10 Horror Movie Characters Who Disappeared Without A Trace
3. Nauls - The Thing
The weirdest thing about this disappearance is that it happens just before the film ends.
Nauls, played by T. K. Carter, is the cook at the Antarctic research base where the action in this John Carpenter movie takes place. After the titular Thing arrive, it tears through the crew members like wildfire, assimilating and killing to its grubby little heart's content.
Alongside Childs, Garry, and MacReady, Nauls is one of the final four men left standing when the Thing assimilates Blair and turns into a giant monster. Garry is killed, leaving MacReady and Childs to "destroy" the beast and share that iconic closing shot.
But where on God's green Earth did Nauls go?
He just vanishes into thin air. We never see him die, we don't see him at all. Where the hell can he be?
Like, literally - where can he be? He's in the middle of an icy hellscape! He can't exactly just pop down The Winchester and wait for this all to blow over!
In all honesty though, The Thing is a film built on mystery and suspicion, so a major character fading into the ether right at the climax isn't exactly out of place.