Thing (The Thing)

The Thing, also known as The Thing From Another World is a shape-changing creature who attacked Antarctic Magnetic research station 31 (Big Magnet) in 1982. It bears a resemblance to the Necromorphs.

Biology
The creatures absorb the form of a planetary native, possibly as a survival instinct and to give it shelter from attack, allowing it to perfectly acclimatize to its new environment wherever it might be.

It can infect other organisms with detached and autonomous parts of itself, a single cell being able to assimilate an entire organism given time, the less of itself used the longer it takes to fully infect the host. It is very tolerant of cold (possibly partly due to the form it was using before it was frozen), placing itself in cryogenic stasis, much like yeast.

REPRODUCTION



When attacking a victim, a thing bursts open allowing a multiplicity of alien and terrifying forms, seemingly random parts of previously assimilated anatomies, possibly re-arranging its cellular structure to mimic a desired shape. While it is known the victim is identical it is not known what happens to an attacking, burst open, thing as none have been observed or survived long enough to complete. Logic would dictate it could return to its immediately previous form as a perfect copy or possibly into something else completely, whether this new creature would retain any of the creatures knowledge, personality and memories is unknown.

When a Thing is alone with a suitable target its dermis will split as its insides breakdown, rearrange and will typically extend tendrils, sometimes explosively, to grab the target and begin to assimilate it. This allows the Thing to absorb the prey's genetic material. It appears from limited examples that the creature mimics a being by infecting its body and therefore retains the hosts appearance exactly, including: scars, hair style and body hair.

During the process the attacking Thing, if conditions allow, will remove clothing from a victim as the new hosts extremities tend to initially deform catastrophically before returning to normal. Once assimilation has progressed sufficiently, the attacking Thing will detach allowing the victim to dress and take up an existence of its own. A seemingly natural flaw in its assimilation of humans is the Thing's rejection of inorganic materials such as: piercings, metallic tooth fillings (porcelain is fine), splints and pins or any other metallic object within the victim's body. This was exploited by the Norwegian science team to quickly eliminate potential infectees.

It can be theorised that while a thing has a large bio mass available (several infectees), a limited number of, and a working knowledge of, its potential threats, it will be more open and bold in its attacks, hoping to quickly overwhelm or scatter them. If, on the other hand, its biomass is very limited and the awareness of its potential presence is high, it will instead take on a far more subtle tactic of divide: subvert and assimilate in secret, using psychological misdirection and physical deception.

The limited scientific analysis of the creatures cells by humans and 80's computer software has indicated that the creatures structure is unlike anything else ever seen on earth and a sample of infected blood can be observed with the alien cells latching onto host cells and, after a distressingly brief period, are absorbed leaving only an alien cell that looks exactly like the original. Presumably, each cell acts as a module for transformation and as a neuron for data processing and memory (the US station's computer likened the creature's cells to a viruses), as the creature can develop parts of anatomy from any creature previously assimilated, for example a large tooth-filled maw or eyes on stalks.

The creature cannot generate mass, so requires material to be absorbed in order to increase it's size. The 'Kennel Thing', produced an imitation dog and absorbed several other sled dogs into a boiling mass of flesh and random parts. In the confines of the dogshed it also deployed a green gelatinous spray at a particular dog, the exact purpose of which is unknown but was possibly a slower method of infection. Just prior to its torching it even generated what appeared to be a ranged weapon (not dissimilar to the one it used on the Norweigian base), out of a dozen dog tongues and teeth. One theory has it that when the creature has a large enough biomass to threat ratio it will accumulate additional victims into a single large biomass as a reservoir or simply to keep warm.

Behavior
COGNITIVE FUNCTION

The consciousness of the creature is yet another mystery, all that can be certain is that it retains an inherited survival instinct and enough of the facets of the assimilated creature to pass convincingly as the original. It can be deduced that once assimilated the new creature retains the memories, abilities, mannerisms and possibly the frailties of the host and uses them to its sustain its survival. How much of its own consciousness and knowledge of previously assimilated creatures knowledge remain is unclear.

