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Douglasqqq t1_iugkknc wrote

I have the same issue with this theory that I have with the one about MacReady giving Childs petrol to drink at the end; You gotta assume The Thing has a pretty complete understanding of the person it's assimilating.
It seems to have full inventory of it's victims' language, physical capacity, mannerisms, manner of speaking, character, and knowledge of surroundings and existing relationships. Blind spots like what a noose is, or petrol tasting different to whiskey, don't add up to me.

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darthvirgin OP t1_iuglypz wrote

Agreed, but it’s not super clear how the assimilation process works, and there are other characters who it evidently mimicked quite perfectly as they’re doppelgängers in multiple scenes.

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WR_MouseThrow t1_iugpk7i wrote

It's not super clear but I think you can infer that the assimilated have a good handle on human behaviour, and that Blair put the noose out as a not-very-subtle threat of "let me back in before I kill myself" (whether he was already assimilated at the time or not).

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Froegerer t1_iui23hd wrote

They make it sound like you somehow keep your consciousness until it decides takes over. Like it assimilates everything but the brain or part of the brain so the host has no idea and makes it impossible to identify without something like a janky hot wire blood test. Some character said something like, "you could be one of those things and not even know it!".

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Badloss t1_iui8xb9 wrote

I don't think that's what's going on. I think The Thing is perfectly emulating the person, if you were assimilated then you are dead and your consciousness is gone.

I think the characters are just wrong when they say that, or they're imperfectly trying to describe how good the mimcry is

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SplinterPizza t1_iuil07m wrote

If you perfectly replicated the Human brain inside a computer... Would it think it's conscious? His point still stands.

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Badloss t1_iuimitz wrote

It doesn't, because that's not what the thing is doing.

The thing has access to the host's memories and instincts and uses them to perfectly imitate the host. I disagree that it's building a functional simulation of the host's consciousness to do that

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SplinterPizza t1_iuiocdo wrote

>The thing has access to the host's memories and instincts and uses them to perfectly imitate the host. I disagree that it's building a functional simulation of the host's consciousness to do that

Sure but the point is we only know what the film shows us. And it's pretty clear the what it mimics is a perfect representation of a human. It has the memories of the person it devours. Now for the extrapolation on that, If it's mimicking down to the Neurons then it stands to reason it can mimic the mind of the person.

It understands what a noose is. It understands what Alcohol tastes like. The characters in the film make a salient point that maybe you wouldn't even know you were a mimic.

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Badloss t1_iuir2ed wrote

Yeah I mean of course we're all speculating. I just disagree that the mimics don't know they're mimics. I think they know exactly what they are and just know exactly how to fake being human.

There's actually a great example of what you're talking about in the Dune books though. The Tleilaxu invent perfect Face Dancers that completely replicate their target and then the mimicry is so perfect that the copy believes it's the original and they lose control of them

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Sadatori t1_iugqez8 wrote

Since the Thing knew how to build a spaceship, that meant it retains the knowledge of the beings it assimilates so it would know what a noose is as well, but I still absolutely love how it completely ignores the noose while talking and absolutely love the movie and how we can still try and get more out of it to this day

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striker907 t1_iugudwk wrote

I don’t think the spaceship thing confirms that personally. I saw that as knowledge possessed by the “original being” or form of the Thing, considering it crash landed onto Earth with a similar-looking ship.

Am I wrong? It’s all a guess

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BOEJlDEN t1_iugxvvs wrote

I assumed that the ship was piloted by a completely separate alien species that was infected by the Thing. I don’t think that was the Thing’s ship

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MattyKatty t1_iuh3buz wrote

It's ambiguous in the 1982 version. It was meant to be shown in the 2011 prequel but then they CGI'd over it.

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CMelody t1_iujl3me wrote

That was my thought, too. Blair figured out pretty quickly that the Thing had to be isolated before it assimilated all life on Earth.

After they realized the same, I think the aliens in the ship crashed on purpose on what they thought was a backwater planet with no sentient life to quarantine the Thing where it could do no harm.

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dudinax t1_iugxnfl wrote

I always thought the implication was the thing caused the crash. Didn't they find a body in the wreck? I suspect that's not the thing's true form.

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badger81987 t1_iuirxs6 wrote

It probably doesn't really have one, kind of like The Builders in The Expanse. Pure parasites.

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dudinax t1_iugxk57 wrote

I agree about the whiskey, but the thing does not handle social situations totally perfectly. It would obviously know what the noose is but might underestimate its effect on real people.

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SplinterPizza t1_iuiksok wrote

>It would obviously know what the noose is but might underestimate its effect on real people.

Why would you think this?

Nothing suggests otherwise. It literally has full access to the human's it mimics and perfectly mimes them.

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dudinax t1_iujfjrp wrote

It's been a while since I've seen the movie, but my impression was the thing was good, but not perfect at social manipulation.

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SplinterPizza t1_iujhhgh wrote

Well you should watch it again, because it's a great movie. But no. The only way they can tell is by doing a blood test.

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duck_duck_ent t1_iujgmws wrote

I love this movie and I watch it at least once every 2-3 months. I recently saw it in the theater and the theory that Childs is given petrol has always been a good one, along with the visible breathe.

So during this last rewatch, I paid extra attention to the Molotov’s they were making. All the bottles were stripped of labels. Just clear green bottles.

McReady was ready to drink that last bottle before Childs shows up. It has a label on it.

The noose… a part of me thinks it was made as a last resort, if anything left of him was able to fight back he would have done it…

Also! I love how Carpenter makes you feel the guy with the dog is a Thing! I always forget he has clean blood

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Ok-Needleworker-4818 t1_iuk88pa wrote

I'm torn on the Molotov cocktail drinking theory. It's obvious as I mentioned above that the thing knows everything the copied life forms know. Knowing what something taste like though? It's interesting to think about that. It knows what alcohol is but maybe it would just think the gasoline is a different tasting alcohol? Cool theory either way.

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