Thanks to Bill Lancaster's impeccably tight script, paranoia-soaked atmosphere, and a haunting accompanying soundtrack, Carpenter and his team delivered something that spoke to a fear within all of us - namely, when push comes to shove, who can you trust? Through focusing on one anchor point in the film, that being R.
J Macready, we as an audience aren't privy to all the details and movements of The Thing. That made moments like the blood test scene become all the more haunting as we never saw Palmer become assimilated.
And while speculation still runs rampant about who really is The Thing come the close of the film, today we're going to look into the events prior, in an effort to piece together who was infected and when. Campbell Jr. Stuart It was first published in the August issues of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, of which Campbell also became editor.
The first film adaptation of this was the movie The Thing from Another World A prequel to John Carpenter 's version, also titled The Thing , was released in The film does not explain the purpose of the American team in Antarctica. Antarctica has no indigenous people or permanent residents. Considering the extensive laboratory equipment and presence of several doctors, it is assumed that the men are a part of a scientific team occupying the residence to maintain facilities during the Antarctic winter, as most research occurs during the milder summer months.
In John W. On the audio commentary to the DVD release of the film, John Carpenter says that he wanted to make a different type of horror film about a group of intelligent, well-read guys going up against an otherworldly, almost unstoppable alien that challenges everything they know. Carpenter's concept could fly in the face of accepted "slasher" horror ideas where stupid teenage protagonists are picked off one by one.
Also, Carpenter had the idea that each of these men had a reason for wanting to be away from the rest of the world, which is why they are a skeleton crew manning the station during the winter months. That question is not answered in the movie. Viewers have suggested several possibilities. The Thing may have been 1 the pilot, 2 a passenger, 3 a stowaway, 4 part of the cargo, 5 a prisoner being transported to some interstellar prison, or 6 a collected specimen.
In an early version of the prequel The Thing , the Thing was one of many species collected by the alien race piloting the spaceship, but this revelation was later dropped from the finished film. There's really no explanation. The wobbling of the vessel and the flame that bursts from the back end could suggest that something was wrong inside the ship.
This theory suggests the spaceship landed on Earth either by accident or as an emergency landing. Apart from the small burst of flames, however, there seems to be nothing wrong with the structure from the outside. The burst of flames could simply have been due to friction from the spaceship entering the Earth's atmosphere. The wobbling could likewise have been caused by proximity to Earth's gravitational pull or simply a mannerism of the craft's flight, such as a maneuver used to slow down the spaceship before entering the Earth's atmosphere.
This theory would suggest the spaceship intentionally entered Earth's atmosphere. A third theory is that the spaceship belonged to some other interstellar race that had become infected by the Thing, wreaking havoc not unlike what we see within the film and causing the ship to crash-perhaps intentionally. This last chain of events was also included in an early script for the prequel The Thing , but later removed during production, and since this movie was written by a different team of writers, it may not have necessarily been the intention of the writers of the original film.
Three theories have been offered. The Thing may have known the best strategy was to start someplace remote, so virtually nobody would know until it was too late, although it is stated the spacecraft crashed about , years ago so this would not have been an issue, as man was still very primitive.
Antarctica is one of, if not the only, place on the planet in which there are areas with virtually no animal life. Had the Thing been piloting the spaceship, it would have been extremely unlucky to crash in the small section of the Earth in which it would not be able to find life forms to assimilate. This supports the theory that something other than the Thing was piloting the spaceship. Note that the Thing discovered by the Norwegians had attempted to crawl away from the crash site, only to freeze on the ice.
It seems unlikely the Thing would intentionally crash in Antarctica and then attempt to crawl away from its ship. This further suggests that however the spaceship ended up in Antarctica, it was either an accident or a deliberate attempt by the crew of the spaceship to avoid letting the Thing reach life forms. But if one takes the implications of the Norwegian camp and what happened to the American camp, it appears history continually repeats itself when coming in contact with the Thing.
