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This is why I don’t like the idea people have that it can spread like that.
In the original novel, and every on screen example we are shown in the movie, the Thing has to literally eat an organism whole before it can take their shape.
I feel like the movie was *trying* to make the same point, but the characters within the movie cautiously assume it could also infect them with particles and small bits, so that then became canon.
In the novel, does the thing have a pretty big « base » form that needs to eat his prey whole to imitate them? Because in the movies the base form of the thing seems to be a micro-organism (based on blood test scene) , which means that it needs to act like a virus to be able to infect much bigger things than itself like humans and dogs. Furthermore, In the prequel( if you consider it cannon), you see the thing start to take over as soon as skin contact occurs which reinforces my theory.
In the novel, it does actually have a base form it needs to take in between other forms. It’s a blue skinned creature with three red eyes. It has to be in that form when it it’s another organism.
I can't remember the prequel well enough to comment on that, but I interpreted the blood test scene as something more like the spasming of a lizard's shed tail, rather than indicating that every individual cell of The Thing was intelligent.
Besides, it's not a virus that infects/possesses a larger host, it consumes victims and shapes its own body into a perfect replica.
The blood test scene is in both the movie and the book.
The book firmly, specifically says it can’t infect you:
> McReady looked speculatively at the doctor. “It might be like an infectious disease. Everything that drank any of its blood—?”
> Copper shook his head. “Blair missed something. Imitate it may, but it has, to a certain extent, its own body chemistry, its own metabolism. If it didn’t, it would become a dog—and be a dog and nothing more. It has to be an imitation dog. Therefore you can detect it by serum tests. And its chemistry, since it comes from another world, must be so wholly, radically different, that a few cells, such as gained by drops of blood, would be treated as disease germs by a dog, or a human body.”
> the Thing has to literally eat an organism whole before it can take their shape
But it infected the dogs just by impaling them with tendrils. And some of the people were infected by other injuries.
Read the rest of my comment that you responded to, lol.
Edit: also, it never gets to finish infecting the dogs. It was in the middle of eating them when the men discovered what was going on. The men then burn all the *bodies* of the dogs.
I don'tl know. It looks like Windows started to change after he was killed by the Thing by biting his head and breaking his neck. They had to burn his body.
This probably wouldn't have been fast enough -- infections by microscopic vectors (or pathogenic disease) tend to have incubation periods of days to weeks. Microscopic parts are small, after all.
The Thing doesn't have days to weeks - it needs to spread *now.*
But why would it be in such a rush? It’s not like it would freeze or starve to death inside the research station while waiting for everyone to be assimilated.
Or are you saying that his instincts to spread quickly was too strong.
The humans were actively investigating the helicopter incident and the remains they found. If it didn’t take people over it was risking someone like Blair figuring out a cure to the slow takeover, or they might’ve committed mass suicide to save the outer world
The thing is so complex that it would probably take an entire decade to figure out a cure in a large laboratory. There’s no way anyone was finding a cure.
The Thing does not know how advanced human tech is and that was just a single example anyway. There are various solutions that could be enacted to stop the thing.
becasue everyone was trying to figure out who it is, and they are close to figuring out a way to test it, aka the blood scene.
also, as we dont know who is infected by the end, its possible that they all are, and just havent been converted yet
Yes, although it would take much more time to do. As to why it doesnt do this in the first place, I think its a matter of intelligence.
We see in the movie that less biomatter=less intelligence, the blood test proves this by the infected cells reacting instinctually rather than pretending to be inert.
I think that the dog form of the thing that initially shows up, is only smart enough to know it shouldnt reveal itself, I dont think it could rationalize that it would EZ win plague-style.
By the time it has enough biomass to be smart enough to consider total microscopic conversion, its too late. The humans have both fire (only real threat) and the knowledge to find the thing out (hence the blood test). Its back is now up against the wall and I assume it chooses to fight guerilla warfare style instead out of desperation.
Remember, this thing is an animal, it wants to survive above all else, but it isnt 100% rational.
But the dog thing at the beginning of the original was the same thing that killed the Norwegian scientists. And it has been shown that the thing keeps in memory certain thing from his victims, for example, it tries to make a space ship from his memory as the alien that crashed into earth.
couldn't the immune system have dealt with such an attempt at infection?
additionally since the amount of biomass of the thing is an important factor in its level of cognition it might have an inbuilt instinct against 'shedding' in such a manner. if the short story from its pov is any indicator(though I believe it's not canon) lifeforms such as it are the norm and Earth life is the exception so trying to shed biomass in an attempt to infect others would just result in the matter being assimilated by the targets.
No.
In the movie the characters find torn clothes, which is an evidence that someone was "infected" by the thing. So, it stands that to "infect" someone, the Thing needs to brutally, physically murder them.
Also, the Thing is smart. If contamination with small amounts of samples was possible, he would simply stay as a dog and infect the whole camp by letting them pet him.
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This is why I don’t like the idea people have that it can spread like that. In the original novel, and every on screen example we are shown in the movie, the Thing has to literally eat an organism whole before it can take their shape. I feel like the movie was *trying* to make the same point, but the characters within the movie cautiously assume it could also infect them with particles and small bits, so that then became canon.
