The Thing end scene. What are your theories?

There was only one Thing.
It was either Mac, Childs, or dead.
 
As much a of a movie nerd I fancy myself to be, I've actually never seen the Thing (as an adult). I vaguely remember watching it with my father when I was very young but I honestly don't remember much of it at all other than the dog scene.

I will make a point to watch it this weekend, thanks for reminding me of this film.
 
Real good movie, I only watched it because of this thread. Thanks!

Can't believe I never saw it before.
 
im surprised that there are still people out there who havent seen it
 
I'm sure someone brought this up already, but when they're all outside, MacReady says something to the effect of:

"I know im not one of those...and i know you're not all one of those otherwise you'd all rush me"

Well, this leaves the option of only one of them being the thing to be a long shot. The thing attacks when it has someone alone. It's only imperative is to spread.

And given the nature of the thing operating as a single organism no matter how many ways it's split makes the conversation superfluous if they are both things.

That only leaves one good option, IMO.
 
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Robert Rodriguez has his channel with a show where he interviews other directors. You may want to check out the John Carpenter episode.
 
Flemmy Stardust said:
I'm sure someone brought this up already, but when they're all outside, MacReady says something to the effect of:

"I know im not one of those...and i know you're not all one of those otherwise you'd all rush me"

Well, this leaves the option of only one of them being the thing to be a long shot. The thing attacks when it has someone alone. It's only imperative is to spread.
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I think Macready was only speculating though (that's all they could really do). And if Macready's torn up clothes are any indicator, he may have already been infected at the point he said that.

And we also never saw the thing double up and attack people, it was always 1 on 1. And we never saw 1 part of the thing defend another part when it was being attacked, either.
 
Kick Strickland said:
I think Macready was only speculating though (that's all they could really do). And if Macready's torn up clothes are any indicator, he may have already been infected at the point he said that.
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It's a line designed to establish rules within the movie. Much of the goings on are predicated on that line. It's why everything is sneaky and behind closed doors.

MacReady goes way too far out of his way to combat the thing after his clothes are found. He never builds trust either, so calling it a distraction doesn't fly with me.
He comes up with the idea of the blood test, which would be totally, and unnecessarily self-destructive if he was the thing. Also, with no one to watch but us, he blows up the thing in the cave. Not for a second am I'm allowing anyone to suggest there's a chance in hell he was the thing at any point before sharing the beer with Childs.

The other thing i would mention is that none of the attacks are as subtle as passing cells on via a beer bottle. They are completely visceral. There's no need, if MacReady is the thing at the end, to start being cunning about it.

Of course, there are alternative ways to interpret things. I just believe the best, most coherent movie is the one where both are still human at the end.
 
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Flemmy Stardust said:
It's a line designed to establish rules within the movie. Much of the goings on are predicated on that line. It's why everything is sneaky and behind closed doors.

MacReady goes way too far out of his way to combat the thing after his clothes are found. He never builds trust either, so calling it a distraction doesn't fly with me.
He comes up with the idea of the blood test, which would be totally, and unnecessarily self-destructive if he was the thing. Also, with no one to watch but us, he blows up the thing in the cave. Not for a second am I'm allowing anyone to suggest there's a chance in hell he was the thing at any point before sharing the beer with Childs.

The other thing i would mention is that none of the attacks are as subtle as passing cells on via a beer bottle. They are completely visceral. There's no need, if MacReady is the thing at the end, to start being cunning about it.

Of course, there are alternative ways to interpret things. I just believe the best, most coherent movie is the one where both are still human at the end.
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I think, almost certainly, that even Carpenter and Russell would argue that MacReady is human. He's the audience's conduit.

In terms of the ripped clothes, the changes made by Carpenter threw some of those plot points against one another, as there is a deleted scene where they find another pair of ripped clothes without the name tag.



Ripped clothes are first seen being held by Fuchs, most certainly from the burned corpse they brought back from the Norwegian camp. Then later, Nauls finds discarded clothes in the kitchen, presumably from someone who's been assimilated. Mac can be seen examining the shredded underwear when Copper calls him to pick up his stuff from the storage room.

At that point in time, Bennings hadn't been assimilated by the Norweigan Corpse-Thing. That leaves only Palmer or Norris' assimilation by the dog.

