The Thing went through several directors and writers, each with different ideas on how to approach the story. Production began in the mid-1970s as a faithful adaptation of the novella, following 1951's The Thing from Another World. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, and Thomas G. The film stars Kurt Russell as the team's helicopter pilot R.J. The group is overcome by paranoia and conflict as they learn that they can no longer trust each other and that any of them could be the Thing. novella Who Goes There?, it tells the story of a group of American researchers in Antarctica who encounter the eponymous 'Thing', an extraterrestrial life-form that assimilates, then imitates, other organisms. The Thing is a 1982 American science fiction horror film directed by John Carpenter from a screenplay by Bill Lancaster.