In John Carpenter’s 1982 film The Thing, the Antarctic research station is designated Outpost 31.
The station is an isolated American scientific base where a group of researchers confronts an extraterrestrial organism. The creature can imitate other life forms, creating suspicion among the men because nobody can be certain who has been infected.
Outpost 31 is the film’s principal setting. Its isolation, blizzards, limited communications, and dwindling supplies make the location central to the story’s suspense. The station is not simply a backdrop: the confined buildings and underground areas repeatedly force the characters into dangerous close quarters.
The title is often confused with the 1951 film The Thing from Another World, which inspired Carpenter’s movie. Carpenter’s version is an adaptation of John W. Campbell Jr.’s 1938 novella “Who Goes There?” and is set at an American Antarctic station rather than a generic polar base.