Later, as Mac secretly tape records the events occurring, he postulates that when assimilation is is visceral and sudden, it will rip through your clothes. The final shot of Mac talking into the tape recorder comes from outside, where someone is listening to him. That ties into Fuchs finding Mac's clothes outside, and eventually Nauls finding MacReady's clothes in his shack, which causes him to cut the line on the way back.

It's never revealed whose clothes were first found, whether it be Palmer or Norris. And its never explicitly stated who set up Mac, though one could argue it was Blair.
 
I the featurette I posted earlier the editor mentions the alternate ending they shot where McReady Makes in out, and is free and clear and not the thing. That was their back pocket nice hollywood ending.



But Really they chose the best most realistic ending possible. They killed the thing, but perished in doing so.

That's a prevalent attitude of the times, the up yours, stick it to the man attitude.


But here's the thing about the thing, and the best compliment to John Carpenter. John was a Howard Hawks Fan, and student of Howard Hawks. Howard Hawks was a titan of Hollywood in its heyday when MGM, Waner Bros the 20th Century Fox ruled.

Howard Hawks made the Thing. John Carpenter Made The Thing. John didn't copy his master, he didn't match his master, he surpassed his master. John's film is the one everyone remembers. The one that people copy. Not everyone achieves that in their career.


howardhawks.jpg
176787-hd.jpg
 
Kick Strickland said:
I think Macready was only speculating though (that's all they could really do). And if Macready's torn up clothes are any indicator, he may have already been infected at the point he said that.

And we also never saw the thing double up and attack people, it was always 1 on 1. And we never saw 1 part of the thing defend another part when it was being attacked, either.
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Macready for sure wasn't infected at that time because he passed the blood test.
 
I thought it was pretty clear that Child's was the Thing at the end of the movie...

MacReady giving Child's the bottle at the end of the movie has vast importance.. The first was offered by MaCready and he readily took it... The second swig was a submission of defeat. Under the circumstances, consuming alcohol would rapidly deprive his health and lead to death. MacReady was in the same boat, but he just wanted to know the truth before he froze to death as well.

It's a GOAT movie though. I like that the ending is open to interpretation.
 
Flemmy Stardust said:
It's a line designed to establish rules within the movie. Much of the goings on are predicated on that line. It's why everything is sneaky and behind closed doors.

MacReady goes way too far out of his way to combat the thing after his clothes are found. He never builds trust either, so calling it a distraction doesn't fly with me.
He comes up with the idea of the blood test, which would be totally, and unnecessarily self-destructive if he was the thing. Also, with no one to watch but us, he blows up the thing in the cave. Not for a second am I'm allowing anyone to suggest there's a chance in hell he was the thing at any point before sharing the beer with Childs.

The other thing i would mention is that none of the attacks are as subtle as passing cells on via a beer bottle. They are completely visceral. There's no need, if MacReady is the thing at the end, to start being cunning about it.

Of course, there are alternative ways to interpret things. I just believe the best, most coherent movie is the one where both are still human at the end.
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I've changed my mind over the course of this thread to believe that them both being human seems to be the most logical.

I would say though that the thing would be more than ok with letting its last threat die on its own accord as Macready was ready to do, rather than put itself in any more harms way by trying to attack the man who had successfully destroyed it several times.
 
I've always preferred to think that they're both human, but out of fear and paranoia they'll just let themselves freeze to death rather than putting any trust in each other to work together to try and survive.
 
TheWorm said:
I've always preferred to think that they're both human, but out of fear and paranoia they'll just let themselves freeze to death rather than putting any trust in each other to work together to try and survive.
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That's the only problem I have with them both being human and it goes back to one of the issues I have with them both being things. I think it's made abundantly clear that they are fucked no matter what. The base is blown to shit, they have no power, no transportation, no radio, and soon no heat.

I like the idea that at the end they're so paranoid that they can't trust one another but it's not going to matter because their deaths are inevitable no matter what they do.

So it's kind of like, what's the point?
 
I always took it that neither could be sure and that it would be dangerous for anyone to be allowed to leave. I don't know where the idea that the thing could survive frozen came from but I thought that since it started in the dog that was chased by Norwegians that it needed a host.

Anyways, here is a kick ass music video based on The Thing by Zombie Zombie

 
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