If you spend all your time doing scientific research in a frozen tundra, one might suspect you’d be less likely to enjoy a film about a bunch of alien parasites who brutally murder scientists doing research in a frozen tundra. You’d be wrong, because that’s apparently what the the crew down at the South Pole Telescope do every year.
The viewing marks the changeover between the summer and winter crews stationed down in Antartica. They even go full old-school, eschewing the more famous 1982 John Carpenter adaptation in favour of the first movie adaptation of John W Campbell’s classic horror tale, 1951’s The Thing From Another World:
A yearly tradition at the South Pole is the winter-over crew watching “The Thing” right after the last flight for the summer leaves. Here is a picture of the yearly showing in the gym #southpole #winter #Xenophobia #science pic.twitter.com/bI3DJoKprJ
— South Pole Telescope (@SPTelescope) February 26, 2018
They even watch it just after the last flight away from the station has left, knowing they’re trapped there for months! Like, sure, you could say they’re just conducting a safety drill in the form of a classic movie. Me? I say they’re tempting fate – or at least extraterrestrial parasites, with the ability to blend among humans, who desire to murder them all.