YMMV / The Thing (2002)

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• Alternate Character Interpretation: One fan theory states that MacReady is actually a Thing that's flying to the mainland and helped Blake defeat the Whitely Thing, so as to divert suspicion away from itself. It would explain why MacReady survived for so long in the arctic climate and Childs did not.
• Complete Monster: Colonel R.C. Whitley is revealed to be a power-hungry madman who sends two teams to investigate Outpost 31, resulting in the Alpha Team being infected and picked off by the creatures infected by the Thing. Whitley is revealed to be collaborating with, before taking control, of Gen Inc. to research the Thing, eventually isolating what is dubbed the Cloud Virus, which Whitley seeks to weaponize. Whitley infects himself after showing an immunity, and demonstrates that he is in control when he kills Dr. Faraday for trying to eradicate the virus. Whitley plans on distributing the virus and the infected creatures around the world through a fleet of planes. When foiled, Whitley reveals his new plan to use an evacuation team to spread the infection on a global scale, with him ruling supreme. A cold-blooded murderer with a god complex and seeking to use the virus for world domination, Colonel Whitley is metaphorically and—eventually, literally—a representation of the Thing as a human.
• Demonic Spiders: Quite literally so in the case of the Skullhead Things, which nearly always attack in packs, appear out of nowhere and escape by the bushel from larger Things after you burn them. If you aren't expecting them, they can quite easily party-wipe you, especially late in the game and combined with Walker Things. If you are expecting them, they can still do a fair amount of damage before being killed.
• Game-Breaker: In the third boss fight (which is a giant thing-tentacle hanging from the ceiling) there is seemingly no safe place for you to hide without getting hit by the boss creature, forcing you to keep moving around to dodge its attacks. There's actually a very easy way to prevent this however: stand literally right against it. Due to some fault in the programming it can reach anywhere in the room, except a foot or so in front of it.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: The title was very well-received upon release and was commercially successful, and in the years following its release has become a Cult Classic much like the film.
• That One Level: One stage late in the game has you going down a seemingly endless staircase. Sounds easy enough...except there are automatic turrets on every level (that can take up to five grenade hits to destroy), scalding steam vents, seemingly endless streams of scuttling creatures that pop out of dead bodies (and attack you from front and behind), and the medic, your only hope of surviving the stage, turns into a monster at random points. If you don't have enough health packs on you, or enough firepower, it's impossible to get through the stage. Though there is one way to make it easier, if you leave the medic near the top of the staircase and run back up to him to get healed instead of having him follow you, he doesn't seem to turn into a monster.

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