John Carpenter's The Thing Movie Ending... Explained
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ส.ค. 2024
- John Carpenter's THE THING (1982) - Movie Endings Explained, Kurt Russell sci-fi horror film
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Movie endings, they're usually pretty straight forward right? Everything pays off, the main characters learn something, and our heroes ride off into the sunset. Sometimes though, we don't get the typical ending from a movie, we get something much more nuanced, complex and open ended. The kind of endings that leave things up in the air for all of us to debate and theorise on until we're blue in the face. With Movie Endings Explained, we aim to delve into some of the more ambiguous and mysterious endings to films that have left audiences scratching their heads for years, and to attempt to explain them. In most cases, a definitive answer isn't really there, so we definitely want to hear from YOU on how you interpret the various endings we'll be discussing with this series.
This time we dive multiple-heads-first into John Carpenter's sci-fi horror classic, THE THING. Initially somewhat of a disappointment upon release in 1982, the paranoia wrought movie focused on a group of Antarctic researchers fighting off an assimiliating alien lifeform went on to become a cult favourite. Some films don't age well, THE THING seems to only get better as time goes on. The last scene of the film between Kurt Russell (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE HATEFUL EIGHT) and Keith David (THEY LIVE, PLATOON) has been the source of fan debate for decades, were either of the two men really human, or did one of them fall prey to the Thing, mimicked by the mysterious parasite? We delve into the nihilistic ending that John Carpenter left us with and try to find some clues that point to the true answer!
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The Thing is a masterpiece. People are still discussing and debating it 35 years later. I love it.
Nice marmot. True, I love movies like these
Nice marmot. Heck ya some scenes were creepy as hell, even watching it in 2018
Nice marmot. I remember watching this as a kid and just seeing a lot of blood and gore. But watching it years later (along with the 2011 prequel) I've come to appreciate it more and more. Likely because the psychological thriller aspects of it, paranoia of fellow man, are far more prevalent than when I was a kid.
On a separate note - let's not forget that keeping wildlife, an amphibious rodent...for um...you know...domestic...within the city...that ain't legal either.
It’s one of the finest films ever made.
There is no debate, chilea is yhe thing while maceeady isnt. To figure this out pay attwntion to macready liqpur supply, when he runs oit and when they use his old empyty bottlea to make the molotov cocktail. The ending is literally given away in the firat 20 to 30 mins of the film
That bass line always gives me chills.
The genius of Ennio Morricone.
@@Gunners_Mate_Guns RIP
@@johnmurdoch3083 Yes
A musical genius.
Now, he belongs to the ages.
Not only this is the best sci-fi horror film of all time, it’s a cinematic masterpiece.
My favourite film of all time
My favorite sci-fi/horror film. The acting,score, script &special effects make it an all time great movie.
mac is quietly uneasy and suspicious of childs the moment he sees him. the look he gives him before handing over the bottle speaks volumes. childs on the other hand, is calm, and not at all suspicious of mac. if he was human, there is no way he would not be. he has never been one during the whole movie, who could hide his emotions. very hotheaded, speaks his mind. why would he not be grilling mac about what happened? he had a survivor mentality and I don't believe that he would be so nonchalant .that's one for childs being the Thing this movie is so good and really messes with your head. that's why its fantastic.
Down with the bloody red queen good point
Maybe mac is nervous because he is the thing and doesn't want child's to find out. 🤔
John Carpenter has said that one of them is ABSOLUTELY not human. They are both less aggressive, in the final moments, than they were throughout the rest of the film. Here is a big clue. Carpenter goes out of his way to have Childs look off to his left and show that he still has his ear ring, in his right ear 10:24.
@@patrickfalls6819 That's a good catch, as the prequel specifically points out it can't replicate jewelery or implants.
This could also be explained by him just being extremely tired and fed up. like when Macready tells childs to guard the door he is about to lay his head on the wall and close his eyes. I think at this point he trusts Macready enough, after the blood test and all. I mean he probably saw Macready stumbling around drunk with a bottle in his hands. which is in character for Macready.
The Thing got better with time. Despite the notoriety, still very underrated. Forget horror, its an American classic!
I love the fact that the film leaves us hanging. Sometimes we really shouldn't have all questions answered.
