MacReady is Dead
I have a profoundly incompetent memory. Whatever it is — names, dates, numbers, facts, details — is completely lost on me. This is quite problematic in most scenarios but one of the few good things about it is the freshness I’m able to see films I love with on repeated viewings. Because of this, I’m one of those people that watches and rewatches films over and over again. With repeated viewings certain nuances reveal themselves. One such nuance involves the ending to John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing.’
* If you haven’t seen it, rent it. It’s a fantastic remake (rare, but they do exist) of Howard Hawks 1951 film by the same name. For the sake of this entry I’ll assume you’ve seen it if you’re still reading.
The final scene of the film consists of an exhausted MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Childs (Keith David) meeting up amidst their destroyed Antarctic scientific station, having just killed “the thing.” MacReady offers Childs a swig from his bottle of whiskey and the two discuss their next move while they both simultaneously eye each other for clues as to whether or not either of them have been infected. Fade to black.
At first glance, it’s a rather open-ended conclusion to the story. Do they survive? They have, to this point. Although the existing weather conditions and their lack of resources and supplies would suggest the clock is ticking for both of them. But, if one were to pay closer attention to the entirety of the film and bothered to connect the dots on that particular whiskey bottle, we’d know the end of the film isn’t nearly as promising for our hero.
Setting aside a studio’s willingness to bend or break every rule in the book of convention in order to find some way – any way – to bring back the hero of a successful film in order to franchise it, Carpenter at least attempts to cleverly suggest that our hero will die and “the thing” will survive. Childs (and, possibly, MacReady) get infected in the final scene of the film. Follow the bouncing ball and I’ll explain.
The first time we see MacReady he’s sipping on his whiskey and getting increasingly 
frustrated at a computer chess game. Around this time, our intial carrier of the virus — the wolf — is making its way into the American camp with the Norwegian scientists in hot pursuit with guns ablaze. As all the members of the American station shuffle outside to see what all the commotion is about the wolf runs directly to Bennings (Peter Maloney) and licks his face. Bennings has now been infected.
After the Norwegian shoots Bennings and is then shot himself, MacReady, whiskey bottle in hand, runs up to him to see if he’s alright. Bennings takes a swig from the bottle and the whiskey bottle has now been infected. The bottle lays low for the remainder of the film while the action unfolds but resurfaces in that last scene, in the hands of MacReady and, shortly after, in the mouth of Childs. Childs is now infected. Fade to black.
Earth shattering? No. But certainly a fun exercise to do the next time you rewatch this movie and, make no mistake about it, this film is worth rewatching.
fairly special thing to be able to watch a film over and over and see new things, wonder what drives that part of the brain. Back in 1995 I wrote a sequel, full blown start to finish, even signed with a screenwriter to get project of the ground, no interest, life meant it all stopped, found it the other day and read it, still okay, anyway thought I would see whether any movement on thing 2, seems not, best do it before russel croaks ha ha
chris
February 21, 2011 at 8:58 am
Interesting but there is no evidence or indication that licking or saliva infects. Its a cell assimilation virus if anything. And it cant live without a host. Nice try though
jack
March 11, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Not true. The Thing first enters the camp by the infected dog licking the guy on the face/mouth. Nice try though.
Harry Lime
October 24, 2011 at 12:45 pm
I was under the impression that Bennings was not assimilated until the scene in which he was left in the supply room with the infected corpse (which was not so dead after all as was demonstrated by the cloth moving at the bottom of the frame after Windows examines it). Also, I thought that the significance of Childs taking a swig of the bottle at the end of the film simply demonstrated that “Childs” was not afraid of being infected (which contradicts all of his early behavior which paints him as an extremely pragmatic man) which lends credence to the theory that Childs was infected when he supposedly went chasing after Blair in the storm (which would have been stupid and also out of character).
While I suppose licking is a potential way to transfer infected cells, there seems to be a “deliberate” component to the infection process. For example, take the scene in which Norris is performing the injections in the rec room. Of the three tied to the couch, only Palmer was infected even though Norris’s skin comes in direct contact with Garry (and we know he becomes infected in the generator room when confronted by imitation Blair).
Oh well, at the end of the day I’m just glad that after 30 years we can still have a conversation about a movie such as The Thing.
