The Thing

Deliberate mistake: Right at the end of the film, the two Norwegians (Lars and Matias) are seen chasing after Lars' dog in a helicopter. Notice how their clothing and the interior of the helicopter are not the same as they looked in the original 1982 film by John Carpenter. It's supposed to be the same event.

THGhost

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.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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.

More mistakes in The Thing
More quotes from The Thing

Trivia: Poor Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr.'s practical creature effects were nearly all replaced or so digitally-composited that, in frustration, they started a Kickstarter campaign that led to the film Harbinger Down.

Erik M.

More trivia for The Thing

Question: We saw that Split-Face's arms became separate creatures, but that happened to its legs? where did they go?

Erik M.

More questions & answers from The Thing

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.