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Clark: I dunno what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is.

The brief chess game (four moves) shown in the beginning of the movie makes absolutely no sense. For instance: There are no white bishops on the board, but after the human player taps a few buttons, the computer says that he just moved one. Within the two moves described first, the positions of the pieces change completely. In addition, some pieces are now gone and there are new pieces on the board. It's like an entirely different game. The final move is said to have been made with a black rook, which is impossible. In the shot shown before this move, there is not a single position available to that chess piece that would result in an instant checkmate. Nothing in the editing indicates that these few short shots are supposed to be viewed as separate games. See more...

Trivia

Maybe it's just foreshadowing, but if you notice the scenes in the infirmary, the two tables are not operating tables, but portable autopsy tables. There are two of them, but nothing designed for "live" patients. Kind of makes you wonder about Doc's credentials. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

The Thing (1982) - 3 questions

Directed by John Carpenter, starring David Clennon, Keith David, Kurt Russell, T.K. Carter, Wilford Brimley (add more)

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Sci-fi, Thriller

The "questions" section is for any random questions that occurred to you while watching this film, or anything you didn't entirely understand, and which Google or the IMDb can't help with. Submit them as a question, and hopefully someone will answer (the bold comments in brackets) - check back regularly. If the answer is wrong, or missing information, please use the "clarify answer" option. Don't feel limited - want to know what music played in a certain scene? Whether this was the first film to use a certain effect? Here's the place to ask!

Questions

Question: Someone proposes an initial blood serum test (before Macready's heat sensitivity test), but the crew find the blood sabotaged before they can get to it. How could "The Thing" have gotten to the blood so fast, and more importantly, Garry and the Doc are the only ones said to have access to the blood. BOTH are proved by the Mac's test to be "Thing-free" - the Doc's blood is tested even though he is dead; Garry is the last man tested. How can this be?

Answer: The Thing is a shape shifter. It doesn't just take the form of what it assimilates, it can change its shape (eg. dog and head spider). It could easily form a thin tentacle to open a door from the inside. It's also shown to have the sheer strength to bust out.

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Question: Was the huge monster McReady encounters, and subsequently blows up, the actual "default" form of the Thing? After all, the correspondent DVD chapter is titled "The Real Thing". Yes, they do say that the Thing could've imitated millions of different lifeforms, but it must've had a form to begin with.

Answer: In the book, it was vaguely humanoid with blue rubbery skin, a head of writhing tentacles, and 3 glowing red eyes. There is a picture of it in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials by Wayne Barlowe.

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Question: So what happen to the two guys at the end of the movie?Is there any stories about them in the PC game or an alternate ending or something like that?

Answer: No one knows what happened. They had no transport and couldn't make radio contact, so very likely they froze to death. If one or both are Things, than they just went dormant until rescue shows up. There is nothing in the game or on the DVD that answers this for sure. BTW It's very hotly debated amongst Thing fans, that Childs is a thing because you cannot see his breath in the cold. (It's very difficult to tell if you can or not because of the scene's lighting).

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