Kurt Russell: MacReady

The Thing

MacReady

[last lines]
Childs: Fire's got the temperature up all over the camp. Won't last long though.
MacReady: Neither will we.
Childs: How will we make it?
MacReady: Maybe we shouldn't.
Childs: If you're worried about me...
MacReady: If we've got any surprises for each other, I don't think we're in much shape to do anything about it.
Childs: Well, what do we do?
MacReady: Why don't we just... wait here for a little while... see what happens?

[first lines]
Computer Voice: [after MacReady inputs a move on the keyboard] Your move: bishop to knight four. My move: knight to rook three.
MacReady: Poor baby, you're startin' to lose it, aren't ya?
[inputs a move]
Computer Voice: Your move: king to rook one. My move: rook to knight six. Checkmate. Checkmate.
[MacReady angrily pours his scotch into the computer tower, frying it]
MacReady: Cheating bitch.

MacReady: [talking into tape recorder] I'm gonna hide this tape when I'm finished. If none of us make it, at least there'll be some kind of record. The storm's been hitting us hard now for 48 hours. We still have nothing to go on.
[MacReady briefly turns off tape recorder and takes a drink of whisky. He looks at the torn long johns and turns it back on]
MacReady: One other thing: I think it rips through your clothes when it takes you over. Windows found some shredded long johns, but the nametag was missing. They could be anybody's. Nobody... nobody trusts anybody now, and we're all very tired.
[turns off tape recorder then turns it back on after a short pause]
MacReady: Nothing else I can do, just wait... R.J. MacReady, helicopter pilot, US outpost number 31.
[turns off recorder]

MacReady: We're gonna draw a little bit of everybody's blood... 'cause we're gonna find out who's The Thing. Watchin' Norris in there gave me the idea that... maybe every part of him was a whole, every little piece was an individual animal with a built-in desire to protect its own life. Ya see, when a man bleeds, it's just tissue, but blood from one of you Things won't obey when it's attacked. It'll try and survive... crawl away from a hot needle, say.

MacReady: I don't know. Thousands of years ago it crashes, and this thing... gets thrown out, or crawls out, and it ends up freezing in the ice.
Childs: I just cannot believe any of this voodoo bullshit.
Palmer: Childs, happens all the time, man. They're falling out of the skies like flies. Government knows all about it, right, Mac?
Childs: You believe any of this voodoo bullshit, Blair?
Palmer: Childs, Childs... Chariots of the Gods, man. They practically own South America. I mean, they taught the Incas everything they know.
Garry: So, come on now, MacReady, Norwegians get ahold of this... and they dig it up out of the ice.
MacReady: Yes, Garry, they dig it up, they cart it back, it gets thawed out, it wakes up... probably not the best of moods... I don't know, I wasn't there!
Nauls: [skates in with ripped long johns] Which one of you disrespectful men been tossing his dirty drawers in the kitchen trash can, huh? From now, I want my kitchen clean, all right? Germ free!
Childs: So how's this motherfucker wake up after thousands of years in the ice?
George Bennings: And how can it look like a dog?
MacReady: I don't know how. 'Cause it's different than us, see? 'Cause it's from outer space. What do you want from me? Ask him!
[motions to Blair]
Childs: You buy any of this Blair?

MacReady: Somebody in this camp ain't what he appears to be. Right now that may be one or two of us. By spring, it could be all of us.
Childs: So, how do we know who's human? If I was an imitation, a perfect imitation, how would you know if it was really me?

MacReady: I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. It'll fight if it has to, but it's vulnerable out in the open. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won.

MacReady: How you doin', old boy?
Dr. Blair: I don't know who to trust.
MacReady: [swallows, sighs] I know what you mean, Blair. Trust's a tough thing to come by these days. Tell you what - why don't you just trust in the Lord?

Dr. Blair: [throwing a fit in the radio room] You guys think I'M crazy! Well, that's fine! Most of ya don't know what's goin' on around here, but I'm damn well sure SOME of you do!
MacReady: Christ!
Childs: He got most of the chopper and the tractor, and he's killed the rest of the dogs.
MacReady: [as Garry advances with his gun] Garry, wait a minute, wait a minute. Now, Childs, go around to the map room door. Talk to him.
Childs: Yeah.
[Childs exits]
MacReady: Norris, get a table from the lab.
Dr. Blair: [still smashing up the radio room with an axe while yelling] D'ya think that thing wanted to be an animal? No dogs make it a thousand miles through the cold! No, you don't understand! That thing wanted to be US! If a cell gets out, it could imitate everything on the FACE OF THE EARTH! AAAAND NOTHING can stop it!
Childs: [appearing in the map room doorway] Okay, Blair. Come on, man, you don't wanna hurt anybody.
[Blair whips a pistol out and shoots at Childs but misses]
Dr. Blair: I'LL KILL YOU!
[fires more shots]

MacReady: Blair... he got back inside and blew the generator. In six hours, it'll be 100 below in here!
Garry: Well, that's suicide!
MacReady: Not for that Thing. It wants to freeze now. It knows it's got no way out of here. It just wants to go to sleep in the cold until the rescue team finds it.
Garry: What can we do? What can we do?
MacReady: Whether we make it or not, we can't let that Thing freeze again. Maybe we'll just warm things up a little around here. We're not gettin' outta here alive. But neither is that Thing.

Garry: [as to MacReady's blood test...] This is pure nonsense. Doesn't prove a thing.
MacReady: I thought you'd feel that way, Garry. You were the only one who could've got to that blood. We'll do you last.

Fuchs: There's something wrong with Blair. He's locked himself in his room and he won't answer the door, so I took one of his notebooks from the lab.
MacReady: Yeah?
Fuchs: Listen: "It could have imitated a million life-forms on a million planets. It could change into any one of them at any time. Now, it wants life-forms on Earth."
MacReady: It's gettin' cold in here, Fuchs, and I haven't slept for two days.
Fuchs: Wait a minute, Mac, wait a minute.
[reads from the book]
Fuchs: "It needs to be alone and in close proximity with the life-form to be absorbed. The chameleon strikes in the dark."
MacReady: So is Blair cracking up or what?
Fuchs: Damn it, MacReady!
[reading from the notebook]
Fuchs: "There is still cellular activity in these burned remains. They're not dead yet!"