Classic Heroes: The Thing’s MacReady

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Photos copyright Universal Pictures

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

R.J. MacReady is a freelance pilot stationed at the Antarctic Outpost 31 whose life is plunged into a nightmare along with the rest of the outpost’s personnel. He plays chess and drinks Scotch but we know little else about him. He is no superhero with special abilities. MacReady is just an ordinary man thrown into an extraordinary situation upon which the fate of every man, woman and child rests.

He is a natural leader which comes in handy as the nature of the alien threat is exposed and the rest of the crew panic. He knows how to organise the others using the information they have collected and when push comes to shove he realises that the only person he can rely on in this situation is himself.

In the Thing’s most intense scene, the remaining crew are tied up on a bench so MacReady can perform a blood test so he can reveal who is alien. He knows that any alien blood will not stand pain. The individual cells are part of the greater whole. MacReady has been lost in the snow so it looks like he is one of the aliens but his grit and determination for self preservation makes him the most dangerous person alive. He has no problem shooting a defiant Childs (Keith David). Childs backs off seeing that MacReady is not bluffing. When the hidden alien is revealed, MacReady takes lead to destroy the Thing once and for all before it spreads to the rest of the planet.

It has been constructing a ship and MacReady is left alone to blow it up. There is no hope, no rescue coming as MacReady knows what has to happen. In the burning wreckage of the outpost, he sits drinking scotch as the temperature begins to plummet. He will freeze to death preventing the alien from escaping but suddenly Childs reappears. At this point, there is no point in fighting. They will both freeze to death whether they are human or alien. While the ending is ambiguous and leaves you to make your own mind up as to whether MacReady or Childs is the Thing, you sense that if this was real life then it is an accurate portrayal. While there have been many theories and debates as to who is whom, the story did not end there at least on film.

In the Dark Horse comics, the story continues with MacReady rescued from an icy death but Childs is not with him. He steals a helicopter after making sure he isn’t infected and returns to the outpost to destroy what is left of the Thing. He finds two of them but is stopped from completing his mission when a military task force take him. One soldier touches the remains of the Thing causing him to be infected. Childs arrives with a squad of soldiers and they battle a newly formed Thing aboard a submarine. It crashes and Childs shoves MacReady out an icefield to save him. He is found by soldiers and taken to a base. We have some character development here as Macready is now totally paranoid and suspicious of everyone and everything. The base has a flock of sheep nearby which MacReady begins to slaughter before he is shot with a tranquillizer dart. The pilot is proved right as the Thing has infected a sheep, giving us the second cross species transformation. No life form on the planet is safe from the alien and it will consume everything.

While MacReady and soldiers destroy the Things who are again building an escape ship, one escapes which is destroyed by Childs and a squad carrying flamethrowers. They quickly restrain the soldiers for testing including MacReady. To his horror, MacReady’s blood jumps from the dish when tested. But he escapes only to be confronted by Childs later who reveals he is a Thing and falsified the test. The escape ship is almost complete but the military destroys it and a massive spider like Thing. They do not know if the Thing has really been killed once and for all so MacReady warns the survivors to be vigilant.

But sure to form in Eternal Vows, the Thing has survived. MacReady follows a trail of suspicious murders to a Wallace Harbour New Zealand, MacReady is at first arrested by a policeman, Rowan before they team up. They track down a Thing which MacReady burns. As it does the Thing as it shows all the forms it assimilated before it does. Both men recognise a local woman, Jenny, who was not one of the murder victims. Before long the town is infested and the Jenny Thing burns the town down to kill her competition. Rowan saves MacReady by giving his life. He gets aboard the trawler ship Gettysberg where he finds another Thing which he destroys by blowing up the ship. Part of Jenny Thing attacks him on the beach but he manages to destroy it before falling and knocked unconscious when he hits his head on a rock.

And that’s where we leave it. We never know what happens to MacReady. Did he survive or become a victim while unconscious?

MacReady in the movies was realistic as the world would never know the sacrifice he made to keep us safe but the comic gave us an unsung hero that never receive a medal for protecting the human race.