The thing by Bill Lancaster

Author:Bill Lancaster [Lancaster, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Guion, Ciencia Ficción, Terror, Cine
Publisher: ePubLibre
Published: 1981-03-03T23:00:00+00:00

98. EXT. ANTARCTICA - ICESCAPE

The two vehicles rip across the hard, flat ice, bolstered by the added horsepower. They follow the still visible dog tracks in the snow.

CUT TO:

THE SUN

sliding across the horizon, signaling midday. The snowmobiles whoosh past. Bennings drives the one loaded with supplies. MacReady and Childs double up on the other.

CUT TO:

MACREADY

steadying his binoculars, while Childs drives, spots something up ahead. The vehicles slow down and come to a halt. Something lies just ahead of them in the whiteness, in the middle of the dog tracks.

THE MEN

kneel down by the "something." It is the half-eaten remains of a dog. Its hind legs and lower stomach picked clean. Its ripped hide, flapping in the wind. Its top half missing.

CHILDS

What is it?

MacReady follows the line of continuing dog tracks.

MACREADY

Maybe dinner.

BENNINGS

Dogs don't eat each other.

MACREADY

(beat) I know.

CHILDS

Where's the other half?

MACREADY

Probably the next meal.

MacReady moves to the snowmobile and grabs a two-gallon can of gasoline. He turns to Bennings.

MACREADY

Where these tracks headed?

BENNINGS

Nowhere... Just straight to the ocean.

A beat as MacReady takes this in. He pours the gas over the remains and sets it aflame.

MACREADY

Let's move.

Childs and Bennings are not that anxious to continue.

CHILDS

They could be hours ahead of us, Mac.

BENNINGS

Gonna get dark soon, too. Supposed to be fifty below tonight.

MacReady gets on and revs up the engine.

MACREADY

Turn back if you want.

Childs and Bennings return shrugs.

CUT TO:

THE SUN

making its last pass, rolling off the horizon. Only a slight orange hue left.

CUT TO:

THE SNOWMOBILES

move slower, positioned on either side of the tracks. The tracks abruptly change direction. The men come to a stop.

It is much colder now. Their beards, a mask of white powder.

MacReady surveys the new direction. They are headed toward a far-off ridge of bluffs. Large, windswept mounds of ice.

CUT TO:

THE SNOWMOBILES

as they move through a valley of newly-formed dunes and tall ice cliffs. The last of the sun obscured, the headlamps are turned on and pointed at the tracks.

The men look behind, in front, and from side to side, as they proceed cautiously through the maze. Up ahead MacReady spots:

A DOG

It sits, its back to them, unconcerned, heedless of their arrival. It is munching on the other half of the dog carcass.

The men stop their machines some twenty yards from it. They are hemmed in at the valley's narrowest point.

Childs, carrying the torch, and MacReady, armed with a thermite bomb, wade awkwardly but carefully toward the animal in their snowshoes. Bennings stands back by the snowmobiles.

Childs and MacReady spread out some dozen feet from the dog. It continues to pay them no mind, content to chew its food.

CHILDS

Where's the other one?

Bennings surveys the tops of the snow bluffs that encircle them with his flashlight.

MACREADY

(to dog) Where's your buddy, boy? Huh?

No response. MacReady searches the near vicinity with his light. All three are growing uneasy.

MACREADY

Let that thing fly, Childs. Don't let up until he's ash.

Childs turns on the gas and lights the tip.

Bennings is still watching the bluffs. Something from beneath the snow reaches up and grabs his feet. He is ripped back down through the hard snow in one incredibly powerful motion.

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