John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) is one of the most ground-breaking remakes in cinematic history, building upon RKO Pictures’ cult classic The Thing from Another World (1951) and transforming the B-movie creature feature into one of the most harrowing sci-fi horror movies to date. Though the film was one of many beloved ’80s movies to flop at the box office, it went on gone on to gain an enormous fanbase over the years, in large part due to the film’s stellar cast, its innovative special effects, and the cryptic ending that continues to puzzle audiences even 43 years later.

Originally based off the 1937 John W. Campbell story Who Goes There?, The Thing follows a group of 12 men trapped in an American scientific outpost in Antarctica with a murderous shape-shifting alien that can imitate all forms of life. Dripping with fear and paranoia, the Americans, led by helicopter pilot RJ MacReady (Kurt Russell), begin to turn on each other as the creature picks off more crew members while replicating their forms. In addition to being one of the best horror movies of the ’80s, The Thing is also a masterclass in building dark psychological tension, no more notably than in the film’s iconic and mysterious ending.

John Carpenter’s The Thing Has One Of The Horror Genre’s Greatest Endings

The Film Boasts One Of The Greatest Unresolved Endings

By the end of The Thing, the bloodthirsty extra-terrestrial creature has mowed through nearly all the American crew, leaving survivors MacReady, Garry (Donald Moffat), and Nauls (T.K. Carter) determined to burn the station to the ground in order to prevent the shape-shifting organism from escaping Antarctica and ᴀssimilating all life on Earth. After rigging the station with dynamite and successfully triggering an explosion, MacReady is left as the crew’s sole survivor—until Childs (Keith David), who previously vanished amid the raging battle, suspiciously reappears.

MacReady is initially dubious of Childs, interrogating him over why he disappeared, to which he claims he got lost in the storm in pursuit of Blair (who’d already been ᴀssimilated at that point in the film). However, MacReady soon relents, realizing there’s little he can do in his present condition to confront Childs if he truly is the creature. With their deaths imminent as the smoldering wreckage of the station begins to die down, the two men resolve to sit and wait in the blistering cold, sharing a bottle of whiskey as the film comes to a bleak, enigmatic end.

The Thing’s Ending Would’ve Been Ruined By A Direct Sequel

The Film Already Perfectly Concludes The Story

Although the film received a 2011 prequel—which bears the same name as the original—and has inspired multiple adaptations over the years, including a brief multi-issue run from Dark Horse Comics and a 2002 video game that picks up right after the film’s ending, we still have yet to receive a cinematic sequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing. While this might be initially frustrating for cult fans of the gory ’80s classic, consider this: any true follow-up to the 1982 film would ruin the ambiguity of the ending.

While there have undoubtedly been kick-ᴀss sequels to already successful films, with James Cameron’s Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day being perhaps the most famous in this category, The Thing simply operates better as a stand-alone entry, in large part due to the strength of its conclusion. Though there may be room to build upon the film’s greater universe, there’s no sequel property that wouldn’t damage the sancтιтy of the original film’s ending.

The Real Meaning Of The Thing’s Ending Explained

The Ending Is A Microcosm Of The Film’s Message On Paranoia

There are several theories surrounding the final scene of The Thing, with one of my favorites being that the whiskey that Childs drinks is actually a Molotov cocktail MacReady prepared to test if he was truly human. However, John Carpenter has actually commented on the ending of the film and said that he “couldn’t decide” whether Childs was the creature or not, a sentiment that star Kurt Russell supports.

While it’s likely that one of the two characters is the vicious extraterrestrial, it ultimately isn’t important, since the ambiguity in The Thing‘s final moments strengthens the film’s themes of fear and paranoia, which prove to be nearly as ᴅᴇᴀᴅly as the тιтular alien himself throughout the runtime of the movie. Through concluding the film in such stark, uncertain territory, Carpenter creates a whole world of possibilities that open up in our imagination as to what might happen next, thus ensuring that it remains fresh in our minds even 43 years later.