So it's quite likely the pilot of the ship crashed on purpose to stop the Thing. Whether the spaceship was deliberately being piloted towards Earth or due to a malfunction, it approached Earth from below, such that its angle of descent just happened to be aimed at Antarctica. As soon as the ship was caught in the Earth's gravitational pull, there was little opportunity to deviate from that course. While we know that the Thing is not affected by bullets, we know that, if it wished to stay hidden in its dog form, it would have to act wounded if hit.
The Norwegians were likely trying to slow it down to catch up with it so they could deal with the Thing properly, i. Det er ikke en bikkje, det er en slags ting! Det imiterer en bikkje, det er ikke virkelig! Kom dere vekk, idioter! That's not a dog, it's some sort of thing! It's imitating a dog, it isn't real! Get away, you idiots! In the real world, neither the armed forces nor any police force train their members to wound the individuals they are shooting at; they are trained to shoot to kill.
The Norwegian had shot and wounded one man already and was continuing to fire. Garry was simply doing what was necessary to end the gun fight quickly and to protect his fellow camp mates. It assimilated Bennings. The remainder that was left on the table was mostly the dead part that had been burned back at the Norwegian camp.
This part, along with the near-assimilated Bennings-thing, were burned. However, the possibility also remains that a part or parts of Splitface could have detached from the body, escaped, and hidden in other areas of the complex, as this theory ties in with the fact that each individual part of a Thing has a goal of self-preservation, as evidenced by the Norris head Thing attempting to escape by detaching itself from its body.
It was Palmer despite the fact that he has no dialogue during the scene. The script verifies this, as does his attire later in the film when they lock up Blair he wears the same coat as he nails a board over a window. Palmer was sent because he was the back-up helicopter pilot. Earlier in the film, Fuchs reads to MacReady from Blair's notebook that the burnt remains of the alien still contain some cellular activity; they are not dead yet.
This implies that the alien could still take any of the science crew although these events are never shown in the film. Later, Fuchs suggests to MacReady that if it only takes a small part of the alien to take over an entire organism, then people should eat out of tincans and only eat meals that they have cooked and prepared by themselves as this would be a way for the alien to prevail, again implying that the alien could get to you slowly just by touching without having to assimilate immediately.
There is a scene earlier in the film, in which the infected dog is seen walking into a room, and an unidentified man's shadow can be seen on the opposite wall. This implies that the dog infected either Palmer or Norris at this point. A simple explanation would be that when a Thing assimilates someone, it rips through their clothes as evident when Windows discovers Bennings' torn and bloody shirt and jacket in the storage room seconds before he sees him being assimilated, and Nauls finding either Palmer's or Norris' torn longjohns in a kitchen trash can stained with dried blood.
And given the fact that none of them expected to need extra clothes on a helicopter trip, so if Norris and Palmer were things, if they assimilated Mac, they would have a hard time explaining why he is naked when they get back to camp. So they decided it was best not to take him then.
Another theory is that Mac could still have been a thing. Even though he tied everyone down and came up with the hot needle blood test, it might very well have been that the test was a "crock of shit" as Childs put it. Then the Palmer Thing sacrificed itself by acting as if the blood test was successful to draw any suspicions away from Mac. However, this theory is less likely as it goes against the very nature of The Thing self preservation above all else.
There are two more possibilities here. The first and probably most logical is that one of them is still human at this point. Even if Palmer was the Thing, him leaving in the chopper and reporting Mac and Norris dead would not be a good move; it could easily be investigated.
The second possibility is that neither Palmer nor Norris know that the other is a Thing, though this is highly contested. Just because Palmer and Norris were both revealed as Things later does not mean they were both Things at that given moment.
We see Norris collapse later in the film. This is after Fuchs has informed us that a single cell of the Thing could but not necessarily would take over a whole person. Considering the manner of Norris' death, it could be suggested that he had been infected by a Thing either through saliva from the dog, infected food, or whatever and that at the crater Norris was still human, albeit, an infected human. Palmer, on the other hand, was almost assuredly a Thing by this point, though not brave enough to attempt to assimilate two people at once which might have caused a crash and death for all.