In one case a host was either incapacitated by a pre-existing condition leading to a heart attack or it mimicked the effect well enough to fool the station doctor. In another case a host was apparently knocked unconscious from a concussive blast which meer minutes later also lead to a violent attack. It is unclear if this was a forced or planned reaction. Possibly it was intending to play dead in both cases but was forced into action by the defibrillator shocks and in the other case by an opportunity to attack a large group at once.



In another feat of reasoning a Thing destroyed a test that would have lead to its exposure and demonstrated awareness of biology and medical practice that would have exposed it. Interestingly the second time this same method was proposed as a test the Thing had seemingly preempted the idea, this is despite the Thing that arrived at the second base was spawned long before the first test was thought of and was in a non-human form. This lead to the theory of a shared consciousness between Things, especially as the 2nd sabotage was far harder to pull off covertly and while sowing seeds of misdirection it also exposed its presence.

Another interesting point is while the lack of a metal earring lead to an earlier Things exposure this did not occur to the people of the US base. In the finale many note that Childs breath does not fog as McCready's does, leading to the assumption he is infected, yet his earring does glint as he sits down. If a shared consciousness is in effect it is possible the newer Things would attempt to wear jewellery to keep their cover. Since the nature of metal rejection is not fully understood (after all an earring isn't so much internal and an earring could be reinserted after the fact) this is still a possibility. Conversely it could be proof of Child's humanity. This would have been more clear cut if Doc has been assimilated with his nose ring intact instead of killed outright.

It is not known whether the Thing is itself a technological species, whether the ship it arrived on was its own. It could be reasoned that it crashed because the original pilot was killed or sabotaged the craft, and the creature was unable to manage the controls. However, an assimilated Blair was able to manufacture a small saucer like craft from parts it found on the base, something that was obviously beyond his human understanding. Assimilated humans have been seen operating vehicles and equipment their human counterpart would have knowledge of.

SELF PRESERVATION

If attacked with fire or powerful electric shock (the only options available and explored in the movies and the novella, respectively) it will attempt to attack, escape or play possum. If incapacitated it appears to try to overwhelm it's attackers no matter how outnumbered with a violently horrific display of its metamorphic ability, mutating seemingly uncontrollably to the point sentient creatures will flee in terror. Explosives have also been deployed to destroy the creatures form but the lasting effect, other than to render the soft tissues to a spray of blood and pulp, is unknown.

Each cell or group of cells is self aware and has an in built desire for self preservation, even at the expense of the larger biomass it spawned from. After the torso of an assimilated individual has burned to death, the head separated away from the fire and developed arthropod-esque legs and eyes stalks to facilitate escape. When a small sample of Thing blood was exposed to a heated wire, in the presence of its forma and still infected host, it leapt away in an attempt to escape. Similarly spilt Thing blood was seen to pool and run in rivulets looking for escape.

The self preservation mechanism is one of the few vulnerabilities that can be exploited to aid in the detection of an infected host. This can also be seen when an infected host apparently indicated another of its kind, leading to its inevitable termination, in order to disguise its status. Just previously it had also been attempting to seed mistrust of another human who was uninfected. Interestingly just prior to its exposure the host made some resigned and very human reactions to its impending death.

One of the more violent episodes lead to a hosts arms detaching, sprouting legs with one escaping while the other facilitated an attack providing a distraction.

While fire has a devastating effect on its physical form it has been shown that the blood and soft tissues remain intact deeper inside and are seemingly self aware or lucky enough, with the host creatures sensory organs and motor skills devastated, to still effect an ambush of a new host once he was left alone near the corpse.

Anecdotally when unobserved, a Thing will perform uncharacteristic behaviour such as standing or sitting motionless, staring blankly ahead for long periods of time until it becomes aware of anything in its vicinity and reverts back to mimicking. It will usually perform this behaviour when it is already in a position of its likening or has no agenda to perform, otherwise it will move around and attempt to move into position itself in more favourable conditions to reproduce and protect its identity

When a Thing has successfully separated a potential victim, it will transform and attempt to quickly and safely assimilate it. Allowing prey to ingest parts of itself hidden in food it one of its more subtle, if slower forms of infection. As an animal a simple bite can be used to spread its infection.

As a last ditch method of preservation a Thing is willing to freeze itself in hopes it can escape a current threat and wait for rediscovery by later and unaware prey.

History
The only known survivors of Thing encounters were by Captain Blake of the United States Military and helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady in Antarctica, the status of paleontologist Kate Lloyd is presently unknown. In the winter of 1982, paleontologist Kate Lloyd is recruited by scientists Dr. Sander Halvorson and his assistant Adam Finch to join a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across a crashed extraterrestrial spaceship buried beneath the ice of Antarctica. Near by they discover the frozen corpse of a creature that seems to have escape the crash some 100,000 years ago. After the creature is preserved in an ice block and transported back to base where Dr. Sander, against Kate's protests, orders a tissue sample to be drilled out before they ship it out for study. Later, while the crew celebrate the find of the century, co-pilot Derek witnesses the Things explosive escape from the compromised ice and out the wooden ceiling. The rattled team splits into groups to search for the alien. Olav and Henrik discover it hiding under one of the buildings after the kennel dog was found missing a hole torn in the wire mesh. The Thing grabs Henrik and pulls him into its body while the others converge on the scene and set the creature on fire. During the autopsy to separate Henrick's remains from that of the Thing they discover the victims skin apparenly rejuvinated and the metal brace from his broken arm now outside his body. Worryingly Kate and Adam observe the Things cells appear to be absorbing and imitating Henrik's cells.

Sander decides to fly the traumatized Olav out with Pilot Sam Carter, Griggs and Derek despite Kate;s misgivings about the blood. As they prepare to take off, Kate discovers bloody metal tooth fillings and large amounts of blood in a shower stall. She attempts to flag down the departing helicopter, fearing an infection has taken someone on board. When Carter decides to land, Griggs transforms killing Olav and causing the helicopter to spiral out of control and crash beyond an impassable ridge. Kate returns to the showers to find the mess has been cleaned up.

In the recreation room, Kate tells the rest her hypothesis on the nature of the creature: It is theoretically possible that some of their number have been assimilated and replaced by an alien being, it is unable to use inorganic material such as metal, hence it spat out the fillings. The team members are unable to come to terms with this and again Sander overrules her and decide to head for the nearest camp for help. After everyone else leaves the room, Juliette tells Kate that she saw Colin leave the shower holding a towel and she knows where they keep the vehicle keys. When the two go for the keys, to prevent anyone leaving, Juliette transforms and attacks Kate. Kate narrowly escapes, running past Karl who is killed by the Juliette-Thing. Lars arrives with a flamethrower and burns the Thing while it assimilates Karl.

As they burn all the remains outside they realise they have to contain the infection on the base and eliminate it. Kate and Lars disable the snowcats by snipping wires and Lars shares some information with her by showing her a crate of grenades. Carter and Derek return from the copter crash, both half-frozen but otherwise unharmed. Mistrust has spread like wildfire and the pairs improbable escape places them on high suspicion, Kate convinces the rest to lock them up until a test can be prepared.Adam and Sander preparing a blood test, but when both leave for a short while the lab sabotaged. As tensions rise Kate proposes they inspect the eachothers teeth, those with fillings aren't infected. Test singles out Adam, Dr. Sander, station commander Edvard and Colin who either had porcelain or no fillings at all while Peder levels a flame thrower at those undersuspicion. Kate sends Lars and Jonas to bring back Carter and Derek to test but they have tunneled of the storage shed and into a neighboring building, grabbing Lars and alarming Jonas who runs back to the others.

The paniced Jonas pleads with Peder to help him rescue Lars causing even more panic. During the argument, Carter and Derek break in armed with Lars' flamethrower. Edvard pushes Peder to burn them both in a stand off but hesitates and Derek shoots him, puncturing his flamethrower's tank and causing an explosion that kills Peder and knocks Edvard unconscious. While Edvard is being carried back to the recreation room, he violently transforms mortally wounding Derek and starts assimilating Jonas and Adam.

Kate hurriedly tries to unblock Carter's stalled flamethrower giving time for the Edvard/Adam Thing to flee. While Carter and Kate search for it they hear it attack Sander and it manages to separate Carter from Kate trapping him in the kitchen. With its attention on Carter Kate torches it until it is dead in the snow. The base is aflame now and the pair see Sander driving off in one of the snowcats and, fearing it is heading for the UFO, give chase in the remaining vehicle. They arrive just in time to see the ship start up and Kate and Carter are separated once again as Kate falls inside and is knocked out by the fall. When she wakes and walks the alien rooms the creature attacks, she hides in a narrow tunnel after loosing hold on the single grenade she brought. When it finally drags her out she grabs and tosses the grenade into its maw and escapes the craft with the recently returned Carter. Back in the snowcat, Kate takes the flame thrower to stow in the back, but not before she notices that Carter is missing his ear piercing. She calls him out on this and he even reaches for the wrong ear. Despite his protests, she burns him and destroying the snowcat as well. Kate climbs into the remaining snowcat and stares blankly into the night. {C The next morning Norwegian helicopter pilot Matias arrives at the camp and finds it burned and deserted. He discovers Colin hid in his radio room and committed suicide by slitting his wrists and throat with a straight razor. Lars survived in the building where Derek and Carter attacked him, he has a rifle and shoots at Matias and only trusts him after checking his fillings. At that moment, the Dog/Thing bolts out of a ruined building. Lars fires at it and orders Matias to take off in pursuit.

They chase the Thing to an American Antarctic research station and land outside. Matias fumbles a grenade from Lar's supply and destroys the helicopter and himself. Single mindedly the non-english speaking Lars yells and fires at the dog, who has run to the gathering Americans, accidentally grazing Bennings leg. They scatter as Lars marches on firing at the dog and station commander Garry is forced to shoot the lunatic gunman. Not knowing what to make of the incident, the crew take in the dog and start to see if they can find out whats going on.

Unable to contact the outside world via radio, helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady and Dr. Copper risk a flight to the Norwegian camp and find it destroyed with no signs of life. Finding the iceblock, the pair return with the burned remains of a hideous 2 faced humanoid creature. An autopsy of the cadaver by Dr. Blair is inconclusive, save that it had what appeared to be a single normal set of internal organs. At Bennings' request Clark, the station's wrangler , kennels the stray with the station's sled dogs. Shortly after, noises from the kennel cause Clark to return, finding most of the sled team being messily assimilated by the Dog/Thing. MacReady summons the crew to the kennel with the fire alarm, ordering Childs to bring the flamethrower, firing several shotgun shells into the creature to no avail. Childs arrives and incinerates the creature as it tries to escape through the ceiling.

A subsequent autopsy by Blair reveals that the stray dog was an alien organism capable of absorbing and perfectly imitating other life-forms. Realizing there was a possibility that any of his fellow researchers could have been assimilated, Blair quickly becomes withdrawn and suspicious. A second helicopter expedition reveals the now exposed alien spacecraft and the location the iceblock was removed from. They quickly deduce the craft has lain a hundred thousand years where it crashed. Bennings and "Windows" quarantine the burnt remains of both the dog-creature and the Norwegian cadaver in the storage room, but in the process Bennings is left alone for a short while. Seeping blood and tendrils seek him out amd Windows discovers Bennings in the process of being assimilated. The crew burns the escaping Bennings replica before its transformation is complete.

Determining that all life on Earth would be assimilated in just over three years if the creature were to reach another continent, Blair goes berserk, destroying the helicopter, radio equipment and killing the remaining sled dogs, thus containing further contamination. The team overpowers him and confines him in an external the tool shed, where he complains of strange noises and damatically leaves a noose in plain sight when the others visit him. With all contact to the outside world cut off the crew wonders how to determine who is still human. Paranoia quickly rises after the attempt to develop a test, comparing the blood of the researchers to uncontaminated blood samples is sabotaged.

