The Thing is the titular main antagonist and the alias given to the hostile alien creature featured in the 1938 short story Who Goes There? by the late John W. Campbell, that (compared to the deviated story of the 1951 film The Thing from Another World) was made into a 1982 live-action film by John Carpenter, followed by a prequel released in 2011. Initially appearing as a single being, every cell in The Thing's body is autonomous and independent, capable of creating more of said monsters through assimilation, parasitism, and infection. In addition, every spawned monster looks radically different and none of them have a definite shape that can be called a "true form". Ultimately, the Thing's true body and form are a mystery as it most appears as whomever it impersonates.