The Thing (spoilers)

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2007-07-06 03:03pm

I was wondering about that movie. I've read several comments around the web and there's an implication that either MacReady or Childs was the Thing at the end, or could've been one of those dogs who ran away. What are your opinions on this?

(The support for the MacReady theory were his torn jacket, the fact that we don't actually see him drawing his own blood, and his plan to blow up the whole base in the end) All of these evidences are suspect of course. A Thing could've framed the jacket, and we didn't see everyone's blood being drawn but it's implied that it happened, and blowing up the whole base thing who knows.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2007-07-06 03:10pm

Childs is clearly a thing. In the final scene no breath mist comes from him in the bitter cold when he speaks unlike McCready.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2007-07-06 03:17pm

Stravo wrote:Childs is clearly a thing. In the final scene no breath mist comes from him in the bitter cold when he speaks unlike McCready.

I never noticed that! I thought it ended with both audience and protagonist left with the question "is he or isn't he"

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-07-06 03:47pm

Stravo wrote:Childs is clearly a thing. In the final scene no breath mist comes from him in the bitter cold when he speaks unlike McCready.

I just checked the DVD (the reissue with a superior transfer just to be sure), and Childs' breath does indeed produce vapor.

Additionally, so does the Bennings-thing when it roars before set on fire, and the dog-thing in the beginning (although it is VERY hard to see). Which makes sense considering that the Thing duplicates its victims perfectly, down to the cellular level.

From Carpenter and Russel's commentary on the DVD, the intention for the ending seems to have been ambiguous, that either of them could be the Thing. And that's also my opinion: that McCready is probably not the Thing, but Childs could be (and that they obviously couldn't both be the Thing).

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2007-07-06 03:56pm

I was told by a friend years ago to check for Childs' breath and I didn't see it when I saw the movie but that was back on tv and not on DVD so my bad on that front.

BTW do we want to believe that McCready is not a thing because we like him?

It could be argued, and coincidentally make the whole life cycle of the Thing more fasinating if each thing was an independent being that couldn't recognize each other in the sense that if McCready and Childs were things they wouldn't really know if the other was. Afterall if a thing's blood was a fully independent being as we saw in the blood test segment then maybe they are not connected in a hive mind sense. They are just fully independent parts of a whole.

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » 2007-07-06 05:03pm

Logically, I think that if either one was a Thing then it simply would have attacked the other.

Duckie · Post by **Duckie** » 2007-07-06 06:29pm

Anguirus wrote:Logically, I think that if either one was a Thing then it simply would have attacked the other.

Didn't they have a sort of Mexican Standoff in terms of flamethrowers at the end to prevent either from doing just that as a Thing?

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2007-07-06 06:56pm

MRDOD wrote:
Anguirus wrote:Logically, I think that if either one was a Thing then it simply would have attacked the other.
Didn't they have a sort of Mexican Standoff in terms of flamethrowers at the end to prevent either from doing just that as a Thing?

No only Childs had a flame thrower.

And if the game is considered as a canon follow on then neither was a thing.

Failing that there's 4 possible premises:
1 - Neither are things
2 - Both are things
3 - Childs is a thing but not Mcready
4 - Mcready is a thing but not Childs

If neither are things then there probably would be a conversation like what happened.
If both are things then there wouldn't be any need for a paranoid conversation.
Since Mcready is defenceless, if Childs was a thing he's have attacked, either to assimilate him or just burn him to a crisp with the flamer out of spite.
If Mcready were a thing then why would he huddle up next to a fire? With it's ship destroyed it's next option would be to freeze itself and wait for a rescue team to infect.

So I'm going with neither were things.

Tasoth · Post by **Tasoth** » 2007-07-06 08:32pm

Don't know the Canonicity of the DarkHorse comics, but the end of the third issue of Climate of Fear has Childes being the thing and the readers not finding out until the last panel. Although he could have been infected by one that was on the base.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-07-06 08:36pm

THE GAME? Oh sweet jesus, no, no way, it is NOT FUCKING CANON.

It also SUCKS. Ugh. Who even THINKS shit like that should be considered? I feel fucking dirty just thinking about it.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-07-06 08:42pm

Man, I figured people would probably bring up the PC game and Dark Horse comics.

I considered checking the novelisation, but realised that ultimately, it probably wouldn't actually count worth a damn in a worthwhile discussion.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-07-06 09:22pm

The PC game where you can check a guy for Thingness, then take a step, and have him turn into a Thing? Everyone involved should be shot for incompetence.

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2007-07-07 05:20am

Well when the game was first released it was actually being treated as a sequel. Since then however there's been a few announcements about other sequels and maybe a prequel.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2007-07-09 10:17am

Having recently seen The Thing the other week I was a little puzzled that Blair was completely paranoid of the Things, did a ton of research on the Thing organisms in the laboratory (then later smashed up the lab computers) and was fearful of the other staff being Things, but was actually a Thing creature himself and even got round to secretly building a small craft to the escape the North Pole...

