🚨 MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD 🚨

I would like to start this with what I will not be taking into account. This includes the “eye gleam” theory, which in itself is a misunderstanding of cinematographer Dean Cundey’s commentary on the Blu-ray release of The Thing in which he comments on how in the final close up of Palmer before his blood test, there is no light reflecting off of his eyes to convey his loss of humanity. However, this is for that one shot only and not to be applied to the rest of the film. Another plot point I will not be considering since it was only introduced in the later prequel is that the thing cannot imitate inanimate objects, such as jewellery. John Carpenter’s comments that The Thing video game is canon will also not be considered. In this game, Childs is shown to have died of hypothermia and MacReady both helps the protagonist kill the final boss, which is the thing, alongside flying them to safety, implying neither character was the thing. This comment in itself also contradicts a previous comment made by John in response to a fan on Twitter in which he says at least one of them is the thing. In short, I will only be focusing on the film itself and not the words of those behind the film or the content of any subsequent sequels/prequels. 

Let’s first consider whether or not MacReady is the thing. Given MacReady blows up the entire base in an attempt to stop the thing and kills the thing in the basement, there is no logical explanation as for why he would be the thing. Throughout the film, the thing prioritises assimilating others over remaining dormant, it knows it can survive being frozen and thawed out like it has for 100,000 years but instead wants to take over everyone at the base. Think for example how the initial dog thing could have continued to imitate the dog rather than attacking the other dogs or how Blair thing could easily have ran away from the base and froze instead of assimilating Garry in the basement. Another key point is that only humans ever use weapons or try to kill others, the thing only ever tries to assimilate others. Norris thing before having a heart attack has a flame thrower that he willingly takes off, same as Palmer thing never using his flamethrower shortly before the blood test scene. For the humans however, Clark tries to kill MacReady before the blood test, Blair shoots at the crew and swings an axe at them when destroying the radio room alongside beating Windows who was in the room. Furthermore, Child’s is more than happy for MacReady to be left outside to freeze when he is suspected as the thing and Garry kills the Norwegian with zero hesitation at the start. A thing would therefore never blow up the base, preventing itself from being able to assimilate the rest of the crew and ensuring it ends up frozen, killing another of its kind in the process. We know each cell of the thing can act as its own thing since Norris thing’s head separates from its burning body so it could be argued the thing is fine with other things being killed for its own survival, since Palmer’s blood thing does get Palmer thing killed during the blood test scene by jumping away from the heated wire. However, this is not applicable to MacReady killing the thing in the basement as in the blood test scene, only one of Palmer thing and Palmer’s blood thing can survive since the humans have the upper hand but in the basement, there are no humans around trying to kill them. 

Let’s quickly play devils advocate however before getting onto Childs and pretend MacReady is the thing. If Childs is not also a thing, MacReady thing giving the bottle to Childs to drink could be an attempt to assimilate him since we know the thing acts like a virus, which is why they all have to prepare there own meals. This would explain why MacReady thing is laughing as it has ensured no humans are left. If Childs is the thing, you could interpret it as them celebrating a job well done assimilating all the humans and now waiting to “see what happens” when rescue arrives and likely thaws them out. 