Having spent 4+ days awake nonstop in the Military, I can assure you, standing alone, in the cold, you have "Waking Dreams", the shit your mind thinks about in the background PLAYS OUT in front of you. I'm told it's the same effect as LSD.
So yea, I can see Childs fighting sleep, paranoia and seeing something to the point where he just bolts out after it, rather it come to him. Really been in that state of mind, you need that "END" no matter what it is.
All time fav movie.
ARMY SAPPER
Yes, I concur. Even in the relatively low stress of a training environment, when sleep deprived, the mind plays all manner of tricks, and they seem as real as anything else.
1: Keith David’s coat is covered with frost, that accounts for the color difference. 2: An assimilated Keith David would have instantly tasted the difference between whiskey and gasoline, if indeed he possessed the entire memory of the pre-assimilated host.
The reason Childs does not take over McReady at the end is that it does not matter. The thing's purpose is to survive. At the end, there is no chance to escape, so the thing's best option is to freeze and wait until assistance arrives later. If he can fool McReady long enough, then McReady will die and no longer pose a threat. And then the thing will freeze and hibernate. So at this point it is just a waiting game. Hence, the reason for the question: "Are you the only one?" If yes, then the thing has won; it can survive freezing. McReady cannot. "Are you the only one" is also the thing asking if McReady is only threat left.
Nice comment, I agree. "Are you the only one?" is a very unhuman question. Like, "where are the others!?!" or "did noone else make it?" would have hinted at more emotion, but no. "Are YOU the only one?". Sounds to me that Childs is a Thing, also the new brown coat he is wearing at the end.
I thought the same only that Mac is the thing.
And @Emil Sohn
The coat is not a different coat.
Child's is on post in a blue coat. (A blue coat hanging behind him.)
Then later,
Child's is gone from post. (A tan coat hanging behind him.)
But, later in the movie,.. (In this video, th-cam.com/video/5IGTGDO28Hs/w-d-xo.html)
@3:10
When Mac, Nauls, and Garry are at the stairs to the generator room after blowing all the other rooms up.
Mac says, "The generator room." Mac starts down the stairs, and,
in the background, you can plainly see the main door room where Child's was at post watching for Blair.
And there it is. The blue coat hanging on the wall.
donblassvivar
I always thought of it as Childs trying to find out if Macready is a Thing at the same time.
“You the only one who made it?”
“Did you kill it?”
Childs wore his earring
actually the most intelligent thing would have been to blast macready before he even saw him. he had a flamethrower and Macready's back was turned. he had ample oppertunity and motive.
or else you know what? just dont go up to macready at all. walk in the opposite direction and just freeze somewhere else. macready cant stop you. hes fucked up, drunk and about to freeze to death.
the only explanation for childs to be the thing and walk up to Macready and keep up the façade is "because movie". the thing has had no reason to do subturfuge since the blood test was concocted and has even less reason now that there is only one guy left. The thing will inherit your memories. it can count, he doesn't need to ask Macready if he is the only one. the only logical answer is that childs is human and does not want to die alone. him asking "were you the only one" can just as easily be interpreted as him asking if he was the only one that survived of the group that departed. a perfectly reasonable question.
I still prefer the theory that they are both human. That perfectly encapsulates the paranoia this scenario creates.
They are both human. They won. The thing is dead. But because they can't be sure they have both to freeze to death. It is the only option to be sure that the thing doesn't escape.
@Wyrd80 - mobile.twitter.com/thehorrormaster/status/272063161832701953?lang=en
One of them is definitely The thing. JC said so himself....
May well be so. I think it takes away from it, though.
Yes, I agree. I like the open ended paranoia feel.
fatboy SRK he just says if no light in eye = the thing, in the ending both have light so yes, both are human, end.
fatboy SRK well his word has been very contradictory over the years. He considers the game canon and in the game, Childs is human because you can find his body, and he’s human. But at the same time he thinks that one of them is the thing which doesn’t make sense because hey both have the glimmer of light in their eyes.
I believe the liquor bottle theory...he was staring so hard at Childs while handing him the bottle. Either because he did have gasoline in it or he didn't believe the real Childs would drink from him. Childs seemed oddly calm in this scene which is the biggest red flag for me.
