The Thing

MacReady:
"One other thing…I think it rips through your clothes when it takes you over. Windows founds some shredded long johns, but the name-tag was missing. They can be anybody's. Nobody…nobody trusts anybody now." (Part of the tape recorded by R.J. MacReady)

MacReady:
I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. It'll fight if it has to, but it's vulnerable out in the open. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won.

MacReady:
Watching Norris in there gave me the idea that maybe every part of you bastards is a whole. Every piece of you is self-sufficient, an animal unto itself. When a man bleeds, it's just tissue. But blood from one of you Things won't obey. It's a newly formed individual with a built-in desire to protect its own life. When attacked, your blood will try and survive - and crawl away from a hot needle, say.

MacReady:
[on finding a partially-assembled spaceship beneath the tool shed] Blair's been busy out here all by himself.

MacReady:
[the Thing roars at MacReady] YEAH, F*** YOU TOO!!! [throws stick of dynamite]

Blair:
[Destroying the radio with a fire ax] Nobody gets in or out of here! NOBODY! You guys think I'm crazy?! Well, that's fine! Most of you don't know what's going on around here, but I'm damn well sure some of you do! You think that thing wanted to be an animal?! No dog's gonna make it a thousand miles to the coast! You don't understand! That thing wanted to be US! A cell gets out, and it'll imitate everything on the face of the Earth! AND NOTHING CAN STOP IT!

Blair:
[Calmly eating beans in the tool shed with a forgotten noose strung from the ceiling] I don't want to stay out here anymore. I want to come back inside.

Clark:
I don't know what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is.

Childs:
If I was an imitation, a perfect imitation, how would you know if it was really me?

Garry:
[after passing the blood test] I know you gentlemen have been through a lot. But when you find the time... I'd rather not spend the rest of the winter TIED TO THIS F***ING COUCH!

Palmer:
[Norris' head sprouts legs and tries to walk away] You gotta be f***ing kidding!

MacReady:
All right, we gotta find him. Nauls, why don't you come with me and we'll go outside. Palmer, you and Windows check the inside.

Palmer:
I ain't going with Windows. I ain't going with him, I'll go with Childs--

Windows:
Hey, F*** YOU, Palmer!

Palmer:
I ain't going with you!

Childs:
Who says I want you going with me?!

MacReady:
ALL RIGHT, CUT THE BULLSHIT! Windows, you come with us. Norris, you stay here. Any of them move, you fry them. You hear anything, anything at all, you cut loose on the sirens. We all meet here in 20 minutes regardless. And everybody watch who you're with, real close.

Palmer:
This is bullshit, Mac.

MacReady:
Finish it, Palmer.

Palmer:
They're dead, Mac.

Childs:
The explosions set the temperatures up all over the camp. But it won't last long though.

MacReady:
When these fires go out, neither will we.

Childs:
How will we make it?

MacReady:
Maybe we shouldn't.

Childs:
If you're worried about me...

MacReady:
If we've got any surprises for each other, I don't think either one of us is in much shape to do anything about it.

Childs:
Well... what do we do?

MacReady:
[slumping back] Why don't we just wait here a little while? See what happens.

[from TV spot] Its Origin:
Alien. Location: Antarctica. Age: Unknown. Intent: Survival. Destination: MAN.

Man is the warmest place to hide.

Look closely at your neighbors. Don't trust anybody.

The ultimate in alien terror.

MacReady:
I don't know. Thousands of years ago it crashes, and this thing... gets thrown out, or crawls out, and it ends up freezing in the ice.

Childs:
I just cannot believe any of this voodoo bullshit.

Palmer:
Childs, happens all the time, man. They're falling out of the skies like flies. Government knows all about it, right, Mac?

Childs:
You believe any of this voodoo bullshit, Blair?

Palmer:
Childs, Childs... Chariots of the Gods, man. They practically own South America. I mean, they taught the Incas everything they know.

Garry:
So, come on now, MacReady, Norwegians get ahold of this... and they dig it up out of the ice.

MacReady:
Yes, Garry, they dig it up, they cart it back, it gets thawed out, wakes up - probably not the best of moods - I don't know, I wasn't there!