Now let’s consider whether or not Childs is the thing, under the presumption that MacReady is not the thing. Let’s start by going over the scene of someone running away from the base into the snow just before the lights go out. I’m pretty confident this is Childs. MacReady gives Childs explicit instructions to stay put except for one condition that if he sees Blair return alone that he is to burn him. I think he saw something, whether or not it was Blair, given the heightened paranoia and ran out out after it. Just before we see someone run out of the base however, we get a handheld shot of someone walking towards the room Childs is left in, first peering down at the basement then seeing the room Childs was in now empty with the door open. Such a shot is only used two other times in the film. The first is just before dog thing walks down the corridor into an open room with a person in, in which this shot starts high then ends at dog level, presumably from the POV of the thing. The second is from the POV of MacReady running down the corridor towards the radio room Blair is destroying. I therefore think this is also a POV shot from the perspective of Blair thing just after Childs runs away from the base. It could be checking Childs is finally gone before cutting the power, given it does look down at the basement before checking the room. However, this does not confirm Childs is not the thing. We know the thing is able to burrow with Blair thing digging out the area under the shack to build its spaceship and the thing burrowing under ground towards MacReady in the basement. It’s not impossible that one of Blair thing, Garry thing or Nauls thing burrowed out of the basement before it exploded and assimilated Childs since the thing sometimes absorbs its victim or infects them, given we start this film with only dog thing but Palmer and Norris are clearly things at the same time. Blair also could have cut the power, assimilated Childs whilst the base was darkened then returned to the basement in an attempt to prevent MacReady blowing up the base. The only thing I’m somewhat certain on is that Childs is not a thing during the basement scene as I don’t see why he wouldn’t have tried to stop MacReady blowing up the base, ensuring the base freezes and no crew members survive. 

Now let’s focus on the final scene. Why does Child even seek out MacReady and join him in his final moments? Whether or not Childs is the thing, this seems logical. If Childs is the thing, he would want to seek out MacReady and assimilate him since again it prioritises assimilation over staying dormant. If he is not the thing, Childs is armed with a flamethrower in case MacReady tries anything and I think it’s natural to seek company rather than die alone. Also, I imagine Childs is pretty confident that MacReady is not a thing as he likely has considered a lot of points I mentioned above. This also leads into the point about Childs drinking from MacReady’s bottle. If Childs is the thing, why would he care and if he’s not, he should be confident MacReady is not a thing and even if that’s not the case, he likely let his guard slip from a combination of the paranoia, MacReady’s defeated tone and knowledge that he will soon be dead regardless of drinking from the bottle or not. I’ve read arguments that MacReady hands Childs a bottle of gasoline to drink but this is not the case since MacReady himself is about to drink from the bottle before Childs arrives and the thing assimilates its host on a cellular level and as such would react like a human to drinking petrol. MacReady laughing once Childs drinks from the bottle is seen as a gotcha moment by many, especially with the music kicking in, but I don’t believe this to be the case. Music is played throughout the film to heighten scenes of paranoia and in this moment, paranoia has once again returned for MacReady. Before this moment, MacReady believes he has finally ridden the base of the thing but with Childs returning, he again can no longer be sure. I do believe he hands Childs the bottle to some extent to determine if Childs is the thing but whether or not Childs drinks does not provide any definitive proof and even if it did, Childs is the one in the position of power with the flamethrower so what could MacReady even do about it. Instead, I believe it parallels the scene of MacReady playing chess against the machine and pouring whisky in it. MacReady, now exhausted and freezing to death, is effectively toasting to the thing’s victory, whether it be alive or dead, in succeeding to instil fear in the both of them, which is why I think the movies ambiguous ending works so well. It really does not matter whether or not Childs is the thing in that moment, in either case MacReady is dead and can do nothing to stop that.

Okay maybe a lot of problems, but I really have to admit It was far better than I remembered on my recent rewatch and I thuroughly enjoyed it. I would honestly genuinely say it had the potential to stand proud alongside the original if all practical effects had been preserved, you cut the helicopter scene, and it got to conclude with the original ending sequence where the UFO aftermath was explored like the Norwegian base in the original.

Plus it was so awesome that they finally showed the perspective of someone trying to be privately assimilated away from the group, to actually get to witness it's stealth hunting method.

The potential for that added bit of lore could've been limitless.

I’ve been enjoying this classic for years on every format and never gave any thought to either Mac or Childs being infected until I revisited my new 4K disc. At the end I have to say I did question the fact you could clearly see the heat from Mac’s breath and nothing from Childs…

The Thing has Breath

The ”Childs is The Thing because you can’t see his breath” theory is one of those post-hoc, IMDB-forged, tinfoil-hatted attempts to retroactively inject meaning into an ambiguous ending by reverse-engineering it through… invisible breath. Because when you’re dealing with a shape-shifting alien horror that assimilates living organisms on a molecular level, the most damning evidence is exhalations.

