FAQ: EVOLUTION OR BIOLOGICAL WEAPON?
Dear Friends and Members of the Outpost #31, An old 'sticky thread' from the first O #31 revisited. From my point of view, it could be that the Thing is a piece of Biological Weaponry. I'll try to make the points more clearly. 1) The Thing ends up on Earth 100 million years BC. Humans were not around there at this point in the timeline. The thing didn't come to assimilate dino's, I'll say. 2) The spacecraft is pretty much intact as the Norwegians find it. This indicates that it did not crash, but land on Antarctica. The extreme heat it carried made it sink in the ice, leaving the Thing the choice to swim out or die in the spacecraft. It swam out, only to freeze up. 3) The Thing doesn't use it's strength alone to overcome it's prey. Stealth is it's prime. After assimilating the first human in the Outpost, it makes the 'mistake' of attacking several dogs in the Kennel, deep at night. But by doing this, the thing shows it potential. Directly after the kennel scene, the deep mistrust starts taking place. Imagine what this could do to an armed force....... The main goal of the thing is to undermine the trust within the ranks of the enemy. Assimilate on or two, then assimilate and get caught by doing this. Let fear and mistrust take the hand of the frightened soldiers and you'll have an army that breaking apart. 4) The Thing never intended to escape to civilised terrain. It had the chance after it assimilated the first Norwegian (just sit it out?). No, it just started to assimilate all others and made 'mistakes'. Possibility: The Thing has a short lifespan, by assimilating other lifeforms it can lengthen this period, but it cannot hold this 'alias' for months in a row. Mind that the thing only imitates....the functions of lever, kidneys, lungs only appear to be WITHOUT actually have the same functions! You can shoot a human-Thing in it's head, but it will not die. 5) The Thing didn't attack Clark. It made a choice. This points out to a plan. 6) As Jed is assimilated, the dog does show 'undog behaviour'. It watches the chopper coming back, it watches the men gather around the 'Norwegian Thing'. But as it first reaches the OP #31, it clearly shows the behaviour of a dog....try to make friends with the Americans. Let's hear some feedback. :D

You think The Thing landed on purpose on Antarctica just because there were not any civilized area's? That would be kind a smart, but I don't know if it would be realistic cause they have to study it all and kind a things before they would have a crash site in mind.

Hello Z@3 Redrum, No, I don't think that the Thing landed on purpose on Earth. Once it entered the atmosphere the saucer heated up dramatically. The Thing found a nice landing spot (that's what it probably thought) on Antarctica. It landed the saucer and within minutes the saucer started to melt the ice. The ship was unable to free itself, it sank. The Thing knew it would die in the saucer and took a chance by swimming out. That explains why the ship is in good shape AND the Thing is hundreds of yards away from the vessels. I assume that the Thing was one of many on a covert operation. It's ship had a malfunction and was out of course. There could have been a war between races and the Thing was a piece of weaponry, used by either side against the other. Unluckely, one of the ships get's lost and finds it's way to Earth.

I don't think there's a differnece at all.

Why would you use a Thing to win a war, or something like that, when you have tecnology that could create spaceships.

Algol: Explain why, please. Z@3 Redrum: From my point of view, the combating species both had the ability of spacecrafts. In that part, both sides had no advantage. However, let's assume that one of the species tried one of their 'dirty tricks' on the enemy. The same way the British first used gas in WW I on the German troops. On later occaisions, the Germans replied with the same 'gesture'.

Personally, I like to think the spaceship was an escape vessel for an alien civilization nearing the end of a planitary-level take-over of things. I also like to think that most of the aliens who escaped were thing free and they were assimilated in flight. As they neared earth, the final conflict on board is taking place and the result is the spaceship loses control and crashes in Antarctica. I don't want to view Earth as a target, more of an unfortunate landing zone that was only aimed for due to its similarity to the alien planet. Of course I made all the above up out of thin air but it would help explain why the spacecraft was clearly out of control the entire time before the Title sequence burns into the frame.

My favorite theory is that what happened in the norwegian and US camps also happened in the flying saucer... A team of alien scientists happened to run into a Thing, maybe when they were taking specimens on a planet. Maybe the Thing was in disguise and they didn't understand right away that the animal they wanted to study wasn't exactly what it seemed. Then the Thing started assimilating the crew and the aliens discovered what was happening. A battle ensued and caused the crash on Earth... Or maybe a Blair-type alien thought that crashing on this ice planet was the only way to stop the Thing... and it was wrong. :wink: Of course, the other theories (thing as the pilot of the flying saucer or as a biological weapon) seem fine to me too.

Gary and Duke; good thinking, but what about the origin of the Thing? 'man'-made or evolution? :!:

If the thing was engineered or built in an alien -*test*-('") tube then the aliens were probably scientifically advanced but their minds should have been pretty basic: why build a creature like that instead of some deathray that incinerates living beings? This means either the aliens weren't afraid of the thing because they weren't organic beings and in danger of assimilation or they risked their own existance to destroy other living beings. Either way I can't see any reason for building a creature like that. There are easier ways to win some war. If it was an evolution then its probably a mutation, not an original lifeform: from whatever planet it came from. Universe is still under the same physical laws and there aren't no magical planets anywhere that defy evolutional laws. I think the thing isn't neither, it's just an abnormal creature created by a freak accident like spiderman or whatever.

It is a pity that we cannot see how the THING looked like while still in the ice-block. The Norwegian scientists were a step ahead of us in this. One single photo of the creature in the ice could answer almost all these questions. Also, we do not know how many dead creatures are still lying in the corridors of the spaceship and what is their race. And since this thread is open to speculations, I would like to add one more question: Do you think that the THING has any 'original' or 'natural' look, its original shape? This is a question which means a clear link between 'The Thing' and 'Alien' movies. We know how human-based (and later dog-based) Alien looks like but we never saw its original unmodified form. For more than one reason I believe that the THING's goal is not to assimilate all living beings on the target planet. But let's assume (to make the point of my question easier to imagine) that it successfully escapes and infects all Earth - Blair's prophecy comes true. What next? There is no reason to use these ridiculous, water-based, fragile, weak and slow human bodies anymore. Will then all these millions of THINGS turn into their natural shape??? Any ideas?

mmm...Maybe you could start this topic 'as new', Triffid? But I'll answer the question: The Thing should have a 'own' shape, that's for sure. I would go for eyes in a pair (or so): it's a hunter, so it has to be able to judge distances. Probably hand-like appendixes to grab stuff. Likely to have strong legs, for speed and balance. It could have a tail, for better movement or catching stuff. It would be far from scary....that part pops-up when it goes for the attack.

New topic started. Do not reply to my question here.

Or maybe it just crashed into Antartica, for a story to start. I'm sure. I think you guys think too much into it. But it is all interesting, but no right answer.