The Bennings Thing is clearly putting out breath mid transformation. Which kinda cancels out the "no breath" theory. Also they both agreed earlier that this was a suicide mission. Death by flamethrower would probably be less painful (certainly quicker) than death by exposure. Yet only one of those options prevents a potential Thing surviving the encounter.
@pyropulse Direct hits from a flamethrower tend to kill within a few seconds. While the weapon is not primarily designed to be used in this manner it can and has been to great effect throughout history (not to mention in this very film). Non direct fire would be much more painful, yet still kills within seconds if the victim is engulfed.
Those who suffer from extreme exposure (freezing) have on many occasions been reported to shed clothes as they feel like they are burning not freezing.
As i have never experienced either personally all i can do i listen to accounts of those who have or those who have witnessed similar events. And based on their opinions my assumption would be that both feel like burning, but only one ends quickly. I never said fire didn't hurt, i have been close enough to it to know it most certainly does, just that it would probably be quicker and thus a less painful way to go out.
Also lets not forget that this is a party of men who agreed to basically kill themselves to ensure the Thing will not survive or escape. Neither Childs or McReady trusts that the other is human. Burning each other ensures the Thing dies and their sacrifice is not wasted, freezing to death does not.
And a lesson is breathing out of a person's mouth: If you are in extreme cold breath will ALWAYS come out of your mouth. If not, that means you are dead.
@@tired8788 dying from exposure is painless actually as you go numb before you die.
7:58 it was actually just for that scene with Palmer if you look in all the other scenes with the thing, it still has eye gleam.
It's the same coat, the frost from the cold makes it look like a different color. If you look closely you can tell it has the same hood and everything.
4:59
It's not the same coat. It's the same style coat, but it's definitely a different coat. Take a look at the coats on the wall, one is blue and the other on the right is not. He has swapped to a similar coat to the one on the right. 5:00
It is the same coat.
Child's is on post in a blue coat. (A blue coat hanging behind him.)
@4:48
Child's is gone from post. (A tan coat hanging behind him.)
But, later in the movie,.. (In this video, th-cam.com/video/5IGTGDO28Hs/w-d-xo.html)
@3:10
When Mac, Nauls, and Garry are at the stairs to the generator room after blowing all the other rooms up.
Mac says, "The generator room." Mac starts down the stairs, and,
in the background, you can plainly see the main door room where Child's was at post watching for Blair.
And there it is. The blue coat hanging on the wall.
The whole mystery at the end is the perfect ending for what is one of the best movies ever made.
Some possible scenarios I can think of.
1. Childs is the Thing because MacReady may have given him the bottle containing gasoline as a test and Childs fell for it.
2. MacReady is the Thing because it is smarter than the other Thing in behaving like a true human from start to end. He passed the bottle containing the virus to Childs and ended up infecting 1 more survivor while itself may die out soon, hence MacReady's chuckle.
3. Both Childs and MacReady are not the Thing but MacReady's chuckle hinted that he's still wary of Childs because of his prolonged absence.
FWIW, even if Childs were the thing, he would have had a very negative reaction to drinking gasoline.
Remember Blair earlier in the movie doing the autopsy of the dog that had become a thing?
He commented that the internal organs were all normal, and that it could imitate life forms perfectly, meaning that anything harmful to the dog would be harmful to the thing.
Remember; it's still a living creature, not a machine.
how did macready pass the blood test if he was the thing all along?
3 is canon
you will see that Mac was about to drink from the bottle before Childs arrives. So I doubt it had gasoline
I think Kurt Russell tried to trick Keith David with the drinking gasoline test, Keith David was a human but so badass that he drinks gasoline and likes it.
Mathy Don 😂😂😂
Mathy Don hahahahahhah nice
Here's the deal with the whiskey bottle. if i am Child's and i am human. i don't know for sure that Mac is human because they got split up. so when Mac hands him the bottle even if it's not gasoline and just whiskey, why would he take the chance to take a swig in case Mac is the thing. He would be risking contamination. just like Fuchs says. "Eat out of cans.....So to me the ending is obvious, Childs is infected at the end
Either that or seeing if Childs would drink it. Earlier they were all told to not share anything, even food, because they didn’t know how the thing was actually affecting them. I feel Childs is the thing at the end. The real Childs would not have drank it (I think).