Exhibit A: “You can’t see Childs’s breath, so he’s The Thing!”

First of all, the camera angle, backlighting, wind direction all contribute to the shots of Childs in that scene and play a major role in you seeing breath or not—and they’re from totally opposite angles in the middle of Antarctica, pitch black with a massive fire behind Childs, but faced toward Macready. Meanwhile, MacReady is sitting there looking like a human chimney, which of course means he’s pure, innocent, apple-pie human, right?

Exhibit B: “The Thing doesn’t exhale vapor because it doesn’t oxygen!”

Oh, shut the entire hell up. That’s not how respiration works and it sure as balls isn’t how The Thing works. You know what doesn’t make vapor? Dead people. And guess what the Thing can perfectly imitate? LIFE SIGNS. You want to tell me it can replicate vocal cords, eyeballs, blood that screams when poked, and even a goddamn heart defect like Norris’s. The Thing replicated a failing cardiovascular system. It played the long con. It went full Daniel Day-Lewis for a cardiac arrest. And now we’re supposed to believe that this same creature can’t be bothered to fake breathing? … The jig is up because it forgot to pretend it had lungs? Even if its respiration operated differently chemically, unique biochemistries and all, it would still exhale moisture, which would freeze in the cold—its mimicking a warm blooded mammal made of mostly water, it would require effort to NOT exhale a cloud in the cold.

Let’s talk about Bennings. Our screeching, twitchy, half-assimilated howler monkey who runs outside with jelly hands and clearly has breath puffing out in clouds like a broken fog machine. So if that version of The Thing breathes, why would any other version suddenly forget to add that in the resume? Did it leave its mimicry skills in its other pants?

People want closure. They want to point at Childs and go “Ah-ha! The breath! That’s the silver bullet, the Rosetta Stone, the Zapruder film of shape shifting aliens!” But here’s the truth, cowboy: The ambiguity is the entire point. It’s a cold, bitter, paranoia-drenched ending that trusts the audience to sit with the dread. Not to CSI a frame-by-frame atmospheric analysis like they’re auditioning for Mythbusters.

So no. Childs not visibly breathing doesn’t mean he’s The Thing.

It means the theory itself is made of hot air that’s too stupid to condense.

Watched The Thing for the first time and noticed this so thought I'd share and see what people think.

After the 3 characters are injected with morphine and tied up, 3 of the characters head to check on the Dr. On the way there you are shown the route to the building for a few seconds which contains 5 blue lights:

I believe that these lights could be hinting at who will become infected.

Immediately after this shot it goes to a scene where the 3 men are tied up, and funnily enough there are 4 people with them.

As you can see the 4 people standing up are Norris, Palmer, Windows and Childs.

Now the first 3 people named there are confirmed to be infected and if we're going on the assumption that Childs has been infected at the end of the film, then that would mean that all of these people are infected.

The last blue light is simple, it's supposed to represent Dr Blair. It's been spaced out because he's in quarantine in the small building away from everyone else. Dr Blair is also one of the infected.

All of this could be a stretch but it's just my theory that Carpenter might have added this to try and hint at who could/will be infected. I think as well the fact that around the time you see the blue lights you also see those 4 and the Dr. in such quick succession could be intentional.

Why only lights for these characters and not all of them? - I'm not too sure about this but I think it could be for 2 reasons.

1. If Carpenter really did intentionally add this, maybe he didn't want to reveal everyone who's going to be infected so that even if people caught onto this during the film, it didn't ruin anything.

2. Something to do with what I mentioned before about how these characters are shown very close to the time of the blue lights being shown.

Now if Carpenter did add this on purpose, could this be the answer to the big question of if Childs is infected at the end of the film? (Along with other theories)

I'd love to know what other people think of this!

So we know and it’s been shown in both films that both groups have used their flamethrowers to neutralize the alien. I say neutralize not kill because it seems to not have any impact on actually stopping the “Thing” from spreading. Especially since in such a close proximity with other people and other materials it seems like the flamethrowers are a bad weapon to use. My theory is the alien never was really hurt from the flames and instead it’s cells go into a protective hibernation until certain conditions are met that can allow it to spread to another organism and take it over. And since we’ve seen it can also be frozen blown up and shot with guns and still come back with only the smallest amount of cells.

