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* DeathByAdaptation: Whereas in the original film it was ambiguous on whether Childs was human by the end, here, he does get assimilated.
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* AdaptationalVillainy: In a way, given that, while there were hints of it, there was never confirmation that Copper or Childs were infected in the film. Here, it's stated outright.
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-->'''[=Childs=]:'''Parasite. Monster. Disease. Thing. ''''
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* EurekaMoment: [=MacReady's=] blood test proves to be this for the alien. It doesn't just allow the humans to figure out who among them is the thing, but finally clues the alien into the fact that [[spoiler: humanity is not, and never has been, capable of communion as it knows.]]
* HumanPopsicle: The FramingDevice consists primarily of the Childs-Thing searching for a safe place to hide in the snow in order to wait out the chaos. [[spoiler: It changes its tune when it realizes the true nature of humanity, and decides it needs to show them salvation.]]
* HumansAreSpecial: Out of all the worlds and species the alien has encountered, humanity is the only one it's seen who doesn't have the capacity to shapeshift, [[spoiler: and decides it needs to show us firsthand]].
* LogicalWeakness: The alien has the capacity for a wide variety of forms it can take, but it's limited by its biomass and available energy. In addition, with a distributed consciousness, its knowledge can be lost if parts of its body are destroyed or break off and are never recovered. Entire theorems and philosophies were lost when the alien crashed to Earth, and all it remembers is that it once knew them.
* HumansAreSpecial: Out of all the worlds and species the alien has encountered, humanity is the only one it's seen who doesn't have the capacity to shapeshift, [[spoiler: and decides it needs to show us firsthand]].
* LogicalWeakness: The alien has the capacity for a wide variety of forms it can take, but it's limited by its biomass and available energy. In addition, with a distributed consciousness, its knowledge can be lost if parts of its body are destroyed or break off and are never recovered. Entire theorems and philosophies were lost when the alien crashed to Earth, and all it remembers is that it once knew them.
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* TomatoInTheMirror: The alien sends electric signals to wipe memories so the person being possessed doesn't realise what's happening.
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* TomatoInTheMirror: The alien sends electric signals to wipe memories so the person being possessed doesn't realise realize what's happening.
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* {{Xenofiction}}: Of course.
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* DefiantToTheEnd: Even while his mind and body are being consumed by the invader, Childs gives the abomination a verbal middle finger.
-->'''[=Childs=]:'''Parasite. Monster. Disease. Thing. ''''
-->'''[=The Thing=]:''' ''How little [[ItIsDehumanizing it]] knows. It knows even less than I do.''
-->'''[=Childs=]:''' ''I know enough, you motherfucker. You soul-stealing, shit-eating rapist.''
-->'''[=Childs=]:'''Parasite. Monster. Disease. Thing. ''''
-->'''[=The Thing=]:''' ''How little [[ItIsDehumanizing it]] knows. It knows even less than I do.''
-->'''[=Childs=]:''' ''I know enough, you motherfucker. You soul-stealing, shit-eating rapist.''
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* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: The alien reflects on this bitterly, saying it could've stopped this had it been able to make communion or if more of its body had survived the crash to earth.
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* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: The alien reflects on this bitterly, saying it could've stopped this had it been able to make take communion or if more of its body had survived the crash to earth.
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* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: The alien reflects on this bitterly, saying it could've stopped this had it been able to take communion or if more of its body had survived the crash to earth.
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* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: The alien reflects on this bitterly, saying it could've stopped this had it been able to take make communion or if more of its body had survived the crash to earth.
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* TransformationExhilaration: The alien reveals that shapeshifting is not only a natural survival trait of its species but inherently pleasurable, especially when it comes to "[[TheAssimilator taking communion]]" by merging itself with other life-forms. Indeed, it's so used to seeing the process of transformation and assimilation as normal that it's left confused as to [[IThoughtEveryoneCouldDoThat why none of the base personnel ever transform to resist the cold]] and why they all react badly to the sight of the Thing "taking communion" with other life-forms. [[spoiler: Ultimately, the fact that humanity find the notion of losing their individuality too horrifying to contemplate leads the Thing to enact a MindRape on the entire human race simply so that they can understand the beauty and pleasure of communion.]]
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* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Inverted. The alien likens assimilating other lifeforms to rape as a supreme ''positive''.
