Nguồn Gốc và Năng Lực của The Thing (1982-2011) |Bạn Có Biết?

Hello guys,

The Thing is the titular main antagonist

and the alias given to the hostile alien creature featured

in the 1938 short story Who Goes There? by the late John W. Campbell,

was made into a 1982 live-action film by John Carpenter,

followed by a prequel released in 2011. Let's explore this monster.

Origin

Its origin is a mystery,

the Thing itself crash-landed in a spacecraft within the icy fields of Antarctica 100,000 years ago

and was frozen attempting to escape.

However, in 1982, the spacecraft and the Thing were found by a team of American and Norwegian

explorers/researchers under Dr. Sander Halvorson from Thules station,

who hired Columbia University paleontologist Kate Lloyd

to take a sample of the creature's blood as it was brought to the base in a block of ice.

But later that evening, the Thing bursts from the ice and kills Lars' Alaskan Malamute, Jed

while ingesting Henrik before it was burned alive.

However, an autopsy of the scorched alien corpse reveals that its cells are still alive

and in the process of assimilating Henrik.

Biology

Initially appearing as a single being,

every cell in The Thing's body is autonomous and independent,

capable of creating more of said monsters through assimilation, parasitism, and infection.

In addition, every spawned monster looks radically different

and none of them have a definite shape that can be called a "true form".

It may very well be that the Thing is a colonial organism

whose assimilation instructions are carried on the genetic level.

The Thing's shape-shifting nature means

that the biology can be the same as the organism it has replicated,

or is in the process of replicating.

The Thing has the ability to reconstitute itself following immense damage,

and is invulnerable to most conventional forms of attack.

It is very tolerant of cold,

placing itself in cryogenic stasis until found by unsuspecting victims.

When changing form, it bursts open and allows a variety of strange and terrifying forms

and bits of previously assimilated anatomy to form,

such as: tentacles, insect-like limbs, eyes, teeth, claws, even faces,

eventually re-arranging its cellular structure to mimic its desired shape.

The Thing is also capable of continuing normal functions even when lacking eyes,

ears, sense of smell or other ways of interacting with the environment

and is capable of producing said organs/appendages to accomplish those functions.

Any form of the Thing is capable of frightening amounts of strength, speed and stamina,

such as the case with the Kennel Thing, which subdued and assimilated multiple sled dogs,

and especially the Centipede-Thing, which overpowered Jonas in moments,

despite the vast size difference.

In nature, the Thing is basically an ambush predator,

isolating a potential victim or threat to consume and assume its form.

In certain cases, usually when exposed or the person it assimilated is fatally inflicted.

Assimilation

The Thing is a shape shifting organism,

but it must come into contact with its host in order to begin the process of analyzing

and copying its cellular structure.

To do this, the cells begin digesting and replicating the host,

eventually taking over the entire body.

Alternatively, it may rely on the blood stream to rapidly assimilate prey.

Copper was killed by the Norris-Thing biting off both his hands,

and so presumably was exposed to Thing infection;

yet his corpse showed no signs of "reviving" as an imitation

and a post-mortem blood test came up negative.

Presumably he bled out so quickly that the infection had no time to spread

before his biomass was rendered useless by death.

Replication

After The Thing has assimilated an organism,

it is capable of imitating them exactly down to their memories,

characteristics, manerisms, and all of their traits.

Even anatomical anomolies and health defects like Norris' weak heart are replicated.

When a part of The Thing becomes cut in two,

both of those pieces become their own creatures and operate separately.

For example, when the Norris-Thing's head grows legs and attempts to escape.

The replication varies depending on the occurrences at hand

and whether or not the attacking Thing is smaller or is injured.

If the assaulting Thing in question is injured in any way,

much smaller than the prey or under pressure,

it will usually just add the bio mass to itself and either mimic the prey

or add the mass to its original frame to increase its size

and strength to counteract any threats within the area.

If however the Thing successfully assaults the prey in a safe location,

it will just feed on the prey and make a copy of the victim then revert back to its cover

before searching for another victim to assimilate.

Instincts

The Thing has only assimilation and self-preservation in mind.

As seen, The Thing will selfishly save itself

or even attack other forms of itself in order to avert attention and suspicion.

When The Thing is left alone with a suitable target,

it will begin to split open and fire out tendrils,

which grab the target and begin to assimilate it.

In certain cases after discovery or high chance of discovery,

The Thing will sometimes perform "divide and conquer" tactics,

as in the case of the Edvard-Thing which split up into three separate forms.

One engaged and began assimilating Jonas,

another limb scuttled away for potential assimilation in a safer location,

and the main body of the Edvard thing killed Derek

and successfully assimilated Adam Finch.

This is also performed, albeit much less successfully, by the Norris-Thing.

When exposed, Things will react depending on how big they are compared to the threat.

Smaller Things will generally attempt to escape and ambush prey

when the individual is more vulnerable.

However a larger Thing will usually attack prey head on

and attempt to overwhelm any hostiles instead of escaping,

although if it has not completely lost its cover it will attempt to flee.

