10 Best 'I'm Dead And I Know It' Moments In Sci-Fi Horror Movies

John Carpenter's The Thing concludes with one of the most brilliantly bleak, nihilistic endings in the history of cinema, not merely horror. 

In the film's final moments, MacReady (Kurt Russell) blows up the research station, seemingly killing the alien shapeshifter, after which he's joined outside the station's burning remnants by the only other survivor, Childs (Keith David).

The pair then share a drink, each acknowledging their distrust of the other as the station burns around them and they wait to freeze to death without shelter. 

And yet, knowing that they've seemingly prevented the Thing from reaching civilisation by starving it of human hosts, there's an unexpected nobility in the eerie quiet of this ending.

Now, there are of course fan theories about which of the duo could actually be the Thing, and a 2002 video game of dubious canonicity has its own take on the matter, but within the context of this movie itself, MacReady and Childs both know they're done for, and quietly see out their fate while sucking down some whiskey.