"This post contains spoilers for "The Thing."

There are several stand-out sequences in John Carpenter's cult classic "The Thing." The opening itself, where a Norwegian helicopter pursues a sled dog and attempts to shoot it, immediately sets the tone for this morbid tale enmeshed in distrust and paranoia. What initially feels like a senseless attempt at violence (or a classic case of humans behaving irrationally due to extreme isolation) is gradually revealed to be a sincere endeavor to rid the world of an evil force that can morph into people we know and trust. The inhabitants of the Antarctic research station feel helpless in the face of such a perfect organism — one that can mimic, adapt, and deceive at will — but the most cynical among them, MacReady (Kurt Russell), comes up with a litmus test to prove everyone's humanity and lure out the pretender.

The method employed is rather crude, but it accomplishes the goal anyway: a red-hot wire is dipped into blood samples on Petri dishes, with the intent to figure out if the creature's self-preservative instincts would react to such intrusion. Uncontaminated human blood would merely make the wire fizzle, but a mutated sample would respond violently to such a perceived attack ... and it does. Although MacReady's extreme (yet understandable) method doesn't quite go according to plan, resulting in some innocent deaths, the culprit is eventually lured out, thrashing grotesquely in a bid to shield itself from harm.

This tense, memorable sequence was the impetus behind Carpenter helming "The Thing," as it presented a unique opportunity to remake Christian Nyby's "The Thing from Another World" (along with adapting its brilliant source material, "Who Goes There?") while also allowing Carpenter to put his singular spin on it..."