10 Alternate Horror Movie Deaths You Didn't Get To See
4. Nauls' Original Assimilation - The Thing
The Thing doesn't hold back with showing audiences the gory fates of its characters, but there are still one or two major mysteries that have kept horror fans talking about it for decades. First and most famous, of course, is whether or not Childs, MacReady, or both were assimilated in the final scene. Coming in at a close second, however, is just what the hell happened to Nauls.
In the movie, the facility's cook kind of just wanders out the story. It's suggested he gets killed by The Thing offscreen, but the lack of any on-screen closure haunted fans for years.
As you can probably tell by his inclusion on this list though, it wasn't supposed to be this way. Director John Carpenter did plan a huge blowout for Nauls, with pre-production storyboards showing in detail how the character was supposed to meet his end.
Like so many others, he would have been assimilated and transformed into a skeletal monster, with tentacles bursting out his body.
Ultimately, the filmmakers ran out of money and instead left his fate up to the audience's imagination.