# The Thing movie question: Spoilers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 17, 2022, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403 "2022-06-17T20:59:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/41 "2022-06-18T23:49:53Z")
I like the way Thing is being used here. Opens up whole new phrase possibilities… _“Go Thing Yourself, Asshole!”_ _“Thing Me, Baby!”_ _“Watch This! Thing My Beer!”_ _“I Thing You”_ _“All Your Thing Are Belong To Us”_ ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/42 "2022-06-18T23:59:11Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Stoltz turned out to be so bad at the role You actually can find some footage of Stoltz as Marty. Granted, the film is so flawless and iconic it’s hard to imagine anyone BUT Fox being perfect… but yeah, Stoltz just isn’t right. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/43 "2022-06-19T00:20:22Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > the film is so flawless Uh, no. I love it, I watch it all the time, but “flawless” it ain’t. 1. Where did “other Marty” go? 2. Marty is not going to fit in, he doesn’t know anything about his own life. They just ignored that. 3. bonus: if Lorraine was so fond of the name “Marty” why did they wait until their third kid to use it? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/44 "2022-06-19T00:20:37Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Opens up whole new phrase possibilities… (Columbo-Thing turns and tentacles sprout out of his mouth:) “Just one more Thing…” ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/45 "2022-06-19T00:29:26Z")
#3 is relatively easy to answer. The older brother may have been named after a recently deceased relative or friend to “honor” that friend (I have some cousins where the Jr. Child is actually the 2nd for this very reason, first was named after their dead father) and the sister obviously wouldn’t be named Marty. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/46 "2022-06-19T00:53:08Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > 1. Where did “other Marty” go? > 2. Marty is not going to fit in, he doesn’t know anything about his own life. They just ignored that. > 3. bonus: if Lorraine was so fond of the name “Marty” why did they wait until their third kid to use it? 1. “Other Marty” didn’t go anywhere. He’s still stuck in a timeline where Biff reigns over his gambling empire and Lorraine has a massive fake rack. FWIW, I think that might actually be our world. 2. Marty already doesn’t fit in. He seems lost and clueless long before he goes back in time, and his only friend is an ‘eccentric scientist’ who doesn’t actually seem to understand how anything actually works. If Tobey McGuire and Reece Witherspoon can figure out how to live in a ‘Fifties sitcom that was colorized by sex and Ted Turner, Marty can figure out Alt-1985 where he has too-cool-to-be-believed parents, a rad Toyota 4x4, and a soon-to-be-upgraded-to-Liz-Shue girlfriend. He’s just fine. 3. Lorraine totally forgot about ‘Marty’ which is a side-effect of dislocations of the time stream; this is also why nobody recalls some weird kid that showed up in town wearing a life preserver who created quite a stir, dumped a load of manure on town bully Biff Tannen, and just happens to look like this kid born fifteen years later. When the McFlys got to kid #3 Lorrainehad a fever dream while in labor where she recalled a boy that came from the future and and convinced her to give up her wayward ways to be with George, and when she awoke to find that her dream was true she decided to name the kid ‘Marty’ after the vague memory that she couldn’t place. But Professor Hulk explains it all: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/OstryGGxgXo/maxresdefault.jpg "Professor Hulk explains Time Travel - Scene HD - Avengers: Endgame") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OstryGGxgXo) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/47 "2022-06-19T01:20:15Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Marty already doesn’t fit in. But he REALLY doesn’t fit in. Like he doesn’t know he has a truck. OK. Where are the keys? Does he have a license? (Did “original” Marty even have one? No evidence either way\*, but he sure isn’t a great driver.) If he does, does he even have the same birthday? What else doesn’t he know? Does he have the same classes? the same friends? (“hey Marty you said you were coming over to play Atari. What happened?” Marty, thinking: Who is this kid?) Have he and Jennifer “did it” yet? Gonna be a surprise for someone if he guesses wrong. When Linda says “Marty pick me up after school”, where will he go? Ask her? “What’s with you, you know where I work, you dropped me off yesterday!” He doesn’t know what his family do for a living, what their interests are, where Uncle Joey is, and a million other details. Any one of which if he got wrong would show him to be “off”. Does he even have a Huey Lewis poster in his room? And the butterfly effect could change a lot of things. Since neither George or Biff work…wherever the hell they worked in the beginning of the film, who works there now? Do they have kids in school? \*eta: Maybe he showed his license to young Doc. If so, I retract that one bit. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/48 "2022-06-19T01:27:12Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > But Professor Hulk explains it all: That’s utterly laughable, because the movie then went on and violated _every time travel rule that they themselves just set down!_ The movie is a timey-wimey mess, and not in a good, or clever way. It’s just a mess. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/49 "2022-06-19T01:33:12Z")
