Infection timelines of John Carpenter's The Thing
The paranoia and uncertainty in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) is so well constructed that there is still no consensus on who gets infected, or even when some people do. The thing I really like about it is that the creators may not have actually had a definitive answer in mind themselves, but we should be able to interpret the most likely sequence of events using in-world and real-world logic. The FAQs at this fansite and IMDB do a great job of presenting some theories and explanations. The thing is, the question-answer format makes it a bit hard to follow the events as the movie unfolds.
Are there any timelines available (or could they be made) that chart the different theories of the infection spreading through the crew? For when I inevitably watch the film again.
Best Answer
On the same site you linked to (Outpost 31), there are interviews with John Carpenter and Stuart Cohen (the producer). In both of these interviews, both men are repeatedly asked to disclose when various characters were assimilated. The answer to every single one of these questions is the same: "We don't know."
There are any number of fan-created theoretical timelines of infection, but none of them are any better than the others, because there is no correct answer to this question. The director and producer deliberately avoided setting things (no pun intended) in stone, and Carpenter genuinely shows no interest whatsoever in the issue. He doesn't know, and he doesn't care.
Cohen says more than Carpenter, however: in his opinion, Blair was assimilated sometime between the autopsy on the two-headed Thing and his tantrum in the radio room. But, just like the fan-created timelines, this belief is no closer to the truth than any other, for the simple reason that there is no truth. People were assimilated whenever you think they were assimilated.
This is probably my favorite movie ever, and I've probably seen it 20 or 30 times. I've read the novella upon which it was based (Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell), I've read the short story inspired by the movie (The Things, by Peter Watts), I've read every interview I can find and watched every video of every Question and Answer panel Carpenter and the rest of the cast and crew have done, and I've even read all the draft scripts available online. I've also seen the mediocre prequel several times, although I don't particularly enjoy it, and read interviews and drafts of the script for that as well.
As much as I love The Thing, and as curious as I am about these kinds of questions, I don't try to figure out all the details, because - as you have already said yourself - the whole point of the movie is the crushing sense of uncertainty. I would assume that the reason Carpenter and Cohen never determined when each character was assimilated is because, if they did so, it would create an absolute certainty - precisely the thing they were trying to avoid. If the people who made the movie don't know when each character was assimilated, no one can ever know.
And that, quite simply, is what makes this film such a masterpiece.
Pictures about "Infection timelines of John Carpenter's The Thing"
When did Blair get infected in the thing?
Scenario 2 - Blair was infected at some point by Norris or Palmer, when he was locked in the tool shed. This probably would have occurred during the hour-long blackout when a fuse was blown (probably by the Norris-Thing) and Fuchs died.Was the dog infected in the thing?
Fast forwarding past the blood test scene, we have two infected (Blair and Dog Thing), and four uninfected team members alive. We now arrive at a pivotal scene for the conclusion of if Mac and/or Childs are infected at the end of the movie.Who got infected first in The Thing 2011?
The dog was one of the earliest infected and then not seen until the end. It is possible that while the dog was roaming around the base, it assimilated Edvard, and then the Edvard-Thing returned to the group, whilst the dog remained hidden until the end of the film.Who is infected at the end of the thing?
Palmer (David Clennon) turns out to be the one whose blood is infected, and we see his blood basically jump out of its petri dish when confronted with the hot wire.THE THING: Infection Timeline
More answers regarding infection timelines of John Carpenter's The Thing
Answer 2
Been searching and found this timeline picking up on a lot of timeline objects, but not specific to infections.
Also, this Two-part infection timeline analysis might be the closest thing you get to a timeline chart to this movie.
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