From this movie to the THING, I notice a lot of alien movies and video games tend to take place in antarctica or in some icy region. Even non aliens, like Frankensteing, always end up in the cold regions. Even non aliens or monsters, but something sci fi related, like Smilla's sense of snow. Anyone have a thought as to why that is?
shareBecause if you encounter these evil things or monsters in the Arctic you're helpless with very little safe places to go and its hard to call for help let alone its hard for help to come because the weather can change so quickly. Also if you try to hide somewhere you could freeze to death.
At least that is my opinion. Maybe snowy places are cheap for production.
Uhh... Because it's remote and difficult to get to?
Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!
For alien type stories, it's always been my impression that arctic locations were chosen to suggest the subjects of deep space time and how primitive human civilization is in comparison, ie; how long it's been possible for a crashed spaceship to remain undiscovered because of the desolation of the area where it crashed.
shareThat too. Both in this movie and The Thing the ship is implied to have been there for a LONG time. In the case of The Thing, I seem to recall the ship had been there 10,000 years.
Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!
You both make good points. It just makes the story that much more scary.
Something else that should be mentioned: I believe a lot of these Arctic/Antarctic storylines go back (directly or indirectly) to H.P. Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness, first published in 1936, which includes both alien creatures and a setting in Antarctica. John W. Campbell, Jr.'s story Who Goes There? (the inspiration for the movies The Thing from Another World and The Thing) appeared in 1938.
There is always the 'superficially logical' explanation that satisfies most people.
But there could be an underlying 'conspirational' / 'esoteric' explanation, that at least the audiences of this movie (and the TV show) should be able to entertain.
A bit like SS officially means "Schutzstaffel" on the surface, and that satisfies most people. But the 'esoteric' / 'deeper' meaning of "SS" is actually "Schwarze Sonne", meaning "Black Sun", referring to the etheric/astral, the invisible portion of the sun (and the true source of its power). It's no coincidence that the 'statue of liberty' is actually a roman sun god (she's even holding a torch and sporting a 'sunray' crown).
Perhaps there's more to the 'Hollow Earth Theory' than meets the eye. The Nazis made very interesting expeditions into that very area, where the 'holes' are supposed to exist. Maybe the 'arctic' is pushed so much in fiction so that people would feel they have had enough of it, so they won't research or investigate it, or travel there by themselves to see what's out there (or in there..)
Or if someone talks about that topic, no one will want to listen, because they are already so full of (or fed up with) it all.
There are other possible explanations, of course, but it's sad to see that there are no investigate minds going on here in IMDb, or at least not many.
In my opinion, in a normal, good world, everyone would be bringing their own, imaginative, even wild ideas especially for a movie/TV show like this, about all these topics. But I am always the only one who dares talk outside the box.
Now I am starting to realize what 'square' means..
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There's even more Alien themed movies that take place in non-arctic climates. It's just that there's a lot of Alien themed movies and tv shows and they have pretty much taken place in every location conceivable.
On the flip side there are plenty of non-supernatural movies that take place in the arctic and the tundra. It's just an interesting place to tell a story. I lived for a few years in the Arctic and can confirm it as interesting place.