John Carpenter‘s The Thing ends on a somber note after a hard-won battle. The horror master never wavers from his unrelenting paranoia that permeates The Thing and makes it so effective to the very end. That avoidance of presenting any clear, definitive answers to preserve the mystery and mistrust means an ending that still causes debate among fans even forty years later. 

At the conclusion, an exhausted MacReady (Kurt Russell) sits beside the burning remnants of Antarctic Outpost 31 and drinks his whisky. Childs (Keith David) appears and sits beside him, admitting that he’d gotten lost pursuing the Blair-Thing during the film’s climax. With their shelter, communication systems, and transportation effectively destroyed and sleep deprivation long set in, the pair now face freezing to death. But at least they finally destroyed all traces of the Thing. 

Or did they…?

MacReady shares his whisky with Childs, a gesture that indicates distrust is futile at this point, but the exchanged looks of skepticism between them say it all. Paranoia rightfully still lingers. Childs could have been infected sometime during MacReady’s bid to take out the giant monster. Or MacReady might’ve been assimilated; Carpenter purposefully obscures when and how many of the outpost’s research team succumbed to assimilation. 

The ambiguous nature of the ending suits John Carpenter’s masterpiece well and allows for multiple interpretations. Bloody Disgusting is joining the debate in celebration of the film’s 40th anniversary, with writers weighing in on the events, pleading their case for who is and isn’t infected.

Where do you land in this debate? Sound off below!

Childs is Infected – Paul Lê

When I first watched The Thing as a kid, I believed the monster was still alive, even after MacReady so grandly destroyed it. I still think this because the monster always comes back. The lingering question is, if the monster is indeed still around, where is it? That first viewing of The Thing sealed my opinion for years: Childs had become infected when he was off-screen.

The Thing does a wonderful job of demonstrating the power of paranoia. We feel it along with the characters. That unrelenting fear only continues as Childs stumbles out of the dark and asks a badly injured MacReady, “You the only one who made it?” “Not the only one,” Kurt Russell’s character responds. This kicks off an ominous exchange punctuated by nuanced performances from the actors. Keith David is eerily calm, whereas Russell is the constant questioner. They are each so persuasive in their roles, but of the two, I always found Russell’s to be the most indicative of who here might be the monster.

One draft of Bill Lancaster’s screenplay has that line of Childs saying, in response to MacReady’s question about if he knows how to play chess, “I guess I’ll be learning.” The film, of course, omits this bit, but even without it, it seems as if Childs would be the monster if there had to be a choice. There’s a curious sense of satisfaction on MacReady’s face up until the end. Either from now knowing Childs is indeed infected, based on some undisclosed assumption he made in those final few seconds, or he realizes it doesn’t even matter anymore because this is the end. Monster or not, he’s done for. Meanwhile, Childs comes across as strangely untroubled. Perhaps he’s biding his time before he kills MacReady, knowing very well he can now. 

Earrings, breath, Childs’ drink, and a supposed canon video game have all been cited as evidence of Childs’ infection, but the debate continues. I want to believe the hero who slayed the monster cannot also be a monster. As I grow older, though, I also think maybe there is no monster anymore. And perhaps the only thing these two surviving characters are infected with is paranoia. —Paul Lê, Bloody Disgusting’s Buried in a Book, Horrors Elsewhere, Young Blood, and Series of Frights Columnist.

MacReady is Infected – Matt Donato

You’ve read the other theories, now bask in truth: MacReady is infected and has been throughout the film. Carpenter wants you to assume Childs has been infected while off-camera during the climactic finale, hence MacReady’s questioning as they sit amongst the warm flames that engulf what’s left of their outpost. Childs walks back into the frame, gone long enough for infection, and MacReady’s immediately suspicious — but I think it’s cunning, not humanitarianism, that makes MacReady suggest they both freeze to death to make sure nothing survives. Sounds like a foolproof plan coming from the mouth of an extraterrestrial body snatcher that would outlive Childs and can infect anew once eventually rescued. 

Here’s what I’ll call “The Bottle” fan theory that tries to answer why Carpenter chooses to show us the Dog Thing licking Bennings’ face, why we see MacReady give Bennings his bottle of Scotch to drink from, and why it’s essential we see MacReady with a finished bottle later on. Simply put, the unidentified infection is more contagious than presumed, and MacReady is toying with his outpost mates as a means of survival.

Think about it from a predator’s point of view. The lifeform is outnumbered, can quickly be incinerated if outed, and can’t just assimilate everyone at once. The blood test sequence is a clear point of contention for doubters and, yes, can be used as evidence to support MacReady’s human state — but who says “The Thing” didn’t orchestrate that entire ruse? Maybe its cells can flee the hot poker, only ensuring MacReady is further trusted as the fearless leader of a group trying to kill “The Thing?” It’s almost like a game of self-sacrificial chess, or maybe ruthless betrayals if you believe more than one “Thing” could exist in that massive spacecraft, and MacReady is torching his own crew to escape.

