One of the (many) things I like about Carpenter's Thing is that it doesn't attempt to explain _every_ facet of the monster, but instead, portrays the monster as something so far beyond our comprehension that it could never be fully understood over the limited time frame that the characters encounter it. The movie even leaves open when and how the characters become assimilated by the monster.
Pretty sure the whole point of the story is that it’s a “malificent” bait in a sense. In the beginning it appears as this is a sort of victim story. The thing assimilates and sees that as correct based on its alien physiology and psychology. Communion as in the name “communal” is good, and if you’re a sane human, you know working together is always better than the alternative. It doesn’t understand human minds and hearts as it’s talk in Keith Richard’s body (I believe) with Keith Richard’s consciousness shows how it doesn’t understand the anger of how Richard’s perceived that the creature had “raped” his sense of self and being. Nonetheless, this is still not a typical tragic villain killing out of survival by the end of the story. Look at how Watt’s narrates it’s talks about the physicality of humans. It looks on their physical aspects with pity and wants to somewhat lend a helping hand, but when it comes to how humans live/act, well, it comes to hate that aspect of us and that final line in the story becomes the scariest not just because it’s the thing being malicious, but also the very real fear that when someone becomes hateful like that they too become a monster.
As many have pointed out, John Carpenter's version of The Thing film is a masterclass in horror storytelling. He made sure to point out that the creature's long-term motivations could only be hinted at, and even then, it's never fully defined. This keeps us, the audience, wondering up until and beyond the very last scene of the film, which has a bittersweet ending. This was his whole point, and history of the creature itself was not really important. However, I disagree with any idea that the creature is "just misunderstood". Given what little we know about it, it has the ability to aggressively assimilate other beings into its collective, gleaning even thoughts and memories from its victims. The latter concept would seem to indicate that it would come to understand human emotions, including fear and paranoia, and be able to ascertain the human ideas of right and wrong. That being the case, if it had any 'good' morality to its makeup, it would not try to assimilate everyone, spreading terror and misery in the process. Instead, it uses what it learns to its advantage against the humans, destroying or absorbing them all until none stand to oppose its unfathomable goals. To me, this theory places the creature firmly in the spectrum of hostile and extremely dangerous to all other lifeforms. Even if its initial meeting with the Norwegians was peaceful (we're given some indication that it was not), I doubt that the story would have played out much differently. The 'Things' story is told mostly from the creature's perspective, and it still comes to the conclusion that basically humans must be assimilated to save them from themselves, whether they resist or not. I would not consider this as a 'good' moral decision in any case.
Having seen the movie several times and read Peter Watt's short story I'll admit that I ended up with an ambivalent opinion of the creature. The question that always remains is whether the Thing was the pilot of the ship or a specimen that got loose, i.e. what level of intelligence are they/we dealing with and is communication possible?
That’s an interesting take. I never thought about it not piloting the ship or even possibly causing the crash. I really don’t think it’s interested in communication personally. At least not any soft that humans can offer.
so, what really is the natural form of the creature? and, what would it be faced with if it took human form, was found out before transformimg back, and potentially questioned while capable of producing human constructure?
There was a deleted scene from the movie where one of the base members tries to make a break by snowmobile, but is ambushed by the Thing as it bursts through the ice he is riding on and kills him. John Carpenter made the decision to scrap the scene, noting that the Thing was not malevolent, rather being a creature fighting to survive in a hostile environment.
Personally I like the idea that it's an intelligent alien that crashed on earth, and when the Norwegians discovered it, they mistook the being for a monster and immediately went to attack, and the alien saw them fight amongst themselves. From the aliens perspective it learned a valuable lesson: Humans are violent. Which gave it 2 conclusions: Hide, and get off this rock at any cost. Fast forward to the Americans, after the alien gets there it immediately sees the violence of humans, killing each other without even questioning the situation. Realizing however that this group speaks another language, and thus don't realize it's an alien. It then takes this time to scout and make a plan: Assimilate and calm the violent monsters to get back home. and that's just the short version lol
In my opinion, I prefer to look at the thing as a single cell organism. When it forms into higher beings it'll be the being until enough of its own cells detect it is a good opportunity to do what they desire. The cells take over, any instincts and processes they try to imitate taken as the least priority only processing what works for a goal. Each cell acting on its own in these moments. This is why some form tendrils others from teeth. The ones connected in goal communicating while the rest act out and bleed. this is probably why the thing fails imitating under stress as when enough cells recognize a threat instead of keeping things together it falls apart. all it's failures based on the one thing that makes social animals and by extension our bodies succeed which is that we prioritize the group. The thing prioritizes itself and itself is just a cell that expands, that desires to spread. It is only when the thing is capable of realizing this that it can function to frightening levels. This is why Blair as a scientist who studied the things biology long enough to have the knowledge of how it works was able to assimilate without too many of its own cells acting on the desire to eat. He was able to just poke his hand inside his victim and let the cells merge before probable stress or need to expand his bio mass removed his cognitive thought. The cells as individuals taking priority once again to live through the incoming ice or fire.
