The Thing (1982) quotes

Director
John Carpenter.

Cast
Kurt Russell.
Wilford Brimley.
Keith David.

A crew in Antarctica finds a neighboring camp destroyed and its crew dead. Whatever killed them is nowhere to be found, unless it’s hidden in plain sight.

 

Yeah, fuck you too!
– MacReady

I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I’d rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!
– Garry

You gotta be fuckin’ kidding.
– Palmer

Fire’s got the temperature up all over the camp. Won’t last long though.
– Childs
Neither will we.
– MacReady
How will we make it?
– Childs
Maybe we shouldn’t.
– MacReady
If you’re worried about me…
– Childs
If we’ve got any surprises for each other, I don’t think we’re in much shape to do anything about it.
– MacReady
Well, what do we do?
– Childs
Why don’t we just… wait here for a little while… see what happens?
– MacReady

Hey, Sweden!
– MacReady
They’re not Swedish, Mac. They’re Norwegian.
– Dr. Copper

I dunno what the hell’s in there, but it’s weird and pissed off, whatever it is.
– Clark

You’re gonna have to sleep sometime, MacReady.
– Childs
I’m a real light sleeper, Childs.
– MacReady

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.
– MacReady

I know I’m human. And if you were all these things, then you’d just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn’t want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. It’ll fight if it has to, but it’s vulnerable out in the open. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it’s won.
– MacReady

Somebody in this camp ain’t what he appears to be. Right now that may be one or two of us. By spring, it could be all of us.
– MacReady
So, how do we know who’s human? If I was an imitation, a perfect imitation, how would you know if it was really me?
– Childs

[about to test his blood]
Now I’ll show you what I already know.
– MacReady

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.
– Dr. Blair
Finish what?
– Vance Norris
Finish imitating these dogs.
– Dr. Blair

First goddamn week of winter.
– MacReady