History Characters / TheThing1982

->''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8faq5amdK30 These poor bastards in the snow-\\
They were clueless, now they know-\\
It's a special brand of nightmare that I bring-\\
Yes, they thought I was a dog -- but I'm the Thing!]]''\\

* UncleTomfoolery: '70s-80s style, with his skates, funk ghetto blaster and position as a ServileSnarker.

* TheMole: One of the [[spoiler:three humans confirmed to be assimilated. Palmer-Thing gets this distinction since Blair never had anyone's trust, and Palmer-Thing was encouraging everyone to murder MacReady after he was framed.]]

* AxCrazy: When he becomes mentally unhinged, he destroys the radio equipment and attacks the others. With [[AnAxeToGrind more emphasis on the Axe]].

* ShapeshifterLongevity: Capable of transforming into anyone or anything it's assimilated, allowing it to remain undercover while it continues to assimilate victims across the base. For good measure, it's eventually revealed that the ship it arrived on Earth aboard crashed over a hundred thousand years ago, the Thing having spent the next few millennia dormant in the ice ever since then. Adaptations like ''Literature/TheThings'' indicate that the Thing is actually immortal, its shapeshifting power allowing it to prevent its various bodies from experiencing the effects of entropy - to the point that it actually finds the ''concept'' of a mortality horrific.

[[folder:The Norwegian]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/da036151_e7c9_48c1_91d2_13c2caceacef.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Se til helvete og kom dere vekk! Det er ikke en bikkje, det er en slags ting! Det imiterer en bikkje, det er ikke virkelig! KOM DERE VEKK, IDIOTER!"'' [[note]] "Get the hell away! It's not a dog, it's some sort of thing! It's imitating a dog, it isn't real! GET AWAY, YOU IDIOTS!"[[/note]] ]]
-> '''Played By:''' Creator/NorbertWeisser

One of the few survivors of the Norwegian outpost chasing after the Dog-Thing. For more information on him, see [[spoiler:Lars']] folder [[Characters/TheThing2011 here]].
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* BilingualBonus: His attempts to warn the Americans sounds like gibberish, but that's because he's speaking Norwegian. Audiences who knew the Scandinavian language would've deduced something's wrong about the dog at least half an hour before the Thing in it reveals itself.
* CanonForeigner: He was created for the movie to expand on The Thing's backstory.
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[[/folder]]

* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: Just as important to the plot as the men trying to survive is them trying to make sure that it ''never'' leaves the desolate wasteland of Antarctica, because it's made very clear that if it does escape, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt there will be absolutely nothing anyone could to stop it]].

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: He's introduced playing chess against a computer. When he loses, he destroys it by pouring his drink into the circuits -- demonstrating both an unwillingness to concede defeat, and that what he lacks in pure intelligence he makes up for in sheer cunning and by playing dirty. [[spoiler: Which also parallels The Thing, which by its nature could be said to be 'playing dirty', by taking the appearances of others as a disguise.]]

-> '''Played By:''' Norbert Weisser

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: He's introduced playing chess against a computer. When he loses, he destroys it by pouring his drink into the circuits -- demonstrating both an unwillingness to concede defeat, and that what he lacks in pure intelligence he makes up for by playing dirty. [[spoiler: Which also parallels The Thing, which by its nature could be said to be 'playing dirty', by taking the appearances of others as a disguise.]]

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: When he sees [[spoiler:the Norris-Head-Spider... ''Thing''.]]

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler: Averted. He's the last casualty of the Thing.]]
%%* TheChick

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler: Averted. He is the only character besides Mac to survive the film -- [[TheEndOrIsIt if both are human, that is.]]]]

* ShootTheDog: Literally. In addition to destroying all the vehicles and communication devices to keep the Thing from leaving the base and reaching the mainland, he kills the remaining dogs to prevent them from getting infected.

** To be fair to [=MacReady=], when the screen plus what the computer says it does are analyzed, the computer [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard literally did cheat.]]

* BadassNormal: He manages to go toe-to-toe with the Thing and live to talk about it. [[spoiler: Assuming he hadn't been assimilated...]]

* NiceHat: Wears one whenever he leaves the outpost.

* TheBigGuy: It's even stated in the script that he is 6'4. Keith David is close enough.

* BerserkButton [[spoiler: Harming or even killing the dogs is a fast way to get on Clark's bad side.]]

->'''Played by:''' Donald Moffat

* HeroicBSOD: When he sees [[spoiler: the Palmer-Thing]].

* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler: His final fate.]]

* NervousWreck: Windows prove time and time again that he's ''really'' no good when put under pressure, eventually resulting in him freeze up at the worst possible moment and [[spoiler: getting killed for it]].

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: If he hadn't [[spoiler: dropped the keys,]] who knows what might have happened? Granted, The Thing probably would have just broken in regardless, but it pinned the blame on two innocent men and thus left them incapacitated for the majority of the film.

* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Assumes this role [[spoiler:briefly when Nauls comes back with [=MacReady's=] torn clothes. He also tried to take over when Garry stepped down, but Mac and Clark nixed that idea.]]

* AssimilationBackfire: The thing imitates whatever it eats perfectly, right down to their biological flaws [[spoiler: When it assimilates Norris it also gains his bad heart, meaning it suffers an unintentional heart attack forcing it to reveal itself when Dr copper tries to resuscitate "him" with the painful electro shock pads.]]

* TheSmartGuy: Becomes after things start looking grim around Outpost 31 and [[BigBag 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.

* MindHive: Each individual Thing cell is technically its own organism, but the ones in a given clump all share a single intelligence between them the same way your brain cells do.

->'''Played by:''' Joel Polis

* CanonForeigner: He is an original creation of the film.

* AdaptationalNameChange: His book counterpart is named Bart Caldwell.
* AdaptationalVillainy: Bart Caldwell [[spoiler: came out negative during the blood test and stayed human. Palmer, on the other hand, came out positive during the blood test and kills CanonForeigner Windows.]]

%%* CanonForeigner