SNR, while your scientific skepticism does brings some good criticisms, you have some difficulty looking at it from this psychological perspective I'm providing and thus you get a different picture than what I'm trying to paint. (The scientific method does not apply often in the study of the internal universe of the mind) I do believe that Mac and Childs are both infected at the end, but there is not enough evidence provided from the film to clearly support it. I do not always require absolute evidence to support claims, it also takes an understanding of the characters themselves and a \"What if\" perspective of the Thing. I am no scientist and my ways of logic are going to be different from yours, SNR, please don't expect too much of me or anyone else here. This is all speculation, not hard facts. Especially for a fantasy movie. Also for another thing, I wrote this half-awake late at night. ;) I might of typed some things that I meant to say different. Now onto the responses to your criticisms. - Childs' direction of walk is significant. But more than this is his speed. If you saw Blair and you had orders to burn him if you saw him without Mac and the others, you'd probably try to torch him as soon as possible. Childs would be charging him and screaming for Mac and the others. It would've saved the camp from being destroyed and could have saved everyone's lives. If Childs tells you he got lost in the storm, while you sat and watched him enter a building alone, you'd of torched him. - Your reaction to the idea that Things compete is understandable. We don't know that they do for sure, but it certainly looks like it. Especially if you consider that the Thing is willing to turn against one another to remain hidden in character. I admit I have quite a flaw in my argument there, but I haven't watched the film in a long time and I'll see if I can come up with any sort of speculation for the Thing's irrational, emotional behavior. - I think Fuchs should be reserved for another topic because him alone is an entire debate. Besides, I haven't thought much about him. There perhaps a dozen different things that could have stirred around him. - For the last, I thought I had something funny going until you killed it. Thanks. Why don't you put your perspective on here?

Even if he was human throughout all of that, maybe Mac was infected after it all and in the final sequence we see he could be infected by then, it's a very big possibility. However, I can't seem to remember much of the debate as to how the blood -*test*-('") could have been rigged, which was on the older board, otherwise I would have gladly posted it. Cpl Ferro had some interesting perceptions on it. I think that this is the key reason why we think we trust Mac, if this can be proven to be a farse -*test*-('"), then maybe it would be easier to start understanding. Though, there is little doubt in my mind that Childs was indeed infected, if not wholly assimilated. I've believed that from the beginning. The story itself isn't trustworthy, it sounds like something a thing would say. If I were him, I would not of given Blair a moments peace. I would've charged it and ended the main threat from an imitation. (Though I do believe that the pieces of it all over the camp could have hidden themselves throughout) I am curious though about how far Childs was from Mac and the others when they spotted him wandering out.

Which final sequence, like right before he meets Childs or when he's about to kill Blair? I don't know. It's very difficult to believe that the -*test*-('") was rigged, even more so to think that the filmmakers had it in mind when they made it. I like CplFerro's posts, most of them are wonderful, but every now and then he tends to assume too much. However, I wish this thread was still available. This debate has and always will be one of skepticism. It basically comes down to whether or not you believe Childs. There really isn't any other element that we can see that goes for or against him. Not the breathing, not anything.

