Observation on John Carpenter's "The Thing"

[Goliath]

The Thing doesn't really want to be humanity, it wants to destroy it via infecting it, like a disease, and replace it with itself.

I'm not sure that viruses "want" to destroy their hosts. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the most successful viruses are the ones that don't destroy their hosts. Take the human rhinovirus for example: one reason why it's so successful is that it actually does minimal damage to human beings once it infects them. That way, there are always more hosts to infect.

I prefer the "eldritch horror" interpretation advanced above. The Things might want to destroy us--if they gave us any thought. But they're completely indifferent to our lives and deaths, and consume human beings the same way that human beings consume air, water, and plants. To the Things, the violent resistance they encounter from potential hosts has no ethical significance: it's just an obstacle they have to overcome in order to stay alive, the same way that human beings have to shield themselves from the cold of Antarctica.

 

[EJA]

Another thing I've often thought about is the spacecraft the Thing crashed in. Was it built by the Thing, or did it steal it from someone else, or stow away?

And who was the first to become infected at Outpost 31, Norris or Palmer? Both men accompanied MacReady to view the saucer wreckage, so it seems reasonable to assume they can't both have been compromised by that point, otherwise they would've assimiliated Mac.

There's the brief scene in the movie, shortly after they've discovered the ruined ship, where we see Blair running a computer simulation on what would happen if the Thing reached civilization. If he was already a Thing by that point, why would he be doing this? There didn't appear to be anyone with him he would need to fool. I still reckon a Thing wouldn't have sabotaged the helicopter if it presented even the slightest chance of reaching more inhabited regions.

 

[saturn5]

Another thing I've often thought about is the spacecraft the Thing crashed in. Was it built by the Thing, or did it steal it from someone else, or stow away?

And who was the first to become infected at Outpost 31, Norris or Palmer? Both men accompanied MacReady to view the saucer wreckage, so it seems reasonable to assume they can't both have been compromised by that point, otherwise they would've assimiliated Mac.

There's the brief scene in the movie, shortly after they've discovered the ruined ship, where we see Blair running a computer simulation on what would happen if the Thing reached civilization. If he was already a Thing by that point, why would he be doing this? There didn't appear to be anyone with him he would need to fool. I still reckon a Thing wouldn't have sabotaged the helicopter if it presented even the slightest chance of reaching more inhabited regions.

I figure Palmer by the dog, it seems to take longer for Norris to get taken over and wouldn't he have collapsed as Norris did? We see the Thing building a ship so it must have some technical acumen which it carries from host to host?

 

[Lookingglassman]

I think it would be cool if spider legs grew out of my head and it could walk around and scare people.

 

[Unicron]

For anyone interested, here is a nice site devoted to the movie and novel.

 

[EJA]

How do we know Palmer was the first?

 

[barnaclelapse]

I believe the Thing is fully aware its not the original but will use any means necessary to fool those around it to accomplish its goals. This includes pretending to be the original to get to the resources it needs to escape.

That's what I told someone when they asked me the same thing after seeing the movie for the first time.

In fact it might be time to watch it again. I could use a good horror movie.

 

[EJA]

I believe the Thing is fully aware its not the original but will use any means necessary to fool those around it to accomplish its goals. This includes pretending to be the original to get to the resources it needs to escape.

That's what I told someone when they asked me the same thing after seeing the movie for the first time.

This does seem to be the dominant theory among fans.

 

[EJA]

I don't really like posting on threads that have been dormant for long periods, but I just have to share a new thought of mine regarding the movie. Everyone who's seen it says that whoever it is who's all alone in the room when the dog-Thing enters is the first to be assimilated, but it's just occured to me that we don't really know that for sure. For all we know, the guy got up and left the room the minute the dog came in, leaving the dog to seek out someone else. What do the rest of you think?

 

[Trekker4747]

Here's some stuff on "The Thing" by a group stationed in Antarctica where, for obvious reasons, it's a popular movie.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I think it would be cool if spider legs grew out of my head and it could walk around and scare people.

Great idea for a Halloween costume.

Here's an idea: the essence of a Thing is mindless. It absorbs the personality of whatever species it imitates, and becomes a version of that species that is utterly devoted to only its individual survival and propagation, with no regard to survival of other members of that species.

Both dogs and humans are social species, and won't generally endanger their fellow species members needlessly. But they're also capable of ruthlessness in pursuing survival, or even defending the survival of other members of its own species. The Thing simply extracted the part of humans and dogs that cares about other humans and dogs, and kept the ruthless part. If the Thing had infected some species that for whatever reason was not aggressive, the Thing could not be aggressive, either.

The Thing is the negation of The Selfish Gene.

 

[EJA]

Okay, some minor spoilers for the forthcoming Thing prequel, folks:


There will be a few Americans stationed at the Norwegian camp. I don't know about anyone else here, but I can't help feeling just a little bit concerned about this. There was absolutely nothing to indicate such a set-up in the original movie; in fact it strongly indicates it was an all-Norwegian team.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

In the blood test scene, the knife didn't strike me as very sterilized. Hint, hint.

 

[Harvey]

Okay, some minor spoilers for the forthcoming Thing prequel, folks:


There will be a few Americans stationed at the Norwegian camp. I don't know about anyone else here, but I can't help feeling just a little bit concerned about this. There was absolutely nothing to indicate such a set-up in the original movie; in fact it strongly indicates it was an all-Norwegian team.

I think this has been known for quite some time. It doesn't bother me, since it provides an excuse to cast a few American actors and to have the cast speak English. As much as I'd really dig a prequel to The Thing that was entirely in Norwegian, I accept that such a notion is impractical when it comes to Hollywood. Hopefully it's just a few Americans, though.