Sean
January 25, 2012 at 5:41 pm
Oh but Jack, there is evidence. Much like a zombie once bitten (injecting saliva or blood into the mouth or a cut) a person finds them self turning like Windows did when the turned Palmer bit him. And in the game (near the end of it) you find MacReady, alive, finding out he himself was in fact infected. Also discovering the dismembered body of Childs after the monster had torn from his body to find a different host, the rescue they mentioned in the movie.
Fred mathis
April 25, 2011 at 1:34 am
Bennings doesn’t get infected until he is alone in the room with the Norwegian corpse when Windows leaves him for a moment. Also, Windows doesn’t just get bitten, his entire head is swallowed for quite some time. In the vid game of the Thing, which cannot necessarily be taken as canon, Childs is implied to have been human. There is evidence of blood to blood assimilation in the movie (when Blair watches the simulation), but not saliva. In the comic ‘The Thing from another World’, which Carpenter calls the closest thing to a sequel to his movie, both Childs and MacReady are revealed to be alive and human.
Andy
May 20, 2011 at 4:50 am
watch the movie closely dude…macready did the test later and was ok
faneos
May 27, 2011 at 11:57 pm
Bennings gets infected when he is in the room with the corpses with Windows. They then chase him out of the outpost and burn him. Whether or not Bennings was already infected from the dog licking him is not clear. Perhaps we was already infected. I think the speed of the progression depends on the severity of the exposure. Windows changing was rapid. His exposure was severe.
In the final scene Childs holds the flame thrower and MacReady doesn’t. If Childs was a thing wouldn’t he torch MacReady immediately? Either Childs doesn’t torch him because A) he’s human, or B) because he’s a THING and suspects that MacReady is infected, and if he waits, MacReady will be a THING like him.
At the end MacReady says, something to the affect of “let’s wait for a bit and see what happens”. Which to me seems like a THING speaking, perhaps waiting for Childs infection to progress. Childs drinking from the bottle which MacReady drinks from, would be a simple way for the THING to spread to Childs, and if the THING waits they will both be THINGS.
Just to clarify, when Blair goes on his rampage he is NOT a THING yet. He goes on a rampage because he wants all outside transportation destroyed, wants all outside communication ended… why? Because after reading about the world infection, he knows if any of them reach civilization the world is doomed.
Blair becomes a thing, out in the shed when he is alone.
It’s open to interpretation which makes it great… Every once in a while I watch a movie for the first time, and I think to myself, there is something different about this one, and I’m like wow, this is/was great.
After watching the THING for the first time I was a fan forever.
rinzler
July 1, 2011 at 1:16 pm
In one of the DVD commentaries, Kurt Russel indicates that both MacReady and Childs are armed with torches. If you consider The Thing (2011) canon, then you might notice that in the final scene of the 1982 film Childs has an ear ring in his right ear as he does throughout the entire film. This either means that Childs is NOT infected -or- it learned from it’s mistake at the end of the last film and Childs is infected.
Sean
January 25, 2012 at 5:49 pm
Just to add to what Rinzler posted… after Blair’s rampage they drag him out to the toolshed and isolate him from the rest of the group, supposedly to keep him from harming the others. While there, MacReady picks up a bottle of Smirnoff vodka and takes a long swig before leaving the bottle with Blair… now, let’s assume that if MacReady by that point was a Thing, could he have passed his virus onto Blair through the vodka bottle? And might MacReady have wanted Blair isolated in the toolshed so that he could be turned and start building a spaceship to leave the planet. Remember when they are dragging Blair outside and somebody suggests they put him in MacReady’s shack and MacReady says ‘I don’t want him in my shack.’ Could all this be The Thing setting the wheels in motion to infect Blair (a real threat to The Thing) and give him the time and space to be alone and build a ship?
Marco
July 20, 2011 at 5:01 am
that’s interesting if MacReady planned Blair’s isolation to have time to build a get away vehicle. Although, soon after MacReady sees the vehicle he is the one that actually blows it up. My theory is as such. MacReady was the thing first before Blair , giving MacReady seniority to inspect Blair’s craftsmanship. In a fit of rage on the faulty mechanic work of Blair, MacReady blows it up to show his anger that Blair failed to build the ship correctly,
Michael Olbrecht
March 30, 2012 at 9:00 am
Just re-watched the movie for the movie and I have several observations:
There were likely multiple bottles of scotch that Mac drank from. He’s seen drinking from a bottle at the start, when recording his message (that particular bottle appears to be emptied at that point), and of course at the end.