In that final scene, I see a mastermind in MacReady pulling one last trick on Childs. MacReady doesn’t have the flamethrower; Childs does. So all MacReady has to do is wait until Childs turns into a popsicle. Then only his word matters, and Evil MacReady can assimilate throughout the globe to his alien heart’s content. —Matt Donato, Bloody Disgusting Revenge of the Remakes Columnist with bylines at Fangoria, What To Watch, Collider, Nerdist, Ebert Voices, Shudder, and more.

Neither is Infected – Jenn Adams

The ending of The Thing is a masterclass in ambiguity, and there’s a reason we’ve spent the past forty years debating it. Carpenter so effectively draws us into the film’s themes of paranoia and deceit that we find ourselves looking for answers along with the characters. Is Childs the Thing? Is MacReady? Like the final two men standing, we will never know. But the reality is that it doesn’t matter. The seeds of doubt have been planted and after everything they’ve seen, each man will always see the other as contaminated. Short of giving each other dehumanizing blood tests and keeping constant tabs on each other’s whereabouts, they will never be sure the other one hasn’t been turned. And as Childs notes, they have to sleep sometime. It’s also likely that they have not actually destroyed the Thing should they both prove to be human. There is no way to locate and destroy every single particle it has left behind. They’ve already burned down the entire base, but what the fire doesn’t consume will only freeze in the snow waiting for the next crew to come along and unearth it, beginning the cycle of paranoia and destruction all over again. 

Carpenter’s nihilistic tone is strong, and it’s easy to give in to the hopelessness. But lurking within all of this negativity is the freedom to choose what we want to believe. The Thing can be hiding in plain sight within anyone anywhere at any time. We won’t know who has been contaminated until their bodies literally burst open to consume us. And perhaps that’s for the best. I like both Childs and MacReady, so I choose to believe that they have not been infected. After everything they’ve been through, they deserve a moment to rest and the company of another human. I don’t want to rob either man of that comfort. What a tragedy it would be to survive this horrific nightmare only to wind up frozen and alone. It seems that both men want this respite as well. Neither expects to make it out alive, and it would be easier to just destroy each other once and for all. But they choose trust, if only for a moment. They sit down and rest, making themselves vulnerable but too tired to do anything else. Yes, the bottle they drink from may be contaminated, but they share it anyway, choosing to spend their final moments together in relative peace. For such a nihilistic film, it’s about the closest thing to a happy ending that we can hope for. —Jenn Adams, Bloody Disgusting writer and co-host of The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast.

We’re Not Meant to Know – Michael Roffman

The greatest endings are those that elicit this exact kind of feature. Because, sure, you could point out how Childs has no breath, as countless fans have screamed over the years. (A notion that’s made even more curious when Childs says he simply got lost in the storm. Okay, dude.) You could also Google Dean Cundey’s statement on how he lit the uninfected’s eyes and compare that with, again, Childs. And if you really want to roll some eyes, you can dust off the 2002 video game sequel in which — spoiler alert — it’s revealed that MacReady lived and even retained his job as a pilot. Column A and Column B it all night long, but there is no answer, and that’s the point.

That paranoia is the ghoulish goodie-bag that Carpenter and the late Bill Lancaster wanted audiences to leave theaters with 40 years ago. It’s the same trick Carpenter employed with Halloween, only that scare lasted three years before the sequels squandered its unnerving mystery. Time has been kind for The Thing. The ice has yet to break. —Michael Roffman, Bloody Disgusting writer and co-host of the Halloweenies Podcast and The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast.

John Carpenter mentions in The Thing‘s commentary track that he struggled to find a way to implicate MacReady as an assimilated entity but ultimately left the ending ambiguous. It eventually proved the best choice, as it suits the paranoia well. The Thing keeps you on edge, unsure who is infected and when it happened. MacReady’s line sums it up best: “Trust is a tough thing to come by these days.” 

The ambiguity provides fertile ground for viewers to draw their conclusions, and it’s exacerbated by tidbits and details that have emerged in the decades since the film’s release: alternate ending plans and TV cuts or Dean Cundey’s trick to spotting infected further fuel speculation. I’ve long thought it didn’t matter if MacReady, Childs, or both were infected because the elements would trap them in place anyway. Even that stance has softened with the realization that the smoke from the burning outpost could get so large that it’d potentially attract other stations at dawn. Of course, the comics and video games brought their own canon to the mix. 

MacReady’s final line again summarizes how we should feel about the ending: “Why don’t we wait here for a little while, see what happens?“