[3] The film's storyline concerns a United States Air Force crew and scientists who find a crashed flying saucer frozen in the Arctic ice and a humanoid body nearby.

Returning to their remote arctic research outpost with the body still in a block of ice, they are forced to defend themselves against the still alive and malevolent plant-based alien when it is accidentally thawed out.

[4] In Anchorage, journalist Ned Scott, looking for a story, visits the officer's club of the Alaskan Air Command, where he meets Captain Pat Hendry, his co-pilot and flight navigator.

With Scott, Corporal Barnes, crew chief Bob, and a pack of sled dogs, Hendry pilots a Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft to the remote outpost.

Upon arrival, Scott and the airmen meet radio operator Tex, scientists Dr. Chapman and his wife, and colleagues Vorhees, Stern, Redding, Stone, Laurence, Wilson, Ambrose, and Carrington.

Several scientists fly with the airmen to the crash site, finding a large object buried beneath the ice.

The team attempts to free it from the ice with thermite, but a violent reaction with the craft's metal alloy completely destroys it.

Given the discovery, Hendry assumes command of the outpost and, pending radio instructions from General Fogarty, denies Scott permission to send out his story and refuses the scientists' demands to examine the body.

A watch is posted; relieving the first shift, Barnes is disturbed by the creature's glare through the clearing ice and covers it with an electric blanket he does not realize is plugged in.

An airman recovers the stump after the attack and the scientists examine its tissue, concluding that the creature is an advanced form of plant life.

Carrington, obsessed with the creature, shows Nicholson and the other scientists that he has been growing small alien plants from seeds taken from the severed arm and feeding them with the base’s blood plasma supply.

When the weather clears, Hendry and Nicholson are careening toward marriage, and Scotty is finally able to radio his "story of a lifetime" to a roomful of reporters in Anchorage.

[3] Appearing in a small role was George Fenneman, who at the time was gaining fame as Groucho Marx's announcer on the popular quiz show You Bet Your Life.

[9] The film was partly shot in Glacier National Park with interior sets built at a Los Angeles ice storage plant.

[3] The scene where the alien is set aflame and repeatedly doused with kerosene was one of the first full-body fire stunts ever filmed.

The film reflected a post-Hiroshima skepticism about science and prevailing negative views of scientists who meddle with things better left alone.

[3] The film was loosely adapted by Charles Lederer, with uncredited rewrites from Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht, from the 1938 novella "Who Goes There?"

[20] In 1973, science fiction editor and publisher Lester del Rey compared the film unfavorably to the source material, calling it "just another monster epic, totally lacking in the force and tension of the original story".

For his part, Campbell acknowledged that an adaptation would have to change elements from the original, which he considered too scary for most audience members, and hoped that at least the movie would succeed in getting people interested in science fiction.