The Thing

So i just watched the Thing (1982) for the first time and was wondering if there is any clear consensus on the ending? I remember having read that Childs drinking the booze was a sign that he is infected for some reason but either I wasn't paying attention closely or i misunderstood the whole meaning of that scene.

Also, are the other versions good enough to be watched? I guess the 50s version hasn't aged that well and the effects of the 2011 prequel just look laughable in the trailer, but i would actually enjoy a similar movie

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Watch the 2011 movie I think it's set either before or after the 80s thing.

Is it better than the 50s classic though?

>but either I wasn't paying attention closely or i misunderstood the whole meaning of that scene.

It was a sign that they both didn't care about the other being possibly infected.

Watch this. It's really well written (interesting to listen to) and produces sound arguments.

youtube.com/watch?v=SppG-I_Dhxw

If you don't have the time, the answer is Childs was infected by Blair as the crew were setting up the explosives. Childs is wearing a different cloak - Blair's, even - in a movie where clothing continuity is vital to its plot.

Let me correct myself about the spoiler (don't read it if you're going to watch the video): Childs got infected when the crew was inside the toolshed.

Didn't Childs also drink gasoline instead of booze? at the end?

Childs is not a thing.

I have no idea why idiots keep pretending he is when it's been debunked thoroughly.

No, plus MacReady also took a sip from it iirc.

Thanks, that was practically exactly what I was looking for

Yeah, I remember something like this beeing said and childs not noticing a difference would be the proof

Explain

>childs not noticing a difference would be the proof

Wouldn't you notice a difference? It's literally hammered down our heads that the Thing is a perfect imitation.

Nope he didn't, only Childs did and after that Macready just smiles.

Because it shows Childs doesn't give a fuck about being infected which confirms MacReady's suspicion of "him".

The gasoline theory has absolutely nothing going for it other than that gesture and is debunked earlier on

I meant the difference between the booze and the gazoline that childs actually drank. Him not saying anything about it is a huge indicator

Neither were infected. The canon video game established this

>Explain

The only provable piece is that you can see Childs breath -- which is the main contention that he's a thing; though, that's still an unfounded claim why the thing couldn't exhale warm air, but whatever.

Everything else is so tinged on speculation that it can't even be refuted.

The whole of the "theory" is silly. For all we know, MacReady was a thing, too, at the end; you can speculate and speculate but besides something verifiable, idiots will keep wetting themselves over dumb pet theories.

He didn't drink gasoline for fucks sake. The bottle had fucking booze in it. If the bottle had gasoline, he would have noticed because THE THING IS A PERFECT IMITATION.

The video game leads more credibility to the "theory" that Mac was infected, so it's safe to disregard it. It's much better to consider the movie a single entity anyways.

nobody ever seems to care that mac was clearly the second dude infected.

the dog comes and infects fuck face and then mac hands him some booze and then drinks right after him.

Mac was infected the entire time
>but muh blood test scene proves he's not
who came up with the blood test. we don't know shit about the thing except that one cell is enough to take out the host

Great idea, that gasoline thing. Too bad Carpenter didn't think of it. MacCready is clearly holding the bottle of J&B, his brand of choice, like it's a beverage, and he's just about taking a sip when child shows up

the theory is that it's a test to see if he notices the difference between gasoline and tasty whiskey which he surmises the thing wouldn't.

personally I think that theory is retarded but to each his own

>but to each his own

Nah, I want retards to be fucking silent. That theory was pulled out of ass and contradicts MAJOR FUCKING PLOT POINTS.

Only Sup Forums could come up with a "theory" this retarded.

The theory is older than you newfag

Thankfully, in reality age is no indication of wisdom, traditional association with it notwithstanding. I don't care either way, so let me rephrase:

only Sup Forums would entertain a theory that gets contradicted by a critical plot point presented throughout the entire movie, which is THE THING IS A PERFECT HUMAN IMITATION.

PERFECT. To a flaw, even.

>inb4 pretending

Why would Mac destroy Blair-Thing with dynamite if he were also infected? Wouldn't they just stop fighting and try to stay warm?

Actually i don't even know what to really think about the gazoline theory, that's why I posted the thread. Wasn't there any back up evidence for it at least? Can't believe someone just thought it was an interesting idea and made it a big thing.

I guess the infection isn't that easy, or do you thin a dog hair or a bit salvia would be sufficient to infect someone? The Thing is already pretty op whithout beeing able to infect everything passively

long con. the ship is never going to get him out of there so he just cleans the slate and plans to go to sleep in the snow til somebody else comes.

hanging out in the ice for a thousand years is no sweat off of his back.

Still doesn't make sense. If Mac and Blair were both infected in the climax, they would just disguise themselves and wait for the rescue team, infect them and fly off in their chopper. There's no logic to them trying to murder each other if they're not enemies.

didn't the thing infect that dude when it jumped up on him and licked him while imitating a dog?

