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How many different ways can the Thing assimilate?

posted 8 years ago by !!!deleted!!! (40461903)
10 replies | jump to latest

Hi all,

Just wanted to clarify something. Namely, is The Thing able to choose to either assimilate someone by "infecting" them with its cells...or by jumping from one "host" to the next?

The assimilations that we see on screen, after all, are the "failed" ones (e.g. the other dogs, Bennings, Windows), where The Thing is "cornered" or about to likely be discovered (e.g. by the other dogs, or because it hasn't fully assimilated Bennings yet). The Thing is basically desperate to escape and move on to (into) someone else.

However, when the stealth option is available, it seems to prefer to move around (e.g. in dog form) and quietly slip into someone else. This is how it likely infected Palmer (if he was the shadowy figure the dog infected).

Blair's infection could be...a bit of both options. The Thing might have been alone with Blair, but at the same time in a hurry because it knew Blair had realised what a dire situation humanity faced (27,000 hours to worldwide infection). Therefore, the Thing "jumped" into him rather than merely "infecting" him or his food, etc. Then The Thing could act all crazy as Blair, and ensure his removal to the tool shed, and start working on its escape plan in secret.

So, those are my thoughts...but does anybody here have more concrete information about the Thing and it's methods of choice?

Cheers!

[–] Cult_of_Kibner 8 years ago

I don't think it infects people like a disease because that makes the plot kind of nonsensical. Blair was just wrong as far as I'm concerned.

This is how it likely infected Palmer (if he was the shadowy figure the dog infected).

I used to think he was, I guess because I always felt the shadow looked more like him than Norris, but I watched it again recently and it dawned on me that sometime AFTER that scene there's a scene of Palmer alone in a room with Childs. If Palmer's the Thing at that point shouldn't he be absorbing Childs instead of watching reruns with him?

[–] antonasmodeus 8 years ago

Since The Thing wasn't from our planet, we don't know it's true nature and how it functioned. One thing is certain: it's victims died horrible deaths.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] IMDb_wanderer 8 years ago

I think the reason that it didn't attack Clark was because he would be too obvious a suspect if it ever got found out. Instead it roamed the base looking for a better candidate. I've always have the belief that it preferred Bennings the most, and it was looking for him when it discovered whoever the shadow was instead.

Another thing involving Clark could also determine when Dr Blair is human and when he's a Thing. Blair suspects Clark because he was with the dog alone for a period of time ("watch Clark"), but then when they see him next he believes that Fuchs is human ("It aint Fuchs"). What happens shortly after? Fuchs encounters "something" and follows it outside, and is later found dead. My theory is that Blair is assimilated sometime between "watch Clark" and "It aint Fuchs", and plans on making others believe that Fuchs is human when in fact he has been taken over.

They call me the wanderer.

[–] Cult_of_Kibner 7 years ago

The poster above gave a good reason why the dog-thing didn't take Clark. Can you give me a good reason why Palmer-Thing would have avoided taking Childs?

[–] therealboozysmurf 8 years ago

I wondered this too when I was rewatching both versions the other day. It's hard because we really don't get to see a proper takeover given the narrative that's supposed to leave the audience distrustful of everyone.

If the cells can operate on their own away from the body as they intimated here then you'd think the procedure of Windows testing everyone would have allowed the thing to take over everyone. He uses the same scalpel on everyone and only wipes the blood off on his jeans. So the cells from the scalpel should be getting introduced to the blood stream and begin assimilation.

[–] dayvit78 8 years ago

I thought it assimilated by spewing out tentacles, wrapping them around the other organism and then eating it. We saw that near the end, and kinda in the dog scene as well. It's not simple blood-on-blood contact like a virus, it has to eat the host. Once it eats, then it has the ability to choose whatever form it wants - for example, in one scene we saw the Thing as part dog and part human at the same time.

[–] snagletooth 8 years ago

It probably could either launch a macroscopic attack and assimilate sort of like the Blob would, or spread from a source of infection like a disease, hence the suggestion that people cook their own food, instead of letting a thing-cook spike the food before serving it. The first blob-assimilate mode is faster than the stealth infection mode. And each individual is a new thing, somehow with all the memories and capabilities of the originator thing. It isn't 'leaping' from one person to another, leaving the old victim. The old victim remains a thing. Of course the disease infection process brings up things like why didn't the covert things just do things like sneeze on people, smear door handles with thing-snot, plant a few 'spoor' grenades and detonate themselves simultaneously, etc.

Answer: the logic of the movie isn't %110 flawless.

Oh, and IMDB deletes old threads. I bet 95% of the topics and the ideas floated and currently visible have been discussed and deleted 10 times over.

[–] Snaggelpuss 8 years ago

It always does it the same way by absorbing.
The dogs it killed but didnt have time to absorb them.
Thus getting rid of the bodies.

Then splits to assume individuals that have all the same "DNA" library to use
Then it can assume their form (ignore size changes)

[–] MickyMac (2945) 6 years ago

It digests who it imitates by breaking them down to little bits to be devoured, probably parts of it come off and digest someone from the inside.