John Carpenter’s The Thing has left viewers wondering about its ambiguous ending for decades, and as much as I love the theories about it, I think we can finally put that mystery to rest now. John Carpenter earned his place as one of the Masters of Horror in the 1970s and 1980s, and one of his most notable projects in the latter is The Thing. Based on the 1938 novella Who Goes There?, by John W. Campbell Jr., The Thing takes the audience to Antarctica, where an American research station goes through a real nightmare.

After a strange encounter with a Norwegian helicopter, the American team at the station faces the threat of an extraterrestrial life form that ᴀssimilates and imitates other organisms. Because of this, the team is overcome by paranoia and fear as they don’t know who among them is still human and who is “the thing” in disguise. At the end of The Thing, only two team members are still alive, but it’s unclear if both are still human. This has raised many questions and made way for various theories, and as much as I enjoy them, this mystery can be put to rest now.

John Carpenter Left The Thing’s Ending Intentionally Ambiguous

The Thing’s Ending Was Meant To Leave The Audience Wondering

The Thing uses its disturbing abilities to take the lives of the American team one by one, and it goes as far as to sabotage the only way they could have known who is still human and who has been replaced with the Thing. After a lot of conflict, paranoia, misunderstandings, and death, the only survivors of the American team are pilot R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) and chief mechanic Childs (Keith David), who reunite in the snow after MacReady destroys the station and the Thing with an explosion and Childs tried to go after one of their fake colleagues.

MacReady and Childs sit by the burning remnants of the station, exhausted after everything they just went through. As they accept their fate – freezing to death –, MacReady and Childs share a bottle of Scotch whiskey, and that’s the end of The Thing. However, as simple (and tragic as it is), it raised the question among viewers of whether Childs was the Thing or not, or even MacReady himself. This has made way for various theories about what truly happened to MacReady and Childs at the end, and the possible ways to know if any of them was secretly the Thing.

However, and as fun as most of the theories are (and I enjoy them a lot), we’re not supposed to know what truly happened at the end of The Thing because that’s how John Carpenter wanted it. Sometime during the 1990s, Carpenter recorded his own director’s commentary, alongside Kurt Russell, in which they talked the audience through the movie. In it, Carpenter admitted he still couldn’t decide if Childs was human or not, which further enhances the themes of distrust and paranoia of The Thing, now pᴀssing them onto the audience.

The Thing’s “Eye Gleam” Theory Made Its Mystery Even Bigger (& More Popular)

The “Eye Gleam” Theory Claimed To Solve The Ending’s Mystery

The most popular theory that sought to solve the mystery of the ending of The Thing is the “eye gleam” theory. This was started by The Thing’s cinematographer, Dean Cundey, in a 2016 commentary, in which he revealed that, while filming the blood test sequence, Carpenter came up with the idea of human characters having a light in their eyes. However, what’s always ignored or forgotten in this theory is that Cundey himself said they only used that trick in that scene and dismissed the idea of adding it in other scenes.

Still, the “eye gleam” theory claims that in the final scene of The Thing the audience can tell who is human and who isn’t based on the light in their eyes, but this isn’t true. Carpenter addressed this theory in 2023, saying that Cundey “has no clue” and, changing what he said in the above-mentioned commentary, said he knows who’s the Thing at the end of the movie. While the theory is interesting, it doesn’t reveal anything about Childs, MacReady, and their humanity or lack of it.

The Thing’s Video Game Solved The Ending’s Mystery 20 Years Later

The Thing’s Biggest Mystery Has Already Been Solved

The mystery of the ending of The Thing was subtly solved 20 years after the movie’s release, but I don’t blame fans for not knowing it. The answer came in the video game also тιтled The Thing, in which the player is Captain Blake, a member of the United States Army Special Forces team sent to Antarctica to find out what happened to the team. The player finds a recorded message from MacReady, who resigned to his and Childs’ fate, and finds the body of the latter, as he died from hypothermia.

MacReady appears at the end of the game, when the player comes across a pilot who helps him defeat the Thing and with whom he flies away from the base, and the pilot reveals himself to be MacReady. The video game of The Thing is considered canon by Carpenter, so it can be seen as a definitive answer to the mystery of Childs and MacReady’s humanity, but it’s a very tragic ending for Childs.

What Kurt Russell & Keith David Have Said About The Thing’s Ending

MacReady & Childs Have Some Things To Say

Of course, the stars of The Thing’s ending have had a couple of things to say about the movie’s ending. In an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2023, Russell shared that he and Carpenter talked about the ending and their ideas for it and tried different things to see what worked best. Russell admitted that he saw the ending as going back to “square one”, but it worked. In the end, Russell admitted that just having MacReady and Childs sitting there was “called for”, and that he has fun hearing people talk about the ending.

Most recently, during John Carpenter’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, Keith David playfully addressed Childs’ condition at the end of The Thing (via ComicBook). David simply said “First, let me clear this up: it wasn’t me”, which, joking or not, further confirms what the video game had already done. Of course, Carpenter didn’t make any comments on it, but it’s fun to know David believes Childs was human until the very end.

I Think The Mystery Of The Thing’s Ending Can Be Put To Rest Now

The Thing’s Ending Has Been Debated For Too Long

As fun as it is to listen to different theories on what was going on with Childs and MacReady at the end of The Thing, I feel this mystery can be put to rest now, and there are two sides to take here. First, Carpenter’s comments on leaving the ending intentionally ambiguous are an answer strong enough to end all speculation and, instead, focus on other aspects and details of the movie (like who got to the blood, for example). For those who want a more definitive answer, the 2002 video game has one, though it’s a heartbreaking one.

As much as I enjoy the theories like the “eye gleam” one or the one that claims the bottle of Scotch whiskey was actually gasoline in order to test Childs, the truth is that they don’t hold up. The theories and speculation around the end of The Thing might not completely end unless John Carpenter gives a direct answer, but there’s enough information to put this mystery to rest already.

Sources: Happy Sad Confused, ComicBook.