Ok so John Carpenters The Thing is one of my favourite films ever made. The movie stands as
the gold standard for practical effects and ontop of this the film has an extremely well
crafted story that still stands the test of time. Laced with paranoia the movie
is meant to leave us constantly second guessing which characters are the thing
and this extends to the ending itself. The movie closes out with Childs and MacReady
warming themselves by the blazes of their base before cold creeps in and kills them.
For decades people have questioned where Childs is a Thing or not and for the first
part of the video I wanna discuss why I think that he was. Now this is something
I've gone back and forth over throughout the decades and initially I believed that
Childs was one of the good guys. However there are two very important things that
come at the end that I think spell it out that Childs is indeed an alien.
Now the first of these comes when we catch him watching over the base from the sidelines. Childs
is instructed to keep an eye out and he stands in one of the rooms that lead to the outside.
Later on we see that he's abandoned this post and we get a look at the room which now has the door
wide open. Now you might not notice this but the coats are on completely different hangers
to what they were originally when we first saw Childs in the room. Placing these shots
beside each other we can see that they're all laid out in a completely different way.
In the movie we discover that The Thing rips through your clothes in order to kill you and
my theory is that the creature ambushed Childs at this point and was then a struggle. This
caused some of the coats to fall off the pegs and then in a hurry, the Thing grabbed one to
wear and then put the others up so that it didn't look like there'd be an attack.
Childs coat in this scene is navy blue and when he
comes to meet Macready at the end it appears to be a creamy white colour.
Now this may be due to the snow and there's been several people
that have argued that the coat is blue, we just can't see it.
Either way I think the peg position is a lot more telling and these coats have been rearranged to
spell it out to us what's going on. Though this may be a continuity error, it's important to bear
in mind that The Thing's production schedule was delayed heavily due to weather conditions and this
gave Carpenter months on end to plan out minute details and this is why the script is so tight.
We see Childs go out into the snow and the lights cut out just a couple
seconds later hinting at him sabotaging it and then heading out into the snow.
Now Macready meeting Childs I think also spells out exactly what's going on with the pair.
In the scene Macready gives Childs a drink and he then
smirks after the character takes a swig of it.
I think this is very telling and the more I watch it the more that I think this is actually a test.
In the movie we're told that the inhabitants of the camp should prepare their own meals. This
is clearly spelling out that they shouldn't share food or drink because The Thing acts
like a virus and could spread through this. There was a followup sequel script
that was scrapped that described The Thing in more detail and it said it would create
a perfect immitation of someone. If they had a blood clot it would have one and if
they had a cold it would even take over the cells of the virus and immitate that too.
Childs would no doubt be warned about sharing food and liquids
however he takes a drink without questioning it. Macready then smirks
as if he's got him because he knows The Thing wouldn't care about this.
If Childs is already a Thing then he wouldn't care about sharing drinks because he's already
infected. Drinks are also a way that he could pass on his cells and take over someone else
so he would drink this willingly because it would give him an in to take Macready.
Just as he takes a drink the theme tune also kicks in hinting to us
through the score abotu what Macready has just realised.
Might be a reach...but yeah....
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This theme tune itself perfectly plays upon the sense of isolation too as we
have a single note playing over and over again rather than a full orchestral theme.
Even the note in the score is alone and it's something that really elevates the soundtrack.
Now there is also the fact that he doesn't have a visible breath and there's no light in his eye.
On the 4k blu ray there's a commentary with Dean Cundey
who explained there's a way to figure out who's human and who isn't. He said
“You’ll notice there’s always an eye light,
we call it, a little gleam in the eye of the actor,” he says. ”It gives life.”
If this light is missing then it means that the
character is a thing and it's absent in this finale scene
However Carpenter said this was only the case in
the blood test scene so it wouldn't matter either way for the ending.
Honestly I dont think we will ever get a clear answer over whether Childs is a
Thing or not because knowing is not the point of the film. We are meant
to constantly be second guessing this and it's a reason why the film is still
talked about 40 years later. It's laced with a constant feeling of not knowing
what's really going on and this is seen from the opening all the way to the end.
Confusion and paranoia is what makes the movie so great and it's in almost every aspect of the film.
We aren't meant to know why the Norwegians are chasing the dog and the fact that they
don't speak English is put to throw us off of what's really going on.
However if you do speak Norwegian...then spoiler alert because it gives away the whole film.