Interestingly, if Palmer was a Thing from the moment we see his shadow facing the dog, then later when we witness Childs and Palmer sharing a joint, it is conceivable that Childs became infected. Not that Childs becomes a Thing, as we witness in the blood test scene, but that he could have been well on his way to becoming a Thing. The shape and size of the block of ice is a deliberate ploy on the part of director, John Carpenter to reference the form of the alien in the other film version of the story, The Thing from Another World Carpenter persuaded the production designer to watch the earlier film and design the ice block accordingly.
The block of ice was quite big with some type of weird outline carved in it, suggesting a large and relatively thin creature. The shape of the Thing is revealed in the prequel, The Thing It is very dark-skinned, with large crab-like legs, talon-like digits and a large mouth with long sharp teeth; wide-shots of the burnt corpse of the creature make it look like that of a giant beetle. It is heavily implied that this is not the "true" shape of the Thing, but another assimilated creature from another planet and that what we see isn't even the form of the creature it assimilated as it could have altered its shape to suit its immediate need either before or while it was frozen.
Note the similar Blair-Thing at the end, the Splitface-thing as it tries to kill someone in the prequel, and even the Norris spider-head, all of which show traits from the people they previously infected but change their shape to something that better suited their immediate need.
So a Thing consists of billions of individual cells that can cooperate to form individual parts or entire organisms, choosing the shape of what it needs to be. In the novelization the thing is rubbery blue humanoid with tentacle fingers and hair and has 3 red eyes when in the ice and when its last form is fought in the shed.
One of the many questions and plot lines with no definite answers, though there is one explanation that seems more logical. Due to the tension of the scene of the men determining who got to the blood Garry or Copper , all of them seem to have forgotten that Windows had the master keys last.
However, Windows is visibly too afraid to admit that he had the keys last, probably speculating that the group would suspect him of tampering with the blood.
In the scene when Windows gets the storage room keys from Garry and walks into the room to lock it up, we clearly hear him drop the keys when he runs out of the storage room after he discovers Bennings being assimilated. A few moments later, everyone except for Blair and Clark are outside huddled around the Bennings-Thing right before MacReady burns it. This would have been a perfect opportunity for Blair to sneak out of his room, get the keys lying on the storage room floor, open the freezer locker in the storage room, and tamper with the blood by slicing the bags with a knife or razor or even just the sharp end of the keys before going out to kill the sled dogs, as well as destroy the tractor and helicopter.
However, we never see Garry or Windows recovering the keys at all before Garry is seen the next morning giving the master keys to Copper to use to go open the freezer locker. Also of note, earlier when the group is pinned down by the axe and gun-toting Blair who is destroying the radio equipment in the communications room, Garry is seen with the master keys back on the key chain on his belt.
When stored, blood plasma is nearly frozen, and would take several hours for it to thaw out and run the way it did when we first see the fridge locker several hours later in the morning with a trail of blood seeping from it when Copper arrives to open it. Therefore, the blood must have been tampered with quite a while ago which would point to the previous evening or night: more evidence that it could have been Blair. Other evidence pointing to Blair is that he is a biologist, he would understand that the blood could be used as a test to expose him as a Thing if he was infected at the time , or if he was not infected at the time, he could have realized the possibility that the blood could be used as a means to infect the other men of the camp, as a part of his theory that one cell could take over an organism, and eventually the world.
Of course you can't discount the possibility that it was either Norris or Palmer. The possibility of Norris or Palmer tampering with the blood isn't so far-fetched. If someone needs to simply request the keys from Garry, it's possible either Norris or Palmer now infected asked for the keys for something trivial before anyone even knew the dog was a thing although it's likely that Garry would have remembered.
There are several keys on Garry's clip, and anyone could have asked for them citing another purpose: gathering supplies from a locked room, fuel for the helicopter, etc. Garry could have handed over the keys, either to Norris or Palmer, who would quickly open the fridge, tamper with the blood, lock it back up, hand the keys back to Garry and go on about their business.
Unless someone was seriously injured, Copper likely wouldn't be going to check on the blood very often. So a lot of time could have passed from the time the blood was tampered with to the time it was discovered. Also, if one takes the prequel into account, the Norwegian camp also came up with a similar blood test that was destroyed before it could be administered. The Thing would have carried that knowledge from that camp to the U. In the television version of the Thing, an additional voice over at the beginning of the film states Norris has a heart condition and his character notes in the screenplay by Bill Lancaster mention it.
