Wow, I just watched this two nights ago and suddenly I find an appreciation thread!
Ok my two bits. I’m assuming anyone reading this is doing so because they are a fan so if you have not seen this film don’t read on.
Blair was not a Thing until after they left him behind. Notice the change in his attitude from the moment MacReady leaves telling him to trust in God and when he suddenly tells Mac he’s ready to come back.
Notice the noose in his room. My guess is he’s ready to kill himself out of despair or maybe he did and the Thing got him (But who was it?) It absorbed his body and worked away on its miniship.
Both MacReady and Childs are not Things… Making the ending even more pessimistic. By the way great ending line.
I’ve read the novelization of the film based on an earlier draft of the script it actually ends with MacReady trying to teach Childs how to play chess while they wait for the inevitable.
The most realistic reaction in any movie had to be the “You’ve got to be f*cking kidding me,” But notice who says it.
Here is a question: Aside from Carpenter’s commentary do you believe the Thing(s) knew what they were?
How could they not? It’s pretty hard to explain Palmer’s tied-on-the-couch metamorphosis otherwise, since the thing that triggered it was the logic of being found out.
One thing that puzzled me was the difference in ice layers between where the spaceship resided and where the Norwegians found the Thing encased in ice.
Norris said the spaceship must have been there for 100,000 years to have that much snow accumulate over it. But the Thing is back up on top of the ice, indicating it emerged from the ship much more recently.
Did it emerge when the Norwegians planted the charges? Was there no conflict at that point? (please Lord, don’t let the answer be too obvious.)
Well, Norris says something like “The backscatter effect has been bringing things to the surface all around here.” Maybe a small object like the frozen Thing would be closer to the surface than a massive object like the ship, even though they had been in the ice the same amount of time. Any geologists?
I just watched the movie yesterday, and still can’t figure out who got to the blood supply.
There are all sorts of questions that can’t be answered definitively. For instance, if you’re taken over by the Thing, the resulting imitative organism evidently retains not only your appearance (including internal organs) but also your memories and personality. Are “you” still there? Maybe it’s not such a bad fate; maybe the process is really an enhancement. Not that I’m eager to try it.
Another thing to keep in mind about the ship is that when it came down it was probably hot enought to melt the ice below it, so you can have a crash, pilot gets out and collapses 100 yards away, then the heat of the ship causes it to sink. Well, it’s a theory, anyway…
I think that, as Baldwin said, some semblance of YOU is still there after being absorbed or imitated. I personally think there are actually two consciousnesses in an imitated body: The original victim’s personality, imitated by the Thing, and the Thing itself, controlling and guiding the victim’s for its own survival.
My brother disagrees, but that’s the explanation I have for it. That explains why Palmer shook his head with a look on his face that said “Oh well, here we go…” when the blood test was described.
It may retain some memories but I doubt highly there are two consciousnesses… if it were it would be like maybe oa dozen or more.
Remember the final change it made that we see on the screen, it was the dog, and Doc and a myriad of other things. I can’t see how it could function with all of those cosciousness at the same time.
I believe it uses what it needs to go undetected but it’s own consciousness is all that exists.
AN odd coincidence: I just finished watching Rock ‘N’ Roll High School because I was feeling depressed that I can never see the Ramones now that half of them are dead.
Anyway, as the credits rolled, I happened to notice this:
Giant Mouse created by Rob Bottin
!!
That’s pretty damn cool. Then about 2 minutes after I shut off the tape, I saw a commercial saying that SciFi channel is playing The Thing this weekend.
Just watched this on the SciFi channel last night.
Part of their movie “ThingAThon”.
When Mac torches Bennings outside, he tips over a can of fuel and throws a flare to ignite it.
How come the flame doesn’t follow the fuel back to the can and blow up?
Please, John Carpenter, when will there be a sequel?
We have to see the inside of the saucer!
The '50s movie scared me just as much as this one.
Maybe I’ve missed the point, but if Mac and Childs are Thing free and it doesn’t have a host, isn’t the Thing officially dead?
Oh yes much like how the original crash killed it and the being frozen for a few million years killed it and the being toasted by a flamethrower killed it.
I’m not sure if it was a deleted scene on my DVD or an actual bit from the film but Blair points out that even burned up there was still cellular activity.
It is just waiting for some other group of dopes to unthaw it and take it home with them.
Finished playing through it. A good overall game and interesting in the right of what would happen in the sequel. The tension is still there with a lot of places where its very dark, there are a lot of corpses and signs of battle, and in the distance you hear the unmistakeble sounds of a Thing searching for you.
Oh and the teammates reactions and reactions to you were great. Very bealievble. I loved how you would have to calm down some when they walked into a slaughter else they would curl up like a little baby and begin sobbing. And they were all different and had individual personalities. I remember watching one strut past a victim/thing corpse with a laugh and said ‘looks like your momma out in the sun too long’ while a medic walked by it and pissed himself while going ‘Oh god…we’re gonna die!’.
Nice cameos too. I recommend it to all you thing fans.
