Trust in John Carpenters THE THING essays

Trust in John Carpenter's THE THING essays In John Carpenters The Thing, trust in desperate times is a major theme. The movie is set up like its own experiment, testing the reactions of a crew when an alien moves among its ranks, disguised as one of them. The men, who have been living together and became friends, immediately lose trust in one another. Their response to the lack of trust among friends is tested throughout the film, each crew member showcasing a different response. The many different responses cannot be analyzed without giving the plot away, but the few chosen in the paper are the major ones. These events show that trust is an incredibly important factor in any relationship. Without trust, you quickly lose things such as security and optimism. The lack of trust makes every interaction between two people suspicious, and more problems can stem from there. Trust is the most important part of a healthy relationship. The affective component of trust is some kind of feeling of security, hopefulness or optimism (Miller). Whether it be friendly or romantic, trust in any relationship cannot be replaced. If one friend cannot rely on another to be truthful, then it is impossible to place confidence in that friend in future situations. A good example of the importance of trust amongst friends is shown in John Carpenters The Thing. In The Thing, two scientists and a team of 10 helpers have set up camp in Antarctica. All radio communication has been lost, so they have no access to the outside world. They stumble upon a neighboring research community, burnt to the ground. There, they see what looks like a crashed spaceship buried deep within the ice. Back at their home base, a stray dog they picked up turns into a gruesome, shapeless monster, and kills a few of their sled dogs. The team finds it while it is morphing into a dog imitation, and kills it with a flamethrower. One of the doctors examines it, and looks at what ...