Nauls:
[skates in with ripped long johns] Which one of you disrespectful men been tossing his dirty drawers in the kitchen trash can, huh? From now, I want my kitchen clean, all right? Germ free!

Childs:
So how's this motherf***er wake up after thousands of years in the ice?

Bennings:
And how can it look like a dog?

MacReady:
I don't know how. 'Cause it's different than us, see? 'Cause it's from outer space. What do you want from me? Ask him! [motions to Blair]

Childs:
You buy any of this Blair?

Blair:
[showing the remains of the dog-thing to the entire camp] You see, what we're talkin' about here is an organism that imitates other life-forms, and it imitates 'em perfectly. When this thing attacked our dogs it tried to digest them... absorb them, and in the process shape its own cells to imitate them. This for instance. That's not dog. It's imitation. We got to it before it had time to finish.

Norris:
Finish what?

Blair:
Finish imitating these dogs.

MacReady:
Somebody in this camp ain't what he appears to be. Right now that may be one or two of us. By Spring, it could be all of us.

Childs:
So, how do we know who's human? If I was an imitation, a perfect imitation, how would you know if it was really me?

MacReady:
How you doin', old boy?

Blair:
I don't know who to trust.

MacReady:
I know what you mean, Blair. Trust's a tough thing to come by these days. Tell you what - why don't you just trust in the Lord?

Blair:
[throwing a fit in the radio room] Nobody gets in and out of here! NOBODY! You guys think I'M crazy! Well, that's fine! Most of ya don't know what's goin' on around here, but I'm damn well sure SOME of you do!

MacReady:
Christ!

Childs:
He got most of the chopper and the tractor. And he's killed the rest of the dogs.

MacReady:
[as Garry advances with his gun] Garry, wait a minute, wait a minute. Now, Childs, go around to the map room door. Talk to him.

Childs:
Yeah.

[Childs exits]

MacReady:
Norris, get a table from the lab.

Blair:
[still smashing up the radio room with an axe while yelling] D'ya think that thing wanted to be an animal?! No dogs make it a thousand miles through the cold! No, you don't understand! That thing wanted to be US! If a cell gets out, it could imitate everything on the FACE OF THE EARTH! AND NOTHING CAN STOP IT!

Childs:
[appearing in the map room doorway] Okay, Blair. Come on, man, you don't wanna hurt anybody.

[Blair whips a pistol out and shoots at Childs but misses]

Blair:
I'LL KILL YOU!

MacReady:
Blair... he got back inside and blew the generator. In six hours, it'll be 100 below in here!

Garry:
Well, that's suicide!

MacReady:
Not for that Thing. It wants to freeze now. It's got no way out of here. It just wants to go to sleep in the cold until the rescue team finds it.

Garry:
What can we do? What can we do?

MacReady:
Whether we make it or not, we can't let the Thing freeze again. Maybe we'll just warm things up a little around here. We're not gettin' outta here alive. But neither is that Thing.

Childs:
You the only one who made it?.

MacReady:
Not the only one.

Childs:
Did you kill it?

MacReady:
Where were you, Childs?

Childs:
Thought I saw Blair. I went out after him and got lost in the storm. Fire's got the temperature up all over the camp. Won't last long, though.

MacReady:
Neither will we.

Childs:
How will we make it?

MacReady:
Maybe we shouldn't.

Childs:
If you're worried about me...

MacReady:
If we've got any surprises for each other, I don't think we're in much shape to do anything about it.

Childs:
Well...What do we do?

MacReady:
[slumping back] Why don't we just...Wait here for a little while? See what happens.

"I just want to go to my shack and get drunk." MacReady to Fuchs.

Macready:
[talking into tape recorder] I'm gonna hide this tape when I'm finished. If none of us make it, at least there'll be some kind of record. The storm's been hitting us hard now for 48 hours. We still have nothing to go on. [turns off tape recorder and takes a drink of whisky. He looks at the torn long johns and turns it back on] One other thing: I think it rips through your clothes when it takes you over. Windows found some shredded long johns, but the nametag was missing. They could be anybody's. Nobody... nobody trusts anybody now, and we're all very tired. Nothing else I can do, just wait... R.J. MacReady, helicopter pilot, US outpost number 31. [turns off recorder]