Childs and MacReady are rather ironically the only two survivors at the end of the original movie, with them having been in conflict for most of it. Keith David himself does not actually know whether Childs was an imitation or not, while Kurt Russell appears to think so.
John Carpenter's The Thing — the film that could have starred Rick Dalton — has one of the great open endings. There are only two survivors of the shape-shifting alien beastie: Kurt Russell's MacReady and Keith David's Childs.
While the more heavily believed theory does seem to be that Childs is The Thing in the closing moments of the film, it is important to note that it's never truly been confirmed one way or another.
The eye light theory states that humans were marked with a light in their eyes by the film's director of photography, Dean Cundey. At the end of the film, Childs does not have the eye light, and MacReady does.
Kate escapes and the Juliette-Thing kills Karl. Lars kills the Juliette-Thing with a flamethrower and the team resolve to quarantine themselves until the threat is eliminated. That night, Carter and Jameson stagger back from the helicopter crash.
What happened to Kate at the end of The Thing 2011?
Like the 1982 film, the fate of the protagonist of 2011's The Thing is left vague in the movie's ending. Kate Lloyd remains in a similar position to the original's MacReady and Childs. Even if she is able to drive the other snow vehicle out across the landscape, there is no guarantee that she will find any help.
MacReady returns in the 2002 video game sequel to The Thing to assist the U.S. Rescue Team investigating Outpost 31 in destroying The Thing. MacReady's survival is never explained, though the game is set 3 months after the events at Outpost 31. MacReady has also gotten access to a new working helicopter.
What happened to Kurt Russell at the end of The Thing?
The Thing's ending sees Kurt Russell's MacReady and Keith David's Childs as the only survivors, with the final scene not providing a definitive answer as to which one is the eponymous alien.
Cundey suggested that throughout the film a specific light gleam can be seen in the eyes of whichever body is currently inhabiting the alien. A light gleam can be seen in Childs' eyes in the final scene, which would mean he's infected with the Thing under Cundey's theory.
Rock-Like Physiology: As a result of being directly exposed to cosmic radiation, Ben has been transformed into an orange-colored, rock-like humanoid that gives him a high degree of invulnerability. One test performed on him showed his internal organs had also been affected, becoming rock-like as well.
Upon emerging from the wreckage, the crew was subject to incredible changes from the radiation, and the pilot himself lucklessly transformed into a hulking, boulder-skinned monstrosity quickly dubbed the Thing. From then on, Grimm and his fellow travelers would operate as team—and a family—known as the Fantastic Four.
So called "alternate ending" is added with final voiceover saying to watch others around cause who knows what tomorrow, tonight will bring. This ending is actually longer version of the opening scene with Norwegian dog escaping while their camp is in flames.
MacReady, Garry, and Nauls agree that the Thing cannot be allowed to escape and set explosives to destroy the station, but the Blair-Thing kills Garry, and Nauls disappears.
It's unclear when Palmer and Norris assimilated, but it's possible that one of them picked up the keys after Windows dropped them, destroyed the blood supply, and returned the keys somehow. With this in mind, most fans have pointed their fingers at Palmer, accusing him of the sabotage.
With no other choice, Childs sacrifices himself to destroy the creature by blowing himself up while MacReady escaped the sub in a capsule. However, it would be later revealed that Childs was assimilated by the creature, who would later reveal itself to MacReady in Argentina.
The gang realizes that every part of the Thing is an individual life form with its own survival instinct. MacReady proposes testing blood samples from each survivor with a heated piece of wire and has each man restrained but is forced to kill Clark after he lunges at MacReady with a scalpel.
What happened to the girl at the end of The Thing?
In addition, the film's writer, Eric Heisserer, revealed in an interview with the website Bloody Disgusting that in the script he wrote, Kate did not survive.
The revelation came as Carpenter was asked about comments made by Dean Cundey, who served as cinematographer on The Thing. Cundey said that there was a specific lighting in the eyes of human characters. Using this logic, it would appear that MacReady is still human but Childs isn't.
The most debated aspect of The Thing concerns its two survivors, MacReady and Childs. The events of the film see every other person in Antarctic Outpost 31 killed, and the horror movie's final survivors are left in the impossible — but practically inevitable — situation where neither man knows if the other is infected.
There are existing stills of an alternate death for Fuchs. Like in the film, exactly what happened would be ambiguous and open to interpretation, but rather than finding his corpse being found burned in the snow, he would have been found in a greenhouse impaled by a shovel. The scene has never been released.
MacReady was a level-headed leader who kept everyone in check, hence why he is one of the best characters in The Thing. So the Thing was smart to frame him as an imposter, leading to disarray in the crew.
Norwegian Passenger with Rifle : [in untranslated Norwegian] Get the hell away! That's not a dog, it's some sort of thing! It's imitating a dog, it isn't real! GET AWAY, YOU IDIOTS!
The Thing prequel directly leads into the '82 film during its end credits as a Norwegian helicopter pilot (Ole Martin Aune Nilsen) touches down at the ghostly camp and begins calling out for any survivors amongst the smoldering ruins.
