Childs, we're goin' out to give Blair the test. If he tries to make it back here and we're not with him... burn him.
Read more MacReady QuotesFrom: 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!Childs: You buy any of this Blair?
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.
Dr. Blair: You see, what we're talkin' about here is an organism that imitates other life-forms, and it imitates 'em perfectly. When this thing attacked our dogs it tried to digest them... absorb them, and in the process shape its own cells to imitate them. This for instance. That's not dog. It's imitation. We got to it before it had time to finish.Vance Norris: Finish what?Dr. Blair: Finish imitating these dogs.