Was Child's the Thing? Explain why you think he was or was

>>87715659
wot

>Where were you Childs?
>I uhh.. got lost in the storm

yeah pretty shitty excuse, he was the thing.

it was a while ago since i last saw the movie
how did the infection get from the dog to the guys?

>>87715860
the dog guy

>>87715723
even if that excuse was legit, that means the thing is still out there in the storm

either way we're fucked

>>87715659
>>at some point it would have been the thing vs the thing and they could have just ganged up instead of continue the ruse

That implies a collective consciousness or a consciousness at all. The "thing" could simulate its target so well as to simulate its memories and even its mind. Neither Childs nor... Black Guy, if either were the thing, would have known they were the thing until a fight/flight scenario caused the entity to react reflexively. And this alien already knew it could survive being frozen. It likely did not regard being frozen as a life or death situation, so if either or both of them were the thing, they wouldn't have known.

True to its animalistic need to propagate itself, if it knew what they knew, a rescue team would come eventually. Their station was some kind of government research station with like 14 employees. If it were either of them, all it had to do was wait a little longer.


If Childs were the thing, when he froze to death, it wouldn't have died.

If Keith David were the thing, when he froze to death, it wouldn't have died.

If they were both the thing, then when they froze to death, it wouldn't have died.

If neither were the thing, then they died.

It is this four-way uncertainty that makes the ending good. And absolutely not worth answering.

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>>87715877
what dog guy

>>87715901
>one guy comes and ruins the thread

go to sleep nerd

>>87715901
good answer

>>87715860
one of the dogs is shown entering the room of an unknown person the night before the epidemic breaks loose.
>>87715877
not the dog guy.

>>87715659
NO! HE WASN'T! the prequel established that the thing can't replicate metal and childs is seen with an earring on. It was impossible for him to be the thing

>>87716009
oh i see thanks

>>87716048
fun fact they actually used one of the roadies or sound technicians or something for that scene. it shows only the silhouette of the person and they wanted to leave it ambiguous and both the two actors who it could've been had too distinctive silhouettes.

>>87715659
>>87715723
>>87716041
>Childs was the thing
Only brainlet retards actually believe this.

>Childs got gasoline, not scotch.
And this is the dumbest possible reason they give. If Childs was the thing there would have been a reaction to him consuming gasoline. There's ZERO indication that gasoline was in the bottle, it's just pure conjecture without evidence.

The actual answer to the ending of The Thing? - Neither one of them are the Thing. They won. But they both freeze to death anyway and die as unsung heroes, and no one will ever know about it.

>>87715900
>that means the thing is still out there in the storm
"No!"
Childs thought he saw Blair, and he did...while Blair was on his way to the compound to kill off the other 2 and showdown with Mac.

>>87715901
How would they not know that they were the thing but would know they could not die by freezing to death? Doesn't make sense, at all.
Also that drink at the end may have been gasoline, and since the thing never tasted whiskey it would have just given a basic reaction to alcohol that it got from one of the memories. It could remember and mimic human like actions and reactions but could not experience the event that caused those actions itself as it was only a memory. Example when you remember what you had for dinner last night you cannot replicate the taste 0in that memory and taste it again, but you remember how it tasted and If you liked it.
Was probably gasoline and Macready chuckled at the carelessness of the thing

>>87715659 (OP)

The only honest answer I can give is "None of you will ever know". That was the whole point, and the genius, of the ending.

The horror in the movie is the characters second guessing everyone and not knowing who to trust. And at the end, the audience is put in that very place.

At first, your easily tempted to think it's Child's because how can MacReady be the Thing...he's the main protagonist. He's the bad-ass hero who screamed "Oh yeah, well fuck you too!" to a horrific giant monster....

...or is that what your trying to make me think movie? Is this just a trick and you made the person we would least suspect the monster?

>>87716084
>and die as unsung heroes, and no one will ever know about it
i think when scientists in the US wonder why one of their arctic bases isn't communicating with them anymore and they go to investigate it, they'll know

>>87716084
This, also, we saw how the thing was killed, it's the first time I read this theory and it's illogical AF

>>87715901
this is just fucking retarded

>>87716084
this guy gets it. literally the only logical conclusion to Childs not killing MacReady is that Childs isn't the thing.
>b-b-but if we assume childs WAS the thing and then assume for some reason that macready gave him gasoline then we can draw a tenuous analogy with the chess game at the beginning, therefore childs was the thing!

>>87716146
>i think when scientists in the US wonder why one of their arctic bases isn't communicating with them anymore and they go to investigate it, they'll know
They won't know about the whole ordeal, that they killed an alien that assimilates people. That they sacrificed themselves to kill it. (Blair MVP honestly) All the evidence was destroyed.

>>87716228
>All the evidence was destroyed.
there was plenty left over in the norwegian station. they only grabbed like one box full of files.

>>87716273
Again, no one will know that Mac and Childs killed the fucker and froze to death after. No one will know Mac was a hero who saved humanity. This was the only point in the previous post that was being made, which you still continue to quibble over.