Sometime after being assimilated by the Thing, we see Norris grimacing with pain while he is taking off the flamethrower on his back before helping the other men board up the outside doors and windows during a moment of stress. A few minutes later, when Norris sees Nauls returning alone from MacReady's shack, he clearly grabs his chest and is sweating, as if in great pain before the others run in. Another minute later, while struggling with MacReady, he is thrown to the floor, passes out, and is rushed to the medical room where Copper attempts to revive him, first with CPR, then with the defibrillator.
On the 2nd application of the defibrillator, the Norris-Thing reveals itself, biting off Copper's arms. There are two possibilities as to why the Norris-Thing had a heart attack: 1 It was a ploy by the Norris-Thing to get away from the men, faking death with the intention of either escaping or simply waiting for an opportunity to assimilate a lone individual, or 2 when the Thing assimilates a life form, it takes on an exact replica, including diseases and other characteristics.
Thus, the Thing was unable to sustain its existence as Norris-Thing because the Norris model's heart had failed. Another 3 possibility is that Norris was infected after consuming contaminated food. He was thus assimilated from the inside and as the process developed he started to have wracking pains.
He did not die from his failing heart but expired while being taken over. When his stomach explodes we can see a second Norris head has formed, probably while copying the original. In regards to Theory 1, the Burned Corpse-Thing brought back from the Norwegian camp uses a similar ploy, faking death until it has the opportunity to attack an isolated Bennings. What the Thing may not have counted on was the application of electricity from the defibrillator, which it likely perceived as an attack and prompted its attack on Copper.
In regards to Theory 2, the Thing is never shown to have the ability to shape-shift from one person to another, or one creature to another. When the Thing assimilates the dog at the Norwegian camp, it stays in this form until it turns into the amorphous shape it uses for attacking. Since the Thing does not appear to be capable of transforming its shape without directly assimilating another life form, it can be suggested that the Thing is only capable of replicating life forms with which it is in immediate contact.
In this theory, the Thing is only able to exactly replicate what it immediately finds. In Norris' case, the Thing replicates Norris exactly, including his heart condition.
Whilst Norris was being treated in the infirmary, Clark grabs a scalpel off a table and hides it. In the next scene when MacReady wants to tie everybody down in order to do the blood test, Clark moves closer to Mac, pretending to support him in his idea. When Mac is arguing with Childs, Clark pulls out the scalpel and charges at Mac. So Mac turns and shoots Clark in the head. The shots of the scalpel are done in the foreground while something relatively important is happening in the background so lots of viewers miss Clark holding the scalpel.
Lots of viewers thought Clark was just going to punch Mac, making Mac shooting him a bit extreme. Clark hiding the scalpel in his hand is much more clearly seen in the widescreen versions of the movie. The pan and scan versions omit Clark's hand holding the scalpel which would otherwise be on the far left of the screen.
Also, at this point it was everyone against Mac. Everyone thought Mac was infected, so for Mac it was kill or be killed. Even if Clark had just intended to tackle MacReady, shooting him would have been Mac's only option.
If Mac had simply tried to fight Clark, the rest of the team probably would have joined in and fought Mac, over-powering him. However, because Mac was willing to shoot Clark, it showed the rest of the team that he wasn't afraid to kill someone who made an attempt on him.
Which is why as soon as Mac shoots Clark, we cut to everyone else already tied up. After Mac administers the test to Clark's blood and he's ruled out as assimilated, Childs calls Mac a murderer. However, Mac was also acting in self-defense.
Probably because such behavior would make Palmer look more human and help him gain a little more trust from the group. Palmer only speaks out when Windows has also seen the spider-head. Palmer-Thing might normally have been willing to let the spider-head escape but, once it had been seen by a human, its survival was compromised anyway.
