History Characters / TheThing1982

[[folder:R.J. [=MacReady=]]]

->'''Played by:''' Creator/KurtRussell
->'''Dubbed by:''' Creator/PatrickFloersheim (European French)

[[folder:Dr. Blair]]

->'''Played by:''' Creator/WilfordBrimley

->'''Played by:''' Creator/TKCarter

->'''Played by:''' Creator/DavidClennon

->'''Played by:''' Creator/KeithDavid

[[folder:Dr. Copper]]

->'''Played by:''' Creator/RichardDysart

[[folder:Vance Norris]]

->'''Played by:''' Charles Hallahan

[[folder:George Bennings]]

->'''Played by:''' Peter Maloney

->'''Played by:''' Creator/RichardMasur

->'''Played by:''' Creator/DonaldMoffat

->'''Played by:''' Creator/JoelPolis

->'''Played by:''' Creator/ThomasGWaites

-> '''Played By:''' Creator/NorbertWeisser

-> '''Played by:''' Creator/{{Jed}} (as the husky)

* AdaptationalHeroism: The Thing in ''Literature/WhoGoesThere'' is portrayed as being inherently selfish, willing to betray other Things just to ensure its own survival, which of course leads to the downfall of them all. Here, the closest we get to such an implication is [[spoiler: Palmer pointing out the Norris spider head,]] although Windows was about to notice it anyway so it made little difference.

--> '''MacReady:''' Cheating bitch.

* BeardOfAwesome: Has a bushy beard and is the movie's badass protagonist.

* TheVirus: Possibly the ultimate example. [[ExtremeOmnivore It can consume and imitate any life]]. Someone infected, assimilated and replicated by the Thing is such a perfect imitation that they never break character until either an opportunity arises for it to kill a bunch of people or it gets exposed. Even if other people get exposed as a Thing, a still-in-disguise Thing will remain in-character and even attack the other of its own kind, just to keep up the act. Worse yet, the monster apparently retains the knowledge of everything it has eaten (an isolated one is trying to build an airship to escape) and can even mix-and-match parts from the various creatures it's assimilated.

* HumanoidAbomination: The thing spends most of its time looking like a good ol' homo sapien. It's even clever enough to act like us perfectly. Until it has its prey alone. [[spoiler: It'll even turn against other Things... which means if two Things meet and don't know the other is a Thing, it'll act as it expects a human would. Which is a problem when two men are stranded alone...]]

* EldritchAbomination: [[DownPlayed Downplayed]]. The Thing embodies LovecraftianSuperpower completely, with it's shape-shifting, tentacles, and being able to become any living creature down to the memories. It's functionally immortal, can assimilate any higher lifeform and completely warps the laws of thermodynamics just to exist (though this last part may be more a case of ArtisticLicenseBiology). But it's more of a borderline case between AnimalisticAbomination and a true eldritch monster. It's like a ''lesser'' Eldritch horror (such as a Shoggoth) - its "native" forms are imperfect and can be destroyed by something as simple as a flamethrower. It's abilities also only extend to itself and those it infects. It can't bend the laws of physics in seemingly impossible ways or [[ClarksThirdLaw use abilities that could be deemed magic by humans,]] and it's assimilation and shapeshifting abilities are shown to be entirely natural, scientific, and microbiological in nature. Like any EldritchAbomination, however, just being in the presence of a Thing is enough for most ordinary people to promptly BSOD (though for entirely natural and mundane reasons), which the titular Thing takes full advantage of.

** The thing is also not capable of imitating non-biological material, so if it tries to eat someone with artificial parts inside of them (such as fillings, ear piercings, tattoos, ect) then it would become very vulnerable if anyone checked too carefully.

* BlackEyesOfEvil: According to Carpenter himself, one of the easiest visual foreshadowers for being replicated is how the eyes are cast in shadow. For instance, in the blood test scene, [[spoiler:Palmer]] is the only one whose eyes are in darkness, while everyone else reflects light off their eyes. The original script also describes the dog thing's eyes prior to eruption as "black orbs".

* BigCreepyCrawlies: The very first form of the Thing that we see in the 2011 prequel is essentially a giant, carnivorous bug. Unique among all it's other variations, it appears to function like a "normal" animal with a regular mouth, stomach, and womb-like area where it produces the imitation. While it's very unlikely that this is the Thing's original incarnation, it should be noted that the monster almost always takes on some kind of insectoid feature when it transforms.

* TheSmartGuy: Becomes after things start looking grim around Outpost 31 and [[BigBad The Thing]] starts taking control of the base. While Blair was the one to study the unknown creature’s methods and it’s desire to assimilate innocent bodies and imitate their cells, he dives a little deeper into those studies which makes him suggest that everyone eat out of cans to avoid any further infections.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: When he sees [[spoiler:the Norris-Head-Spider... ''Thing''. It should be noted that at this point, ''he's a Thing too'' and is likely absolutely baffled that a part of "himself" tried to escape so lazily.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: He has the nerve to call [=MacReady=] a murderer after he kills Clark in self-defense, while he willing to let Mac freeze to death out of paranoia regardless if he was human or not.
%%* {{Jerkass}}
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: At the end of the film, he [[spoiler: calmly accepts his death and shares a drink with [=MacReady=]. That is, of course, assuming he's still human...]]

* NiceGuy: He's a very meek, quiet guy. He also rejects an offer to lead the team because he worried that he's not up to the task.

* RedHerringMole: [=MacReady=] suspects him to be one of the Things, and [[spoiler:shoots Clark when he makes a move on Mac. It later turns that out that he was still human, for which Childs calls [=MacReady=] a murderer. A scary example of ItCanThink -- the Thing was smart enough to realize that everyone knew that it was alone with Clark for a long time, so it was too obvious to bother infecting him.]]

* TakingYouWithMe: He grabs a bundle of dynamite and threatens to light if the others try to rush him. It also keeps them from burning him. His intention is to get everyone to shut up and listen to him for two seconds, but all indications are he's ''not bluffing'' -- he '''will''' blow them all to kingdom come if they rush him. As noted, [=MacReady=] would rather destroy the game than lose.

* AdaptationalHeroism: A minor case, since he's still fairly heroic in the film anyway, but the novelization has him utterly racked with SurvivorsGuilt for failing to save [[spoiler: Bennings]] while out on the ice. In the film, we get no such indication and as a result, he comes off as slightly more abrasive and callous.

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: He's probably the only member of camp who gets along with everyone else and no one objects when he's offered command. Notably, his heart attack causes all the other camp members to halt their fighting and get him help.

* LoveableCoward: Despite his understandable terror, he doesn't want anyone to die, and is the only one to protest the lynch mob when everyone's paranoia is tearing them apart.

%%* TranquilFury: His calm demeanor can be a bit off-putting.

* SeekingTheMissingFindingTheDead

* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Nauls is generally happy-go-lucky and prone to not taking the situation seriously.