10 Great Movies Almost Ruined By Their Alternate Endings

3. The Thing

The Ending You Know: There's still endless debate around the ending of John Carpenter's The Thing, with each argument having enough evidence to give it credence. The Thing is a shapeshifting monster that can perfectly imitate any living organism, making it always unclear whether the actors are human or alien. Seemingly defeated in the explosive climax, the final scene sees our hero MacReady reunited by Childs, who mysteriously disappeared some time before. Is Childs the monster or not, and is MacReady aware? Using evidence from breath to coats, this questioning is all part of the fun. The Ending We Almost Got: There's in fact two alternate endings. The first is set the morning after the destruction of the base, showing the plumes of smoke from a distance while a dog runs out into the snow, implying that one of the men was indeed the monster. The second is a little more upbeat, seeing a rescued MacReady getting his blood tested to prove he is indeed not a Thing. Why It Would Ruin The Film: Both endings provide a definitive answer to ambiguous ending, which is bad enough. But it's more than that. The real terror of The Thing is the potential for this isolated horror to become global, with the unknown outcome making it stick in the mind. Having an answer to whether it will escape (yes and no respectively) makes the ending, and by proxy the film, a lot less interesting.