The Thing

The Thing is the name given to the hostile alien creature or creatures featured in the 1982 film of the same name by John Carpenter which in turn is the remake of the 1951 film "The Thing from Another World" and based on the novel "Who Goes There?". The Thing returns in the 2011 prequel of the same name to the 1982 remake in which it was first discovered in a block of ice from a crashed spacecraft by a team of American and Norwagian explorers and researchers before it thawed out and attacked the the team.

Description
The Thing is an alien creature who crash landed in the ice of Antarctica 100,000 years ago. The shape of The Thing varies during the film because it assimilates living DNA and can replicate any being it come into contact with. It also has the ability to multiplicate itself into many creatures that seem to share one collective consciousness.