer which landed here and its pilot have been destroyed, but not without causalities among our own meager forces. I would like to bring to the microphone some of the men responsible for our success... but as Senior Air force officer Captain Hendry is attending to demands over and above the call of duty... Doctor Carrington, the leader of the scientific expedition, is recovering from wounds received in the battle.
 * Eddie: [Softly] Good for you, Scotty.
 * Ned Scott: And now before giving you the details of the battle, I bring you a warning: Everyone of you listening to my voice, tell the world, tell this to everybody wherever they are. Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!

Taglines

 * WHAT IS IT?
 * Look Out...It's
 * Howard Hawks' Astounding Movie
 * Natural or Supernatural?
 * Where Did It Come From? How Did It Get Here? WHAT IS IT?

Cast

 * Kenneth Tobey — Capt. Patrick Hendry
 * Margaret Sheridan — Nikki Nicholson
 * Robert O. Cornthwaite — Dr. Arthur Carrington
 * Douglas Spencer — Ned "Scotty" Scott
 * James Young - Lt. Eddie Dykes
 * Dewey Martin - Crew Chief Bob
 * Robert Nichols - Lt. Ken 'Mac' MacPherson
 * William Self - Corporal Barnes
 * Eduard Franz - Dr. Stern
 * Sally Creighton - Mrs. Chapman
 * James Arness - 'The Thing'
 * Paul Frees - Dr. Voorhees
 * John Dierkes - Dr. Chapman
 * George Fenneman - Dr. Redding
 * David McMahon - General Fogerty