Plot hole: No one wonders what happened to all the staff and patients at that sanatorium? No police ever came there and checked the place out after 30 years? And all the patient records, furniture, etc are still there?
Plot hole: Through this film (and its predecessor) it is established that the creature imitates its victims perfectly, having all of their knowledge and memory. At the end, when the female lead tells the male lead she knew he was human because of his earring, he reaches for the wrong ear, confirming he is The Thing. Even if The Thing couldn't reproduce the earring, it would have known which ear it was supposed to be in.
Plot hole: Everybody jumps into the water and emerges on the submarine except for Natalie. They're wondering where she is when they notice a flare. They realise it's her, and they send a search party. She's hiding on a bus maybe one to two kilometres away from the water. Her going there makes no plausible sense. Makes no sense how she held her breath underwater longer than anybody that they didn't see her and why she would go in the opposite direction of the sub. It was done to prolong the scene. (01:09:00 - 01:18:00)
Plot hole: How would any of the EVA/16MM video footage be recovered in the first place? Astronauts took pictures like these on rolls of film, and those were developed well after the end of the flight. If the spacecraft had not been recovered at all, then the footage would simply be a piece of orbiting space junk. (01:22:40)
Plot hole: In the hospital scene at the end, why does Hicks run in and push Gale out of the way? She had no way of knowing someone was holding a gun on her and was about to be shot, as far as Hicks knew Gale was just standing there talking to someone. (01:40:00)
Plot hole: At the end of this movie, (1988) Kristi and Katie's mother died. In the first Paranormal Activity (2006), when the psychic is visiting he says it feeds off negative energy, and Micha says "I guess we can't have your mother over anymore."
Plot hole: The very last scene shows Mary building a wall, apparently in her belfry. But there should still be the original wall that Rose built, with the hole in it that Mary smashed in. By killing Rose / having killed Rose, she prevents further harm, but all effects that took place before that (also the building of the wall), should stay (like her scars). It is very unlikely Mary broke down the whole wall just to add another body. (01:28:25)
Plot hole: Ed discovers Jerry is invisible to video recording. However, later in the movie, Jerry appears on the surveillance camera when he attacks a hapless security guard at Peter Vincent's building.
Suggested correction: It is also established in this film that the creature cannot perfectly imitate inorganic materials; the tooth fillings, metal plate, etc. Kate knows that Carter is The Thing and asks him a trick question about his earring to confirm it. The fact that The Thing reaches for the wrong ear means that it didn't know where the earring really was because it cannot perfectly imitate inorganic materials. There is no mistake here.
THGhost
The mistake has nothing to do with The Thing not being able to imitate inorganic material. The mistake is The Thing has all the memories and thus should know which ear was pierced based on these memories.
Bishop73
This goes with my theory that he was actually human because he didn't try to assimilate her when they we're alone and far away from people, and he didn't change when he was threatened and accused which was backed by (potentially false if the theory is correct) evidence which would make it defend itself.
You're obviously wrong here. The Thing imitates the human perfectly including the memory and I'm pretty sure that if you only have one ear pierced you'd know which one is it, therefore the imitation would know.