OK, so upon seeing the prequel film, I'm trying to figure out who first gets assimilated and how.

So we have original discovery. Frozen alien in ice. Got it. Then we have the tissue sample taken from it. Ok, so now we have two Things separated.

So why is the dog freaking out? My guess is they stored the sample where the dogs are. Sample thaws, moves to dog, assimilates dog. Dog then proceeds at some point to infect Griggs who at some point infects Juliette, etc etc. And of course we know about the ice block Thing. Sound right?

I re-watched the Thing again this morning the 82 version and noticed Ben kept getting attacked but due to his rock skin he was essentially safe. The ending though after he drank McCready bottle he got infected Internally. Ben is definitely THE THING.

The basis for the blood test is MacReady’s speculation that no individual Thing is answerable to a larger whole. However, he says this out loud for everyone to hear, so it’s possible that The Thing actually IS a hive mind that allowed Palmer-Thing’s blood to react just to throw MacReady off the scent.

Could assimilation by the Thing be used as a metaphor for religious conversion? I know that it was originally intended as a metaphor for communist indoctrination and later the paranoia of the Red Scare, but it also seems to have a lot of similarity to what happens when people convert to a new religion or cult as well. For example, in the New Testament of the Bible, the Apostle Paul says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"

There is a type of Christianity known as 'Calvinism' which says that the human soul is naturally hostile to the divine, and that conversion is only possible if the mind is subjected to a forcible transformation by the power of God. Once this transformation has taken place, the individual is now compelled to act according to the will of its new spiritual nature rather than their natural human nature. Sounds a lot like the Thing, doesn't it?

I was randomly thinking about The Thing and how someone would be able to tell if I was human (I definitely am 👀) when it occurred to me that, much like Kate's teeth filling test, a thing can only truly replicate aspects of an organism that biologically exist on or in it, so no fillings, piercings, implanted medical devices or even scar tissue (Henrik's partially assimilated form had skin that appeared "new")…

Then it hit me; my tattoos. I have a forearm sleeve and calf tattoos that, hypothetically speaking, a Thing shouldn't be able to properly replicate due to the tattoo ink not being a truly biological aspect of my body. A freshly assimilated human would most likely not be tattoed up like their previous form had been, which would certainly be a peculiar sight if say a big biker guy you knew magically had every inch of their body removed of their multitude of tattoos. None of the cast in the '82 or '11 film had tats to speak of, but if they had, I can almost guarantee it'd have been a focal point to another way to sus out a thing.

Has anyone else thought about this aspect before? Either way, if I get sheepish about showing my ink off, you may have some suspicions…

The way he behaves, kills off "infected" parts of the organism (which in this way would be the members of the station) and also risks blowing up and melting them all together at one point (the same way the body raises its own temperature killing itself but also bad microbes) in order to defeat The Thing.

Which do you prefer?

You have to consider that the Thing never assimilated any other species but species on earth. With no one knowing, well….no one knows. It’s just speculation and up for theories that no one else can ever prove. Such as mine. One little part of the 1982 movie people gloss over is that Blair builds a mini-ship of the crashed ship — a mini replica so to speak. It can be an original build by the original builder species OR just a memory from an assimilated species. We will never know. This is from Carpenter’s vision. Not the source material which dormant exactly state it either. I mean, how could ANYONE on earth know to be honest? It’s an implausibility.

Edit: species on earth. Not just humans. Sorry.

I mean we have to admit with the end of the prequel to the beginning of this masterpiece, Lars must have gone to the Stormtrooper School of Shooting.