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* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Inverted. The alien likens assimilating other lifeforms to rape as a supreme ''positive''. Justified as he heard the word from a human mind [[spoiler: all but stated to be Childs]], and [[YouKeepUsingThatWord didn't get]] [[HumansThroughAlienEyes the connotations]].
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''The Things'' is a short story by Creator/PeterWatts, best known for works such as ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'' and ''[[Literature/RiftersTrilogy The Rifter's Trilogy]]'', first published on Clarkesworld in January 2010. It explores the events of Creator/JohnCarpenter's SciFiHorror classic from the point of view of the alien, providing a glimpse into the mind of a strange creature stuck on an even stranger world.
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* CreatorThumbprint: The idea of human self-awareness and individuality being a form of "cancer" from the perspective of aliens is also a theme in {{Literature/Blindsight}}
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* CreatorThumbprint: The idea of human self-awareness and individuality being a form of "cancer" from the perspective of aliens is also a theme comes up in {{Literature/Blindsight}}{{Literature/Blindsight}}.
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* CreatorThumbprint: The idea of human self-awareness and individuality being a form of "cancer" from the perspective of aliens is also a theme in {{Literature/Blindsight}}
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* TomatoInTheMirror: The alien sends electric signals to wipe memories so the person being possessed doesn't realise what's happening.
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* ShapeshifterLongevity: The story confirms that the Thing is essentially immortal, being able to preserve everything connected to its HiveMind from entropy; unfortunately, it [[ImmortalsFearDeath finds the notion of mortality openly horrifying]], along with the concept of individuality - so it sets out to cleanse the human race of ''both'' through an AssimilationPlot.
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''The Things'' is a short story by Creator/PeterWatts, best known for works such as ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'' and ''[[Literature/RiftersTrilogy The Rifter's Trilogy]]'', first published on Clarkesworld, in January 2010. It explores the events of Creator/JohnCarpenter's SciFiHorror classic from the point of view of the alien, providing a glimpse into the mind of a strange creature stuck on an even stranger world.
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''The Things'' is a short story by Creator/PeterWatts, best known for works such as ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'' and ''[[Literature/RiftersTrilogy The Rifter's Trilogy]]'', first published on Clarkesworld, Clarkesworld in January 2010. It explores the events of Creator/JohnCarpenter's SciFiHorror classic from the point of view of the alien, providing a glimpse into the mind of a strange creature stuck on an even stranger world.
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''The Things'' is a short story by Creator/PeterWatts, best known for works such as ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'' and ''[[Literature/RiftersTrilogy The Rifter's Trilogy]]'', first published on Clarkesworld, in January 2010. . It explores the events of Creator/JohnCarpenter's SciFiHorror classic from the point of view of the alien, providing a glimpse into the mind of a strange creature stuck on an even stranger world.
to:
''The Things'' is a short story by Creator/PeterWatts, best known for works such as ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'' and ''[[Literature/RiftersTrilogy The Rifter's Trilogy]]'', first published on Clarkesworld, in January 2010. . It explores the events of Creator/JohnCarpenter's SciFiHorror classic from the point of view of the alien, providing a glimpse into the mind of a strange creature stuck on an even stranger world.
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''The Things'' is a short story by Creator/PeterWatts, best known for works such as ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'' and ''[[Literature/RiftersTrilogy The Rifter's Trilogy]]''. It explores the events of Creator/JohnCarpenter's SciFiHorror classic from the point of view of the alien, providing a glimpse into the mind of a strange creature stuck on an even stranger world.
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''The Things'' is a short story by Creator/PeterWatts, best known for works such as ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'' and ''[[Literature/RiftersTrilogy The Rifter's Trilogy]]''.Trilogy]]'', first published on Clarkesworld, in January 2010. . It explores the events of Creator/JohnCarpenter's SciFiHorror classic from the point of view of the alien, providing a glimpse into the mind of a strange creature stuck on an even stranger world.
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* TimeAbyss: When Copper and Macready find the ship buried in the ice, the alien is horrified to consider just how long it must've been unconscious and, since there was no rescue mission, whether or not it exists anywhere else in the universe.
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* TimeAbyss: When Copper and Macready find the ship buried in the ice, the alien is horrified to consider just how long it must've been unconscious and, since there was no rescue mission, whether or not it exists anywhere else in the universe.universe.
----
----
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* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Inverted. The alien likens assimilating other lifeforms to rape as a ''positive''.
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* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Inverted. The alien likens assimilating other lifeforms to rape as a supreme ''positive''.