@@jaymachan8859 And further, The Thing would do all it can to "be" the person it assimilates - personality acceptance. The risk it takes is not knowing interaction beforehand such as Childs knowing MacReady was all outa J&B
i always assumed that he was chuckling cause he thought something like "now that we're doomed, now we communicate"
I think so too, plus he's chuckling sardonically because he knows that they're both doomed to freeze to death, so may as well do that to at least keep on a brave face with the end only an our so away for both of them.
Yeah, like "We're both fucked, so why bother?"
He chuckled because of the irony. They’re both back at square one
This classic horror flick should have gotten a sequel or a mini-series sequel that I heard rumors about. This film will always remain iconic and legendary.
There’s a comic that proceeds it
In a cut part of the script. Mcready burns down the rest of the camp including his shed but before doing that grabs himself a bottle of alcohol. He is contempt to die in the cold until childs shows up. At that point that scene plays out but what isn't seen is Mcready getting his flame thrower ready. At that point it is implied Mcready burns childs assuming he is a thing which it is revealed that he is. This was cut because carpenter liked a more bleak ending which i prefer myself. It even leaves it open for a possible sequel which the sci-fi channel was planning to do but opted not to because they lacked the budget and they actually wanted to do it similar to the film with practical effects. You should read the story idea for the cut tv special they had planned, it sounded amazing.
What a crack of bullshit!
Thanks for sharing this info.
well the jacket childs is wearing is THE SAME just covered in snow.
I dont think so,
its diffrent jacket made from diffrent material. Look at the zipper. On the second one its covered with the material on the blue one its not. Also the jacket from the final scene was on the hanger next to the entrence which Childs was covering. In the next scene Childs and jacket are gone.
I think ultimately the point that proves that Childs is the thing in the end is that we’ve seen throughout the film that those assimilated tend to have a more subdued version of their personality.
Childs in the ending is almost uncharacteristically calm when he’s been the dude who’s been panicky and sketched out the whole time. It definitely suggests that Childs was assimilated.
The scene where we see the room where Childs was being empty, is a clue to how Blair killed him. The scene starts at the maintenance room and pans over to another room, and that room is behind Childs. We also see a different layout of coats and boots the second time in Childs's defense outpost. The eyelights, coat, liquor, expanded universe, Kurt Russel, intended ending and dialogue theories hold up as well. There is also the fact that John Carpenter said that one of them is The Thing, and we know that Macready is human.
Explain why McReady is about to take a sip of the liquor then? And you also see that it's the same liquor bottle from the beginning in his shed.
And you see eyelight of Childs in the end.
They remade the end... to make the audience question. That is the ending. Not even Carpenter and Kurt is sure who is the thing. Nobody is. And that is the way it's supposed to be.
But Childs is wearing an earring. The Thing can’t recreate inanimate objects.
Childs is The Thing. That's why Mac is laughing at the end. You can see in an earlier scene that he wasn't about to confront MacCready when he thought Mac was infected. So he definitely wouldn't chase Blair outside after being warned Blair might be infected.
Nah childs show us his earing
@@kuriharaonly9613 Prequel don't mean shit, since the Thing learned from his mistakes AND it came far later than the original.
At the end, Childs have a ring in his rigth ears, so he is not a thing, and MacReady just kill (or try to) the Thing. So the 2 last men are human.
Listen to the fact that child's did not get an answer regarding if the thing was dead or not the whole base is blown up and he just sits down it doesn't say anything but takes a drink does not fit child's personality
(Sorry to arrive so late to the party...)
McReady giving Childs the bottle was a test...but not because it was filled with gasoline, but --simply--because Childs took a drink. If I were in that situation, especially considering how paranoid everyone in the story had become, there's no way that I take a drink after ANYONE that I'm not 100% certain is human. I Childs was still human, wouldn't he be suspicious of McReady possibly infecting him with that "tainted" bottle?
He didn't hesitate to take a drink when the bottle was offered.
But that fits in with each mac says about "it doesn't really matter now anyway"
That is a compelling theory but ultimately the ending makes the most sense if they are both human. If childs was the thing he should have just ambused macready or ran somewhere else to freeze. It can be interpreted that Childs came to trust and respect macready after the blood test, took the alcohol, and macready laughed because he and childs used to be rivals and are now sharing a drink about to die together.
I agree.
