What Happens to You When The Thing Assimilates You?

Comments · 705

• DR

  @DrTimes99 · 1 month ago

  The fear is not the Thing becoming you. It is you becoming the Thing.

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• CH

  @chrisbenavides3176 · 1 month ago

  The shot of Bennings being absorbed freaked me the hell out when I saw it as a kid.

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• IS

  @isaacvampful · 1 month ago

  It's crazy how we still talk about this movie every month, proof this movie is lighting in a bottle nothing comes close!

  105

• MA

  @Maj1nVeg3ta · 1 month ago (edited)

  If I remember correctly I thought it was officially stated somewhere by Carpenter that you legit die. The "You" ceases to exist. You die outright and only a copy remains. Same deal as copying a piece of paper and burning or destroying the original. The copy exists but the original is gone.

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• ER

  @EricK-n9y6z · 1 month ago (edited)

  Carpenter stated that "The beings being assimilated must be alive, and they feel everything. The process is unimaginably painful, as their cellular structure is rewritten. They lose their identity and essentially die, allowing the new entity to take over."

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• SI

  @Sithuriel · 1 month ago

  It basically eats you, fast or slow, you are consumed and only a shadow of what you were remains until it casts that aside

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• MA

  @mattmanard8817 · 1 month ago

  What if 'nothing' happens to you? What if that's still Palmer, and Bennings, and Norris? They could just have a "layer" of thing cells that can commandeer the normal cells at any time it chooses

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• TH

  @TheAncardia · 1 month ago

  In the novel its implied that that the victims mind is shoved aside and the thing takes over.

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• DJ

  @DjDelirious666 · 1 month ago

  The movie deliberately leaves one question unanswered:<br><br>Does the person experience the assimilation?<br><br>We don&apos;t know.<br><br>The transformation of Norris is particularly disturbing because his chest opens into a giant mouth and bites off Dr. Copper&apos;s arms. That suggests Norris&apos; body was being transformed while the organism was taking control.<br><br>But whether Norris was consciously experiencing any of that is never established.<br><br>The scariest interpretation is that you might remain conscious for at least part of the process—watching your body become something else while the Thing takes over.<br><br>And there&apos;s an even darker implication: the Thing may not need to preserve the original person&apos;s mind at all. It could simply extract enough biological information to recreate a perfect copy.<br><br>So if you&apos;re assimilated, the &quot;you&quot; walking around afterward may look and behave exactly like you—but the original you may already be gone.<br><br>That ambiguity is a huge part of why The Thing is so terrifying.

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• AI

  @AiRsTrIkExXzZ · 1 month ago (edited)

  The fact that in order to kill the thing, the person who was assimilated has to die twice both being horrific(first being converted then second being burnt alive) is pretty cool for horror

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• TI

  @tim6454 · 1 month ago

  This is actually kind of similar to the ship of Theseus. Where the question is if over time every single board on the ship has been replaced, is it still the same ship?

  76

• BU

  @bursegsardaukar · 1 month ago

  Probably like when the brain bug from Starship Troopers sucks its victim’s brain. You die and your brain contents become information.

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