The Thing (From Another World) (1951)

In director Christian Nyby's influential and taut horror and science-fiction B-film hybrid thriller, based upon John W. Campbell's 1938 story Who Goes There?; this alien invasion film was producer Howard Hawks' sole science-fiction effort; the film effectively focused on character interaction, with natural and rapid-fire dialogue, and appropriate scientific jargon; it was remade by John Carpenter as The Thing (1982):

• in November of 1950, a group of isolated scientists led by effete researcher Dr. Arthur Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) were stationed in a remote Arctic base about 2,000 miles north of Anchorage, AK in the vicinity of the North Pole (Polar Expedition Six); Carrington's infamous background included involvement at Bikini - a reference to the nuclear test site at the remote atoll in the Marshall Islands beginning in 1946, that led to the successful development of the war-ending bombs
• Carrington radioed a report that a strange aircraft had crashed 48 miles from the research base; AF military pilot Captain Patrick Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) (the film's hero figure) was assigned to lead a reconnaissance mission with a recovery or rescue team of five people from Anchorage, AK to the site; on the flight, Hendry was joined by Lt. Eddie Dykes (James Young) and Lt. Ken Erickson (aka "Mac" or "Macpherson") (Robert Nichols); Ned "Scotty" Scott (Douglas Spencer), a bespectacled Anchorage, AK newspaper journalist, tagged along; at the base, one of the researchers was Hendry's previous girlfriend "Nikki" Nicholson (Margaret Sheridan) - a strong-willed, independent-minded female who was serving as Carrington's science assistant
• on a scouting mission to the circular-shaped crash site, the group discovered that a "flying saucer" UFO weighing 20,000 lbs. was buried deep in the Arctic tundra; initial efforts to detonate thermite bombs to melt the ice and free the craft failed, and they watched as the craft self-destructed with secondary charges; however, a fragment from the spacecraft nearby apparently contained an eight-foot alien-humanoid life form encased in a frozen block of ice - possibly the ship's pilot?
• after removing the frozen spaceman from the craft and bringing it back to their research station headquarters as a block of ice, the Thing creature (James Arness, later famed for the TV western Gunsmoke), a scary-looking extra-terrestrial humanoid, was kept in a cold storeroom with watch periods scheduled to attend to it
• the Thing accidentally thawed and escaped when its ice-block encasement melted (due to a cast-off electric blanket), and it was impervious to gunshots; it proceeded to kill a number of the 12 sled dogs outdoors (and in the process lost one arm); the arm was examined and determined to be a cellular structure identical to vegetable matter - it was a killing, superior, evolved, chlorophyll-based humanoid vegetable that fed on blood
• although Capt. Hendry encouraged hunting the Thing with axes and guns, Carrington nervously demanded that they treat their visitor - "a stranger in a strange land" - with respect so that it could be studied ("I'm sure we can communicate with it. We must!")
• in a tense sequence, three of the scientists were attacked and two were killed in the greenhouse by the blood-seeking, carnivorous creature; when Hendry ordered the team to open the greenhouse front door -- they were shocked that The Thing was right on the other side of the door - a 'jump-scare' moment - and Hendry managed to slam the door on the claw of its regenerated left arm, and barricade it inside; Hendry then ordered Carrington to be quarantined in his lab and quarters, and stripped of his authority to prevent him from endangering any more lives
• meanwhile, the crazed and obsessed Carrington was conducting dangerous experiments with seed pods from the Thing; he had planted the seed pods from X's (the Thing's) severed hand into four inches of soil and fed with the base's supply of blood plasma; he showed off how the newly-sprouted "super-human" sapling plants were growing at an "amazing speed"; Hendry ordered the destruction of the plants by fire ("Burn these"), and the destruction of the creature that was captured in the greenhouse; of course, Carrington refused to buckle and stop his research experiments
• in a suspenseful and tense sequence, Crew Chief Bob's (Dewey Martin) Geiger counter began to pick up the monstrous creature's movements with clicks and flashes - and it was heading in their direction, after escaping from the greenhouse; when it burst into the darkened mess hall room and howled, it was doused by pails filled with kerosene and set ablaze with a Veri pistol flare gun, and it was forced to retreat
• the Creature used another tactic - it sabotaged the outside control valve for the oil line that supplied heat to the base, causing the group to flee to the high-voltage generator room for greater protection
• their next strategy was to kill the alien visitor with a massive jolt of electricity; by directing the Creature down the narrow corridor or hallway toward the generator room, they lured it onto the electrically-charged platform and electrocuted it; just before the Creature was disintegrated into a pile of ash, Carrington attempted to intelligently talk to the Thing - desperately pleading and espousing that they could be friends, but he was knocked aside and suffered a broken collarbone
• after the elimination of the Thing, reporter Ned Scott radioed a final chilling warning/bulletin from the North Pole: "...Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking, keep watching the skies!"