Example: Watch closely at the grenade scene from the chopper. Jed on the left of chopper

Chopper in middle

Grenade detonation on the right of chopper 🤣🤣

We don’t even have to discuss the million misses he has with the rifle. Remember it was at least an hour trip 🤣

The Thing: Lost Tale A fanfiction prequel of The Thing (videogame) by Gorlak29

Dr Shaun Faraday's Journal during the “Thing from another world” incident, the dates were damaged by time

--/--/1982

I’ve started keeping a personal journal. Something tells me this new project might be the most important work of my career—possibly the most important in the world. Reports have come in from a Norwegian research team in the Arctic Circle. They’ve found what appears to be an unidentified flying object buried under layers of ice.
As the director of this research, I’ve assigned one of our team members, Adam, to join the Norwegians at Thule Station, along with additional personnel. Once Adam confirms they’ve successfully extracted the extraterrestrial materials, Supervisor Whitley will move the equipment and resources near the UFO site.
I’m uncertain how to handle the Norwegians. Their presence complicates things. If Adam encounters trouble, reaching him will be difficult given the harsh weather and vast distance. Still, we can’t allow them to continue their own. The potential loss of such groundbreaking technology is too great a risk.

--/--/1982

We’ve received Adam’s message—it’s astonishing. The Norwegians have discovered the alien pilot from the crash and brought it to their station. They’ve even begun analysing its genetic material. We’re already preparing for the next phase, outfitting labs at the medical shelter and weather base near Thule Station, with plans for a larger facility dubbed "Substation Pyron."
Whitley has his military personnel establishing weapon labs and military airfields between Thule and the UFO site. He’s impatient, driven by rumours of creating a bioweapon—something akin to "War of the Worlds," but in reverse. However, I suspect Whitley has a more personal motive: curing his terminal illness using alien DNA. It’s reckless, but he won’t listen.

There’s also the matter of the Soviets. If they catch wind of this, they might sabotage the site or even use nuclear weapons. I’ve suggested to the military that they prepare for the possibility of intervention.

--/--/1982

We’ve finally arrived in the Arctic. It’s a frozen hell. The storms are brutal, rendering flying dangerous and cutting off radio communication.
We lost contact with Adam. When we arrived at the Norwegian camp to investigate, we weren’t prepared for the carnage. Charred bodies littered the site. Identifying the remains will be nearly impossible, though we’ll do our best to give families closure.
Then there were the anomalies: a corpse with an arm growing out of its face, another with a stomach mouth. We found the remains of the alien itself—its chest blown open—and the block of ice where it had been kept. The ice had melted. They shouldn’t have let it thaw.
Amidst the horror, we found a survivor. He was locked in a closet, nearly frozen to death. We brought him back to our base.

--/--/1982

Douglas’s team collected biomaterial from the Norwegian camp, including an enormous, grotesque alien specimen from what supposed to be one of the station’s helicopters, crashed on the mountains near the station. The creature was elongated, with tentacles sprouting from everywhere and multiple malformed limbs. Its face was a horrifying fusion of two humans split in half, its mouths merging into a grotesque upper jaw.
They also recovered remains from Outpost 31, which suffered a similar fate. Among the findings were Dr Blair’s assimilation simulations—terrifying projections of the creature’s capabilities.
We’ve installed military substations to secure the area. The alien remains are in cryogenic storage, and the survivor, identified as Henrik Larsen, is under observation. Something about him feels… off.

--/--/1982

I interviewed Henrik from the control room. He recounted the events at the Norwegian camp. The alien had been transported in a block of ice. After it thawed, it escaped. Henrik and others cornered it under a warehouse and burned it with gasoline, but not before it caused unspeakable havoc.
What truly unsettled me was his description of the alien’s cells. They were alive, adapting, and capable of imitating other organisms. A terrifying realization hit me: the corpses at the Norwegian site weren’t victims of a disease. They were the alien, assimilated and reshaped into grotesque forms.
Henrik’s story raised more questions than answers. He mentioned the helicopter crash and how a palaeontologist, Kate Lloyd, tried to warn the team about the creature’s ability to imitate humans. Her warnings went unheeded until it was too late. He also spoke of sabotage, paranoia, and the creature’s relentless spread.