>Wasn't there any back up evidence for it at least?

No. This guy is a fucking retard btw.

>the dog comes and infects fuck face

The dog only infected Norris, whom Mac never drank with. Remember that the dog guy was proven human, even though he petted the dog and spent time with him on his own.

mac has to earn child's trust though if he wants to get close to him without getting torched

>didn't the thing infect that dude when it jumped up on him and licked him while imitating a dog?

Oh yeah, the dog jumped and licked Clark.

WHO TURNED OUT TO BE HUMAN FROM THE BEGINNING UNTIL BEING SHOT BY MAC.

Actually, the blood test, the assumption that it's a perfect human imitation and everything else is something we hear from the scientists, and they themselves aren't completely sure.

How intelligent is the thing even? Sabotaging the blood storage, stealing helicopter parts and having a god damn space ship seems like a pretty high intelligent creature, but why was it foolish enough to go into open battle and not just infect as many people as possible in dog cloak? Or at least take over more than half of them and just stomp the rest?

in the 50's version, the thing is just a regular anthropomorphic alien killing people. No shape-shiffting and no contamination

the 2011 version is lame with bad cgi and an annoying MEW who is a strong independant womyn

the guy who takes care of the dogs isn't the guy who the dog leaps up on in the opening scene though

Actually, I have to give credit to the 1982 original for having two black guys in the cast whithout there beeing any stupid controversy. Doesn't surprise me the 2011 prequel fucked that over with muh strong womyn

>Actually, the blood test, the assumption that it's a perfect human imitation and everything else is something we hear from the scientists, and they themselves aren't completely sure.

That's correct, we don't have a 100% scientific explanation. It does, however, set certain rules which are proven to be correct and applicable.

>How intelligent is the thing even?

At least human. It's definitely capable of logical thinking and applies diverse tactics, plus it knows to use its strengths.

>why was it foolish enough to go into open battle and not just infect as many people as possible in dog cloak

It tried to do that but was caught. It has successfully converted 2 people before anyone even considered a human imitation to be possible and was in the process of turning 3rd when it was caught by chance. The humans were quick to assess the threat and tried to prevent more infections from being carried out.

It went for an all out attack when it had to but it got incinerated quite quickly. It immediately knew open warfare wasn't going to work.

I'm pretty sure it jumped on Clark. I'll try to rewatch it if I have the time.

Both Macready and Childs were things

There are two debunked theories around Childs being a Thing
>can't see his breathe at the end
It's the lighting, look closer and you can see his breathe
>drinks the alcohol
Alcohol is a poison and especially liquor burns the throat cells, which would make a Thing react

still pissed that Carpenter didn't find a role for his wife in the Thing because she's some got things of her own I'd like to fondle if you know what I mean

Three.

It's okay, I know watching a 16 minute essay is too much for Sup Forumsedditors.

From the wiki

>The dog runs to the station's American crew, pawing and licking at Bennings. After his warnings fail to be understood, the armed Norwegian shoots at the dog, grazing the researcher, who drops to the ground clutching his wounded leg. The Norwegian is subsequently shot dead by Garry, who mistakes his actions for hostility, and the Dog-Thing is adopted by the ignorant crew.

notable facts about bennings - the first of the american crew to be assimilated by the thing

Does a Thing know it's a Thing? Say you got infected (but not knowingly), would you simply keep going about your business until someone claimed or proved you were a Thing and suddenly your chest splits open and you die? Or do you get infected and somewhere throughout the day you suddenly just cease to be?

Are all of you fucking retarded
It's clearly meant to not have a real answer
Goddamn, are you the same idiots who theorycraft about fucking Inception's ending or what

So if Childs is the Thing and he drank alcohol he would react, but imagine if it's gasoline he wouldn't react right? Does gasoline cause a reaction? Has anyone tried this?

Fair enough, it was Bennings who the dog ran at. However, this also means the Thing did not infect him at that time since it visits him when the station goes to sleep.

Clark also presumably received attention from the dog and he's shown to be human until the very end.

I think it takes over your mind without you even realicing it.

>It's clearly meant to not have a real answer

I should probably plan to make a trip to whichever place has a copy of the script and make some pictures so I can prove what the guy is talking about in part 2 of this video:

>ed (but not knowingly), would you simply keep going about your business until someone claimed or proved you were a Thing and suddenly your chest splits open and you die? Or do you get infected and somewhere throughout the day you suddenly just cease to be?
I think it's the latter but it's hard to say. if the change is gradual then the infected people don't seem to show any signs of distress as their body is slowly taken over

This sounds actually very convincing, but I'm still confused that it wasn't able to make everything work while in dog form

Did the other dogs wich noticed something odd about infected husky really ruin its whole plan?
And how did the dog infect people? Was a bit of salvia enough or did it need a bite?

just because the dog goes to bennings that night doesn't mean that bennings wasn't already infected

I always thought the film made it obvious that Childs was the thing at the end, I mean the creepy music starts playing when he takes a sip from the bottle and the way he acts completely contradicts his personality throughout the rest of the film

>notable facts about bennings - the first of the american crew to be assimilated by the thing

And, yet, he was friendly to Clark who was not infected.