The character says:
"Get the hell away from that thing. That's not a dog,
it's some sort of thing! It's imitating a dog, it isn't real! GET AWAY YOU IDIOTS!!"
The fact that the thing disguises itself as a dog is also genius for the story.
Dogs are of course mans best friend and this unassuming husky is instantly
brought into the group because it's seen as a victim. It's also allowed to lick people
without question and pass on it's germs, potentially transmitting the thing into
others. Because it's an animal it's also given unrestricted access to the entire
compound so the alien can just walk around until it's eventually put in the kennel.
A really cool moment happens when we see Doc bandaging up Bennings and in
the background we can catch Clark. He is bandaging up the dog but this
ends up not being on it later because The Thing has an accelerated healing factor.
Now we're gonna get into the rest of the movie in just a bit but if you're
enjoying the video then do the right thing and hit the thumbs up button.
Make sure you subscribe to get assimilated and I hope you enjoy the rest of the video.
Now one of the biggest mysteries in the movie in retrospect is who got to the blood. Gary was
said to be the only one who had the keys with Windows occasionally getting access
to this. Both are revealed to be human during the Bloodtest so it doesnt really make sense.
However there's a split second audio cue that lets us know when the keys could've been snatched.
Listen closely to this.
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Now huge shoutouts to Rob Ager for pointing this out and
it's possible that the keys were snatched during the confusion.
It's a great detail and what I love about the movie is how well crafted
things are in the intro that show us what the characters are really like.
We catch Macready playing chess against a computer and it pulls off an impossible move to win.
Macready then tips his drink into the machine to break it and this is very much foreshadowing the
entire plot of the film. The computer very much represents the alien which cheats and
manipulates the game so it can win. On the other side of this Macready is willing to burn it all
down just to come out on top. This computer is now f**ked and had the alien not come in
then it would've been a lonely couple of months with him having nothing to play chess against.
Gary also breaks through a window in order to shoot the norwegian soldier. This is
quite cowardly and it shows that though hes the leader he will hang back and try
to keep out of trouble. He does this later on when he hands over the leadership position.
We also have Bennings who rushes in and gets shot and though he's not actually
the first person to become a Thing, he is the first one we learn about.
The Norwegian also has weird goggles on with tiny eye sockets making him seem impossible
to connect with because we can't see his eyes. This heightens the sense of paranoia because he's
someone we know nothing about who's brandishing a gun and screaming in a foreign language.
Now who gets turned first we dont know but we do see a silhouette on the wall
with curly hair. This could be either Norris or Palmer and to be completely
honest with you we're meant to not know who it is. Carpenter actually cast a completely
different person for this shadow who just so happened to have curly hair. Because
of this we don't know which character it is and it heightens the paranoia.
I love the way the intro plays out slowly introducing us to the
character and Carpenter even has a bit of fun with the music cues.
As we see the Dog making it's through the base over the top we
can here superstition by Stevie Wonder. Though it's on the nose, it's something
I only really noticed when doing an indepth breakdown of the film
because it just feels like the kind of song you'd hear on the radio randomly playing.
Some of the group fracture off and there's a team that travel
to the Norwegian base which is when the Dog thing makes its first move.
It purposely waits until people are divided which is a tactic we see throughout the film.
Now upon reaching the base they find a cube like structure that has been broken out of
from the inside. Subliminally this is meant to be a similar shape to a coffin and the
idea that something has burst out of it is supposed to feel us with feelings of
dread. Ideas that it's a monster, a vampire or something unknown are hinted to us here.
When crafting the film, Carpenter also made a rule that the Thing doesn't truly have a form.
It never appears the same way twice either and therefore we never really get a true
grasp of what it really is. However amongst it's body we always see something familiar,
something we recognise but this is twisted and malformed into something more horrific.
After collecting the carcass from the base the Thing makes it's first attack through the dog.
One of the reasons I think that Norris was probably assimilated first is that we see
Palmer with Childs and later on he's cleared as being the creature. If it was the thing it
would've attacked at this point. If we look at the collar on the silhoutte too it's also
similar to the jumper and undershirt that we see Norris wearing throughout.
The Dog attack is horrifying and it also shows how useless that guns are against
the beast. Instead they have to burn it with fire because the majority of our
weapons dont work. This attack is carried out by Childs and alongside Macready,
they're the only characters that actually manage to kill a Thing. Interestingly they're the two
characters that survive until the end but whether Child....look we've been over it.