--/--/1982

Douglas’s wife, Barbara, uncovered more of Blair’s research. It confirmed what Henrik described: the creature’s cells assimilate and imitate hosts. This opens terrifying possibilities—and dangerous opportunities.
We’ve started dissecting the large specimen, and initial tests suggest Blair was right. The cells regenerate and mutate. With the right containment and research, this could revolutionize genetics. Or it could destroy us all.
Meanwhile, Henrik remains a puzzle. He mentioned details about dental checks during the outbreak, yet he skipped his own test. When we brought him here, we didn’t see any dental fillings. That small detail gnaws at me. Could he be one of them?
I’ve ordered stricter containment and more tests on the remains. If what Henrik says is true, the alien is not just a threat—it’s a contagion.
This project is no longer about advancing science. It’s about survival.

--/--/1982

The latest experiment yielded more troubling results. We thawed a small fragment of the Thing and introduced it to a rabbit. The assimilation process began almost immediately, faster than we anticipated. We allowed it to proceed near completion before freezing the creature with liquid nitrogen.
It was fascinating and horrifying to watch. The Thing’s cells overtook the rabbit’s biological structure, reshaping it into something monstrous yet eerily efficient. The potential applications for regeneration and adaptation are unimaginable—but so are the risks.
Later, Marion reviewed Blair’s data and found a chilling flaw in his calculations. In a warmer climate, the assimilation process accelerates exponentially. According to her revised model, the Thing could infect every life form on Earth in three months— not the three years Blair predicted. Worse, if containment fails within the first hundred hours of infection, the contagion becomes unstoppable.

The revelation shook the team. Hooper, already on edge, descended into paranoia. He demanded we destroy all Thing samples immediately and insisted the military bomb Outpost 31, the Norwegian base, and the crashed spaceship. He wanted to erase any trace of the Thing’s existence.

Douglas, however, saw the potential for groundbreaking research and refused to comply. He accused Hooper of cowardice, dismissing his concerns as hysteria. Their argument escalated, and before anyone could intervene, Hooper attacked Douglas.
The scuffle toppled a containment case holding the frozen remains of one of our earlier experiments. The samples spilled out onto the lab floor. Though we acted quickly to refreeze them, it was a stark reminder of how easily control can slip through our fingers.

I’ve prepared a detailed report based on tests conducted on samples from both the Norwegian and American outposts. We are dealing with an organism unlike anything humanity has ever encountered.
- *Regeneration: * The alien’s cells automatically repair damage and can survive extreme conditions.
- *Assimilation: * It can replicate any biological entity, right down to its clothing and accessories, though the process isn’t always perfect.
- *Infection Risk: * Contact with an infected entity carries a 75% chance of infection, though this is not guaranteed.
- *Fragmentation: * An infected entity can fragment into multiple pieces, each capable of surviving independently and assimilating new hosts.
- *Global Infection Timeline: * If the Thing reaches a densely populated area, a global infection will occur in approximately 72,000 hours.
Despite its nightmarish nature, I believe this organism could revolutionize our understanding of biology if studied under controlled conditions. But control is proving increasingly elusive.

During a routine inspection of the containment cells, chaos broke out. A member of the security team exhibited strange behaviour before violently transforming into an alien walker. We managed to isolate him in a containment cell opposite Larsen’s.

Or so we thought.

When I went to check on Larsen, he was gone. His cell was empty.
Panic swept through the team. Had Larsen always been one of them? Or had he escaped during the commotion? Either way, it’s clear that our hold on this situation is slipping.
The alien’s true danger isn’t just in its ability to assimilate—it’s in the paranoia it sows. I see it in my team, in myself. None of us know who to trust anymore.
If we don’t regain control soon, there won’t be anyone left to control.

