The Thing Page #8

CHILDS:

The dogs?

MACREADY:

Screw the dogs!! Torch it!!

Childs lets loose with a burst of blue flame. A mewing, a

screeching.

Part of the kennel starts to burn.

GARRY:

(panic)

We're on fire!

MACREADY:

Don't let up, Childs!

GARRY:

(to outside)

Extinguishers.

Childs moves closer, continuing his assault on the

hissing, gurgling presence.

Men charge into the room and begin spraying dogs and

burning walls. Dogs and men choke and cough amidst the

smoke and CO2.

The screeching lessens. The hissing and gurgling fade.

Childs turns off his torch.

CUT TO:

INT. REC ROOM - NEXT MORNING

Those of the men that have gathered exhibit a pale and

quiet uneasiness.

Blair, in silent awe, stands over the badly burned corpses

of two interlocking dogs, that lie before him on a table.

They are connected as if they were one animal. Though,

the one wearing the remnants of Clark's bandage is much

larger and appears less dog-like. Its entire torso is

cracked and peeled, as if its innards were trying to burst

out.

Odd appendages, recoiled and withered by the flame, are

wrapped grotesquely about both bodies.

Clark, his eyes set in glassy stare, sits in shock. Nauls

comforts him. Childs stands nearby smoking a joint and

staring at the floor.

Blair, transfixed, continues hovering over the united

cadavers. Weighing. Thinking. A very worried look on

his face.

The dead bodies of two other dogs from the kennel are not

far off.

INT. INFIRMARY

Fuchs is attending to the shredded bodies of three other

badly wounded dogs.

INT. REC ROOM

Nauls pats Clark on the shoulder and grins, trying to pick

up his spirits.

NAULS:

It's okay now, man. It's dead.

It's over.

(beat)

You see.

Clark turns to him with a childlike smile.

CLARK:

I know. Mr. Childs killed it. I

saw.

NAULS:

Right, man. Right.

INT. SMALL WORKROOM

Norris is going through some maps. MacReady is bent over

his shoulder. Norris finds the one he's looking for.

NORRIS:

Here. This is where they were

spending most of their time.

Bennings pokes his head in the room.

BENNINGS:

Pretty nasty out, Mac. Thirty-five

knots.

MACREADY:

Screw it, I'm going up anyway.

INT. MAIN COMPOUND - MORNING

Station Manager Garry has joined Blair by the stuck-

together bodies. Blair motions to the bandage.

BLAIR:

Was that dog, the Norwegian dog?

GARRY:

I just can't comprehend any of this.

It was just a dog.

CHILDS:

(evenly)

"tweren't no dog, Bwana.

BLAIR:

That tape MacReady showed us this

morning...

GARRY:

Couldn't make much of it myself.

BLAIR:

I've asked him to try and locate the

site. Okay with you?

GARRY:

Sure. You think there's a

connection?

BLAIR:

Maybe.

EXT. CHOPPER

high above the Antarctic expanse.

INT. CHOPPER

MacReady pilots. Young Palmer and Norris are with him.

It is clear but the winds are troublesome. The ride is a

shaky one. Norris refers to their map. He points.

NORRIS:

One of their sites would be directly

over here.

They aim for a large mountainous wall. As they go up and

over... they see:

A FLAT, GLACIAL EXPANSE

On the surface, an enormous blackened oval shape.

INT. U.S. OUTPOST #31 - LAB

All the bodies of the dogs have been brought in. Fuchs

stands by as Blair studies through his microscope.

INSERT - A MICROSCOPIC SAMPLING

of two cells. They appear to be much different from each

other. They are joined at the ends but are completing the

process of breaking off from each other.

ON BLAIR:

A disturbed look on his face. He checks his watch, as if

timing the procedure.

EXT. GLACIER - TRACKING WITH MACREADY, NORRIS AND PALMER

as they walk along the ice. They come to a stop at the

edge of a sharp drop.

Pull back to reveal -- the massive black hole about

fifteen feet beneath the ice. Charred, gnarled and

mangled metal are all that is left of what was once an

enormous sphere.

MacReady's and Norris' eyes meet each other in silence.

Palmer is in awe.

PALMER:

Wow...

MacReady finds a burst thermite canister. He and Norris

climb down.

They move along amongst the wreck. Almost everything but

the skeletal superstructure has disintegrated into a fine

ashy powder.

Norris digs for ice samples at the perimeter of the

wreckage, while MacReady browses through the center.

Palmer continues to marvel, as he walks around the oval,

atop the ice.

MacReady returns and kneels down next to Norris as the

latter examines a piece of metal.

NORRIS:

Magnesium of some type... or some

kind of strange alloy.

(looks out at debris

in disgust)

And those poor dumb bastards had to

go and blow the hell out of it.

MACREADY:

So what do you make of it?

NORRIS:

You know damn well what we both make

of it.

MACREADY:

No chance it could have been some

new kind of test craft?

Norris shakes his head no.

NORRIS:

Seismic activity has been pushing

this are up from way down for a long

time...

(holds up ice

sample)

... This ice it was buried in...

It's over a hundred thousand years

old.

Palmer calls out, waving them over.

EXT. GLACIER

The two men join Palmer about fifty yards from the oval.

A large rectangular chunk has been cut out of the ice. It

is fifteen feet long, six feet wide and eight feet deep.

MacReady kneels down to observe. A beat.

A gust of wind picks up the snow at their feet.

CUT TO:

INT. REC ROOM - NIGHT

Fascinated, a few of the men are reviewing the Norwegian

video tapes of the finding of the mysterious craft.

MacReady sits quietly by his chess set contemplating a

large glass of Scotch. Clark, less interested than the

others, is flipping through the Norwegian nudie magazine.

Blair, looking worried, sits off in a corner, pondering

the photo of the block of ice and fingering a piece of

crumbled-up metal brought back from the site.

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