20 Things You Didn't Know About The Thing
13. Most Of The Film Was Shot On Refrigerated Los Angeles Soundstages
Carpenter's production designers did a fantastic job convincing audiences that The Thing was actually shot entirely at a chilly Antarctic research station, with location shoots in Juneau, Alaska and Stewart, British Columbia standing in for the snow-topped locale.
But many of the interiors were actually filmed on soundstages in Los Angeles, and in order to match the chilliness of the exterior shoots, these sets had to be artificially cooled with air conditioners, bringing them down to -2 degrees, all while it was up to 38 degrees outside in the Los Angeles sun.
Universal executives initially suggested shooting these portions of the film in cold storage lockers, but when the producers saw how claustrophobic and impractical they were for shooting, they quickly decided against it.