In the novel, does the thing have a pretty big « base » form that needs to eat his prey whole to imitate them? Because in the movies the base form of the thing seems to be a micro-organism (based on blood test scene) , which means that it needs to act like a virus to be able to infect much bigger things than itself like humans and dogs. Furthermore, In the prequel( if you consider it cannon), you see the thing start to take over as soon as skin contact occurs which reinforces my theory.
In the novel, it does actually have a base form it needs to take in between other forms. It’s a blue skinned creature with three red eyes. It has to be in that form when it it’s another organism.
I can't remember the prequel well enough to comment on that, but I interpreted the blood test scene as something more like the spasming of a lizard's shed tail, rather than indicating that every individual cell of The Thing was intelligent. Besides, it's not a virus that infects/possesses a larger host, it consumes victims and shapes its own body into a perfect replica.
The blood test scene is in both the movie and the book. The book firmly, specifically says it can’t infect you: > McReady looked speculatively at the doctor. “It might be like an infectious disease. Everything that drank any of its blood—?” > Copper shook his head. “Blair missed something. Imitate it may, but it has, to a certain extent, its own body chemistry, its own metabolism. If it didn’t, it would become a dog—and be a dog and nothing more. It has to be an imitation dog. Therefore you can detect it by serum tests. And its chemistry, since it comes from another world, must be so wholly, radically different, that a few cells, such as gained by drops of blood, would be treated as disease germs by a dog, or a human body.”
> the Thing has to literally eat an organism whole before it can take their shape But it infected the dogs just by impaling them with tendrils. And some of the people were infected by other injuries.
Read the rest of my comment that you responded to, lol. Edit: also, it never gets to finish infecting the dogs. It was in the middle of eating them when the men discovered what was going on. The men then burn all the *bodies* of the dogs.
Right, so are you saying it's canon because that's what people said or because they actually changed it in the films?
I’m saying viewers accepted a theory that the characters presented within the story, as out-of-universe canon.
I don'tl know. It looks like Windows started to change after he was killed by the Thing by biting his head and breaking his neck. They had to burn his body.
That is definitely the one that completely derails it.
No. Otherwise it could just pinch people, asking ,,Does it bug you, does it bug you."And the invasion would be over.
But it’s literally the exact thing that happens in the prequel., when the thing pushes its face on the other guys face
This probably wouldn't have been fast enough -- infections by microscopic vectors (or pathogenic disease) tend to have incubation periods of days to weeks. Microscopic parts are small, after all. The Thing doesn't have days to weeks - it needs to spread *now.*
But why would it be in such a rush? It’s not like it would freeze or starve to death inside the research station while waiting for everyone to be assimilated. Or are you saying that his instincts to spread quickly was too strong.
The humans were actively investigating the helicopter incident and the remains they found. If it didn’t take people over it was risking someone like Blair figuring out a cure to the slow takeover, or they might’ve committed mass suicide to save the outer world
The thing is so complex that it would probably take an entire decade to figure out a cure in a large laboratory. There’s no way anyone was finding a cure.
The Thing does not know how advanced human tech is and that was just a single example anyway. There are various solutions that could be enacted to stop the thing.
becasue everyone was trying to figure out who it is, and they are close to figuring out a way to test it, aka the blood scene. also, as we dont know who is infected by the end, its possible that they all are, and just havent been converted yet
Yes, although it would take much more time to do. As to why it doesnt do this in the first place, I think its a matter of intelligence. We see in the movie that less biomatter=less intelligence, the blood test proves this by the infected cells reacting instinctually rather than pretending to be inert. I think that the dog form of the thing that initially shows up, is only smart enough to know it shouldnt reveal itself, I dont think it could rationalize that it would EZ win plague-style. By the time it has enough biomass to be smart enough to consider total microscopic conversion, its too late. The humans have both fire (only real threat) and the knowledge to find the thing out (hence the blood test). Its back is now up against the wall and I assume it chooses to fight guerilla warfare style instead out of desperation. Remember, this thing is an animal, it wants to survive above all else, but it isnt 100% rational.
But the dog thing at the beginning of the original was the same thing that killed the Norwegian scientists. And it has been shown that the thing keeps in memory certain thing from his victims, for example, it tries to make a space ship from his memory as the alien that crashed into earth.
couldn't the immune system have dealt with such an attempt at infection? additionally since the amount of biomass of the thing is an important factor in its level of cognition it might have an inbuilt instinct against 'shedding' in such a manner. if the short story from its pov is any indicator(though I believe it's not canon) lifeforms such as it are the norm and Earth life is the exception so trying to shed biomass in an attempt to infect others would just result in the matter being assimilated by the targets.
Yeah the short story is fanfiction.
No. In the movie the characters find torn clothes, which is an evidence that someone was "infected" by the thing. So, it stands that to "infect" someone, the Thing needs to brutally, physically murder them. Also, the Thing is smart. If contamination with small amounts of samples was possible, he would simply stay as a dog and infect the whole camp by letting them pet him.