Hence Palmer-Thing could as well take the opportunity to make an exclamation saying "You gotta be fucking kidding! Whatever Palmer's reason for pointing out and revealing more of the Thing's abilities, it is clear in the movie that Thing imitations do not look out for other Thing imitations, and they are described in the short story as being "selfish".
Mac himself says that they would crawl away from a hot needle to save itself. It is also possible that Palmer was still self-conscious and, thus, would react normally and bring attention to the Norris spider-head. As Mac says "Watchin' Norris in there gave me the idea that One of the biggest questions of the film that is never fully explained.
We will first break down the sequence of events and then explain the motives behind each from a human and Thing perspective. Sequence of events: 1 Blair runs the computer program and discovers the possible threat the Thing poses, 2 Blair kills all the sled dogs and destroys the tractor off-camera , 3 Blair destroys the helicopter, 4 Blair injures Windows and destroys the radio, 5 Blair is locked up outside in the shed, 6 Mac is questioning Blair in the shed as to the whereabouts of Fuchs, and 7 Blair has clearly been assimilated: he is building a ship, attacks Garry, etc.
Now, the question is asked, why would a human Blair kill the dogs and destroy everything? At this point, it is very clear that Blair understands the situation and feels that his comrades do not. He is afraid that the Thing will escape and infect the entire planet. He kills the dogs, destroys the helicopter, and destroys the tractor to isolate the men.
Although Blair says, "no dog can make it a thousand miles to the coast," he was more or less referring to a dog on its own, and not a team with a master. He may have also killed the dogs to prevent infection when we see Clark at the dog kennel sorrowfully looking at a dead dog with a fire axe in it's neck, though we know that an axe would not be sufficient enough to prevent that but keep in mind that Blair has lost his sanity at this point.
Blair destroys the radio so that no outside help can be reached; it could be another way out. If this was the case that Blair was assimilated after his lock-up , it was either Palmer or Norris that got to him while he was locked up in the tool shed. Somewhere during the hour period that Mac refers to on his tape recording would seem logical.
The Thing perspective: The Blair-thing would have destroyed the tractor, radio, and helicopter to prevent the men from escaping and to keep them from reaching outside help. The dogs were killed to make his motives seem more human. The Blair-thing's plan worked; he was seeking isolation so that he could build a craft to escape.
Just before being locked up, Blair tells Mac to watch out for Clark. Again there are two plausible possibilities as to what he meant, depending on whether he was infected yet. If Blair was still human, then it would have likely been that since he knew how the Thing worked, he deduced that since Clark had been isolated with the dog-Thing for a long period of time, there was a very strong chance Clark was infected.
If Blair was a Thing, then he would have been trying to throw Mac off, drawing suspicion towards a man who was still human whilst the Thing continues to infect the team. Another possible, but remote, theory is that Blair was infected during the autopsy of the burned corpse-Thing or the remains of the dog-Thing. It was a cellular infection which took some time to gain control of his body and "conscious" mind. The Thing gained more control as the cellular infection increased over days.
We know this is a considered by Blair. As the infected individual's body is slowly taken over, they remain conscious during this state but unaware that they are infected, but their actions are subtly influenced by the Thing's ever-increasing hold over them. Blair destroyed the dogs, tractor and chopper.
The dogs being killed was a completely human response backed by his scientific knowledge that any one of the dogs could have been inadvertently infected during their attack in the kennel cage by hostile or cellular infection. In his destruction of the tractor and chopper, the Thing influenced his decisions. Think about it The Thing was a masterful strategist. It had been alive for eons and assimilated hundreds, maybe even thousands of beings and intellects, a theory referred to by Fuchs when he has his private conversation with Mac about Blair's notes.
Many of its actions had a two-fold and even three-fold win-win situation that still gave it an edge in the final game. Yes, Blair destroyed the tractor and chopper to prevent the infection from spreading to populated areas human response , but he also destroyed them to hide the fact that he had stolen parts from both. The crew was less likely to investigate a smashed, ripped-apart tractor or chopper to see that all of the parts were there.
Blair was well aware of military protocol and knew that his mental breakdown would call for them to isolate him, giving him time to assemble the parts and build a craft to get him to the nearest populated area. The craft was never meant for long distance travel.
