8 Horror Movie Moments Nobody Understands

4. Was Childs The Thing? - The Thing

The Thing Ending Kurt Russell
Universal

The ending of The Thing is a classic, and leaves viewers with a question that nobody has been able to concretely answer one way or another: Is Childs The Thing?

Let's back up for a second. After being terrorised by an alien shapeshifter at a research base in Antarctica, only two survivors remain: Childs and MacReady. The latter has assumedly just blown the alien creature to kingdom come, destroying the whole base in the process. Sitting by the fire and slowly freezing to death, he's greeted by Childs, who has miraculously survived and caught up to him.

Both understanding they're done for, they tentatively offer each other a drink, uncertain whether one of them is The Thing.

There have been a ridiculous amount of theories attempting to get to the bottom of this mystery over the years - analysing everything from the visibility of the actors' breath to the subtitles - but none have ever provided a real answer.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.