Fuchs mentions specifically that ANY contact with the alien being COULD spread. He suggests they all start cooking their own food and eating only from cans. If Fuchs was right, sharing a bottle could spread the alien.
Cases for Mac being infected:
1)His torn clothes are found twice (by Fuchs, then Nauls). They specifically point out that the Thing shreads its victims clothes when it attacks. This is never explained.
2)When Nauls cuts his line in the blizzard, they specify that no HUMAN could make it back to the base under those conditions. Mac does make it back and breaks a window to gain access.
3) Mac records over his statement “no one trusts anyone anymore.” This subtly implies that he’s already hatched a plan to preserve himself by freezing himself and doesn’t wish to arouse any unnecessary suspicions with the party that will ultimately recover him and the tape. I don’t know why the screenwriter would go to the effort of adding that bit for any other reason.
all of these events occur prior to the blood test, so either the blood test is not always accurate(“I’ll show you what I already know”), or both of these cases are unexplained coincidences.
It seems likely to me that Childs is infected at the end: he leaves his post inexplicably and then spends the remainder of the movie unaccounted for in the arctic blizzard. If he were really chasing Blair (as he claimed) when he left his post, he undoubtedly would have returned to the base and assisted the others when they started blowing up/burning everything. Even if he was choosing a path of self-preservation by attempting to avoid contact with anyone, he wouldn’t have been able to survive out in the storm for such a period of time.
TheThingWins
August 18, 2011 at 8:02 pm
You’re all wrong.
Why MacReady was not a thing before the final scene:
1. Why did he still blow up the base? It was only MacReady and that giant Thing, if they were both things then he would not want to kill it.
2. The thing destroyed the nametag of the other clothes but left the one of Macready’s on, why? psychological warfare to make the humans kill the most powerful player, Macready. The same reason it put the keys back in the possession of the captain when neither guy that had access to the keys were infected (as shown by the blood scene).
3) Bennings wasn’t infected by the dog because the dog never licked his face, the dog licked his gloves right in front of his face. Also the corpse was infecting him in the tool room. Why would he have to be infected twice and in such an obvious way?
4) He passes the blood test.
5) If Childs was a thing (he was, explained below) he wouldn’t have even spoken to Macready, in english anyway, no point.
The whiskey was important not because of the transmission qualities but to be a test to see if Childs was a thing and a calling card of Macready’s to give an opponent a shot of whiskey before killing them. The test is easy, if Childs thought Macready was a thing he wouldn’t have drank after him because of Fuchs’ warning. The calling card of giving whiskey before a kill was shown when he destroyed the computer with the whiskey, and the whole movie seems to be like a chess game
Childs was a thing because
1) He changed clothes between scenes of being left alone, near the basement generator where Blair, now clearly a thing, was when he shut off power to the camp.
2) he didn’t wear goggles outside when he went to “chase” Blair, and he had always warn goggles before.
3) Blair’s thing was most likely in the generator room the whole time so Child’s probably didn’t see anything, making his story bullshit, not to mention being lost outside for that long would have killed him.
4) Blair could have been infected before he went crazy and destroyed the communications. He wore the same clothes the whole movie until he destroyed the comms, before this he has been trying to report the incident via comms several times, the thing does not want word getting out of infection, and Blair knows the corpses are still “alive” according to his notes but doesn’t burn them, and Blair was a huge threat due to his intellect. No need to infect via the bottle, he was also alone for a long time out there.
5) Childs ran from a stalemate battle between the Blair thing and Macready/Nauls//etc, the same tactic the dog used.
6) Childs didn’t kill Macready from behind because he needed another person to help convince a rescue team not to hold him prisoner for the deaths of the Norwegians and the rest of the outpost in clearly what was some kind of murder showdown.
Whitfield
August 27, 2011 at 1:35 am
I agree that Macready is most definitely NOT infected. I have always suspected that Childs was the thing, but never allowed myself to believe it until I read your post. Interesting, I love working out mysteries such as these.