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* HumansThroughAlienEyes: From the perspective of a shapeshifting, we Earthlings aren't just primitive but ''barely sapient tumors that walk.''
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* HumansThroughAlienEyes: From the perspective of a shapeshifting, shapeshifting HiveMind, we Earthlings aren't just primitive but ''barely sapient tumors that walk.''
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* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Inverted. The alien likens assimilating other lifeforms to rape as a ''positive''.
-->These poor savage things will never embrace salvation. I will have to rape it into them.
-->These poor savage things will never embrace salvation. I will have to rape it into them.
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* StarfishAliens: With VoluntaryShapeshifting, a distributed consciousness and the alien certainly qualifies.
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* StarfishAliens: With VoluntaryShapeshifting, a distributed consciousness and ability to pass on information via physical contact, the alien certainly qualifies.
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* EvilColonialist: The alien certainly has shades of this. Not only does it treat humans with contempt for rejecting communion and [[NeverMyFault says they attacked it first]], but that it's taken communion with other life and considers the process the most natural desire any form of life can have. It doesn't seem to occur to it that it may be wrong. [[spoiler: When it finally realizes after thinking back on Macready's blood test, it decides that the best course of action is to provide its idea of salvation to what it considers poor, wayward savages
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* EvilColonialist: The alien certainly has shades of this. Not only does it treat humans with contempt for rejecting communion and [[NeverMyFault says they attacked it first]], but that it's taken communion with other life and considers the process the most natural desire any form of life can have. It doesn't seem to occur to it that it may be wrong. [[spoiler: When it finally realizes after thinking back on Macready's blood test, humanity has never been capable of communion, it decides that the best course of action is to provide its idea of salvation to what it considers poor, wayward savagessavages, and it'll have to do so by force.]]
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* BizarreHumanBiology: Upon first encountering humans, the alien notes that they're wildly ill-equipped for the Antarctic landscape. In fact, earth is the only planet it knows of where life has apparently forgotten VoluntaryShapeshifting. [[spoiler: The revelation that not only can they not shapeshift but that they never could in the first place leads it to reconsider everything it learned over its time awake and head back to the camp, now deciding the best thing to do for mankind is to show them.]]
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* BizarreHumanBiology: Upon first encountering humans, the alien notes that they're wildly ill-equipped for the Antarctic landscape. Rather than a mind distributed throughout the body, ours is balled up into our brains, which the alien considers massive wrinkled tumors. In fact, earth is the only planet it knows of where life has apparently forgotten VoluntaryShapeshifting. [[spoiler: The revelation that not only can they not shapeshift but that they never could in the first place leads it to reconsider everything it learned over its time awake and head back to the camp, now deciding the best thing to do for mankind is to show them.]]
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* ExposedExtraterrestrials: With the ability to change physiology at will and produce antifreeze, the alien has no need for clothing. In fact, the idea of clothes seems to perplex it.
* HumansThroughAlienEyes
* HumansThroughAlienEyes
to:
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: The alien reflects on this bitterly, saying it could've stopped this had it been able to take communion or if more of its body had survived the crash to earth.
* EvilColonialist: The alien certainly has shades of this. Not only does it treat humans with contempt for rejecting communion and [[NeverMyFault says they attacked it first]], but that it's taken communion with other life and considers the process the most natural desire any form of life can have. It doesn't seem to occur to it that it may be wrong. [[spoiler: When it finally realizes after thinking back on Macready's blood test, it decides that the best course of action is to provide its idea of salvation to what it considers poor, wayward savages
* ExposedExtraterrestrials: With the ability to change physiology at will and produce antifreeze, the alien has no need for clothing. In fact, the very idea of clothes seems to perplex it.
*HumansThroughAlienEyesFantasticSlur: After seeing a brain, the alien refers to humans as "thinking cancer" and "tumors" multiple times.
* HumansThroughAlienEyes: From the perspective of a shapeshifting, we Earthlings aren't just primitive but ''barely sapient tumors that walk.''
* MesACrowd: The alien can split its conscience across multiple bodies, which each carries the knowledge of templates for shapeshifting, though it still seems to retains a sense of singular identity. The downside to this is that, as these pieces die or grow weaker, the information they carry is lost and they become more and more instinctual.