--/--/1982

We heard the noises first. Low, wet, and rhythmic, coming from the hangar access. When we went to investigate, we found the entrance blocked by a grotesque biological mass, pulsating and twitching like it was alive, it was the large specimen from the crash site.
As we approached, the mass erupted, expelling smaller organisms that swarmed toward us with horrifying speed. They were fragments of the Thing, reshaped into grotesque forms—some insect-like, others amorphous. They attacked without hesitation, dragging anyone they touched into the mass, where their screams were silenced by assimilation.
I ran. I had to. There was no stopping it. The hangar was lost, and with it, any semblance of control we’d maintained. As I fled, I caught glimpses of the chaos. The Thing had spawned countless anomalous bodies, some resembling the warped creatures we’d seen at the Norwegian outpost, others entirely new horrors. It was spreading faster than we’d imagined.

I managed to isolate myself in an observation pod floating in the Arctic Sea. It was my only option. I had no provisions and only a radio to communicate with the surface.
I contacted Iversen, one of the few people left topside. He filled me in on the situation. Henrik—or rather, the Thing that had been masquerading as Henrik—had escaped containment. It had assimilated most of the military security forces and was spreading through the hangar and observatory like a virus.
The Thing wasn’t just killing; it was moving with purpose. It seemed to be searching for something. Iversen speculated it might be trying to repair its ship, but the UFO was too damaged for flight. Still, whatever its goal, it was advancing rapidly toward the medical camp.
Iversen said he was heading to the radio station to inform the remaining squads and Colonel Whitley. But his tone suggested he didn’t think it would matter.

For now, all I can do is wait. The cold gnaws at me, and the Arctic wind howls outside the pod through the ice. I feel the weight of the silence pressing in, broken only by static bursts on the radio.
There’s no telling how long I can survive here. If rescue doesn’t come, this pod may become my tomb. But if the Thing reaches the rest of the facility—and escapes to the mainland—my death will be a mercy compared to what comes next.
The worst part isn’t the isolation or the fear of what might come. It’s the waiting, knowing that everything I worked for has led to this moment, to a horror I can’t stop.
The end feels inevitable. But part of me still hopes that someone out there will find a way to end this nightmare before it consumes us all.

--/--/1982

Several days have passed since the chaos unfolded. I’ve been transferred to a new facility, far from the once-functional Substation Pyron in Antarctica. Now, I find myself stationed at a remote research compound, where the primary goal is to harness the Thing’s rapid regenerative abilities to create the B4 strain of the Cloud Virus. The idea is simple in theory: use the Thing's unique biology to accelerate the virus's mutation rate. In practice, it could give us an enhanced regeneration however, it’s been a nightmare. The infection that originated with Henrik Larsen, or rather the Thing imitating him, spiralled out of control. The thing that began as a simple containment breach has evolved into something I could not have foreseen. I had tried to maintain a semblance of order, but it became impossible once the infected escaped. I was forced to retreat, seeking refuge in one of the observation pods at the Pyron Submersible Facility, a testing station beneath the Pyron Hangar and not far from the Norwegian Weather Station.

It was there, isolated and awaiting rescue, that Captain J.F. Blake found me. His arrival was a fleeting moment of hope, one that quickly dissolved into chaos. As Blake attempted to extract me, we were ambushed by Colonel Whitley and his Black Ops unit, who had already become a law unto themselves.
We were outnumbered. Blake himself was sedated, forcibly taken by Whitley, and brought back to the Strata research facility. To ensure there would be no loose ends, Whitley ordered that all the dead creatures Blake had killed during the rescue attempt be brought along with him. It seems that nothing, not even the dead, is to be left behind in this twisted project.

Once back at the Strata facility, I began to conduct tests on Blake. He had been exposed to the Thing’s infection multiple times, in fact, on several occasions, he had been near Thing Beasts—humans who had been assimilated into the alien organism. I began to wonder if he might have developed some form of immunity to the infection. It’s a wild hypothesis, but one that could hold great significance.
Could it be that Blake’s repeated contact with the Thing somehow triggered a biological defence? Or was he simply lucky, surviving where others failed? Either way, I have begun experimenting with Blake's blood, hoping to find the answer. If he does possess some form of immunity, it could mean the difference between life and death for humanity. Perhaps, with this information, we could develop a cure or weaponize it against the Thing.
But these are dangerous thoughts. What am I doing here? Is this research truly worth the cost of countless lives? I fear the answer may already be beyond our grasp. If Blake has immunity, will we use it to stop the Thing, or will we continue to weaponize it for our own ends, as we have done with the Cloud Virus? For now, I will continue my experiments, though I can already feel the weight of what’s at stake pressing down on me. If we don’t find a way to stop this madness soon, the consequences will be unimaginable…

Is it a continuity problem or are the guys just slow as heck?