@@TheIZproductions But if Childs is the thing, wouldn't it be valid to NOT take over Mac because Mac is just going to freeze to death anyway? Mac clearly doesn't have a way to leave. So taking his body doesn't give the thing any advantage at escaping the facility that it doesn't already have. In other words, what would be the point?
Masterpiece. Gene Siskel was the only critic who liked this movie. More power too him. A crime that upon release it was hated and nearly ended Carpenters career.
Well I couldn't see it in theaters in 1982. I was only a year old at that time. Sorry.
I did see it many years later and I did get a chance to see it in theaters, on 2011 when they had it for one night only.
In 2010, Canadian author Peter Watts wrote a short story called The Things, that told the story of John Carpenter's movie from the perspective of the alien. In that story, Childs was infected before MacReady, Nauls, and Garry went to test Blair. Childs walked into the night to freeze and be found again at a later date, but he came back when MacReady blew up the Blair monster to see if any humans survived. In this short story, the alien was some sort of ambassador who didn't understand why the humans resisted what it called "taking communion", and eventually became angered and disgusted at the primitive humans, resolving to force communion on them.
I love how you guys dissect these endings in so many ways and usually attack all bases of possibilities, however, one thing you didn't keep in mind is that Childs still has an earing. I still love the idea that both of them are still human and have won, but that trust is gone so no matter what... some messed up stuff is going to happen after the end of the movie that we will never see.
I'm happy to see that I am not the only one who thinks this is the best movie ever made!
My favourite film of all time
Doesn't make sense that the thing can imitate a person's mind but doesn't know gasoline is bad.
The coat is blue that's been proven. Also the gasoline doesn't hold as his bottles were destroyed by the thing in the final fight. He was probably laughing because childs drank not knowing if he was infected as if they've both given up.
In one of interviews John Carpenter confirms that his idea was that both of them are human at the end. About bottle - it was established that when someone is assimilated the thing also copies memory so if Childs was the thing he would have known it's not an alcohol (assuming Childs drank alcohol before in his life)
Carpenter confirmed in an interview at one point that one of them is in fact a thing so..
chad senpai Childs was the human , he had the earring on!, the thing cannot replicate metal, but can consume liquor
Alan Morales he could have just put the earring back on.
@@alanmorales5784 Yep. You can see how it seems Childs is positioned on that side of the screen in order to reveal that subtle clue 10:24.
False
Carpenter has consistently given the same answer of "i dont know" "i dont care" every time he has been asked. and you have to understand, this guy has been asked this question, maybe hundreds if not thousands of times. he in all likelihood said that on twitter as a joke. If someone asked you a question a thousand times you might very well just give a sarcastic answer like that as well. to take that one answer out of a ton of different things carpenter has said about the ending is cherry-picking.
Nailed it. The ending is ambiguous on purpose, and attempting to prove theories is folly because there simply isn't clear evidence, so any theory requires a leap of faith.
this movie gave me nightmares when i was a kid
Sergiu Riciu wow me too
It still does to me
The dog scene... I must have been 6 or 7
This movie still gives me nightmares
As a kid, me too. 28 Days Later gave me one nightmare as an adult. Its sequel was just a typical american action flick though.
To me, the ambiguity of the ending is what makes the ending. It is like the end of the first Matrix, the question of if Neo is in the real world of if he is just in another layer of the matrix, another level of control for the problematic residents, is left open. The matrix sequels sort of ruined this, but the ending of The Thing remains intact.
Greatest sci fi horror of all time. Yep, it even tops *Alien* and *Aliens.* 👍
My favourite film of all time
"Why don't we just... wait here for a little while. See what happens."
Great video, thanks for posting the audio commentary, barely anyone mentions it.
If you go based off the prequel, it's eather Kurt Russel or no one because Keith David's ear ring can be seen at the end.
could very easily just be a detail they didn't think of. i wouldn't take the earring as proof of anything since that detail was only revealed in the prequel that most people including john carpenter hated. it is logical though. but they might not have thought anything of it.
I get it now, childs is human and that’s why he drinks the Molotov(or just plain liquor) and macready chuckles because he’s thinking the same. The thing wouldn’t drink
The guy who turned into The Thing earlier in the movie outside, his breath was very visible when shrieking
JoBlo: But there's a split second when Childs lifts his eyelids a little more... yeah, we see-
Star trek ad: *intervenes*
What reason would the Thing with a flame thrower in hand not just Burn McCready right away?