Shoutout Somek_pamak on Reddit for pointing out that this scene shows foreshadows the deaths and
events of the film. One is shot similar to Clark, other dogs are absorbed and some are burned.
Interestingly two dogs escape representing how Macready and
Childs esca....maybe he's a not a thing then.
Anyway the next day Blair examines the creature and it's possible that he gets
infected at this point. We see him touch the carcass with a pencil and then put it
too his lips which would be enough for it to potentially infect him. Blair then goes
crazy and smashes up the radio room and any transport out of the base.
I've seen lots of theories saying that potentially this is a ploy by The Thing
to have Blair removed so that it can work on the ship we find hidden at the end. However
I think he's probably assimilated later for a number of reasons. Firstly we find
him studying the creature on his computer alone. This runs through a simulation of
how the Thing duplicates itself. If Blair was a thing he wouldn't need to know this.
When they visit his cabin later we also see that he has a noose
hanging up which he set up to end his own life. This is likely in the case that The
Thing came to get him and therefore I think he was absorbed much later.
Either way Blair puts the idea in Macreadys head that he needs
to watch Clark which ultimately leads to Macready shooting him. He was never a Thing
but this scene creates a domino effect that leads to an actual persons death.
The blood bank sabotage is discovered and a little detail on Doc is that he has a nose ring.
The Thing can't replicate inorganic material and this is something we discover in the 2011 film.
So yeah you'd need a time machine to know this but it's nice when we revisit it. Now another
detail I absolutely love happens right after this when Windows goes to grab the shotgun.
The group chase after him too but you might notice that some members
are absent. This is Norris and Palmer who hang back and we later see waiting
down the corridor. All the people in this shot are human and it shows that they've
turned on each other whilst the actual things hang back and let it play out.
Another nice touch here is that the snipers weapon from the start
actually appears in the cabinet where the other firearms are kept.
The incident at Macreadys shack happens and we get the amazing chest scene. This was accomplished
using an actual amputer with a mask and it stands as one of the best practical effects in cinema.
Interestingly Palmer self snitches during this moment and points out Norris' head. I've always
wondered what this was for and it's possible that the individual cells of the Thing are so
centered on their own survival that they'll happily kill others in order to gain trust.
It's even possible that The Things don't know they're Things and that the
cells inside actually hide out and wait until it's the perfect time to strike.
Cut to the blood test scene and in a nice bit of set dressing we see a poster behind
Macready of someone showing ID. This says 'they aren't labelled chum' and
this is a nice little nod to how who the thing is isnt labelled...chump.
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I love the body language in this scene too and as each character is tested we see them
looking intently at Macready as he carries out the test. This is in the case of every single
character who is trasnfixed by Macready and the results...well every character except one.
Palmer just stares down at the floor whilst his test is being carried out
because he already knows the result. He even smirks as if it to say well this
is it and after the explosion he puts his plan into place.
Though Windows is taken out I love the sense of relief that extends through the part in
which the rest of the cast are cleared. There's a real sense of eleviation knowing we can trust
certain characters again and this shows just how much paranoia that the movie induces. Typically
in horror movies humans and the quote unquote group are the people that we feel at ease with.
For example in a slasher movie, the times that are the least tense are when the characters are
all together because we know there's safety in numbers. It's only when they split up that
we feel uneasy but THe Thing is a reverse of that. Even when the characters are in a
group together there's still that feeling of tension because we don't knwo who to trust.
They go out to Blairs cabin and discover the ship he's building under the cabin.
Slowly he picks them off one by one and an interesting detail here
is that Blair doesnt wear a coat. This is because the Thing doesn't
actually care about the temperature and it was just wearing coats to blend in.
We end with Childs and Macready potentially sharing a drink either as enemies or friends,
good game my guy which closes out the film.
....
Also windows was called that cos he's always weraing sunglasses.
Anyway that's our breakdown and I hope you enjoyed our trip through
one of the the best films ever made. I think the Thing will probably still be discussed
in another 40 years and who knows what will be found the more people watch through it.
Obviously if we missed anything then make sure you comment below and let me know.
If you want something else to watch we have a breakdown of all the cool
details in Jordan Peele's Nope which will be linked on screen right now.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been
Paul and I’ll see you next time. Take care, Peace