The Thing
The Thing

Garry: I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!

The Thing
The Thing

[Thing roars and screams]
MacReady: Yeah, fuck you too!

The Thing
The Thing

[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?

The Thing
The Thing

[Norris' head grows legs and tries to walk away]
Palmer: [1:17:22] You gotta be fuckin' kidding.

The Thing
The Thing

MacReady: Hey, Sweden!
Dr. Copper: They're not Swedish, Mac. They're Norwegian.

The Thing
The Thing

Clark: I dunno what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is.

The Thing
The Thing

[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.

The Thing
The Thing

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.

The Thing
The Thing

Childs: You're gonna have to sleep sometime, MacReady.
MacReady: I'm a real light sleeper, Childs.

The Thing
The Thing

Nauls: Where are we goin'?
MacReady: Up to my shack.
Nauls: What the hell for?
MacReady: 'Cause when I left yesterday, I turned the lights off.

The Thing
The Thing

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.

The Thing
The Thing

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?

The Thing
The Thing

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]

The Thing
The Thing

Garry: The generator's gone.
MacReady: Any way we can we fix it?
Garry: It's "gone", MacReady.

The Thing
The Thing

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?

The Thing
The Thing

Adam Finch: So, I'm gonna die because I floss?

The Thing
The Thing

MacReady: First goddamn week of winter.

The Thing
The Thing

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?

The Thing
The 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.

The Thing
The Thing

MacReady: [about to test his blood] Now I'll show you what I already know.