FAQ: NORRIS ISSUES - HEART ATTACK OR ASSIMILATION?
Wow, I can't believe we completely forgot about this topic. This subject is one that has had much curious debate and deserves a thread of its own. Please present proofs for your perception/argument here. I believe that Norris was in mid-assimilation when his heart gave out. If he was already an imitation, I do strongly doubt it would go through the trouble to knock itself out and completely give itself away. That would be an illogical, irrational action for the Thing to take. The only way I could see why it would give itself a heart attack if he was already an imitation is if he was merely a distraction from some other subtle Thing plot going on, such as Blair or the small possibility that MacReady was indeed infected.

I'll say that Norris was Assimilated or how FF said 'mid-assimilated' when he had that heart-attack. Because we all know, that the thing assimilates everything including internal organs.

Precisely. And that is why the heart-attack was real and deadly. Norris-thing had no choice, it couldn't simply "repair" the weak heart inside. There were only two things it could do: Either show itself and transform to another creature (and fight) or stay in Norris' skin and hope it is not as bad as it looks to be. It chose poorly.

Actually, triffid, it could repair it. If there was dead, diseased tissue in Norris' heart, it could not of assimilated it, because it can only assimilate living cells as we see. Since The Thing knows all about human DNA and other stuff we don't know about on the molecular level, it could simply just use those simple building blocks in Norris' DNA to replace the cells. For The Thing this would be very simple procedure, for us it is still a mystery how to regenerate cells. Ala, the stem cell research program now deemed illegal in the US.

Makes you wonder about the immatation process. I mean, if it immitates all your cells perfectly, that would include injuries/imperfections too, right? I personally believe that the Thing simply immitated him perfectly - defects and all. If the heart attack had happend to occure while Norris was by himself, with no witnessess, I think it would have simply repaired the damage to his heart. Think of ths: If Copper as the stations physician was aware of his heart condition, then the Thing would risk brining attention to itself if Norris was all of a sudden miraculously cured of his heart condition. So it would have to immitate perfectly. Then, if heart attack occurs with no one present to witness, it would simply repair the damage from the heart attack but leave the over all heart condition in tact. OTH, I believe that in the novel, Clark comments on how quickly the dog seemed to heal from it's injury. Who knows?

Thinking about this makes me hopelessly confused, lol. Well firstly I think that the way the movie is would suggest that Norris' heart conked out because that was that, the assimilation was complete (and he hadn't even realized he was infected). After reading that Norris had a heart condition, I tend to believe that the perfectly imitated Norris-Thing had a heart attack. He obviously didn't die though, as we see what happens when they try to 'revive' him. As ZorPrime says though, it makes me wonder about the assimilation process. On the one hand we believe that a Thing imitates perfectly. But we also see that a Thing is pretty indestructible unless it's burned to ashes. So why would a heart attack even affect it at all? It seems to me that a Thing, then, can be affected on two levels. Let's say the Thing is imitating a human, and the human gets shot through the heart. Would the human aspect be rendered useless then (and then perhaps it Things out or imitates something else in its database)? Or would it regenerate itself? What exactly goes on?

She-Thing and ZorPrime, what I was meaning to say was that the Thing cannot imitate scars and dead tissue, thus making the imitation imperfect. If I were to be assimilated, it could not assimilate the distinct scar on my right thumb print. The Thing can only assimilate living cells. She-Thing, if the Thing were intending to continue to pass off as a human, then if shot, it would certainly fall over and stop the heart beat and brain activity, thus makiing us believe that he is actually dead. However, the Thing does not require organs to be able to live, because it is merely a collection of cells living together. Like Clark, for example. When MacReady shot him in the head, he still had his blood checked. The Thing is simply feigning a human reaction, but it certainly isn't dead. Here's a cool scenario: If you were in mid-assimilation and you were to shoot yourself in the head, the Thing could probably still assimilate you because your body's cells do not die for many days after death, even though your mind and soul are gone. However, it could not imitate your personality and mind, because that is permanently gone from the body. The only thing it could do is imitate a dead body. However, you would notice it would curiously never decompose or rot... a scary thought.

"it could not assimilate the distinct scar on my right thumb print. The Thing can only assimilate living cells." - but if that were the case, wouldn't it make the THING much easier to detect? Again, Copper would most likely know about scars and injuries to team members considering he will be their physician in order to treat them properly. If Copper saw that all of a sudden your distinct scar was gone, wouldn't that be kind of suspect??? In that situation, you would probably have been tied up with Clark, Garry and Copper.

But Copper, Blair, or Fuchs never brought it up, luckily enough for Palmer and Norris. If it could assimilate cells that weren't living, what's to stop it from assimilating air? The only way, I guess, that I could see it having the ability assimilate dead cells is if it can assimilate cells, but not molecules. We're sure that the Thing cannot assimilate a person's clothing, as we see with the shredded clothing, so it cannot assimilate abiotic matter.

Yes but a heart with a condition isn't "dead cells". Besides I don't think a scar is necessarily "dead cells" in case of the Thing either. Remember, only when it's cells are separated do the individual Thing cells go on their own and fight for survival. When they're together in an immitation, they are working in unison. My point? The cells would willinging arrange them selves to give at least the appearance of a scar. Like people with a surgery scar. I don't believe that's dead tissue. It's living skin covering a portion of your body that had sustained a cut or something. How's this for a strange scenario: A guy gets shot in the head and has his brain splat down on the floor. The brain would live for a few seconds right? Well, could a Thing come along, digest it, study it's cell structure and form an immitation of the shot man???

That would have to be one fast assimilation, we're talking milliseconds.

She-thing, the only problem with that is that the MacReady's blood--*test*-('") principle proves that the things are very selfish. It's hard to imagine them working for a higher cause. But OTH, maybe full bodied imitations with brains could do the kind of calculating manuver you suggested. Like most Thing questions....who knows???

I don't know about them being as self-centered as we humans can be. Think about it, these are alien species on a frozen world with hostile species. If humans were lost on some planet, I would become very close friends with those others guys. The Thing works, in principle, in mass cooperation to achieve its full imitations. Though, I do find it funny sometimes think that an assimilated Mac at the end blows up the Blair-Thing out of jealousy. That big groan it gives may of been something like "What the fuck do you think you're doin', pal?" and MacReady's response, "Yeah, fuck you too!"

the only problem with that is that the MacReady's blood--*test*-('") principle proves that the things are very selfish I don't think that proves Things being selfish. If somebody pointed gun at you and said that he will kill you if you move your hand, then thouched it with bloody hot iron you would have little chance not to move your hand even you would very much like to...same was with the blood -*test*-('"), imitated blood reaction was unintended and forced by survival instinct of every living creature. As for Norris and what you call being 'mid-infected'. Norris while being mid-infected should be running around the base screaming that somethings very wrong and asking for medical help - neurological system would have to react for slow invasion of intruder cells I guess.