1938 -- Who Goes There? is a science fiction novella by John W. Campbell Jr. In the story, scientists discover 20 Million year old space craft in Antarctica. They accidentally thaw the alien pilot who can kill and take on the personality of its victims. People are dying; no one trusts anyone, etc.

1951 -- The Thing From Another World, directed by Christian Nyby, is a sci-fi film in which scientists go to North Pole to investigate a UFO, find crashed craft and frozen alien. They take alien back to base and unintentionally let it thaw. (see above)

1982 -- The Thing a film directed by John Carpenter. Same basic story as above (but as in the original, the plot takes place in Antartica).

2011 -- The Thing a film directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. Same basic story again, but it is the prequel to the 1982 version.

If you haven't read it, Peter Watts wrote "The Things" from the alien's perspective, and it's really good: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/

I read this without paying any attention to who the author was, then read Blindsight a few years later, then saw this again a few months ago, noticed who the author was, and was like "oh, of course that was Peter Watts, that makes complete sense".

Peter Watts also wrote the Rifters series, which is about an ancient virus that gets dug up deep beneath the sea.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/43561-rifters

They dig it up; they cart it back to their base. Somehow it gets thawed; it wakes up, probably not in the best of moods...

That's the later 2011 prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter film.

In the 1982 film, it's a dog-clone-thing that brings the chaos from the Norwegian base to the US one.

Though the plot of the 1982 film was pretty clear that the Norwegians dug up an alien space craft, and a smaller "human sized" dig that was presumed to be its occupant.

Yes...they do go to the Norwegian base, and find the remains of the alien that the Norwegians had burned, the cut-out slab of ice, and the spaceship. While some of both movies didn't age very well, I still like both of them and watch them in sequence every now and then.

Good question. We have to investigate it. Let's separate. You go into that dark cave, I go by myself into the dark attic. I suggest to wear heels so we cannot run.

I've got a broken torch which is prone to failure at the most inopportune moment, can I come?

The Expanse is a variation on that too.

Stargate too, where they dig up an 'ancient'

They are all, to some extent, a retelling of Pandora's Box

Like how any book / tv show / movie is, to some extent, a retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

I was thinking it was more like "Life found a way!"