The Thing

“Why don’t we just wait here for a little while, see what happens” I’ve probably watched this movie about 10 times in my life, and for the first 6 or 7 times, I was always dead set on the idea that Childs is The Thing at the end of it, and MacReady was still a human. But recently with my last few watches, I’ve started to entertain the idea that MacReady is the one is infected at the end of it, and damn there is a lot of evidence to support it. Every reason that MacReady could be a Thing: What we know about the Thing, is that it can perfectly assimilate any being or life form as long as its cells come into contact with another organism, and it has enough time to recreate it. We also know that the Thing an organism as a whole, but every part of it has its own desire to survive and live, as we see in the blood test scene when the blood tries to survive when faced with a hot needle. 1. MacReady came into contact with the Thing DNA very early on. At the beginning of the movie, Bennings gets licked by the infected dog, as the Thing was trying to make sure its DNA lived on in case it was killed. Later in the scene Bennings gets shot, MacReady leaves his bottle of alcohol right next to Bennings, and he takes a swig of it, which could leave trace amounts of the Thing’s DNA on MacReady’s bottle, which he later drinks from. Later in the film Fuchs discusses the danger of sharing food, and says that everyone should prepare their own meals, and eat out of cans. This one simple event at the beginning of the film could’ve exposed MacReady right away, and given the Thing plenty of time to assimilate him. **2. Blaire getting infected: ** Assuming that Blaire wasn’t infected when he got locked into the tool shed, how did he get infected? After MacReady had drank from the infected bottle, when they drop off Blaire, he takes a swig of his bottle of alcohol, which he had for the nerves. Once again leaving DNA on that bottle. Blaire had never come into contact with anyone after being dropped off, except Mac, which leads me to think that MacReady was the one who got Blaire infected. 3. MacReady’s clothes: While anyone could have taken MacReady’s clothes, and shredded them up in order to frame him or set him up, we know that when a person is assimilated their clothes get shredded. This isn’t a damning piece of evidence, but it is something important to take note of. 4. The Blood test scene: Don’t you think it’s weird how we never see MacReady cut himself and drain his own blood? I’m not saying it couldn’t have happened off screen, but from his position it would’ve been pretty easy for him to swap the bloods and fake it. And also don’t we think it’s weird how slow MacReady was to take out Palmer? We saw him waste Clark, Norris, and Windows without any hesitation, but the flamethrower was suspiciously slow to start up and kill Palmer (who was also infected). Another thing we know about the Thing, is that it’s ridiculously smart, using its environment and paranoia to its advantage, in order to create many assimilations and take out as many people as possible. Given the fact that Mac knew Windows was innocent, letting Palmer kill him while acting like the flamethrower wasn’t working, and then killing Palmer after to avoid suspicion and blend back in seems like a perfect plan. The Thing will always act selfishly in order to protect itself, and that’s exactly what it did in this infamous scene. 5. The ending sequence: Up until this rewatch, I always thought it was impossible for MacReady to be the Thing, because why would the Blaire Thing attack him if they were both infected? Then i realized that it would do anything to save itself, and attacking another Thing isn’t out of the question. MacReady was ready to blow up the base with the Blaire Thing in it, in order to blend in and look human, so i think it’s very logical for them to clash. And then there’s the final scene with Childs and MacReady, the scene that created this 40 year old debate. I always have liked the theory that says MacReady gave Childs gasoline in a whiskey bottle, in order to test him and figure out if he’s the Thing. But I think it’s very possible for MacReady to try and infect Childs in their final moments. The Thing at this point is trying to go to sleep in the ice, and wait for spring to let the rescue team come and pick them up, would it not make sense for him to try and have two things, upping the chances of them being able to infect the rest of the world? Mac gave Childs the bottle just as he did with Blaire, trying to infect them. As soon as the bottle hits Childs’ lips, the main them plays, and MacReady lets out a chuckle, knowing that he’s won, and will soon go to sleep for a very long time. 6. The 2001 video game: This one I have no idea if it’s canon or not. But the game serves as a direct sequel to the movie, where you play as a team going to the base as a rescue team. The team finds both Childs and MacReady, where MacReady was still alive, and Childs was dead, showing that MacReady was infected, because the Thing has an incredible tolerance to the cold. Again I have no idea if this relates or not, but I think it’s worth mentioning. Overall, I love this movie so much, I love how it immerses the audience, putting us in the same shoes as the characters, becoming paranoid of certain people, and trying to play detective analyzing certain people’s behavior. The best practical effects ever, and just the best horror movie ever. I love how John Carpenter gave us evidence for it being either Childs or Mac at the end, or even neither of them. Peak writing, absolute cinema