10 Video Games That Answer MAJOR Movie Questions
1. The Thing - Are Mac Or Childs The Thing?
John Carpenter's The Thing is an all-time horror classic that defined the genre of body horror and has had an immense impact on both cinema and video games. Centering on the discovery of an alien that can perfectly imitate any living organism, the movie is all about paranoia.
The Thing ends with RJ MacReady and his short-tempered colleague Childs left alone in the Antarctic. It’s the ambiguous ending to end all ambiguous endings. Neither of them can be sure that the other isn’t The Thing and, if they’re both human, they’ll most likely freeze to death waiting to find out.
However the 2002 PS2 title follows on from these events and, as such, has to address the mystery. The player takes the role of Captain Blake, part of an American team who arrive at Outpost 31 shortly after the film’s climax. It immediately sets the story straight for Childs, who has died of hyperthermia but the fate of Mac is left dangling and tantalises players to explore more.
In the game’s final act, the player is assisted by a not-so-mysterious helicopter pilot who, after helping to dispatch the final boss, reveals himself to be a surviving RJ MacReady. Whilst on the surface this feels like a happier ending, who’s to say that a MacReady-Thing didn’t just save Blake so he could kill him later? You never know... which is kind of the whole point.