Lord Woodlouse · Post by **Lord Woodlouse** » 2007-07-09 11:50am

I had a Thing conversation a few years back, if anyone fancies a gander.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-07-09 12:01pm

Big Orange wrote:Having recently seen The Thing the other week I was a little puzzled that Blair was completely paranoid of the Things, did a ton of research on the Thing organisms in the laboratory (then later smashed up the lab computers) and was fearful of the other staff being Things, but was actually a Thing creature himself and even got round to secretly building a small craft to the escape the North Pole...

I've always had the impression that Blair only became a Thing at some point after his little meltdown and placement into solitary confinement.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2007-07-09 06:55pm

I wonder what would have happened if it found Lance Henriksson's expedition from Aliens vs. Predator, or the mountains of madness?

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2007-07-09 08:31pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote: I've always had the impression that Blair only became a Thing at some point after his little meltdown and placement into solitary confinement.

A Thing organism must've got to Blair from under the floorboards of his makeshift prison shack (although in the ancient discussion linked by Lord Woodlouse, he points out a scene where Blair chews the end of his pencil that may have been used to prod a Thing corpse).

The Norwegian team knew what they were up against, if they were left with just one Thing organism that assumed the form of a husky - but their compound was also totally trashed and there were just two men left, who were acting in a highly erratic and violent manner (one of them stupidly blew themselves up with a demolition charge and why vainly shoot at a organism that cannot be reliably killed by gunshot?).

And lots of questions about the Thing remain unanswered (what did the alien organism look like in it's "original" form in the ice block? Was the Thing a prisoner, passenger, pilot or weapon? And if the UFO wreck is a hundred thousand years old, is the civilization that built it still out there?).

CaptHawkeye · Post by **CaptHawkeye** » 2007-07-09 09:19pm

Supposedly rumors keep flying back and forth that John Carpenter would like to do a Thing prequel which would center on the Norwegian outpost and their own horrific encounter with the Thing.

I've always had the impression that Blair only became a Thing at some point after his little meltdown and placement into solitary confinement.

As we saw with the dude who's chest turned into a jaw, (forgot the name) you can be infected and taken over by the Thing without even knowing it.

Duckie · Post by **Duckie** » 2007-07-09 09:37pm

CaptHawkeye wrote: As we saw with the dude who's chest turned into a jaw, (forgot the name) you can be infected and taken over by the Thing without even knowing it.

Couldn't he have been Thingized and just pretended to be normal for that whole time?

The pretending to freak out when revealed could have been a survival response to try to buy time to escape or plan or attack.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2007-07-10 06:02pm

MRDOD wrote: Couldn't he have been Thingized and just pretended to be normal for that whole time?

The pretending to freak out when revealed could have been a survival response to try to buy time to escape or plan or attack.

Well the Thing cells could perfectly immitate any non-Thing creature it comes in contact with and they could replicate the hosts' functions a little too well (like a bad heart condition). I'm pretty sure the Thing organism that subtly replaced the animal or person it digests can assume the memories and personalities, helping the Thing creatures to blend in.

ShadowSonic · Post by **ShadowSonic** » 2007-07-10 07:37pm

I remember one theory on Blair was that when he put that pencil erased in the dog thing and put it too close to his mouth (or was it right on it? I can't remember) he infected himself with a few thing cells that gradully took him over. So he was still human when he was locked up, but as time went on the thing cells assimilated him.

What I want to know is where the Thing got it's mass from when transforming, like when it killed the Doctor by making it's stomach a set of jaws and then became that spidey/human monster exploding out of his chest.

Coalition · Post by **Coalition** » 2007-07-10 09:10pm

ShadowSonic wrote: What I want to know is where the Thing got it's mass from when transforming, like when it killed the Doctor by making it's stomach a set of jaws and then became that spidey/human monster exploding out of his chest.

For the jaws, I'd see it as a modification of the rib cage into teeth, and then cutting off the hands. No actual mouth, just sharp teeth.

The spidey-human monster was from the head, not the body. Still, I'd like to know how it managed all those tricks without a huge appetite.

ShadowSonic · Post by **ShadowSonic** » 2007-07-11 09:19am

When I said "Spider-Human Monster" I meant that thing that explodes out of the guy's chest and attachs to the ceiling after it kills the Doctor, not the Headcrab. Where did it get the Mass to make THAT out of that guys' body when the body is still lying there?

And where did Blair get the Mass to become that huge worm-dog-dinosaur monster thing at the end?

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2007-07-11 01:02pm

I was always under the impression that the scariest thing about the Thing - both in the John Carpenter movie, and the original novelette (NOT novelization. It was a story FIRST.) - was that you really, honestly would not know you were a Thing until something triggered the change...like your cover being blown.