* EvilColonialist: The alien certainly has shades of this. Not only does it treat humans with contempt for rejecting communion and [[NeverMyFault says they attacked it first]], but that it's taken communion with other life and considers the process the most natural desire any form of life can have. It doesn't seem to occur to it that it may be wrong. [[spoiler: When it finally realizes after thinking back on Macready's blood test, it decides that the best course of action is to provide its idea of salvation to what it considers poor, wayward savages
* ExposedExtraterrestrials: With the ability to change physiology at will and produce antifreeze, the alien has no need for clothing. In fact, the very idea of clothes seems to perplex it.
*
* HumansThroughAlienEyes: From the perspective of a shapeshifting, we Earthlings aren't just primitive but ''barely sapient tumors that walk.''
* MesACrowd: The alien can split its conscience across multiple bodies, which each carries the knowledge of templates for shapeshifting, though it still seems to retains a sense of singular identity. The downside to this is that, as these pieces die or grow weaker, the information they carry is lost and they become more and more instinctual.
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* PerspectiveFlip: The story is ''John Carpenter's The Thing'' told from the perspective of The Thing itself.
* PsychicLink: The alien refers to it as "communion," which involves physically connecting with other life and exchanging neural information, allowing them to learn far more than could be possible via speaking, reading, or writing and allowing them to merge into new forms.
* SharingABody: Because humans lack a distributed consciousness, the alien is disturbed to find that it can hide inside a body even without them knowing. It can move around freely without being seen and even see whatever ideas float to the surface of the mind; it also refers to the mind itself as a searchlight, which remains until the alien has fully assimilated the body.
* StarfishAliens: With VoluntaryShapeshifting, a distributed consciousness and the alien certainly qualifies.
* PsychicLink: The alien refers to it as "communion," which involves physically connecting with other life and exchanging neural information, allowing them to learn far more than could be possible via speaking, reading, or writing and allowing them to merge into new forms.
* SharingABody: Because humans lack a distributed consciousness, the alien is disturbed to find that it can hide inside a body even without them knowing. It can move around freely without being seen and even see whatever ideas float to the surface of the mind; it also refers to the mind itself as a searchlight, which remains until the alien has fully assimilated the body.
* StarfishAliens: With VoluntaryShapeshifting, a distributed consciousness and the alien certainly qualifies.
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It can be read for free [[http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/ here.]]
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* AdaptationalExpansion: The film left the alien's origins open to interpretation, with no explanation just why its ship arrived on earth and why it assimilated other lifeforms. Was it an invader? Was it a prisoner being carried on the ship to some space prison? Was assimilation its method of feeding? Here, the alien is in fact an ambassador
* AdaptiveAbility:
* BizarreHumanBiology: To the alien's absolute confusion, Earth is the only planet it knows of where life lacks VoluntaryShapeshifting. [[spoiler: This revelation leads it
* HumansThroughAlienEyes:
* AdaptiveAbility:
* BizarreHumanBiology: To the alien's absolute confusion, Earth is the only planet it knows of where life lacks VoluntaryShapeshifting. [[spoiler: This revelation leads it
* HumansThroughAlienEyes:
to:
* AdaptationalExpansion: The film left the alien's origins open to interpretation, unknown, with no explanation just why its ship arrived on earth and why it assimilated other lifeforms. Was it an invader? Was it a prisoner being carried on the ship to some space prison? Was assimilation its method of feeding? Here, the alien is in fact an ambassador
a millennia-old empathic shape-shifting intergalactic ambassador who can spread its consciousness across separated parts of itself.
*AdaptiveAbility:
AdaptiveAbility: The alien can adapt to pretty much any environment, albeit it needs the memories of templates to do so.
* AssimilationPlot: [[spoiler: The alien decides its new mission is this, not to turn humanity into more of itself but to show them the beauty and knowledge that communion can bring. And it knows it'll have to do so by force.]]
* BizarreHumanBiology:To Upon first encountering humans, the alien's absolute confusion, Earth alien notes that they're wildly ill-equipped for the Antarctic landscape. In fact, earth is the only planet it knows of where life lacks has apparently forgotten VoluntaryShapeshifting. [[spoiler: This The revelation that not only can they not shapeshift but that they never could in the first place leads it
it to reconsider everything it learned over its time awake and head back to the camp, now deciding the best thing to do for mankind is to show them.]]
*HumansThroughAlienEyes:BittersweetEnding[=/=]DownerEnding: Depends on whose perspective you look at it from. For the alien, [[spoiler: it's trapped on earth with a species of scared and angry things living isolated and futile lives, but intends to devote itself to showing them salvation.]] For humanity, [[spoiler: we're potentially going to lose everything that makes us who we are courtesy of an alien who doesn't understand individuality.]]