A third goal in destroying the tractor, chopper and communications was to prevent anyone from getting out until they were ALL infected. Military protocol would have been to capture and quarantine all parties involved until it was determined who was human and who was not.
The Thing could not take the chance of someone contacting the rescue team and revealing the alien infection. However, Blair was not the only one who may have been infected by cellular means during the autopsy, as Fuchs may have also been infected! We see Blair performing the autopsy and Fuchs "sniffing" and going through the clothes of the Burned Corpse-Thing and other items there. Those garments and items are soiled with possible dried blood and other body fluids.
Fuchs is seen standing there listening to Blair while going through the items without gloves or other personal protective equipment. Since the scene ends this way we can assume that Fuchs assisted Blair in other ways during this autopsy even if it was just "Hold this" or "Move that.
This theory would also explain Fuchs' disappearance. By the time he talked to Mac, he knew that cellular infection was a strong possibility. Blair at this point was isolated and locked up or so we thought , but Blair was secretly moving about the camp collecting and assembling the last of the parts and tools he needed to finish his craft. It is very possible that it was Blair who killed the power and walked past Fuchs' door in the dark.
By the time Fuchs got outside to chase this suspicious person, he found Mac's undergarments. If cellular infection was possible, by this time Fuchs' actions would be influenced subconsciously as well, since he was infected during the same time period as Blair. Thus, after finding Mac's undergarments, Fuchs heads to Mac's shack, possibly planning to snoop around for more proof that Mac was infected before accusing him publicly clearly a human response.
While there, he stuffed Mac's shorts in the oil furnace, this being a subconscious influence by the thing to keep an ally hidden. In all likelihood, Fuchs began to question his own actions on the walk back to the main compound and came to the realization that he "must" be infected to have just done such a strange thing rather than exposing Mac. The Thing only attacks when discovered or "attacked.
At this point during Fuchs self-realization, the thing begins to reveal itself, going for a more quickened "hostile takeover" of Fuchs rather than the cellular option.
As Fuchs begins to change and lose the last of his humanity, he does the only thing he can, setting himself on fire in the snow. Another hint that Blair has been infected before he destroys the radio and communications equipment is that his intentions, as "the thing", are to destroy any means of communication radios that will allow the remaining humans of the research outpost to contact the outside world and warn them of "the thing" that they unleashed from the ice.
Blair, as "the thing", could prevent the humans from warning the rest of the world to either proceed with caution when approaching the arctic facility, or to isolate or even destroy the facility from afar. Once Blair, as "the thing" was completely sure that the existence of the creature was safe and only known to the remaining humans in the facility, "the thing" could take as much time as it needed to slowly and surely assimilate the rest of the crew.
While Blair may have been infected on a cellular level when he autopsied the first remains of the thing early on in the film, it was slowly infiltrating his entire body, copying him slowly, to the point that Blair might have realized what was going on, causing his intense paranoia, enough to where he breaks down completely and attempts to kill everyone and destroy the communication equipment.
The theory of cellular assimilation is possibly debunked by what happens to Bennings. The dog runs up to him and licks him, in theory this would be enough to begin cellular transformation yet he is the first on screen aggressive assimilation we see.
If he was already being infected on a cellular level which is easier to hide why would this be necessary? A sign that Blair was himself when he was first quarantined in the outdoor shed by the others was that when MacReady and the others talk to him from outside the shed door to ask the whereabouts of Fuchs, we see that Blair had hung a noose from the ceiling, possibly in an attempt to hang himself before the thing had time to take over.
Perhaps he realized that his remains would still have cellular activity and he figured suicide was pointless. Perhaps he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Or perhaps he made the noose intending suicide, then his mind was finally assimilated and the thing stopped him from taking his own life. It's also worth noting that in the same scene, Blair tries to talk Mac into letting him back into the main camp. The Blair-Thing was clearly taking advantage of its isolation, so it seems strange that it would run the risk of joining back up with the rest of the men, since he would not be able to continue working on his craft without drawing suspicion.
