NEW DETAILS Found in THE THING!

Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I’m your host Paul, and in this video, we’re going back to “The Thing”.

NEW DETAILS FOUND IN THE THING

I’ve just done a big breakdown of the 2011 prequel and obviously, I had to immediately put on the original because of how that film ends. Upon rewatching it, I noticed some new details I’d never seen before and hopefully, this video makes you appreciate the movie even more.

Now to start things off, I actually want to talk about the ending and how I think I finally know what was really going on. This centers around Childs and MacReady stuck in the snow with Outpost 31 on fire around them. Both are doomed to die, but the big question that remains is, was Childs really the thing or not?

Now there’s been a ton of theories about how MacReady gave Childs kerosene or petrol to drink and the thing, not noticing this, is what gives it away.

Honestly, I’ve always thought that’s more just a popular theory, but there’s not actually any basis for it in the film. None of the creative team has ever said that’s the case, and there’s actually a moment before the drink which debunks the entire thing.

Just before Childs comes walking over, we can see MacReady pull the bottle out and almost go to drink it. At this point, he had no idea that Childs was there, and I doubt the man was sitting down to willingly drink petrol. So, that’s debunked, and instead, I think we should look at an earlier scene to see the subtext that Carpenter was giving us to telegraph the answer.

In order to do this, let’s go back to when we first met MacReady, as there are a lot of similarities to what happens at the end.

In the scene, we catch him playing a game of chess against a computer, which he refers to as a “cheating bitch.” This is because it pulls off an impossible move and uses this to win to beat him. The computer itself is a metaphor for the thing, which cheats by imitating humans and pretending to be them. Now, what else is MacReady doing in this scene? Well, he’s sat back holding a glass of scotch, and we can see this comes from a bottle of J&B.

This is something he sips during the scene in which he talks about the torn clothing, drawing attention to it as he learns something new. It’s also something that he ends up giving to Bennings after he’s shot, and they’re scrambling about to see what’s going on. This bottle appears throughout the film, and this time it stuck out to me like a sore thumb.

When we cut to the end and see what Childs is drinking, you can catch the exact same label on the bottle. This shows they’re one in the same, and I think the beginning and end mirror each other to spell out the true meaning.

MacReady ends up tipping the glass into the computer to break it, and symbolically, this is him catching it out at a level it can’t play at.

This J&B appearing in the final scene also shows how MacReady is catching out the thing. Just in the same way he gave it to the computer, he’s now giving it to Childs as a way to determine the truth. It’s something he has when he learns something about an opponent, and thus I think its usage signifies that.

THE THING: HIDDEN DETAILS

Now, Childs and all the other people at the camp would be well aware of the rules around sharing food and drink. They’d know for a fact that you’re not supposed to do it as it’s a way the thing can spread and take over your body. The fact that Childs does it here shows that he’s clearly not worried because if you’re the thing, then you can’t catch the thing.

It’s this clear disregard that gives away his position, and I believe it’s why MacReady laughs when he takes a drink.

He’s caught him out in this game like he caught the computer and can’t be fooled by the cheating the thing’s carrying out. I think this first scene sets it all up perfectly and mirrors this ending to spell out to us what’s happening.

Now there’s also the fact that Childs’ attitude has changed, and he’s a lot calmer in this scene than what’s come before. Going back through the film, I actually noticed a lot of instances where the personalities of characters changed who were later revealed to be the alien.

For example, Blair has a breakdown and smashes up the outpost, destroying all the radios and ways to get out. He’s locked up in the hut outside, which the group later visits, but he acts far more withdrawn than what’s come before.

In this shot, we can see a noose hanging up, potentially showing what the real Blair was planning to get up to. Instead, I think that he was taken at some point, and the calmer version we see here is indeed the alien. Now if you don’t agree with this, then I think you need to think about Blair and what he’s acted like in the rest of the movie.

Blair’s someone who discovered how quickly the thing could assimilate, and he even ran simulations to show how quickly it would wipe out humanity.

Here, though, Blair is like, “let me come back.” Now, I personally don’t think that Blair would want to go back to the group at all, as he’d be more likely to assimilate others. Instead, I think that he’s the thing at this point, and he knows going back to the group will give him opportunities. This will allow the thing to assimilate others, and he’s trying to win MacReady’s trust so he lets him go back.

Now another thing that has a big change is Palmer, who starts off as a loudmouth and hothead in the group.

However, we see Palmer get calmer and hide in the back of the group instead of drawing attention to himself. Keeping an eye on who the thing was, I noticed that it tends to go for the more outcast characters and hide in the background instead of being the bigger names.

Norris, yeah…not really a confrontational or person that panics, he just hangs in the back completely out of the way. Palmer’s an outcast that isn’t really trusted, and no one really wants to work with him.

Blair gets sent out into the hut, and we also know it tried to imitate Fuchs. He also wasn’t really one of the people get involved in arguments and was kind of a meek personality who could hang out the way.

The way Childs comes across here is kind of different from how he’s been, and he’s more docile and trusting. Put yourself in this position, would you accept the drink fully aware that you could be contaminated?

Now I wouldn’t, and I get they probably know they’re gonna die, but yeah, I don’t think he would be as trusting as he was. If I went up to someone who could be the thing and they offered me a drink, I’d suspect that was a way they were trying to take me over.

Again like I said, if he knows that he’s the thing, then he wouldn’t have this worry and would go ahead with it.

Now the theme for the creature also comes in at this point and spells out exactly why Childs is the thing.

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Now another big question over the film comes early on when trying to decipher who the first person was that the thing assimilated.

Whether intentional or not, I kinda love how the dog aggressively licks at Bennings’s face when it believes it’s gonna die, and this is a desperate attempt for it to quickly pass on its cells. We see it completely calm down once Lars is taken out, though, and its attitude’s different because it’s no longer in danger.

Now from this point, we watch it walk about the base and then

When walking into a room, we see a person’s shadow turning around, and this is the first character that it imitates. Now this shadow doesn’t actually belong to anyone in the cast, and Carpenter actually used an extra in order to create the effect. It’s deliberately meant to look like either Norris or Palmer because this would make us confused about who it was. As we know, both of these become the thing, but I think we can determine which one of these was first.

That’s because during the night of the dog attack, we see something with Palmer that gives it away.

At about the 26:26 minute mark, he shares a joint with Childs, which would be enough to infect him. Childs passes the blood test, whereas Palmer doesn’t, showing that at this point, he at least was still human.

THE THING ALTERNATE ENDINGS EXPLAINED

Now I also thought about how the snow closes in on the camp, and in many ways, it’s like how the thing assimilates cells. The weather takes over and then covers the location, rendering it part of the environment now in which all is consumed. Might be a reach, but just something I thought was symbolic and a nice idea that continues on the assimilation.

Now all this talk about the ending made me look a little deeper into it and uncover all the ones that Carpenter originally had.

There were several ideas, with one involving the dog surviving the explosion and looking back at the destroyed camp before running off into the snow.

Another that was filmed but never shown to audiences had MacReady getting rescued and taken back to civilization.

Here, he took a blood test with a mysterious government agent seeming to say that he knew what the thing was.

There was also an ending where Childs and MacReady turned on each other, and the pair would fight to the death due to their paranoia. Ultimately, this was scrapped in favor of ambiguity, and I think The Thing’s strongest aspect is its nihilistic ending.

In the end, the movie is an incredible piece, and it’s crazy to think it’s over 40 years old. It goes to show just how good it is when we’re still talking about it and picking it apart all this time later.

I really hope you enjoyed the thoughts I put across and hopefully, it makes you view the film in a brand new light.

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