I like this theory a lot. Still leaves some unanswered questions but I don’t think the thing is ultimately knowable. But it shouldn’t be anyways. That would ruin the fun
@@pauseandread well ya, I just like imagining implications this would have on victims that are assimilated. If the thing is a cell that imitates perfectly, it is safe to assume that the victim would remember the assimilation process, the events leading up to it and the implications that holds for them. It's possible they were never acting on the interest of its cells but for themselves as well. The thing robbing them of their humanity by making them inhuman. Making them a threat to all those they could have possibly loved, because in all likelihood many memories were lost in the process, removing attachments. Because when the thing assimilates it also consumes and while this isn't a big deal for limbs, it is for the brain.
Yeah idk it’s difficult to tell if they’re remain in there at all after assimilation. It’s hard to believe the thing would be cable of inheriting individual personalities but if it does replace them cell by cell then it’s possible. All their neural pathways would be copied so it wouldn’t have trouble acting like the host. At leafy or a short time. However it does struggle to imitate dog behavior so who knows lol
I heard that the thing work like this. It,s not infecting you. It,s eating you and you would die by it like a lion would eat you. Then the absorbed meet become part of itself, then It split a pice up from itself and create a perfect copy of you. Pro for this is: If it could Infect you with a Single Cell. Then why didn,t the dog thing just licked everyone’s face or the Other dogs. Then the date of the humans would already be sealed. If the single cell would be true then the thing wouldn,t even need to transform. The infected human just shakes the hand of everybody and. done. It won. Without any need to transform.
I don't think you ever actually watched the movie since you can't even pronounce the main characters name, but instead used the mispronounced named that content farms use all the time.
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I had always seen the Thing as having infected the original pilots of the crashed ship in the arctic. This is why the ship crashed on Earth.
I’m starting to agree with this theory more and more
One of the (many) things I like about Carpenter's Thing is that it doesn't attempt to explain _every_ facet of the monster, but instead, portrays the monster as something so far beyond our comprehension that it could never be fully understood over the limited time frame that the characters encounter it. The movie even leaves open when and how the characters become assimilated by the monster.
Pretty sure the whole point of the story is that it’s a “malificent” bait in a sense. In the beginning it appears as this is a sort of victim story. The thing assimilates and sees that as correct based on its alien physiology and psychology. Communion as in the name “communal” is good, and if you’re a sane human, you know working together is always better than the alternative. It doesn’t understand human minds and hearts as it’s talk in Keith Richard’s body (I believe) with Keith Richard’s consciousness shows how it doesn’t understand the anger of how Richard’s perceived that the creature had “raped” his sense of self and being. Nonetheless, this is still not a typical tragic villain killing out of survival by the end of the story. Look at how Watt’s narrates it’s talks about the physicality of humans. It looks on their physical aspects with pity and wants to somewhat lend a helping hand, but when it comes to how humans live/act, well, it comes to hate that aspect of us and that final line in the story becomes the scariest not just because it’s the thing being malicious, but also the very real fear that when someone becomes hateful like that they too become a monster.
The thing is the greatest horror movie ever made!
👍👌
Truth.
And in my personal opinion, the greatest movie ever made.
if only the facts would say that
The book adaptation and screenplay make much of the film clearer and detailed.
As many have pointed out, John Carpenter's version of The Thing film is a masterclass in horror storytelling. He made sure to point out that the creature's long-term motivations could only be hinted at, and even then, it's never fully defined. This keeps us, the audience, wondering up until and beyond the very last scene of the film, which has a bittersweet ending. This was his whole point, and history of the creature itself was not really important.
However, I disagree with any idea that the creature is "just misunderstood". Given what little we know about it, it has the ability to aggressively assimilate other beings into its collective, gleaning even thoughts and memories from its victims. The latter concept would seem to indicate that it would come to understand human emotions, including fear and paranoia, and be able to ascertain the human ideas of right and wrong. That being the case, if it had any 'good' morality to its makeup, it would not try to assimilate everyone, spreading terror and misery in the process. Instead, it uses what it learns to its advantage against the humans, destroying or absorbing them all until none stand to oppose its unfathomable goals. To me, this theory places the creature firmly in the spectrum of hostile and extremely dangerous to all other lifeforms.
Even if its initial meeting with the Norwegians was peaceful (we're given some indication that it was not), I doubt that the story would have played out much differently. The 'Things' story is told mostly from the creature's perspective, and it still comes to the conclusion that basically humans must be assimilated to save them from themselves, whether they resist or not. I would not consider this as a 'good' moral decision in any case.
Having seen the movie several times and read Peter Watt's short story I'll admit that I ended up with an ambivalent opinion of the creature. The question that always remains is whether the Thing was the pilot of the ship or a specimen that got loose, i.e. what level of intelligence are they/we dealing with and is communication possible?
That’s an interesting take. I never thought about it not piloting the ship or even possibly causing the crash. I really don’t think it’s interested in communication personally. At least not any soft that humans can offer.
The thing is definitely from space. We see it's ship landing on earth in the beginning of the movie.