I read a interview about the hateful 8 once and they touched on this with Kurt Russle. He said that one if his favorite lines in the movie is when mac asks child's where he was. He said this reset the minds of their viewers to start questioning everything and everyone again.
Tldr Kurt implied child's could be the thing

>>87716084
>Neither one of them are the Thing

Nope. Can't be proven with 100% certainty one way or the other.

>>87716504
>Can't be proven with 100% certainty one way or the other.
Nope. Literally just fucking conjecture. Also neither one being the Thing and freezing to death as heroes is objectively the best and fairest ending.

how does the thing infect someone? Do we ever see it? Been a while since I've seen the film

>>87716444
I got the opposite feeling from what he was saying. He went off after that to hint mac could be the thing.
He wouldn't give away the mystery that makes the movie great today.
Also nice trips

>>87716629
it comes in contact and then it eats/assimilates on the cellular level

MCready was the thing. He spat in the bottle of scotch before handing it to Childs thus infecting him

>>87716743
Would it even survive in the whiskey?
That shit can serve as a antiseptic if need be

>>87715659

If Mac knew that he, Mac, was not the Thing, he had a duty to incinerate Childs, even if he thought he, Childs, was human. Why take the risk? Sure they're both going to freeze to death, but the Thing can survive being frozen.

>>87716743
Why would the thing fight itself and set itself on fire. It's main objective is to repepduce/ replicate to spread, it wouldn't kill it's own child in a sense or part of itself if only child's was alive, the thing would have won at that point

Anyone going to bring up the fact that at the end you could not see child's breathe in the cold? That he wasn't breathing

>>87716603
Nope. The ending isn't meant to be fair. It's deliberately left as an open-ended question. The contents of the bottle are unknown, so not reliable proof either way.

Carpenter confirmed there meant to be a scene where they get rescued and test their blood and none of them was the Thing but they scrapped the idea because this ending is better.

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reminder this film is literally impossible to figure out because carpenter sacrificed a lot of logic and linear narrative in order to create suspense and terror. the puzzle is never going to be solved. it's been 35 years and we're still at ground zero.
>muh gasoline
>muh breath
>muh kerozine (particular kek)
>muh jackeeeeet
>muh video games
>believing anything carpenter says on social media
literal redditcore

The game suggests mac may have become the thing before meeting back up with child's and handing him the drink to infect him. Leaving child's thing to be found by a rescue team appearing to be frozen to death while mac thing leaves to go off and do his thing.
Or leaves it as mac a was the thing and child's just froze to death. Either one.

>>87716861
You do see Childs breath. It isn't as visible as MacReadys but it's there.

Also Childs has an earring, and we learn in the 2011 movie that The Thing can't mimic inorganic matter

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>>87716989
>The game

>>87716861
stop watching movies on your toaster, you fucking homosexual

>>87716950
We can take all of those theories and compile to a thing not thing ratio. Just because it's a fun discussion doesn't mean it's Reddit tier. Jesus I bet you are the type of poster on here that just shit on anything and is cynical about everything. Prob why you are on 4chan at 5 am. I'm just killing time before a flight and here you are complaining we are taking about an old movie theory on a movie board. Go back to /pol/ or cripple if you are that butthurt

>>87715659
John Carpenter himself confirmed he wasnt

>>87716829
He was infected at the explosion, cells entered his system

>>87717068
>5am

haha burgers i swear

>>87715659
No but the other guy was. He gave him the drink because he did the same with the computer. He's going to fry his ass.

>>87717075
How? The fire would kill everything and the air would freeze those microscopic particles that did escape to a dormant state.

>>87717075
if infection is that easy then everyone would have been infected from flaked-off skin cells in the weeks they were trapped

>>87716864
>It's deliberately left as an open-ended question
For us to discuss, giving reasons.
>The contents of the bottle are unknown
You are literally double-digit IQ tier if you think there was gasoline in that bottle. It's one of the entry-level tard tests in the debate.

>>87717016
You also see the thing's breath when they oil him up and toast him. It's not just a little puff of breath either, it's very visible. I guess most people don't pay attention and come up with weird theories that they force other people to spread around?

>>87717118
And they then defrost in the body heat of mac

>>87717095
>hahah burgers
Ever heard of Canada.
You just have gotten completemy btfo to reply with just that.
Back to /pol/ you go. You all make it so obvious that what board you frequent just by your attitude lol

>>87717068
there are good theories and puzzles such as figuring out the timelines of early events, and then there are moronic redditcore theories such as childs's breath because people watch their movies on no toasters. i just like to call things what they really are, i'm too old for this shit.

>>87716861
Idiot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0Z44BIDPPc

>>87717164
Idk man I think he would have gotten infected before that right before the spider scene

>>87717174
BREATHFAGS BTFO!!!

How will they ever recover?
lol

>>87717165
>leaf
>thinking he can have an opinion on anything

can't make this shit up

>>87717074
john carpenter doesn't know anything and his opinion is moot

>>87717241
It's cute that the worst insult you can come up with is calling a canadian foliage.

