As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- At the beginning of the film, while everyone else is pulling on layer after layer of snow gear to deal with the Norwegians’ aftermath, Clark walks out in sub-zero weather in street clothes to make sure the dog’s all right.
- Crosses the line into Tearjerker territory when it later shows how far he’ll go to protect the dogs, with him trying to ‘’rush the Thing’’, just barely to hold him back. Later, during the standoff with Blair, he forgets about the maniac shooting up the place and rushes off when Childs lets slip that Blair killed the other dogs.
- Not only does Garry object to further burning the horrifically mutated corpse of an old friend, but he’s also clearly saddened about killing the Norwegian at the beginning of the film, in spite of the man injuring and nearly killing his crew.
- As they are potentially dying after the defeat of the alien, Mac and Childs share a bottle of liquor as they sit in front of a dying fire in the harsh cold weather.
- On top of their impending death, from each one's standpoint, the other had the opportunity to have been assimilated, and both realize that they're too weak to even make it worth acknowledging.
- After its escape craft is destroyed, the Thing destroys the camp's power generator; everyone else will freeze to death, while it will eventually be found and woken up by a rescue team. The remaining humans immediately set out to try to kill the Thing and save the rest of the planet rather than focus on themselves. On the commentary track, John Carpenter singled this moment out and considered it quite uplifting in an otherwise bleak movie.