ALIEN '79/THE THING ‘82 share the Thron as two of the best Body-Horror/Science fiction ever made.🎥🎞🎬👍✌️😝🚀🚀🥁🥁
so, what really is the natural form of the creature? and, what would it be faced with if it took human form, was found out before transformimg back, and potentially questioned while capable of producing human constructure?
It may not have a natural form at all. Maybe it’s a ever changing being constantly in shift
There was a deleted scene from the movie where one of the base members tries to make a break by snowmobile, but is ambushed by the Thing as it bursts through the ice he is riding on and kills him. John Carpenter made the decision to scrap the scene, noting that the Thing was not malevolent, rather being a creature fighting to survive in a hostile environment.
That was a good choice to cut it
Macready is the principal villain, the other ones just his henchmen, while the thing Is the hero
Interesting take lol
Or perhaps, everyone Is just trying to survive: Thing needs spreading himself, men need defending to not get absorbed
Personally I like the idea that it's an intelligent alien that crashed on earth, and when the Norwegians discovered it, they mistook the being for a monster and immediately went to attack, and the alien saw them fight amongst themselves. From the aliens perspective it learned a valuable lesson: Humans are violent. Which gave it 2 conclusions: Hide, and get off this rock at any cost.
Fast forward to the Americans, after the alien gets there it immediately sees the violence of humans, killing each other without even questioning the situation. Realizing however that this group speaks another language, and thus don't realize it's an alien. It then takes this time to scout and make a plan: Assimilate and calm the violent monsters to get back home.
and that's just the short version lol
I like that theory a lot. Definitely a lot of miscommunication going on in this story lol
Like Beowulf and Grendel in contrasting perspective.
Completely unrelated, but it's pretty Kool I was the 100th subscriber
Thank you, Ron. I hope your wood working is going well :)
In my opinion, I prefer to look at the thing as a single cell organism. When it forms into higher beings it'll be the being until enough of its own cells detect it is a good opportunity to do what they desire. The cells take over, any instincts and processes they try to imitate taken as the least priority only processing what works for a goal. Each cell acting on its own in these moments. This is why some form tendrils others from teeth. The ones connected in goal communicating while the rest act out and bleed. this is probably why the thing fails imitating under stress as when enough cells recognize a threat instead of keeping things together it falls apart. all it's failures based on the one thing that makes social animals and by extension our bodies succeed which is that we prioritize the group. The thing prioritizes itself and itself is just a cell that expands, that desires to spread. It is only when the thing is capable of realizing this that it can function to frightening levels. This is why Blair as a scientist who studied the things biology long enough to have the knowledge of how it works was able to assimilate without too many of its own cells acting on the desire to eat. He was able to just poke his hand inside his victim and let the cells merge before probable stress or need to expand his bio mass removed his cognitive thought. The cells as individuals taking priority once again to live through the incoming ice or fire.
I like this theory a lot. Still leaves some unanswered questions but I don’t think the thing is ultimately knowable. But it shouldn’t be anyways. That would ruin the fun
@@pauseandread well ya, I just like imagining implications this would have on victims that are assimilated. If the thing is a cell that imitates perfectly, it is safe to assume that the victim would remember the assimilation process, the events leading up to it and the implications that holds for them. It's possible they were never acting on the interest of its cells but for themselves as well. The thing robbing them of their humanity by making them inhuman. Making them a threat to all those they could have possibly loved, because in all likelihood many memories were lost in the process, removing attachments. Because when the thing assimilates it also consumes and while this isn't a big deal for limbs, it is for the brain.
Yeah idk it’s difficult to tell if they’re remain in there at all after assimilation. It’s hard to believe the thing would be cable of inheriting individual personalities but if it does replace them cell by cell then it’s possible. All their neural pathways would be copied so it wouldn’t have trouble acting like the host. At leafy or a short time. However it does struggle to imitate dog behavior so who knows lol
Video is just genrally off-base, and I really don't trust analysis from anyone who can't pronounce MacReady's name right.
👍👍 My thoughts as well.
Love this creature probably the only creature I would not mind becoming
Idk if the process will be painless lol
If you swallowed some of the things blood it might not be just my thought though not much evidence to support that claim
@@ricksmith7490 Try it out and let us know! Or don't let us know and forcefully incorporate us!
Wish it was real.
I heard that the thing work like this. It,s not infecting you. It,s eating you and you would die by it like a lion would eat you. Then the absorbed meet become part of itself, then It split a pice up from itself and create a perfect copy of you. Pro for this is: If it could Infect you with a Single Cell. Then why didn,t the dog thing just licked everyone’s face or the Other dogs. Then the date of the humans would already be sealed. If the single cell would be true then the thing wouldn,t even need to transform. The infected human just shakes the hand of everybody and. done. It won. Without any need to transform.
I don't think you ever actually watched the movie since you can't even pronounce the main characters name, but instead used the mispronounced named that content farms use all the time.
Fr. No way this dude watched the movie
The thing, it will kick your ass...
Your spelling is poor.