Ryan Smith
October 16, 2011 at 3:46 pm
I think you pretty much nailed all of the presented evidence.
Sean
January 25, 2012 at 5:52 pm
Good, satisfying storytelling is about balance and symmetry. R.J. MacReady is the reclusive, alcoholic, sociopath of the group. At the beginning of the 1982 film we see MacReady dump his drink into the chess game as a sort of “No, I win, you cheeky b*tch”, too proud to admit defeat to a computer. Later on we see MacReady recording what he obviously believes will be his famous last words. When he finishes, the camera switches to a shot from behind (which in cinematic parlence portrays vulnerability aka. MacReady has admitted defeat, his inability to do so was his sin, which is now attoned for… his ‘hero’s journey’ is complete, he has nothing left to learn from this narrative.) and, if memory serves, it then fades to black which ALWAYS indicates that time is passing and something is happening that we didn’t see. The next time we see R.J. MacReady he is a Thing. In the final scene there there is no reason to think Childs is or isn’t a thing… up until MacReady Hands him the saliva-contaminated bottle of Jim Beam(I think) Whiskey., a mockery of the scene where he dumps his drink into the chess machine, as if to say, “I win, you cheeky bitch”. It’s the exact opposite sentiment of the earlier scene.
Wally
October 14, 2011 at 12:21 pm
The movie has irony up the wazoo:
Every character dies only AFTER they come to grips with their situation and what needs to be done.
None of the human characters are the protagonist.
MacReady/Thing’s actions to destroy the partially built spacecraft were actually a strategic move, based on MacReady/Thing’s assimilated strategic knowledge. A hail Mary play for civilization would have the Things caught and killed, his higher level of strategy makes it seem like he’s fighting the Thing when he IS the Thing.
And MacReady/Thing handing the bottle to Childs is an ironic representation of MacReady’s main character flaw.
Wally
October 14, 2011 at 12:39 pm
You honestly think MacReady is the thing? That is retarded.
When MacReady killed the giant thing, we KNOW from the movie that everyone else in the generator room is dead or is a thing. The thing would not kill itself, there is no need at that point, here is why:
Even if Childs wasn’t a thing at this point, Childs isn’t anywhere around, so he wouldn’t know whether or not the thing MacReady killed the thing, it could just hide in the snow. As per my explanation earlier, that doesn’t matter because Child’s is most likely a thing.
The purpose of the thing is to infect as many people as possible, and it never fights with itself. Sure it would be smart enough to kill another thing if that made it look like a person, but no one would know either way.
AND EVEN IF THE PLAN OF THE THING WAS TO KILL ITSELF AND MAKE MACREADY LOOK LIKE A HERO, WHY WOULD THE OTHER THING FIGHT BACK? THEY ARE A FUCKING HIVE MIND!
I don’t even know why I took the time to write this, because you are either dumb as a fucking brick or you don’t remember the particulars of the movie. I hope for your sake it is the latter.
Whitfield
October 16, 2011 at 4:01 pm
I should point out, I never said MacReady or Childs were infected before the final scene. My point was that the bottle was infected, hence the last cinematic tip of the hat in the film is the two of them becoming infected. A wink-wink, if you will.
Harry Lime
October 24, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Fair enough but that doesn’t explain why the corpse would try to assimilate Bennings in the supply closet long after he supposedly has been infected by the bottle…
Whitfield
January 25, 2012 at 6:32 pm
People, it’s really as simple as this about Childs & MacReady. They are both still human@ the conclussion of the film. The passing of the whisky bottle is out of trust. He asked Childs where were you ? His reply: ” I thought I saw blair and went after him getting lost in the storm. He couldn’t of walked that far away from the camp becoming lost. Besides, once he left outside where the others saw him before the fight with blair thing creature. Blair had tricked him outside to get rid of the generator in the basement. Since it was now left unguarded by Childs. MacReady used a”human” gesture of believeing Childs explaination of where he was. Even Childs response saying: if your thinking about me. Why MacReady suggested we dont we just sit around for a little while to see what happens. Because, the thing does prefer to attack asborbing it’s opponent alone. Like the why Blair did in the basement with one of the others planting the explosives. Common sense tells us people the oddes are they both are human who survived.
