Why The Thing Makes PERFECT Sense
304K views · Aug 18, 2026 · Film & Animation
Comments · 601
@Rico2Sauce · 1 month ago · pinned
First, chucky pin me
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@josephattwell1006 · 1 month ago
Smart characters lost because the Thing is the perfect monster for smart characters. It feeds paranoia, as your best friend could literally be your worst enemy and you have no way to tell. That means staying close together is a risky proposition, as who knows when someone’s chest opens up and takes a munch while your back is turned for even a second, so it forces everyone to keep their distance. Any plan you come up with and tell the group is now also known by the Thing, so you keep quiet as much as you can. Hell, you can’t even be sure one instance of the Thing is not selling out another portion to save it’s own hide and build trust. Leaving would only spread the Thing, and once the vehicles were destroyed, the ice would be just as deadly as the creature, so leaving is not an option.<br><br>Against the Thing, there are no perfect plays, just less worse options.
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@swordswinger395 · 1 month ago
There are power levels to horror. Good horror knows to tune its victims/survivors to the problem. If The Thing had normal people, or god forbid teenagers, the contrivance required to keep the full runtime would turn it into a comedy. The Thing is just hopelessly terrifying, and it required hypercompetent victims to really show it.
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@weskite5352 · 1 month ago
The chess scene is the mission statement. When you can't win, you throw the board. Now nobody wins
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@AdamZimmerman-c6i · 1 month ago (edited)
What made this movie so scary is that the characters aren’t stupid. They actually make smart decisions and do everything right and still wind up dead. Really adds to the hopelessness of it
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@Richterdgf · 1 month ago
As Captain Picard once said, "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose." <br><br>I think The Thing is a pretty good example of this truth. The characters make smart decisions based on the information they have available, don't do anything truly stupid, and the best outcome they can manage is a draw. <br><br>They were put in a no-win scenario and did the best the could with what they had. I'd say that managing a stalemate with a creature like the Thing is pretty darn impressive. <br><br>That's what makes The Thing such a good horror film. They don't make any mistakes or unforced errors, and everyone still ends up dead because of the nature of their foe.
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@lookatthepicture4107 · 1 month ago
The characters in The Thing make 1st and foremost the rational choices <b>scientists</b> would make<br>Investigate, research, inquire<br>They took the mutated body back to the base bc for a scientist it would make no sense to not do it<br><br><br>And later on when things are for sure spiraling out of control they make the kind of rational choices <b>scared</b> inteligent people would make
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@taddad2641 · 1 month ago
The big issue is that a lot of people don't diferentiate stupidity between 'logical irrationality'. <br><br>A big example is when everyolne panics during the blood test. he did not expect such a violent reaction and was distracted, drops his weapon and thus temporarily disables it. windows freezes up when the thing falls in front of him and opens that horrifying mouth. <br><br>non of these are bad decisions cause they are all human reactions. people acting up instincts./<br><br>Everyhting is cause and effect, and too many people take the easy route for a 'cause'.
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@vincentleon843 · 1 month ago
Even if they shot the dog... They wouldn't have thought to burn it so it would have changed like it did in the kennel and the movie would have probably been the same. Though it would have taken more time to find the monster, if at all, because it wouldn have just assimilated someone on the low.
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@commonman4413 · 1 month ago (edited)
When the Norwegian shot the American, he actually hit the dog too. If you watch closely you see the wound on its leg. This was never addressed or noticed by the Americans and later the dog's injury is no longer present and the dog was never bandaged or treated.<br><br>If only one American noticed the wound then and the dog not seeming to notice the injury and later it disappears, that could have complicated the efforts of the thing.
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@michaelshark5040 · 1 month ago
A couple of the possible dumb decisions you bring up at the beginning are only dumb when you know you're in a horror movie. There's no "just leaving" a remote scientific outpost like that. Part of what makes "The Thing" work so well, is that the logistics of where they are severely limit their access to outside resources. Additionally, when they bring back the destroyed bodies I would imagine they planned on returning them to the Norwegian government for a proper burial after testing. Plus in science you always want to bring the largest sample possible. Some tests are destructive and consume a single sample. Leaving and taking only a small sample would be viewed as very dumb decisions if they were to happen in reality.
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@aidscure2913 · 1 month ago
Horror in itself is meant to be a warning or a cautionary tale, people tend to make dumb decisions in horror movies to simulate the dumb decisions you or someone you know would make in a real life situations and the horror movie or story tortures' and kills' those people as if to say "See this could have been you, don't do what this idiot did."<br>The unique thing about The thing film is it doesn't act like a typical horror movie full of warnings and dumb decisions rather it paints a bleak situation where no matter the decision the characters are pretty much screwed and its merely a matter of whether or not the rest of humanity will fall with them.
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