So, there goes that.

Plus he wears a different coat all of a sudden, and no goggles.

What others said about the gasoline. It's also backed up with the supposed deleted scene of only MacReady getting saved and testing his blood again. Not sure how legitimate that is though.

The funny thing is I didn't notice two of the guys being black till later in the movie. I was reading up about Rogue One's 'diverse cast' and thought about much racial diversity impacts a movie. It's really obvious and weird when it's forced, which is ironic.

That was one hell of a shot desu.
>Norwegian with scoped G3 rifle just misses the dog and grazes somebody in the background
>scared American with a revolver shoots the Norwegian 50 yards away through the eye
What doesn't make sense still to this day is that once he accidentally hits somebody, he doesn't stop and shoot the three guys laying around. He's clearly shooting at the dog. If he wanted the Americans dead he would've stopped and shot them.

clarify a bit, who was friendly to clark?
the dog? does it show the dog licking his face?
or bennings? of course thing-bennings would be friendly to clark. it would be friendly to everybody until it could get them alone to infect them

Saliva was not enough. I've covered that right here Given that Nauls found shredded clothes, it was probably violent, though also stealthy as to not wake up others.

Yeah I guess it came to Bennings for some scratches. That must be what the camera work, the omnious sound and Benning's sudden head movement was trying to convey.

The Thing plays mind games with the them, that's why Macready's clothes we're ripped. the Thing destroyed them to make him look suspicious.

>It went for an all out attack when it had to but it got incinerated quite quickly. It immediately knew open warfare wasn't going to work.
>immediately

Prior to Palmer -- who is later shown to be a thing -- turning to one and attacking Windows, it knew "open warfare wasn't going to work."

Open warfare was its last tactic after being found out, i.e. IT ALREADY KNEW THAT IT WOULDN'T WORK.

>And how did the dog infect people? Was a bit of salvia enough or did it need a bite?

How does any thing infect people? There y'go.

I assume gasoline would cause a reaction because it's caustic

That's the thing. People scream about diversity today so much so that they want black people because black people. Doesn't that seem racist?
>Oh, we don't want you for your talent. We want you for your color.

And if we're going by the theory that Mac gives the Thing gasoline, it mirrors the start of the movie where he pours the whiskey into the computer. He'd rather destroy the game than admit defeat.

>Open warfare was its last tactic after being found out, i.e. IT ALREADY KNEW THAT IT WOULDN'T WORK.

That's what I meant at immediately. Dog imitation was burned without anyone dying to it directly. Doc got killed by a surprise attack and Palmer died because he was stunned with fear and Mac couldn't get his flamethrower to work.

At best it was a 1 for 1 exchange - a very shitty one, given that Humans outnumbered the Thing until the very end. I was saying that to point out how attacking the crew directly was a last resort move, a desperate attempt at reducing the number of opponents.

>And if we're going by the theory that Mac gives the Thing gasoline

Fuck off, retard.

Mac's flamethrower not working is the "the car won't start!" of this movie

>Fuck off, retard.

>Mac's flamethrower not working is the "the car won't start!" of this movie

To be fair, the Thing also got a really shitty deal with Windows surprising it when it tried to assimilate Bennings.

Which reminds me, is wrong (no big surprise). Norris is the one who gets visited by the dog the first night and is the first victim. Bennings had to be assimilated at a later period so he was obviously fine after being licked by the dog.

What is "The Thing"?

I assume it didn't build the ship it came on due to it being a virus and all.

Maybe its a biological weapon created by some kind of alien to be used on another alien.
Or maybe the ship was a science ship and they had collected a sample of the virus on a planet but managed to get infected in the process.

Is there any info on what the thing was?

Nope, the thing itself is a mysterie.

In the original film it's just an alien bipedal plant that feeds on meat/blood organisms. In JC's Thing it's unknown. I haven't seen the 2011 prequel.

I guess all this mystery around it (beginning and ending for that matter) was to leave room for prequels or sequels. As the film wasn't that well received after being published two weeks after E.T., guess carpenter just thought it wasn't worth a shot

>I think it's set either before or after the 80s thing.
Way to cover the bases there, bud.

The 2011 version showed the original contact Thing to be some weird multi-legged arachnid/scorpion ceature, but for all we know it could be another alien race that was infected by another Thing, or the Thing could very well be the strain that mimics cells.

Could have been set during the 80s thing. At best he's getting a three run homer.