The thing never attacks unless it gets exposed
@@ahmedgalal305 which was a good idea when it was still banking on subterfuge. But since the blood test was developed the thing can no longer rely on paranoia. thats why it killed the generator and just waited in the basement to ambush and then became a big monster thing. because the game was up. at the end of the movie there is no more use of subterfuge for the thing
I think the music was the giveaway. You first see the dog as the music plays and then the same with child's..
Bloody great commentary! Enjoyed the video very much.
Him giving the bottle could be a test simply because they were not supposed to share food and stuff like that since the thing can infect using that.
One of my top 3 movies. After the video I love it even more!
Thanks for the video.
The Thing's breath can be seen very easily when it takes over the redheaded guy.
Also, Child's eyes have a brief gleam at the very end
Yes, there's no reason to believe the breath theory, except hubris.
Excellent insights into one of mt favorite. Many Thanks!
The bottle isn't gasoline, since MacGready is about to take a sip himself just before being interrupted by Childs.
The giveaway here is that Childs *accepts* the bottle (remember if it's really Childs, then from his pov he cannot be sure MacGready is not infected). Clearly he is not concerned about contamination, which is the giveaway, and although the camera doesn't linger we don't see MacGready ask for it back.
Why are you guys saying MacGready?
Michael Buick maybe he wanted to die quick?
Just imagine that some crazy people made a remake of this movie.
This movie is so unique and so full of character. I can't even imagine how those guys at hollywood can be so amazingly insane. (ah yes, i know the 1982 itself is a remake but that doesn't count)
I never heard about the eye light explanation before, great vid!
I usually hate these explained videos, but, this one is fantastic. Great little video.
Child is the Thing shows you in a 3 comic book of what happened after the end of Carpenter’s Story it showed that the thing are really intelligent
5:04 A 'brown overcoat??' His jacket is army green. With that said, this analysis and debunking of fan theories was solid. I saw this film for the first time 2 years ago and it is one of the BEST films that I've seen in my life.
They can both be human, Nauls and Garry's bodies are still around, and they were attacked shortly before Blair-Thing was destroyed. What better way to ensure survival, knowing you're about to likely freeze, than to infect two more just before it happens? Windows was changing just minutes after he was attacked, and the Thing had almost 6 hours before the temps would be far too low to continue. It leaves room for a sequel to this day.
The coat is blue. If you look closely in the hd version it just looks beige because of the fire and that he’s covered in snow... similar to Mack earlier in the movie after Nauls Locked him out. However, if you pay attention to the two scenes before childs runs into the snow, the one before shows three coats... beige blue and green. The one after with the door open shows two, green and beige.
As for the eye gleams, that only applied to Palmer.
Very good! Way to debunk all the nonsense. Like millions of fans; I can’t express how much I love this film.
Childs isn’t wearing different clothes. His jacket etc are covered in frost, just like Macready is. We do know the thing can’t replicate inorganic materials and Childs has a gold tooth and earring. The whiskey bottles they were using as Molotov cocktails blew up with the Blair thing, you can clearly see them. I would have said they were both human except the director said one wasn’t so I have to go with it being Mac. He was told they shouldn’t share food etc for fear of contamination. We don’t see Mac tell anyone else this though. At the end when he hands Childs the bottle and laughs, it could be because he’s just infected him. Also, would Mac have made it out of the explosion he set? We can’t say for sure if Mac’s clothes are ripped because he has a blanket round himself.
As I understand, Child's coat is still blue, it's just frosted over and looks this way in the low light of the fire. Mac's leather jacket was nearly white when he was left outside by Nauls, and then it slowly returned to it's normal color.
Carpenter was at E3 signing The Thing videogame posters, I doubt if he didn't approve of the video being cannon he would be there
Great job Luke!
The Blue Ray version has the TV aired cut, the brief cut, the outtakes, and the BR version of the film. The abbreviated cut had several scenes that were not in the original cut of the film. Its all pretty amazing. Maybe someday Carpenter will restore all the footage in a way that puts the sequence of events together in a more complete way and the original demise of some characters and lost footage showing the destruction of the roof over the tool shed and over Mac's hut, for just a few changes.