Vaughn
November 18, 2011 at 1:04 pm
MacReady is not infected but Childs is.
Remember during the blood testing when mac says i think every little piece is a individual animal.
Later he says not that thing he wants to freeze now, its wants to sleep until the rescue team finds it.
Notice that in the final scene MaCready is covered in frost Childs is not and when they breath in and out MacReady has a mist coming out but Childs has nothing.
steven
November 19, 2011 at 6:23 pm
Again, most likely they are still human by the end of the film. If you look closely you’ll see Childs was affected by the freezing cold weather as MacReady was. Both men are clearly exhausted with both mental & physical fatigue. Why this has to be one of the greatest sci-fi / horror films ever made. Giving audiences enough still to debate about since the day it debuted over 30 years ago. Besides, Blair had tricked Childs leaving the camp going outside. He could then more easily destroy the generator. Allowing him to freeze without a confrontation from the remaining survivors. The rescue team would arrive during the spring. Leaving MacReady & Childs frozen to death due to below zero temperatures. The exception was if they both could salvage the remaining vehicles not destroyed by themselves or blair. Being a snowmobile or etc., being at least repairable. Maybe it was possible to find shelter@ the what’s left of the norwegian camp still intact. Since their camp wasnt as severly damaged as their was. Even the possibility of a generator providing enough heat for the two of them to survive. Reporting to any rescue team later of the threat from the long they discovered as the norwegians have.
Vaughn
November 21, 2011 at 2:19 pm
I believe everyone got infected when Windows used the same knife to take ALL their blood samples
James
January 12, 2012 at 1:01 am
By their seating arrangements, Palmer being at the end, Nauls being at the other end, being the second to last to have his blood taken, one would assume blood was taken from right to left of the line. Everyone down the line became infected, seeing as how Windows simply cleaned the knife off by rubbing what he could see onto his pants, neglecting that dna is on a cellular level and residue would still be on the knife.
And by the order in which they started actually testing the blood, MacCready came after Palmer, he tested after Windows and the dead crew, nearly following the exact order the blood was supposedly taken, since it’s reasonable to assume, he’d want the supposed infected tied down and blood drawn, before taking his own blood, Nauls being the exception since he was the last to be tied down. My thoughts are, Macready would not draw his own blood until he knew the majority of the crew were secured and tied down, two of which blood was already taken before windows drew Nauls and his own blood
James
January 12, 2012 at 1:24 am
Everyone is so focused with the whiskey bottle and dog licks…. they missed the most obvious moment everyone was infected
James
January 12, 2012 at 1:33 am
One “clue” that I don’t think any of you have focused on would be the final lines spoken by Childs and MacReady. Childs: “What do we do now?” MacReady “Why don’t we just wait here for a little while…see what happens?”
I’ve always taken this to be a subtle hint that they are, at this point, both the Thing and they know it. We learn early on in the movie that the Thing can lie frozen for thousands of years waiting to be discovered. At the end of the movie the Thing has taken care of all the threats to it and understands it can’t escape Antarctica under its own power. So in a way, the Thing is saying to the other Thing, hey “brother” so now that all the threats are gone and we’re out of resources to build another ship, now what do we do? The Thing then responds with what has been shown to work before, just becoming frozen and waiting to be discovered. The impact of MacReady’s statement is lessened in my opinion if one or none of them are Things due to the fact that just waiting around to see what happens would be pointless as they would just be dead. They are waiting to be discovered. I also find the line just before MacReady throws the stick of dynamite at the Thing in the tunnels interesting as it may be another instance where MacReady knows he’s lost. By saying “yeah, fuck you too” and then throwing the dynamite, it’s strikingly similar to him losing the chess match earlier and dumping his drink into the computer. In that scene, he succeeded in destroying the computer but he still lost the game. I happen to think the same thing occurs when he faces off against what we assume is the last Thing.
Achilles
February 3, 2012 at 10:00 pm
I thought The Thing couldn’t clone non-organic objects? In the last scene Childs still had his earring on, suggesting that he was not The Thing, at least up until that point.
Bob
February 7, 2012 at 3:40 pm