Question: I'm not sure how accurate this is, but someone told me in a story they read about The Thing being able to beat Mac's blood test. So, forgive me if this is a dumb question, but is it at all possible for The Thing (in any context, story or movie) to beat Mac's little "blood test" and remain hidden, or is the blood test absolutely impossible for The Thing to beat?
BaconIsMyBFF
12th Mar 2024
The Thing (1982)
13th Dec 2021
The Thing (1982)
Question: When Palmer was revealed to be a Thing, MacReady tries to blast him, but the flamethrower only shoots out at most a foot. What caused the weapon to act the way it did?
Answer: It appears that the fuel line is clogged. Macready keeps banging the tank to try to get more fuel to come out, and it eventually does so - the unit wasn't empty.
27th Nov 2004
The Thing (1982)
Question: So what happen to the two guys at the end of the movie? Are there any stories about them in the PC game or an alternate ending or something like that?
Answer: The Game shows Child's frozen body where we last saw him in the movie (Whether he is a thing lying dormant or not, we never find out) There is a comic book series that continues where the movie left off, where MacCready and child's are rescued by another research team on a ship. And it is discovered that Childs was in fact a Thing, spawning a whole new generation of things among the team.
Can you tell me what comic book series that is? I'd like to read it.
The comic series is called The Thing From Another World, just like the original movie from the 50's. It was published by Dark Horse comics. Besides some decent artwork, especially on the covers, the series isn't very good and actually contradicts the movie in a few areas.
Thanks! I read it, it's not bad.
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, then 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).
Answer: Just to add to the other answers, I actually saw an interview with Keith David recently where he explained that it was purposely shot to be ambiguous. They shot two different versions of the scene - one where they played the scene as though neither was the thing... and another where they acted more suspicious of one another. And they built the scene out of the footage they had. He also debunked the popular fan theory about how you couldn't see Childs' breath being a hint... he explained that the way the scene was blocked, the air around him was slightly warmer than it was around Kurt Russell due to the fire and the debris around them - hence you just couldn't see his breath while you could see Russell's, who was about 5 or so feet away. (Not to mention you can actually see a little bit of his breath once or twice.) It wasn't a conscious decision to try to hint that Childs might be the thing. The scene really is just meant to be super ambiguous and unexplained.
Answer: Please, there is no such thing as a dumb question. Hard to answer without knowing exactly what you heard, however: based on what we see in the film it is not possible for the creature to beat the blood test as it is shown. Every cell of the Thing possesses a sense of self-preservation and will recoil from pain instinctively. Any stories written after the film that suggest otherwise (ex. The Thing focuses really hard to not react to the pain; it kills the cells so they won't react, etc.) would create a plot hole in the original film. It knew exactly how the test worked and if it could pass, it would have.
BaconIsMyBFF
I found it in a Thing movie fan group. No official source but claim was it was the movie from The Thing's point of view. Including the blood test and how The Thing mostly managed to beat it except for Palmer (Palmer was freshly assimilated). The Things' goal was turn humanity into a collective species for the "greater good" as it believed. Again no official source, but was just curious if the blood test part has any merit to it.
Mlp1327