Bennings And The Dog In The Antarctic

An alien spaceship slowly emerges from the stars and enters the earth near Antartica. In the Antarctic, A Norwegians helicopter flies very low chasing and shooting at a dog running in the snow. The helicopter attempts to land near an American Antarctic base, but crashes. One sole Norwegian with a machine gun is able to leap out before the crash. Upon seeing this spectacle, a few members of the American research base run out to help. The dog approaches BENNINGS, who is then shot in the knee by the crazed Norwegian man. The dog is also hit in the hind leg. GARRY shoots a gun from inside the camp hitting the Norwegian in the head, killing him. The men take injured Bennings and the dog into the infirmary. They put a bandage on the dog, stitch …show more content…
A MacReady, Clarke, and SANCHEZ chase after them on snow-mobiles and find a half eaten dog along the way. When they find the remaining dog, A thing explodes from below the ice and sucks Sanchez under. Given Sanchez will not survive, the men run away and snowmobile back to the camp. As WINDOWS and Bennings prepare the store room to store the “nobel prize” worthy find, it begins to move again. It attacks Bennings and Windows runs to get the other researchers. They return to an empty storeroom but they see Bennings run outside. They chase after him and find him kneeling in the snow, the transformation almost completed. The men burn him alive and bury him in the snow. BLAIR, the camp doctor, destroys the control panel of the helicopter and kills the remaining dogs. He also destroys the communication equipment. After a fight with the men who disarm him, Blair says he did it because The Thing could end the world if it escaped Antartica. Blair is sedated and locked into the tool …show more content…
The placement of the story in Antartica is very smart, allowing for certain pitfalls such as the ease of rescue to be avoided. This setting is also somewhat original and greatly raises the stakes. While the introduction is a bit slow, once the mystery of “the thing” begins, it becomes very engaging and has the reader on the edge of their seat. The rising tension allows for a good balance between plot and action. Because the characters are learning about “the thing” with the reader, the exposition is not on the nose. The story has good structure and is for the most part believable. Although, two scenes do have some issues. The Norwegian base is quite a long flight away from the American base. Yet, the dog was able to run between the two in what appears to be a short period of time. The scene where the men chase after the escaped dogs does not make complete sense either. It does not advance the plot and uses up a large amount of screen time which could be devoted to another aspect of the