Back on target, I really need to rewatch The Thing. It’s been since it was new. Some of the things you all are mentioning I have completely forgotten. All I remember is it scared the crap out of me.That ending was a killer. Question > [@RickJay](#): > > Obviously, the following men cannot have been infected by casual contact: 11 are mentioned. none of whom are > [@RickJay](#): > > My belief is that Norris Who is Norris? ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/50 "2022-06-19T01:34:59Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Who is Norris? The curly-haired guy who developed a nasty case of head-spider. Interestingly, the actor said he tried to play it as if he thought he might be “Thinged” and wasn’t sure of himself. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/51 "2022-06-19T01:38:24Z")
The guy who had the heart attack and died (or “died”), then had his chest turn in a giant chomping toothy maw when Copper tried to defibrillate him. It gets worse form there. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/52 "2022-06-19T01:41:30Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Does he even have a Huey Lewis poster in his room? Apparently not because the Huey Lewis & The News song “The Power of Love” isn’t to be found in the next two movies. Apparently the consequences of Marty going back in time eliminated them from his future timestream. I think that is a consequence everybody can live with. It isn’t like he eradicated the music of Bach or killed Muddy Waters. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > That’s utterly laughable, because the movie then went on and violated _every time travel rule that they themselves just set down!_ “But—and I’m only saying this because I care—there are a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing.” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/53 "2022-06-19T01:47:54Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Sheinberg also penned the famous memo to Robert Zemeckis suggesting that _Back to the Future_ be renamed “Space Man from Pluto.” Wait, he… Wanted to rename it “Space Man from Pluto”… because he wanted to avoid being pigeonholed as “genre”? Does he, um, know what any of those words mean? ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/54 "2022-06-19T01:49:56Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Apparently the consequences of Marty going back in time eliminated them from his future timestream. And so Patrick Bateman had to choose some other band for inspiration. Also, to jump back on topic, the Thing prequel was so disappointing! ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/55 "2022-06-19T02:09:08Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Also, to jump back on topic, the Thing prequel was so disappointing! The acting wasn’t terrible (I’ll pretty much watch Mary Elizabeth Winstead in anything) but the story hewed so close to the original film that it offered no real surprises, and the decision to move to primarily unconvincing CGI effects with some non-functional practical appliances removed the visceral horror of the original. The biggest problem, of course, is that you know how it is going to end, so there is absolutely no tension versus the original film where you don’t know who is going to survive. (Carpenter turned convention on its head by having at least one black character actually survive to the end of the film, which was also quite deliberate.) This film, like _Solo: A Star Wars Story_, is an argument against making prequels just for the sake of filling in backstory that didn’t need to be explained to an attentive audience. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/56 "2022-06-19T02:20:46Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I’ll pretty much watch Mary Elizabeth Winstead in anything She should be in more things IMHO. And agreed, some blanks don’t need to be filled in for me. Likewise with Predator and Aliens: I don’t need to know more. Once and done is fine! Leave a little mystery! ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/57 "2022-06-19T02:24:50Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Likewise with Predator and Aliens: I don’t need to know more. I guess the moral is just be glad you didn’t get _The Thing Vs. Predator Plus More Aliens_. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/58 "2022-06-19T02:26:03Z")
Give it time…. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/59 "2022-06-19T05:22:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wait, he… Wanted to rename it “Space Man from Pluto”… because he wanted to avoid being pigeonholed as “genre”? Does he, um, know what any of those words mean? I think I get what he means, actually. “Back to the Future” is the name of a science fiction movie. “Space Man from Pluto” is the name of a farce with some sci-fi trappings. The former only interests geeks and weirdos. The latter is good mainstream fun. He’s trying to _Lost in Space_ it. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403/60 "2022-06-19T05:29:09Z")
-reads Miller’s post, and attempts to process it- 🤯 Excuse me, I think I’m leaking some brains. Or a three eyed alien ripped off the top of my skull. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-movie-question-spoilers/966403.md?page=4)