>>87717241
Hmm didn't know we were on /pol/. Again you don't hide yourself well.
Also I'm in Canada not from there. Fucking retard. By your lack of critical thinking I'm guessing you are a bong or ameritard

>>87717265
You're so edgy, Brewster!

how does the thing work ?
because in that scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX9ZpsEg6Mc infected norris is having a heart attack ...
was he still himself ?
once infected does it take time for the thing to replace the vtictim ?

>>87717316
the thing replicates norris perfectly, including his heart defect

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>>87717265
Yep. The guy who made the very thing we are talking about doesn't get to put any input in.

>>87717316
The movie (not the prequel) show us that The Thing eats it's victim and creates a new body (with the flaws of the original one like a heart condition).
In theory, it could infect in other ways, but we never see that on screen except in a microscope. It's unknown if The Thing needs to eat the victim or if it can infect them from the inside. My guess is that, as a complex organism trying to duplicate another complex organism, it needs to consume that organism first. The microscope scene might have been only a way to show the audience how it works on a celular level as comparison.

>>87717354
>>87717399

thx for your lights

>The Thing can't replicate metal
You ever thought maybe it took the erring off of Childs then put it on itself?

>>87716199
>this guy gets it. literally the only logical conclusion to Childs not killing MacReady is that Childs isn't the thing
People usually argue that the script has Mac being armed so they both are just suspicious and doing nothing about it.
I think the ending is left ambiguous but my personal preference is that both are humans.

>>87717492
Doesn't really match it's MO. It usually attacks and consume (even shredding clothing) and the new body just put on new clothes and shit.
But maybe it learned? Let's not forget it tried to framd Mac. So it might have killed Childs, took the earing off, ate him and put the earing on the new Childs.

idk...

>>87717527
Fun fact, the ending being ambiguous was completely by accident, Carpenter never once thought that people might think Childs is the thing

>>87715901

Why did I read all that? Are you stupid? Keith David was Childs. Are you thinking Kurt Russel was Childs? He was MacReady.

The scene where MacReady is testing the blood, the guy who ends up being the thing gives this "Oh well, I almost got away with it" look before the blood jumps out of the petri dish and then reveals himself. So either they DO know that they've changed or the thing has taken over their consciousness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u84EQVI8C0A
He's a pretty good video. The game has more on the Thing too

>>87715901
kino shit post

I thought it was pretty obvious that Childs was the Thing. Not only do you have the music start playing as he takes a sip from the bottle, but the whole scene mirrors Mac at the start of the film. Knowing he can't win, he gives his opponent a drink, like how he 'gave' the computer a drink.

>>87717592
John Carpenter sounds almost as retarded as Ridley Scott

Replicant, my ass

>>87718286
He didn't give his computer a drink, he destryed it. He's a man who can't bear to lose. So he prefers destroying the whole base and having no chance to survive, but not letting the thing expand or survive than having any chance of survival and possibly letting it go on and destroy humanity.

How's the thing video game?

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>>87716504
>>87716950
The way I see it, it doesn't mean
we shouldn't ask

>>87718662
>>87718877
You find Child's frozen dead human body in the game to verify he was human.

And the screenplay for the miniseries sequel that never happend also indicated both McCready and Childs were human and froze to death.

>childs was the thing
/pol/ answer
>mac was the thing
reddit answer
>both were things
ultimate reddit answer
>both were human
K I N O answer

They were both human. The idea was that they longer trusted each other because the Thing was so convincing.

Both were at a minimum infected by Thing

I recall childs never liked drinking from the same glass, and childs did at the end. The thing didnt know that about him.

>>87715659
Yes.
The biggest evidence in my opinion is how he ran off into the storm ALONE, which completely goes against how they set up his character as being super cautious and unwilling to take risks (see the scene where Mac is locked outside and Childs wants to burn him). The other best evidence for Childs being The Thing is how he drinks from the bottle at the end. If he was the same cautious Childs we had seen before, he wouldn't have shared the bottle with Mac out of fear of being infected.

>>87721235
>>87720998
You guys keep going on about muh infection. The Thing doesn't work like that. It EAT you and creates a new body.

>>87721419
I know that, but it's just an easy way to say they were assimilated by The Thing.

>People still keep asking this when John Carpenter, Keith David and Kurt Russell have all stated that he isn't

Fuck off.

>>87721465
A lot of people think it infects like a virus and turns them from the inside out (we never se that in the movie).
The characters are paranoid and fear they could be infected (they don't let other people prepare their food, etc.), but, as a viewer, we know it doesn't work like that.

>>87721419
Were literally shown an animation showing a single cell can infect an organism and there is dialogue confirming the need to eat separately to avoid infection.

Infection is canon

>>87721542
>A lot of people think it infects like a virus and turns them from the inside out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhZT3vw7ab8

It makes sense that people would think that when scenes like this are in the movie.

>>87721794
That and when Fuches tells MacReady that everyone should only eat out of cans and prepare their own meals since even a tiny particle of the thing could infect and take over an entire organism.