10 Sci-Fi Movies That Forced You To Answer Impossible Questions

1. Would You Let Yourself Die To Prevent The Apocalypse? - The Thing

John Carpenter's The Thing concludes with sole survivors MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Childs (Keith David) sharing a drink as they watch the Antarctic base burn to the ground, each suspicious that the other might be infected by the titular shape-shifting alien.

With the two men exhausted and slowly freezing to death, neither has the ability to mount a last stand should the other reveal themself to be hosting the creature, making it abundantly clear that both men are destined to freeze to death.

Now, their agency is relatively limited in this scenario, but by burning the base down and making no further effort to seek rescue, MacReady and Childs seem contented that their death will ensure The Thing has no more host bodies to use.

Their survival options were always extremely sparse, but even so, making an active decision to willingly succumb to the elements to prevent a potential global catastrophe isn't an easy thing to do. The human survival instinct says you'd keep going, though hypothermia would increasingly eradicate that feeling.

Could you do it? Fatally freezing your ass off with a guy you don't remotely trust for company, who could very well be the alien shape-shifter you've been trying to terminate? Not fun.