What if, hypothetically, Mac and Childs were both Things. Would a Thing recognize another the Thing?

It's just an alien organism that replicates its hosts.

Nothing more, nothing less.

>The 2011 version showed the original contact Thing to be some weird multi-legged arachnid/scorpion ceature

Don't attribute that to the 2011 premake. There are storyboards from the Carpenter production that showed the creature from the ship in the opening crash eject from the ship and then freeze.

Never got filmed, but it was drawn out.

Now we're getting into some real interesting territory

If the thing wasn't able to detect an already infected person (as there were "two" things around sometimes) it would at least explain why it's actions seemed kind of illogical and stupid at times

In Carpenters thing, its implied that its an alien, it even tries to build a ship to get away again.
The prequel is about the swedish team that finds the ship it crash landed in.

I don't recommend the prequel to anyone, but if you're bored and curious enough.. its not the worst movie ever. Just don't go in expecting much.

Do you have any pics?

I've never seen the drawings. What does it look like?

Would two Things work together? How would they tell, if a Thing is a perfect copy of the original?

the dogs seemed to know something was up with the thingdog so it can't be exactly perfect

>it's a keroseneposters ruin a yet another The Thing thread

>the dogs seemed to know something was up with the thingdog
Only when it started to change.

I think it really depends if the "thing" is a literal alien that reproduces by infecting or more of a virus whithout any own appearance. Does the 2011 prequel explain that maybe?

Palmer-thing notices Norris-thing's head trying to escape and loudly alerts people to it, but it's not really clear if Palmer-thing is using it to divert suspicion from itself or if it was genuinely behaving like Palmer, as it had assimilated him fully.

So maybe Things can work off each other, or maybe they can't. It's open to interpretation.

My theory for the dogs is that a Thing will generally shift around it's internal organs before revealing itself, which would obviously affect scent glands and shit that a human wouldn't pick up on, but a dog obviously would.

I remember reading this fanfiction (I know, I know) that described my personal theory pretty well, how the thing turned into different forms because of all the other creatures it'd assimilated from other planets.
Also that each 'thing' is independent from the other, though on a subconscious level they know they're from the same organism.

It was a pretty neat read, but I can never remember where I saw it

Don't dogs have senses we have more or less lost through evolution? We emphasize thinking and logic over instinct, dogs would probably tell the difference. They are always said to detect earthquakes and that kind of thing.

>>can't see his breathe at the end
It's also worth noting that the Benning's thing quite definitely had visible breath.
youtu.be/w0Z44BIDPPc?t=1m29s

The clear consensus is The Thing is too powerful. All it needs is a single cell to take over the entire world. It doesn't matter if Childs is infected or not. There's bound to be some Thing out there that would eventually spread to the rest of the world.

Well, the Blood-Thing from the blood test ran off and was never seen again...

But how does that cell need to be transmitted? Is it by touch? Blood-blood contact like HIV?

doesn't seem to be airborne but that's about all we got

Dogs have a sense of smell ridiculously better than ours, and a sense of hearing about 4 times better than ours. Chances are they smelled or heard something that didn't add up, given their close proximity.

The Thing is good, but it's not that good.

How come the dog-handler guy never got infected?
I know it was supposed to set up suspense with the infected dog licking his face and shit, which makes the viewer believe he's infected, but it doesn't make sense that he never was.

All of the theories that "prove" anything about the ending are fan theories only.

The position taken by all of the people involved in creating the film is that the ending is intentionally ambiguous and there's no clear conclusion to draw regarding whether either of them are infected or not.

According to one interview, they just weren't thinking of the film in today's context (as something that might be analyzed for years to come). They wanted to make a blockbuster, and that's what they did. There were no secret meanings of any sort hidden in the film because they just didn't think anyone would watch it the way we do today.

All of this information is available and easy to find if you do a bit of Googling around.

Because the thing clearly isn't THAT infectious. Otherwise the movie would end much faster and be more boring.

does it show the dog licking his face? at the beginning it runs up to the other ginger dude and licks his face, the one windows finds all wrapped in tentacles later on

We'll never really know because Childs and Mac sit there to wait and see

What was happening to Bennings here? Was this Bennings body being assimilated or was it the thing hurriedly transforming into Bennings?

I don't know because who or what was there to assimilate bennings besides the charred dog corpse?

I always thought it was bennings just doing weird the thing things.
Maybe getting ready to assimilate windows the way the dogthing got all weird and tentacly when it was getting ready to assimilate the other doggos

Nuh-uh. Childs drinks a thing and does a stuff and that means he's a thingy alien -- despite it being so highly ambiguous I've figured it out through my autism.

Doesn't really matter if it does or doesn't because not everyone who got infected is shown how they became infected on-screen. He just wasn't infected and that's all that can be said. Why? WHO FUCKING KNOWS.