Thus it would be logical to say that Blair was human or at least in the process of being assimilated at this point; he really did feel bad about his actions and want to leave the shack. But the other alternative is that the noose was a ruse. If Blair was a thing at that point, he would want to give the appearance of being normal, while still remaining isolated. A human Blair would, naturally, want to come back inside.
But he would have to come up with a way to prevent that, without looking suspicious so he could keep working on the underground spaceship. If you were human, and trying to plead your case that you're recovered, would you leave something as obvious as a noose hanging over your shoulder? It has the same effect as saying you're sane while eating a bug. It's entirely plausible that Blair rigged the noose as an insurance policy on the off-chance that the men would decide on their own to let him back in, or talk to him at some point.
He begs to be let back in, but anyone talking to him would be able to see the noose hanging behind him, and would then assume that he's still not all there. MacReady certainly notices it, as after Blair's normal conversation and outward appearance of being back to normal, his only reply to Blair about being allowed back into the outpost is a rather non-committal, "We'll see", followed by cutting him off mid-sentence as he further pleads to be let back inside.
One theory that Blair has been infected early on is that he deliberately gets himself isolated by acting insane and out of control. Once he's alone in the cabin, outside of the surveillance of the other remaining crew members, he can begin digging the tunnel under the shed and building his ship that will allow him to escape to the mainland, or possibly even to outer space. In the original story, "Who Goes There?
Like the movie, the short story never states when exactly Blair was assimilated, but it is possible that he was assimilated beforehand and fakes the nervous breakdown. In the cabin, the Thing, in Blair's body, begins building an anti-gravity device to get back into space, or to leave Antarctica, but before it can complete it, the other crew members realize what is happening and they kill the Blair-Thing before it could complete its objective.
Carpenter and Producer Stuart Cohen have indicated that their plan was for Blair to have been infected at a very early time, as he is in Campbell's short story. Cohen goes on to indicate that MacReady's line upon the discovery of the spaceship, "Blair's been busy out here all by himself" is to indicate that Blair was a thing for quite awhile, long enough to have adequate time to build the spacecraft.
It's also worth noting that between the scene where he runs the computer simulation, and the time we see him again destroying the radio room, the yellow button-down shirt he was wearing has disappeared. The theory is that the thing rips through your clothes when it takes you over, so the disappearance of the shirt between the two appearances could definitely be because the shirt was destroyed in the take-over.
We certainly see that the take-over destroys clothing, as Windows sees Bennings' destroyed shirt and vest in the storeroom after seeing Bennings in mid transformation. As we see when Blair attacks Garry, all Norris or Palmer would have to do is be standing outside Blair's door and put their hand over Blair's mouth to prevent a scream, and the assimilation would already be happening. Then they would just lead Blair back inside and lock the door behind them. That would explain why Blair loses the shirt he's been wearing all along prior to the radio room rampage.
This question is not directly answered by the film. The Thing does not necessarily have to go to a heavily populated area immediately, but find a means to escape the camp where its presence is known and being opposed.
Ultimately, it must find other life forms to assimilate. This leads to a few possibilities. Considering how small the craft being built was in comparison to the original crashed spacecraft, it is highly unlikely the Thing would be able to build a suitable craft from spare parts capable of traveling to somewhere else in the galaxy with known life forms.
Since, unlike the prequel film, Blair had destroyed most of the vehicles apart from one or two small tractors that may not have been capable of traveling far , it had to make due with what it had, and so used the parts it could salvage and possibly knowledge from prior victims to improvise a simple vehicle that would do until he could get access to the more sophisticated flying saucer.
Although the craft being built does resemble a flying saucer, it is unclear if the craft was intended to fly or travel on land such as a snow mobile or hovercraft. Obviously, the craft would have to travel some distance before reaching the ocean, which would have to be traversed in order to reach another country.
If the craft was capable of flight, the Thing could feasibly fly to another country. If the craft was intended to travel on land, then its purpose would be to find another base with humans, or a population of life forms, such as penguins, fish or birds. Of course, a hovercraft would be capable of both land and water travel. After replicating a penguin, fish or bird, the Thing could then just swim or fly to another country as that life form. It seems much more likely the Thing would attempt to assimilate as many life forms in Antarctica and use those to spread to other areas, rather than attempting to immediately travel to the nearest large landmass, most likely South America.