Intelligence

The Thing's intelligence depends on the size of their manifestations:

Smaller ones are quite stupid, dimwitted, nonsensical,

and reckless while the larger ones (especially those that imitate a human) are quite cunning,

manipulative, and formidably calculating.

For example, Norris's mutated head foolishly let itself seen by MacReady

and his friends while scuttering away from them, resulting in its incineration.

Because The Thing can acquire the memories

and knowledge of those who it previously assimilated,

they can use said memories and knowledge for their advantage,

though only larger manifestations of The Thing are more capable of doing so

the Thing Beast who had assimilated Sander was capable of taking control of the UFO

which brought it to Earth while the assimilated Blair,

on the other hand, built a makeshift UFO

and was aware of how dynamite works as when ambushing Macready;

it disposed of the detonator before revealing itself to confront him.

However, this does not always apply to all larger manifestations of Thing Beasts

Rapture-type Thing Beasts have no intention of hiding themselves from view,

as well as not manifesting useful appendages that supposedly give them advantage

in battle like legs,

and their chosen forms act primarily with little intelligence.

A plausible explanation of this is likely that Rapture-type Thing Beasts

' own overconfidence against their foes is so great that they believe mobility to evade their foes'

attacks is unnecessary due to their formidable but stationary form.

When exposed, The Thing would attack anyone on sight to save itself.

This somewhat serves as their psychological weakness due

to their aggressive mood blinding them from serious threats

that their foes unexpectedly posed on them

The Thing who manifested from assimilated Juliette recklessly attempted to kill Kate

and the others as soon as it unveiled its true form which ironically led to its incineration.

Should it survive the ordeal from its foes and manage to hide,

The Thing would regain its composure in order to use their original intelligence once again

When Split-Face Thing confronted Sam, it hesitated upon noticing his flamethrower.

The Thing's ability to interact with plant-based life-forms is largely unknown.

Its only interaction with plant-based life was in the form of wood/clothing fibers.

It cannot absorb these as noted by MacReady,

which could suggest an inability to absorb plant cells or dead cells.

The Things themselves are also remarkable Master Manipulators to a certain degree,

not only because they incite paranoia among their foes and victims

alike but are also not shown eating or drinking beyond living humans or dogs,

and it also leaves the bodies of killed humans or dogs untouched

even though there is usable biomass,

implies that it understands that potential hosts will react strangely

to the presence of someone they know to be deceased.

Possible other reasons why it is never seen assimilating fresh corpses

are either that it is only able to assimilate living victims

or is aware that missing dead bodies would arouse suspicion.

Weaknesses and Countermeasures

Though their deadly capacities in assimilation and other abilities made The Thing a villainous,

threatening force to deal with,

there are a number of methods that can be done to expose them:

The Thing cannot assimilate non-organic components on the victims.

So, when one notices one of their friends not wearing any earrings

tooth fillings, prosthetics, other non-organic components that are embedded, put on their body,

they likely have been previously assimilated into a manifestation of The Thing.

This method is the least effective in exposing a Thing's manifestation.

Blood Tests:

There are three types of blood test that can be done to differentiate regular lifeforms

and the assimilated ones which actually are a Thing in disguise

Blood serum test

A suspected imitation's blood is mixed with uncontaminated blood

which will hypothetically react if the creature is an impostor.

This has yet to be proven effective,

as The Thing quickly destroyed stored sacks of uncontaminated blood to avoid suspicion.

Hot needle test

When a sample of disguised Thing's blood is burned with a hot needle,

the blood would jump away from the needle.

If the blood sample was taken from an unassimilated person, the blood would simply burn.

Blood Test Hypo tool

More advanced version of the previous method,

where this device extracted a suspected person's blood

and it mixed the said blood with a stored chemical agent.

As before, the blood would animate and make an attempt to escape,

but failed as the chemical agent killed it.

Aside from the means of exposing a disguised Thing listed above,

the methods to killing them are:

Electrocution

Electrocution works against The Thing as the method would fry it's cells

as seen in Who Goes There?

as well as implied by a Thing's manifestation from Norris's body

which suddenly reacts by chomping on Copper's hands

when the latter tries to electrocute him.

Explosives: Explosives can obliterate a Thing completely, blowing it to pieces

and effectively weakening the larger Thing beasts before their remains are incinerated.

Incineration

Incineration can kill a Thing manifestation as fire would destroy it on a cellular level,

but this is mostly effective on medium- to smaller-sized Thing manifestations,

as larger ones had a chance to survive albeit incapacitated,

as proved when part of the Split-Face Thing survived

in spite of being heavily injured by Kate's flamethrower.

The Thing had a limit in maximum size expansion during the assimilation process

if they grew too large during the assimilation process

it would transform them into a boiling mass of flesh and random body parts.

In this state, they were hindered by their immobility, which made them vulnerable.

That's all I want to say for this video.

Thanks for watching, goodbye!