Build a movie plot around this: What melts the ice over the spacecraft? The engines on it.
The answer to this question is:
In the opening shot, an alien spaceship flies through space and enters Earth's atmosphere near Antarctica. Whether or not the ship crashes or lands on Earth is unknown.In Antarctica, the winter months of 1982, a helicopter flies hurriedly after a husky. The man riding next to the pilot shoots a rifle and drops grenades hoping to kill the dog. The runs toward an American research base, Outpost 31, where a 12-man research crew is getting ready for the upcoming winter. The helicopter, which they see is from a Norwegian research base, flies in and lands. The Americans watch puzzled as two men that emerge from the helicopter speak frantically in their native language. One of them pulls the pin on a grenade but clumsily throws it behind him. As he frantically tries to find it in the snow, it explodes, killing him and taking the helicopter with it. The pilot (named Matias in the prequel) is shooting his rifle hysterically and talking frantically; no one can understand what he is saying and the man shoots Bennings (Peter Maloney) in his left leg. The camp leader Garry (Donald Moffat) shoots and kills the gibbering man in defense.Puzzled about why the Norwegians were trying to kill the dog, MacReady (Kurt Russell) the team's helicopter pilot, their doctor, Copper (Richard Dysart) and Norris (Charles Hallahan), go to investigate the Norwegian base. Everyone is dead; one of them had barricaded himself in the radio room and is still sitting frozen in his chair, his wrists and throat slit in an apparent suicide. Mac and Copper explore further, finding a large and empty block of ice. Outside in the snow, along with one or two burned human bodies, Mac and Copper find the burnt and frozen corpse of a twisted creature, not man but not beast, either. They bring it back to their own base for an autopsy, but that muddies up the mystery.That night, the new stray husky is locked in with the sled dogs. The other dogs soon react with fear to the new addition, growling and snarling. The new dog suddenly transforms into a hideous...