In the original story that this film was based on, the thing in Blair's body nearly finished building an anti-gravity device in a shack in which it has isolated itself. The device would let it return to space using atomic power, but the remaining crew end up killing the thing before it can use the device to return to space or possibly fly to another heavily-populated area on Earth.
From what we see in the movie, there seem to be two general ways in which a Thing can imitate another being. The first way could be dubbed a "hostile takeover".
Which is where the Thing uses its tendrils to absorb its prey, while its body functions as some sort of womb where a copy of the absorbed prey is created.
We see this occurring with the dogs, and also with Bennings' assimilation. When Blair is conducting the autopsy on the burned corpse of what remains of the dog-Thing he cuts out the half-formed replica of a dog.
The Thing essentially makes an extra "copy" from its prey. Each "copy" of the Thing or "imitations" as they are called in the film is basically an exact replica or "clone" of the Thing in the form of the person or animal it kills. The other way is where the Thing infects another being with its cells, and the host is being taken over.
This last process is most interesting, as it is never explained whether 1 people or animals that have become Things immediately die in the process of being assimilated by the Thing which then mimics its victims' voice, actions, and feelings, 2 the victims regain consciousness after assimilation and essentially host the Thing clone apparently unaware that they have been assimilated, until the Thing decides to take over the host's actions, or 3 the victims retain consciousness while being assimilated from within.
Several of these mechanisms seem possible, depending on how assimilation occurs, as evidenced in the movie. In the film, evidence is pretty strong in regards to the first theory. It is stated that the Thing, even smaller parts of it such as blood or Norris spider head , have an interest in self-preservation. This suggests that any actions taken by an infected life form, such as the dog fleeing the Norwegian camp or the Thing planting evidence to frame MacReady, are deliberate actions by the Thing to preserve itself.
The Thing perfectly mimics its victim and waits until it has the best opportunity to attack another life form or simply has no choice. The dog-Thing does not attack at the camp until it is isolated with the other dogs, all of which are snarling and presumably about to attack the dog-Thing dogs having a highly developed sense of smell, and possibly having smelled that this dog-Thing is no real dog.
The Norris-Thing does not reveal itself until it is on the table with the defibrillator being applied to its chest. The electric shock of the defibrillator may have been seen as an attack by the Thing. The Palmer-Thing does not reveal itself until the moment when MacReady tests its blood with the hot wire, attacking because it knows it will soon be burned otherwise.
The Blair-Thing likewise avoids the other men until it finally reveals itself when it is confronted in the bunker. All situations suggest the possibility that the Thing has entirely assimilated life forms and is imitating them until forced to reveal itself.
The computer simulation created by Blair suggests the Thing can replicate by attacking, consuming and replicating cells, presumably using the DNA and material from the attacked life form to reform itself and thus make multiple imitations clones of itself. However, in an interview on the Thing DVD special features, Charles Hallahan Norris points to the scene in which the men appoint MacReady as leader of the group following Windows' attempt to retrieve a shotgun from storage.
Norris, who is presumably the Thing at this point, is originally offered the role of leader by Garry but declines stating that he doesn't believe he is up for it. Hallahan states that he always believed Norris knew at this point something was wrong with him and refused the offer because of the slight feeling that he may be the Thing, which directly supports the second theory.
Vivek Kapur Penn State Verified email at psu. Kathleen A. Alexander Professor, Virginia Tech Verified email at vt. Claire Sanderson Virginia Tech Verified email at vt. Jayne Hope Verified email at roslin. Stephen V. Ashutosh Wadhwa Health Scientist Verified email at cdc.
Infectious disease pathology tuberculosis wildlife. Articles Cited by Public access Co-authors. Title Sort Sort by citations Sort by year Sort by title. Transboundary and emerging diseases 57 4 , , Clinical and Vaccine Immunology 13 6 , , American journal of veterinary research 57 8 , , American journal of veterinary research 65 11 , , American journal of veterinary research 58 5 , ,
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