Plot
A United States Air Force re-supply crew is dispatched by General Fogerty from Anchorage, Alaska at the request of Dr. Carrington, the chief scientist working at a North Pole base. They have evidence that an unknown flying craft crashed nearby. Reporter Ned Scott tags along on the trip.
Dr. Carrington briefs the airmen, and Dr. Redding shows photos of a heavy object moving erratically before crashing; not the movements of a meteor. Following Geiger counter readings, the crew and scientists fly to the crash site aboard the supply team's C-47. The mysterious craft lays buried beneath refrozen ice, with just the tip of a rounded airfoil protruding from the surface. As they outline the craft's shape, they realize they are standing in a circle; they have discovered a crashed flying saucer. They try unearthing it with thermite heat bombs, but ignite the ship's metal alloy, causing an explosion that destroys the saucer. Sergeant Bob's Geiger counter points to a frozen body buried nearby.
They excavate a block of ice around the tall body and fly it to the research outpost as a storm moves into their region, cutting off their communications with Anchorage. Some of the scientists want to thaw out the body, but Captain Hendry issues orders for everyone to wait until he receives instructions from the Air Force. Corporal Barnes covers the ice block with a blanket, not realizing it is a warm electric blanket; as the ice melts the creature revives, and finally escapes into the sub-zero cold of the raging storm.
The creature is attacked by sled dogs and the scientists recover a severed arm. As the arm warms up, it ingests some of the dead dogs' blood covering it, and the hand begins moving. Seed pods are discovered in its palm, demonstrating that the creature is a form of plant life. Carrington is convinced that the creature can be reasoned with and has much to teach them, but Dr. Chapman and the others disagree; the Air Force personnel believe the alien may be dangerous.
Carrington deduces their visitor requires blood to survive and reproduce. He later discovers the body of a dead sled dog in the base's greenhouse; the alien has forced the lock on the greenhouse's door and bent it back in shape. Carrington has Dr. Voorhees, Dr. Olsen and Dr. Auerbach, stand guard overnight, waiting for it to return.
Carrington secretly uses blood plasma from the infirmary to incubate seedlings grown from the alien pods. In the greenhouse, the strung-up bodies of Olsen and Auerbach are discovered, drained of blood. Dr. Stern is almost killed by the creature but escapes. Nikki Nicholson, Carrington's secretary, reluctantly updates Hendry when he asks about missing plasma and confronts Carrington in his lab, where he discovers the seeds have grown at an alarming rate. Dr. Wilson advises Carrington that he has not slept, but Carrington remains unconcerned. Hendry then rushes to the greenhouse after hearing what happened there: the alien visitor is behind the door as Hendry opens it, and he immediately slams the door on the creature's regrown arm as it tries to grab him; as the alien pulls its arm back through, its barbed knuckles rip the door's trim to splinters.
The alien escapes through the greenhouse's exterior door and breaks into another building in the compound. Following Nicholson's suggestion, Hendry and his men set a trap in a nearby room: they set the creature ablaze using a flare gun and buckets of kerosene, forcing it to jump through a window into the storm.
Nicholson notices that the temperature inside the station is falling; a heating fuel line has been sabotaged by the alien. The cold forces everyone to make a final stand near the generator room. They rig an electrical "fly trap", hoping to electrocute the creature. As it advances, Carrington tries to save it by shutting off the power and reasoning with it; the alien throws him aside and continues advancing. An airman throws a pick axe at the creature, forcing it to step on their electrical grid; a switch is thrown and the alien is reduced to ash. Hendry orders all traces of the alien visitor destroyed.
When the weather clears, Scotty files his "story of a lifetime" by radio to a roomful of reporters in Anchorage. During his report, Scotty broadcasts a warning to the reporters: "Tell the world. Tell this to everyone, wherever they are. Watch the skies everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies."
Read more about this topic: The Thing From Another World
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