* ExposedExtraterrestrials: With the ability to change physiology at will and produce antifreeze, the alien has no need for clothing. In fact, the idea of clothes seems to perplex it.
* HumansThroughAlienEyes
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In a very twisted BlueAndOrangeMorality sense. [[spoiler: When the alien realizes that humanity has ''never'' been capable of shapeshifting or communion, it understands why they were fighting back so hard against its attempts at reaching out to them. So rather than retreat into the ice, it decides to work on saving them from what it considers futile, torturous and unimaginably lonely lives. Knowing that humanity will never embrace such a thing willingly, it decides, in its own words, it'll have to rape salvation into them.]]
* TimeAbyss: When Copper and Macready find the ship buried in the ice, the alien is horrified to consider just how long it must've been unconscious and, since there was no rescue mission, whether or not it exists anywhere else in the universe.
*
* AssimilationPlot: [[spoiler: The alien decides its new mission is this, not to turn humanity into more of itself but to show them the beauty and knowledge that communion can bring. And it knows it'll have to do so by force.]]
* BizarreHumanBiology:
*
* ExposedExtraterrestrials: With the ability to change physiology at will and produce antifreeze, the alien has no need for clothing. In fact, the idea of clothes seems to perplex it.
* HumansThroughAlienEyes
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In a very twisted BlueAndOrangeMorality sense. [[spoiler: When the alien realizes that humanity has ''never'' been capable of shapeshifting or communion, it understands why they were fighting back so hard against its attempts at reaching out to them. So rather than retreat into the ice, it decides to work on saving them from what it considers futile, torturous and unimaginably lonely lives. Knowing that humanity will never embrace such a thing willingly, it decides, in its own words, it'll have to rape salvation into them.]]
* TimeAbyss: When Copper and Macready find the ship buried in the ice, the alien is horrified to consider just how long it must've been unconscious and, since there was no rescue mission, whether or not it exists anywhere else in the universe.
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* AntiVillain: The alien
to:
* AntiVillain: AdaptationalExpansion: The alienfilm left the alien's origins open to interpretation, with no explanation just why its ship arrived on earth and why it assimilated other lifeforms. Was it an invader? Was it a prisoner being carried on the ship to some space prison? Was assimilation its method of feeding? Here, the alien is in fact an ambassador
* AdaptiveAbility:
* BizarreHumanBiology: To the alien's absolute confusion, Earth is the only planet it knows of where life lacks VoluntaryShapeshifting. [[spoiler: This revelation leads it
* AdaptiveAbility:
* BizarreHumanBiology: To the alien's absolute confusion, Earth is the only planet it knows of where life lacks VoluntaryShapeshifting. [[spoiler: This revelation leads it
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[[Film/TheThing1982 In the winter of 1982]], a group of twelve men stuck at an Antarctic research cross paths with some strange occurrences; a Norwegian shooting at a dog from a helicopter, his nearby camp inexplicably destroyed, and, most interesting of all, a massive spaceship buried deep in the ice. They realize that a deadly alien creature is on the loose, one capable of shapeshifting, assimilating and perfectly imitating other organisms. And they quickly deduce it must be hiding among them.
[[PerspectiveFlip But how must they look from the alien's perspective?]]
''The Things'' is a short story by Creator/PeterWatts, best known for works such as ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'' and ''[[Literature/RiftersTrilogy The Rifter's Trilogy]]''. It explores the events of Creator/JohnCarpenter's SciFiHorror classic from the point of view of the alien, providing a glimpse into the mind of a strange creature stuck on an even stranger world.
----
!!This book features the following tropes (Warning: spoilers below):
* AntiVillain: The alien
* HumansThroughAlienEyes:
[[PerspectiveFlip But how must they look from the alien's perspective?]]
''The Things'' is a short story by Creator/PeterWatts, best known for works such as ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'' and ''[[Literature/RiftersTrilogy The Rifter's Trilogy]]''. It explores the events of Creator/JohnCarpenter's SciFiHorror classic from the point of view of the alien, providing a glimpse into the mind of a strange creature stuck on an even stranger world.
----
!!This book features the following tropes (Warning: spoilers below):
* AntiVillain: The alien
* HumansThroughAlienEyes:
