Kate Lloyd is a graduate of Columbia and has a Ph.D. candidate in paleontology (the study of prehistoric life). On the recommendation of her friend Adam Goodman, Kate is tapped for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by Dr. Sander Halvorson to join his research team in Antarctica, where an extraordinary discovery has been made. Upon arrival, Kate soon finds herself at odds with Halvorson about how best to proceed with the discovery an alien spaceship with a mysterious and sinister frozen THING found nearby specifically whether to transfer the specimen undisturbed to a more appropriate facility for analysis, or, per Halvorsons wishes, to drill into the specimens ice encasement for a definitive tissue sample.