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Thule Station
Main Personnel
Edvard
Edvard Wolner
Played By: Trond Espen Seim
The commander of Thule Station.
- Expy: He's basically this movie's version of Garry.
- Foreshadowing: During Kate's test to see who is the Thing, he is the only one who does not open his mouth when it's his turn nor claim he has porcelain fillings or clean teeth (something that even Sander had the wisdom to do), most likely because he has missing dental fillings that will implicate him as the Thing.
Lars
Lars
Played By: Jørgan Langhelle
A Snowcat driver and dog handler.
- Adaptational Name Change: A deleted scene from the original film gave his name as Jans Bolen.
- Canon Character All Along: He turns out to be the Norwegian going after the dog in the original film.
- Doomed by Canon: He dies at the start of the original when Garry shoots him while he goes after the Dog-Thing.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's standoffish, but a good guy at heart who dotes on his pet dog and remains loyal to Kate after she proves herself to be human and the most knowledgeable about the Thing.
- Manly Facial Hair: He sports a beard and is a complete badass who's the most competent at rooting out and killing the Things, even more so than Kate.
Peder
Peder
Played By: Stig Henrik Hoff
The second-in-command at Thule Station.
Karl
Karl
Played By: Carsten Bjornlund
A geologist.
Olav
Olav
Played By: Jan Gunnar Røise
The equipment operator.
- Red Herring: Both Kate and the viewers are led to believe he's the Thing because some of Henrik's blood splattered onto his face when the alien attacked the latter, leading Kate to call down the helicopter carrying him and Griggs. It turns out however that Griggs was the Thing.
Jonas
Jonas
Played By: Kristofer Hivju
A researcher.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: When Jonas is in the middle of being assimilated by the Thing, all he can do is non-verbally plead with Kate to Mercy Kill him. Kate reluctantly obliges and immolates him.
- Lovable Coward: He's justifiably terrified out of his mind by the whole situation with the Thing, but he's a friendly Nice Guy.
- Nice Guy: He's always friendly to everyone, even when terrified out of his mind,
Henrik
Henrik Larsen
Played By: Jo Adrian Haavind
A researcher.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Gets eaten and slowly digested alive by the Thing, which only comes to an end when the alien is incinerated.
Juliette
Juliette
Played By: Kim Bubbs
A geologist.
- And I Must Scream: She's implied to be perfectly aware of what's happened to her after she's assimilated.
- Nice Girl: She's always polite and comforts Kate on her first night at Thule Sation.
Colin
Colin
Played By: Jonathan Walker
The radio operator.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: In a deleted scene, cornered in the radio room by the Thing, Colin slashes his wrists and throat so it can't assimilate him.
- Canon Character All Along: Is the dead Norwegian found by Copper and MacReady in the original film.
Matias
Matias
Played By: Ole Martin Aune Nillsen
Thule Station's helicopter pilot.
- Canon Character All Along: He's the one flying the helicopter chasing the Dog-Thing in the original film.
- Doomed by Canon: He ends up dying in the original film to his own misthrown grenade.
Research Team
Kate
Kate Lloyd
Played By: Mary Elizabeth Winstead
A young paleontologist brought on to the excavation of the alien spacecraft.
- Arch-Enemy: The Thing takes a special interest in killing her and she similarly wants it to be annihilated before it can escape and spread to other areas.
- Badass Adorable: She's a sweet, kindhearted woman played by the beautiful Mary Elizabeth Winstead who is also incredibly resourceful, brave, intelligent, and levelheaded.
- Bolivian Army Ending: She's last seen stranded out in the middle of nowhere with slim chance of survival, and her lack of presence at Thule Station at the end implies she didn’t make it back. Hopefully that Russian station was real...
- The Hero: The main character of the prequel.
- Mercy Kill: When she sees Jonas, in the process of being assimilated, non-verbally beg her to put him out his misery before the Thing can assimilate him fully, Kate reluctantly obliges and incinerates him.
Sander
Dr. Sander Halvorson
Played By: Ulrich Thomsen
The arrogant head of the research team.
- Admiring the Abomination: When performing an autopsy on the Thing, he finds it's ability to assimilate living things fascinating, whereas everyone else is horrified and disgusted at what the alien did to Henrik.
- Asshole Victim: He's such a dick that it's a relief when he gets assimilated.
- Dr. Jerk: He's an egotistical jackass who hates Kate for challenging his authority and bruising his ego.
- Expy: For Dr. Carrington from The Thing from Another World. They're both scientists who believe the Thing must be studied for science and ignore it's violent nature. The difference between them is that while Carrington manages to get away with only a few broken bones, Sander is assimilated and killed.
- Final Boss: The Sander-Thing serves as the last Thing-Monster fought in the film, with the Carter-Thing being quickly identified and eliminated by Kate shortly after.
- Hate Sink: He's a snide and unhelpful Dr. Jerk with a giant ego and a hatred of not being in charge. It's not even because he's the Thing; he's just that much of a petty dick.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When Kate takes command and performs her Thing-identifying test, it's clear that Sander doesn't like having her in charge and giving him orders, but when Kate firmly demands his cooperation, he simply tells her he has porcelain fillings and follows her orders to stand among the suspects.
Adam
Adam Finch
Played By: Eric Christian Olsen
Sander's assistant.
- Blessed with Suck: It turns out he's one of only two humans on the base with perfect teeth. Unfortunately, this makes it impossible for the others to rule him out as a Thing, even though he really is human. "So I'm gonna die because I floss?" indeed.
- Canon Character All Along: He gets assimilated by the Edvard-Thing to become the Split-Faced Thing seen in the first film.
- Fusion Dance: One of, if not the most disgusting example in cinema happens when the Edvard-Thing merged with him.
- Too Dumb to Live: When Edvard is exposed as an imitation, Adam makes the mistake of making a break for the door in the rec-room to escape, only for him to trip and get wounded by the thing's tentacle, making it easy for the Edvard-Thing to assimilate him and drag him before anyone can incinerate him, becoming the Split-Faced Thing seen in the first film.
Carter
Sam Carter
Played By: Joel Edgerton
A helicopter pilot who transports the research team.
- Big "NO!": The Carter-Thing does this just before Kate incinerates him.
- Chekhov's Gun: Carter's earring eliminates him as a suspect due to Kate deducing that the Thing can't replicate inorganic material, including body piercings. Kate realizes he's the Thing the moment she notices his earring is missing, more so when Carter touches the wrong ear when Kate points this out.
- Post-Climax Confrontation: Carter is the last Thing to be identified and killed in the film, shortly after Kate manages to destroy the Sander-Thing.
Derek
Derek Jameson
Played By: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Carter's copilot.
- Deadpan Snarker: Generally tends to snark at the situation he finds himself in as a coping mechanism.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: In any other horror movie he'd be the Only Sane Man, but since this is the Thing we're talking about, his commitment to leaving as soon as possible would probably make the situation monumentally worse.
Griggs
Griggs
Played By: Paul Braunstein
The crew chief of the helicopter transport team.
The Thing
The Thing
