Palmer and the Dog Thing
When I watched the movie early this week I kind a thought about Palmer and The Thing. When the Dog Thing attacks the other dogs, you see that Childs burns it lately, but in my oppinion Palmer and Windows flushed (or whatever) the fire to early to let it die or to burn it all the way down. I know that the building can't burn down when you let burn such an obstacle, but doesn't it have anything to do with Palmer being a Thing already?

I think Palmer and Norris are the two guys rushing first to extinguish the fire. Coincidence or not ? Funny anyway. :wink:

I thought it was Windows for sure, I remember his glasses in that scene, but you say so :)

Well it's been a long time since my last vision of the movie, so I could be wrong. :wink:

My say is that the first victim of the Thing is Norris. Why? Because if Palmer would be the first one, the next possibility to assimilate another would be the sleeping Childs (roommate). Palmer was assimilated AFTER the crew visited the saucer. If Palmer and Norris would be things at that point in the movie, Mac would have surely been assimilated during the trip.

Makes sense, except if you think about the fact that they would have torn his clothes by assimilating him... But if both were Things, I don't see why they wouldn't have overpowered him, taken off his clothes and then assimilated him (kind of sounds like a rape told this way :oops: ).

I don't think they were trying to extinguish the flames to save the Thing, they are trying to not let the camp burn down. There was wood everywhere in that kennel, if it catches on fire then their all in real trouble because their stuck in the Antarctic and can't communicate with anyone. I think the way they reacted was completely understandable to putting out the fire plus I believe the only person infected by a Thing at this time was Norris.

Palmer was assimilated AFTER the crew visited the saucer. If Palmer and Norris would be things at that point in the movie, Mac would have surely been assimilated during the trip. What makes you think the third person is Palmer? By the color of his coat? Except for Nauls, Bennings and Norris, they all have coats of this color. I do not think both pilots can leave the camp at once. There must be some security rule for this situation. Even if they have only one chopper, it is wiser to keep the second pilot at home.

I think it's Palmer because of the size of the man in the coat. Your doubts are correct, but we both know that 'The Thing' isn't a perfect movie. :?

What if it is a stuntman in somebody's coat? Are there any production photographs other than these few on the DVD? They should help. I tried to find some in the DVD gallery - nothing. Instead I watched a short scene showing Mac and Norris climbing back up and only then I realized this footage is missing in the movie. Interesting.

We shall never know for sure. This one is more clearly: When Mac and doc Copper go to see the Norwegians, you can see that Mac is a lot taller than doc. When they are in the chopper howver, you see that Copper is longer than Mac. Reason: The tall guy is flying. It's likely that the tall guy is indeed the same guy playing 'Palmer' in the saucer scene.

The Mysterious 3rd Guy...
The 3rd guy who went along with Norris and Mac when they decided to check out the flying the half buried saucer is none other than....Palmer. :D I remember reading about it in the Alan Dean Foster novelization of the film and also just to be sure I double checked with the film script and well Palmer is indeed the 3rd guy. :shock: :D

to bad the old forum is gone.. we went over every angle of this thread.. with stills from the movie posted.. I personally believe it is Palmer who got it first.. (another long thread about that one with lots of pics posted..) and that is was Palmer with Mac at the UFO Thing is we will never know for sure.. all I can say is keep a open mind, and look at everything.. I personally thought at first it was Norris.. but after all the breaking down of the film that opinion changed.. Also.. allot of the UFO scene was shot with extras, on a back lot, and cut into shots with the actors..

I ALWAYS thought that both Palmer and Norris were infected at the "dogtown" scene because they bot rush in with their fire extinguishers after only a few seconds.

Guys watch closely when palmer rushes to estuingish the fire. He is the first to go in there and you can se that he stumbles on his way there making him look very desperate to estuingish the fire. Not just by that but also by the way he acts in that scene when they rush to estuinguish the fire. I believe he was the thing at that point.