{C Fuchs, attempting to continue Blair's research, goes missing shortly afterwards during a power failure. While searching for Fuchs' body, MacReady comes under suspicion when ripped clothing is found with his name on and is locked outside in a severe blizzard. Palmer us becoming increasingly paranoid and argues against letting MacCready back in. Finding his way back to camp without a guide line, MacReady breaks into a storage room and threatens the rest of the crew with dynamite. In the course of the standoff, Norris suffers a 'heart attack' and as Dr. Copper attempts to revive him by defibrillation, Norris' body transforms and kills Copper. Norris' head detaches and sprouts legs and attempts to escape as the others burn the body; however it's escape is noticed by Palmer who points it out, leading to its quick destruction. The heads self-preservation act leads MacReady to theorize that every piece of the alien is an individual animal (or as the original film would have it fauna).

As the remaining crew gather for MacCready's test, Clark tries to stab him with a scalpel but is shot in the head. The crew settles down and complies with the test as Windows takes a sample of blood from each member into a dish labelled with their name. MacCready inserts a hot wire into each dish in turn looking for a reaction. Palmer, the backup pilot, is unmasked as an imitation and attacks Windows before being set alight and blown up with dynamite. MacReady torches Windows transforming body be for finishing the test and proving he, Childs, Garry and Nauls are still human leaving only Blair. They discover Blair missing and had been constructing a small flying craft of alien design beneath the tool shed and Childs is inexplicably seen abandoning his post at the main gate as the facility loses power. Realizing that the creature wants to freeze again, the remaining crew acknowledge that they will not survive and set about destroying the facility with dynamite and Molotov cocktails in hopes of killing the creature.

While setting explosives in the underground generator room, Garry is killed by the infected Blair. Nauls follows the sounds and is not seen again. Alone MacReady prepares to detonate the charges when a massive and warped creature emerges from beneath the floor, snatching the detonator away with massive tentacles. MacReady kills it with a stick of dynamite, setting off the rest of the charges and destroying the entire facility. Sometime later, MacReady is wandering in the flaming rubble and sits down resigned to his fate when Childs appears. He claims to have seen Blair and gotten lost while chasing him in the snow. With the polar climate closing in around them, they acknowledge the futility of their distrust, sharing a drink as the camp burns.

Video Game
The Thing (Video Game) is set after John Carpernter's, chronologically last film's ending, when two United States military rescue teams, Alpha and Bravo, are dispatched to investigate the loss of contact with U.S. Outpost 31. Alpha Team, headed by the unit's second-in-command, Captain Pierce, is dropped at the nearby Norwegian Outpost. Bravo Team, led by the unit's Commanding Officer, Captain Blake, is then dropped at the American research station.

The player assumes the role of Captain Blake, and must learn how to coordinate and command his Bravo Team colleagues while investigating the ruins of Outpost 31 and locating clues and messages detailing the incident for players who are unfamiliar with the film. The mission supervisor, Colonel Whitely, will offer sporadic assistance and relay objectives via radio. This section serves as an in-game tutorial and training level and offers some insight into the events which transpired following the end of the movie. Upon securing the facility, Blake is airlifted to the Norwegian research station to locate and reinforce Alpha Team after Whitely informs him that they have lost contact with the team. {C During the player's investigation of the ruins of the Outpost, they will find the UFO from the film. They will also find the body of Childs, one of the survivors from the movie.

The character Blake ultimately uncovers a government conspiracy, and after fighting his way through numerous black ops and creatures, fights the transformed Colonel Whitely. The player has the assistance of a helicopter pilot, revealed to be R.J. MacReady.

Trivia

 * It has been stated that not even director John Carpenter himself knows precisely when each character was assimilated by The Thing. In fact for the first assumed assimilation by the husky in the US base, walking into the bedroom of a silhouetted figure, the silhouette was that of a non-cast member just to make it especially ambiguous, though many believe it logically to be Palmer or Norris.
 * Who Goes There? the short story that inspired The Thing movie was inspired by the HP Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness, in which an Antarctic reasearch team uncovers a cryogenically preserved Elder Thing, which thaws out and attacks them.

Appearances

 * Who Goes There?
 * The Thing from Another World
 * The Thing (1982)
 * The Thing (2002)
 * The Thing (2011)