Mac or Childs was infected - Scripted Ending
Hi. I'm new here and this is my first post, so forgive me if this has already been included and/or discussed elsewhere. But I didn't see reference to it in this thread, so I thought I'd speak up. I own a copy of a screenplay for The Thing. It's not dated, but it's numbered like a production draft and the scenes are hand numbered and rulered off like a script supervisor would do for a production draft (I work in the film industry). My version is pretty identical to the Lancaster draft included here, except for the following. After the final scene where Childs says "I guess I'll be learning" (re: chess) the page continues with another scene and then on to page 128. The final scene in this version proves conclusively that, at some point in pre-production or production anyway, the original intent was that one of the two was infected. Here are the final three scenes: ----------------------------- CHILDS I guess I'll be learning. MacReady grins and hands the bottle to Childs. Childs smiles back and takes a healthy swig. An EAR SHATTERING SCREECHING OFF CAMERA within the room. Both men whirl in its direction; their faces a mask of paralyzed HORROR. #230 - EXT. COMPOUND - NIGHT The fires smolder on in the blackness -- the SCREECHING continues over the SOUGHING WIND. It lessens as the screen SLOWLY FADES TO WHITE. FADE TO: #231 - EXT. COMPOUND - DAY The sun has returned, making its arc along the horizon. A third of the camp's foundation remains. SUPERIMPOSE: SPRING. CLOSE ON the puzzled face of a MAN as he stares into CAMERA. He speaks with a thick foreign accent. MAN But... how is it you survive? No frostbite even. CAMERA PANS around to reveal a grinning MacReady. MACREADY We're a resilient bunch -- we Americans. CAMERA GLIDES OVER to show a spry and healthy Childs. CHILDS The poor old boys on that Scott expedition would have been mighty proud. Still bewildered, the Man glances over at the ruinous campground. MAN But such madness. How...? MACREADY ...Men in isolation this long... I'm not sure human beings are cut out for it. He turns and speaks OFF CAMERA. MACREADY Don't you think? VOICE (O.S.) Human beings probably aren't... CAMERA PANS to reveal the owner of the voice... It is the young biologist... Fuchs. FUCHS ...We're all going to have to reassess the way we run our programs down here. MACREADY (grin) Damn right. Reassess the hell out of 'em. FUCHS (big smile) So how far to that hot meal? The four men trudge off toward two waiting rescue helicopters. Their rotor blades RUMBLING into motion and churning up the fine Antarctic snow. FADE OUT. THE END ------------------------------- So there you have it. Doesn't prove which one was infected, but shows the intent that one of them was. Hope someone finds this interesting. I'd be happy to scan the pages and post a link if anyone's curious. But maybe you guys have seen this draft before. Oh, and for a bit of THING-related fun, check out this mash-up video I did "John Carpenter's The Doors". Jim Morrison is alive and well and living in Antarctica. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fjyQ9_aMEc

Interesting... I have never read that before in any script, or even heard of it. I'm sure glad they didn't shoot or use it. Thanks for submitting DD. T

Hope FF still checks this thread. :D I just thought of something: had Mac been a Thing before the blood -*test*-('"), he wouldn't have to rig it. Mac could have had Palmer tie everyone down, and while they had Garry, Nauls, Childs, and Windows in the chairs, could have burned or assimilated them. I don't see the point in him allowing people to live when he would have the perfect opportunity to kill them all.

I try to be open to all ideas, but the whole rigging the blood -*test*-('") thing doesn't really ring with me an never has. You're totally right in saying that it may not like to split because it may be painful; whether it is or not I don't know, but I agree that it is an absolute last resort. You say that assimilating the four men would be too much because of pain or energy used, but then I must ask, was the situation not similar in the kennel? Surely the dog-thing had the intention of assimilating all of the dogs (there were five, I believe). Even if the assimilation process is painful/uses too much energy, why not just torch them? Easy to do. And if he wanted to assimilate them, drug them while they're strapped down and do it at his and Palmer's liesure (sp?).

SNR, you do make a lot of sense, but I think that maybe MacReady was merely infected, not assimilated at this point, if at all. But I still think it's a good possibility that he was assimilated by the end of the film. However, I'm not going to say that he was in fact, because it's too problematic to think so factually. But I'm very sure that at least one was assimilated and the other if not infected already, will be.

Oh, this is sad. I hoped to learn more about the script's evolution. You wrote your script is not dated. If it is otherwise identical, then it is a direct predecessor of the electronic script, probably only few weeks older (before somebody crossed the last page out). Or the page got lost and the person who re-typed the script on a computer did not have it. Or your additional page is a fake, written by somebody who loves the movie and who wanted to create his own ending. Is this part marked for deletion in the script?