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- Mar 9, 2015
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OK so the more I read about this and think about it, it's probably one of the most confounding endings to a movie ever. It's like a perfect puzzle. Absolutely brilliant. Why did it appear Childs wasn't breathing? Why did Macready give that weird little chuckle when Childs drank the whiskey? Was it actually a molotov cocktail Macready gave him to drink, proving that Childs was the thing? Was Macready actually the thing, laughing because he just infected Childs? Were they both things, unaware of each other? (I like this because it flips the paranoia the humans have had in the movie back around on the aliens).
Why did Childs ask "are YOU the only one that made it?" Instead of "are WE the only ones that made it?"
We suppose that the thing is just wanting to hibernate in the cold until a rescue team arrives. That lends some credence to the theory that Macready was the thing, since he didn't want to try to fix the radio equipment, but to sit there and freeze to death.
If Macready was the thing, the first question I have is why did he just blow up the Blair monster? But if you remember, earlier during the blood test scene, it's supposed that each cell of the thing will act to defend itself. Macready might have blown up the monster at the end just to insure his own survival.
The most intriguing thing to me as I rewatch it, is the look that Macready gives Childs just as he's handing him that drink. Then the chuckle he does as Childs drinks it. Is he handing him gasoline to drink and watching for a reaction? Even if it is whiskey, Childs should be afraid to drink after anybody else, for fear of being infected. But that may not matter since if he is human, he's about to freeze to death anyway. Does Macready realize Childs is a thing, and just basically says "good fight" and decides to sit and share a drink with it? He's done for anyway. Why not? That could be why he says "if either of us has a surprise for each other, I don't think we're in any shape to do anything about it."
I had another thought that I haven't read anywhere else yet, and it's about what Childs says to Macready. He says "how will we make it?" Everybody assumes he means how will we survive? What if, they are both things, and the "it" he's talking about making is another UFO (since the one Blair was making was just blown up). Maybe that's why Macready says "maybe we shouldn't." idk, but it's food for thought.
There are a lot of theories and a lot of evidence for each theory. What do you think was happening there?