10 Awesome Fan Theories That Improve Already Great Films

4. MacReady Is About To Kill Thing-Childs - The Thing

The Theory: The Thing has one of the most painfully ambiguous endings of all time. The Antarctic research base has been destroyed and assumedly the gruesome assimilating creature with it. We're left with our two remaining characters. MacReady and Childs, sat amongst the wreckage and a burning question; are either of them actually the shapeshifting alien. We know MacReady has to be human - the film hasn't left his side since the blood scene - but with him completely absent from the final battle the same can't be said for Childs. There's countless theories out there that attempt to solve the riddle using the character's clothing or their breath, but this one uses the whiskey that Mac offers up to Childs; the latter's immediate acceptance is proof positive he's the Thing, unbothered by contamination. But it goes further; MacReady will soon kill him with a hidden flamethrower (a detail revealed by Mac himself, Kurt Russell). How It Improves The Film: The ending is a direct parallel to our introduction to MacReady; we first see him playing a game of chess against a computer, losing and retaliating by pouring whiskey into the machine. At the ending he's once again played against a vastly superior foe and assumedly lost, but adding scotch to the mix ultimately has him out on top. What an awesome character.