Thanks for clearing that up. Now I know which one was real. Kurt was the real human and Childs was the Thing.
Childs was The Things in the comic book sequel Climate of Fear and it was awesome
That is an incomplete way to state it: In the comics, Childs was not a Thing until the submarine he and MacReady were on was destroyed in the first series; Childs was infected after he ejected MacReady out of the submarine. Carpenter though, keeps implying multiple ideas are canon, in regards to the comics and PS2 game (you find his frozen human corpse), so we can't know for certain what is the truth.
Just me but I always liked to think both McReady and Childs were human and they just slowly froze to death. I love both their actors and characters and they were so antagonistic toward each other in the movie. I prefer to think that since they knew they were both going to die they buried the hatchet over a bottle of scotch, having made peace with each other and just fell asleep.
Good job. Kept me watching. If the ending was what you thought it was, it was extremely subtle. Great observations.
I read that the video game was confirmed canon, and carpenter himself approved of it.
larry jones it is
who cares, shit game anyway
It was a good game. Hard as fuck though
@@robbrindisi4364 It was not a good game. It sucked.
@@elguitarTom prove it
The gasoline bottle theory doesnt hold. When you see the zoom out after he hands Childs the bottle, McCready's shack (screen right) is on fire. He could have gotten a bottle of booze from his shack before setting it on fire. The fact is that the movie is left with the unknown.. exactly how it was written.
i watched this movie as the last horror movie to halloween movie marathon i love this movie its another one of my personal favorite horror movies to watch.
Pretty sure that childs changing coats has been debunked as it was due to the lighting
Also the eye glare has most definitely been debunked as the initial dog had eye glare
We'll their both human, and they both set out to find help, while mcready kinda falls in the snow and freeze a bit, until a navy seal ship comes and rescue's him, and then he thinks child's is the thing so hentest himself to make sure he wasn't, he stole the helicopter off the ship after escaping, he saw footprints, and found frozen Infected bodies at one part, while a navy seal team dropped down, and two soldiers touched it and one became infected, and killed the whole troop, the commander and mcready was the last two left and mcready helped him, and child's and his men found mcready and them, but yea.
Both men are human at the very end.
They eventually triumphed over the thing, but they lost twelve men to it, some killed outright and others assimilated by the thing.
Earth is saved by the extreme heroism of the men, and the only survivors are MacReady and Childs, but they won't survive to warn the rest of the world should more things be out there, and no one will have any idea how much courage they showed by sacrificing their lives.
That's nearly as bleak an ending than if either were the thing at the end.
We should all be proud of John Carpenter for having the balls to leave the ending so somber and ambiguous, a very rare thing with too many movies today that instead choose to wrap up the entire thing in a nice pretty little bow at the end.
John Carpenter confirmed one of them to be the Thing so this is obsolete.
Keith David says he thinks the reason we don't see Child's breathing out much air is because he attributes that to the fact that he is the one closer to the fire.
also even the actors said "we didnt know nothing about the breath idea till decades later when people mentioned it". no gasoline was in the bottle it was simply a scene using the jb whiskey that he could have had on him. there was no meaning "give gasoline to tell if hes the thing" the movie could not have been made if every single scene had five thousand secret messages.
The books say both of them are human at this point. But the thing is not dead , they face it not long after this...
Who is the Thing- MacCready or Childs? You forgot one other person-Nauls. When MacCready went to set the explosives, Nauls thought he heard something behind them, went to investigate and that's the last we see of him for the rest of the film. Now we never did actually see what happened to him, was he taken by the Thing or did he went somewhere else?
Imo Mccready was human. Just like earlier in the movie Mc gave liquor to the computer to beat it. At the end he gave liquor or gasoline to the Thing to beat it.
If we are to believe Blair saying the Thing imitates people perfectly, that would mean it would imitate everything about a human. This would include tastebuds and knowing alcohol and gasoline. We know thos because assimilated Norris had a heart attack. The Thing imitated everything about him...why not the same with Childs IF there was gasoline in the bottle, Childs wouldn't have drank it since human Childs knows not to drink gasoline.
same clothes they are covered in snow being blanketed in the fires reflection making it appear a different color
great video
There is another theroy, when Macready was arming the TNT the Thing pops out destroys the handle. And an assimilated dog burst out the Thing's body trying to escape but gets blown up in the process. Everything plays out Mac and Childs small conversation, sharing a drink, and seeing who is who. But I saw an alternative short version of the movie with the Outpost destroyed like the Norwegian one, after the fires die out, a husky dog comes running out of outpost when an unknown narrator speaks as the Thing absorbed dog is going to do the same thing again. Believe me or not but that's my theory.
