The Thing

1. Extraterrestrial in movie The Thing From Another World (1951) by Howard Hawks, remade by John Carpenter as The Thing (1982); the movies are based on a novella called "Who Goes There?[?]" (1937) by John W. Campbell. The first film has little in common with the original story except for the finding of the alien vessel and the thawing out of its occupant. The second version, with its grisly special effects, is a fairly faithful rendering, even to the method used to find which are the hidden aliens.

2. A comic book superhero, one of the Fantastic Four created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby at Marvel Comics. He was a pilot, named Ben Grimm, who operated the spacecraft which also carried Reed Richards, Susan Storm and her brother Johnny Storm which exposed them to cosmic radiation. He became a massive rock creature of superhuman strength and endurance, but now considers himself a hideous monster. For all his complaints, he is still a loyal member of the team as their pilot and strong man.