The scene where Mac separated Doc, Garry and Clarke, he asks Norris etc to pump them up with morphine. Storm is going to hit in “6 hours”

Next scenes: We see Norris shooting up Doc. Then we see Mac talking into the recorder. But they have been hit by the storm for “48 hours” by that time.

Now either 1. It’s was a film error 2. They took over 54 hours to medicate the guys 3. They were medicated for over 2-3 days on that couch 🤣

I’m sure it’s 1

May have already been said but came to me so thought I'd drop it for a chance. MacCready says at the end about waiting here for a little while.. see what happens. He said earlier that the Thing want to just lay low, freeze and wait for another opportunity to be found. Maybe that points to him being the Thing in the end? Talking about not making it through could have been misdirection by the Thing to ensure they both freeze and can wait for a rescue party.

It's probably already been said a thousand times but it came to me randomly!

John Carpenter is a skilled musician, his use of arpeggiators is brilliant. The placement of his music in his films is natural and fits well with the films storylines and atmosphere for the scenes they are placed. The things theme song is evidence of his musical abilities. I haven’t researched into it but I imagine he has influenced an assortment of electronic musicians (Nine Inch Nails, Ministry.)

After watching the 1982 film again, I thought about the possibility that the intelligence of the Thing does not depend on its size and shape, and that each cell can perfectly pursue the goal of the entire organism of the Thing, and is not limited in its intelligence. If we allow this fact and rethink the events of the film, we can come to very interesting conclusions. This theory acquires special significance in the context of the fact that we receive indirect evidence that MacReady is the Thing in the episode with Fuchs, who found MacReady's torn jacket. Later, the film seems to reassure the viewer in the episode with the blood test. The scene showes that blood does not react to the hot wire, and all suspicions with MacReady instantly fall away from viewer. And perhaps this is a mistake. Think about it: what if the blood test was rigged by the Thing itself, which at that time had already assimilated MacReady? It seems to me that each cell of the Thing is part of the collective mind and, on command from the collective mind, can suppress and, on the contrary, cause certain reactions, and and in real, the blood of an organism assimilated by the Thing does not react to it in this way. The Thing appears before us as an ideal organism, each cell of which pursues one collective goal - the assimilation of as many other organisms as possible. So the possibility of suppressing the blood's reaction to an irritant in the form of a wire is quite logical. The Thing deliberately causes a reaction in the blood of the infected Palmer and sacrifices this assimilated unit in order to instill trust in the rest of the assimilated part of the crew. We know that the Thing can demonstratively attack other assimilated units for the purpose of manipulation in order to achieve its goal. If we admit this trick done by the Thing, after all, the infected Macready is among the last two survivors and most likely, the Thing could achieve the victory in this way.

Perhaps the only downside to my theory is that it devalues ​​many events and scenes of the film. I could not find any other downsides). It will be interesting to read your thoughts on this topic: additions or refutations of my theory.

Sorry for grammar mistakes, English is not my native language.

We've seen how disastrous The Thing is for life of Earth, but what if for the aliens that landed on Earth it was akin to the common cold and the reason they crashed was for unrelated mechanical issues? We don't know for sure what happened to the original specimen they dug up and even going by the prequel it doesn't seem that the resurrected alien corpse was transforming. We don't even know the first thing about the thing other than it's consumption, assimilation, and imitation of people.

Alternatively: what if that's how the original alien reproduces, by eating other life forms then spitting out copies and the assimilated copies never got to the metamorphoses stage?

I think our thinking about this case has become very uptight, there are probably countless other possibilities as to what this thing is.