“Maybe we shouldn't.”
There are some questions better left unanswered.
4:18 "Speculations that they're BOTH The Thing, but that would make little sense as it wouldn't try to fool itself."
If each Thing wants to survive independently, both will benefit from mutual hibernation and recovery rather than risking everything by trying to kill each other first. Their primary goals are survival and assimilation, not violence.
This is still the best horror film of the last 40+ years. Carpenter's They Live is a great close second as a sci-fi flick which never really got its due.
Neither are infected. MacReady is laughing is because he realises how paranoid he's become and that he's actually glad to see Childs even though he was clearly a coward who hid until it was safe to come out.
John Carpenter had already stated one of them was a thing twitter.com/thehorrormaster/status/272063161832701953?lang=en
Candy Cane bullshit he say too "who don't have light is the thing" both have light so both is human, ez, or he have alzaimer
do yo recall the "cheatin' bitch" scene...? :)
@@kos4793 Childs only have the "light" when looking away because of the white color, but when you see his eyes from the front, the pupil, ther's not light at all
The breath argument is not that there is literally no breath, it is that the only sighting of breath from the man is small, labored, and delayed. Yes, the cold can easily effect a human quite well, but even in the short story "To build a fire" the man is still billowing out steam as he freezes to death (I admit it's been the better part of two decades since my last read, but a google search to remember the name provided no information to contradict the breath part) and I do believe that so long as the human body has enough heat to remain alive, that is also enough heat to show thick steam.
While there is without a doubt a major difference between a body that has been running and one that has not, in temperatures so far below the freezing point of water that you can spit and see it turn to ice before even reaching the ground, ANY amount of breath of ANY warmth WILL freeze instantly.
Frankly, my biggest concern of their identities is reverse most arguments; if they're in the Antarctic, if it's as cold as is claimed, then this massive wait time outside of a structure is just too much exposure to the cold. No, it does not make sense why The Thing would want to deceive itself, and so both of them being it is rather far-fetched, nevertheless I feel any actual human out in that weather in the night would have had immense pain in their lungs from the vapor and moisture within crystallizing and shrinking, freezing, and shredding lung tissue.
This classic Sci/Fi movie should be re-released in theatre's, why not they re-released the Exorcist several time so this should be too! BEST SCI-FI MOVIE EVER! Love the sound track!
I definitely think now, after long studying on this part, and the whole movie, that I'm pretty sure Childs is the thing at the end. Or, he took a sip of the bottle because he just didn't care, because he knew that they were going to die, so he just said screw it, but if we really knew that gasoline was in the bottle, then yes, he is the thing, but that's the greatness in it for 38 years now, is we'll never know. I think that Macready's chuckle after handing him the bottle to sip it says it all.
My favorite video on this subject
Great explanation for great ending to great movie.
One of my favorite movies
After Mac, Nauls, and Garry find Blair missing from the shed,
they blow up the spaceship.
After blowing all the other rooms up, Mac, Nauls, and Garry are at the stairs to the generator room.
Mac says, "The generator room."
In the background, you can plainly see the main door room where Child's was at post watching for Blair.
And there it is. The blue coat hanging on the wall.
Right where it was earlier when we see Child's on post, wearing "his" blue coat.
Blair thing never got Child's, or, the blue coat on the wall.
(Because, it wouldn't be hanging there now if he did.)
The man or thing on the poster sure looks like Child's though. Doesn't it.
McReady and Childs both eventually froze to death saving planet Earth. That's a heroic ending.
I was expecting to hate this video but it was excellent. Good job.
In the comic they were both human at the end but by the book "Climate of Fear", also here on You Tube, he was The Thing.
I really don't understand why people try to use the "no breath argument". Just as you state in the video, if you watch closely he DOES indeed breath a bit. But when I think of the "no breath argument", I think waaay back to where they kill the George-thing (bald redheaded dude. That the things breath is even more visible then Macreedy at the end!