9 Legendary Deleted Film Scenes (You'll Never Get To See)
4. MacReady Is Rescued - The Thing
John Carpenter's The Thing has one of the unhappiest endings in genre cinema. Kurt Russell has blown up the shape shifting alien of the title, but at the expense of his arctic camp. He sits miserably in the burning ruins, when another survivor pops out of nowhere. It's likely this other survivor is an alien imposter, but Russell is too exhausted to investigate.
So the two men share a drink together, waiting to either freeze to death or for one of them to reveal their true nature. It's a perfect ending to a story based around paranoia and loss of humanity. But it's a bloody grim one too. Suspecting the studio might complain, Carpenter shot a happy ending just for safety. In this version Childs doesn't reappear, and the scene instead cuts to another camp some time later.
Russell's character is wrapped up warmly, having just received a blood test to prove his humanity. Carpenter never intended for this scene to be shown, and to this day it never has. There isn't even a still available. The original ending is clearly the better choice, but this happy alternative is an interesting curio that is either buried in a vault or was thrown into the bin long ago