Just The Thing

This week, Chris and Joel travel back to 1984 (or forward to 2247, depending on your perspective) to introduce John Carpenter's shape-shifting alien to the cult sci-fi action movie Trancers.

Directed by Charles Band and starring Tim Thomerson and a young Helen Hunt, Trancers follows Jack Deth, a hard-boiled cop from the future who travels back in time to 1980s Los Angeles to hunt down a psychic criminal capable of turning ordinary people into murderous zombies.

We discuss the film's wonderfully strange mythology, its inventive low-budget filmmaking, the appeal of Jack Deth as an unlikely action hero, and whether any of its time-travel mechanics actually make sense. Along the way, we explore the film's many sequels, the mysteries of the Trancers themselves, and the pleasures of a film that doesn't feel obliged to explain everything.

Then we ask the important question: what if Jack Deth wasn't hunting a psychic criminal, but an alien creature capable of perfectly imitating anyone it encounters? Could the Thing take Whistler's place, and would Jack Deth stand a chance against it?

Expect time travel, body horror, questionable science and an alarming amount of discussion about Trancers 2.

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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

This week on Just The Thing, we tackle one of John Carpenter's most beloved cult classics as we drop the creature from The Thing into the world of They Live. What happens when an alien species hiding in plain sight encounters a shapeshifter that could already be one of them?

Joel and Chris revisit Carpenter's razor-sharp satire on consumerism, capitalism, and media manipulation, discussing why They Live remains as relevant today as it was in 1988. Along the way, they celebrate the film's unique blend of sci-fi, horror, and action, unpack its iconic moments, and debate whether Nada's sunglasses would be enough to expose The Thing before it was too late.

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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

This week on Just The Thing, we're heading into the low-budget wasteland of early '90s straight-to-video sci-fi as we drop John Carpenter's shapeshifting nightmare into Circuitry Man and its bonkers sequel, Circuitry Man II: Plughead Rewired.

Joel and Chris explore these forgotten cyberpunk curios, discussing killer cyborgs, brain-addling biochips, post-apocalyptic world-building, and why low-budget sci-fi so often punches well above its weight. Along the way, they celebrate the weird charm of direct-to-video cinema and ask the question that really matters: what happens when a creature that can become anyone encounters a world obsessed with replacing humanity with technology?

Come with us on a journey back to a time when the choice of which movie to rent was based solely on an imaginative VHS cover.

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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

This week on Just The Thing, we re-release one of our old Patreon episodes as it's becoming more and more relevant in the lead up to Avengers: Doomsday. Yes, we're dropping the shapeshifting nightmare from The Thing into the bright, optimistic world of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a film that already features a Thing!

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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

This week on Just The Thing, we head into space again with Predator: Badlands, and for the first time in the show’s history, Joel and Chris find themselves on opposite sides of the battlefield. Joel had a surprisingly good time with this new entry in the franchise… Chris, on the other hand, absolutely did not.

Along the way they revisit the original Predator, discuss where the series has gone since, and Chris gets stuck on an important piece of world-building: do Predators use toilets?

Eventually, as always, the conversation circles back to the real question: what happens when you drop the creature from The Thing into a Predator hunting ground? Would the ultimate hunter recognise the ultimate imitator — or would it already be too late?

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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

In this episode of Just The Thing, Joel and Chris turn to one of cinema’s oldest monsters as we explore the legacy of Frankenstein — from its gothic roots to Guillermo del Toro’s lush, tragic reinterpretation. Joel and Chris dig into a story already obsessed with life, death, and very bad parenting decisions to try to answer the eternal question: who would win in a fight between The Thing and Frankenstein's monster?

We unpack del Toro’s visual flair, the shifting portrayals of Victor and his Creature, and the recurring themes of responsibility, masculinity, and birth that have haunted the story for over two centuries. There’s dark humour, questionable science, performance chat, and the inevitable spiral into philosophical territory.

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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

This week on Just The Thing, John Carpenter’s shapeshifting nightmare crashes head-first into peak JCVD as we drop The Thing into Double Impact. Joining Joel and Chris for a third time is filmmaker Ross Boyask (I Am Vengeance, Ten Dead Men), bringing expert insight to this epic action classic.

Can The Thing outmanoeuvre not one but two Van Dammes? Along the way, we veer gloriously off course into Renegade, Chris’s increasingly persuasive theory that JCVD has a real-life twin, and—inevitably—a detour into the strange world of Steven Seagal.

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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

This week on Just The Thing, Chris and Joel are joined by returning guests Alex Jessep and Matt O'Dwyer. Together, they take on festive nightmare fuel by dropping John Carpenter’s shapeshifting horror into The Polar Express. What happens when a story built on belief, warmth, and hot chocolate meets a creature that thrives on mistrust and imitation? Can paranoia derail Christmas magic? And at will Chris, Alex and Matt be able to beat this year's musical Christmas quiz?

Music:

Hark the Herald Angels Sing by Gravsten

All I Want For Christmas by Ethereal Delusions

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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

This episode on Just The Thing, we’re jacking in and glitching out as the Antarctic shapeshifter meets David Cronenberg’s fleshy virtual reality fever dream, eXistenZ. Joined by returning guest Dr. Geraint D’Arcy, Associate Professor and Head of Media at the University of East Anglia (who also helped us put The Thing into Slipstream, link below), we dive deep into questions of identity, simulation, and what happens when The Thing enters a world that’s already mutating.

It’s parasites vs players, bodies vs bioports, and reality itself might not make it out alive.

Check out Geraint's previous appearance on the pod here:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1990618/episodes/15933123

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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

This week on Just The Thing, we’re doing something a little different. To give you a taste of what goes on over at our Patreon, we’re sharing one of our exclusive bonus episodes right here on the main feed.

Join us as we dive into Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, unpacking the stunts, the twists, and whether Tom Cruise has finally out-run the laws of physics. Obviously, we'll also put the creature from The Thing in there somewhere. If you want more like this, you’ll need to head to our Patreon, where a new bonus episode drops every month.

Think of it as your mission… should you choose to accept it.

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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio