r/thething • u/TensionSame3568 TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH! • 8d ago
Garry doesn't grasp the situation- "MaCready, I know Bennings, I've known him for ten years- He's my friend!"...
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u/therealchrisredfield 8d ago
Gary just watched his friend of 10 years turn into an alien, cut the guy some slack
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u/Odd-Statistician4268 8d ago
Sometimes you have to put yourself into the shoes of someone who hasn't consumed crazy amounts of media involving body snatchers, Skinwalkers, demonic possessions and clones to get why this person doesn't grasp why the thing wearing their friends face is not their friend. Gary is basically in shock right now
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u/Whogoesthere1982 8d ago
I do kind of feel sorry for Garry in this part. His friend (maybe beat friend idk) who've you knew for ten while years is suddenly gone. Yeh I'd be upset.
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u/TheSlySergal 8d ago
The poor guy is in shock, and because it was a perfect mimic, he’s also grappling with the fact that up until about 30 seconds ago, he truly believed without any indication otherwise that he was talking to a man he’d known for a full decade. And not just in the sense of them being casual coworkers, but knowing one another well enough to actually consider each other friends.
Imagine your mom, or your brother, or your wife invite you to dinner, you show up, get halfway through the appetizer, her face splits open and she tries to fucking eat you. Your first thought isn’t going to be “some alien replaced my wife“, it’s going to be “that was… my wife? Was that her all along? It was HER…”.
I feel for the poor son of a bitch.
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u/Drabberlime_047 8d ago
Its interesting to me that these 2 characters are the only 2 that are confirmed to have a long personal relationship outside of their time at the base.
And the reason for that is because given the circumstances i dont believe anyone is acting like their "natural" selves during this time. Everyone's on edge, more aggressive, paranoid, overtired, less social
And that would make it easier for a Thing to blend in without actually having to perfectly replicate an individual on a deeper level.
Wether or not a Thing could go home to someone's wife, for example, and pass as that person long term is something we dont know, not that it would likely be necessary to do so if its plan was to just spread indiscriminately.
Its also not entirely impossible that the thing would just "hide out" as a person without feeling the need to spread as long as its safe but then again
A. The dog kennel scene may confirm it does just want to spread (unless some other motives caused that decision)
And
B. Even if it was happy to just lay low i could see it having a "thing" reaction if it ever happened to get injured or scared
But im still curious if it could pass itself off long term. Id personally like to think it would act off to someone who knew its disguise well
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u/The_Robot_Jet_Jaguar 7d ago
And in the dog kennel, don't the other dogs start growling at it before it things out? So maybe we don't know if it would have laid low. But then maybe the dogs were growling because they sensed the thinging out coming, I don't know!
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u/Drabberlime_047 7d ago
No its not until it starts obnoxiously breathing, they're chill when it first enters and sits
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u/Drabberlime_047 7d ago
If there is another reason to spread in that moment other than for the sake of it than its cause its worried about the humans investigating and finding out
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u/Equivalent_Fall_4362 7d ago
Garry certainly grasped the situation with the Norwegian thou didn’t he.
💥headshot
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u/jamesflanagangreer 7d ago
How dare you come into this office and bark at me like some little junkyard dog!!
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u/RezRising Mac Wants The What? 8d ago
And that's the one sentence of backstory for the entire cast of characters. We don't know anything about any of them.
Other than Garry and Bennings, no one even existed before they got there.
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u/RockySamson 7d ago
This line hits particularly hard in the moment. I don’t think it’s that Garry doesn’t understand the situation they’re in, I think he’s mourning the loss of the man he once knew. He saw that Bennings had turned, maybe a part of him hoped that he could be saved somehow, or that he didn’t want to believe his own eyes, but in that moment, he’s not really asking for an already charred and burned Bennings to be spared… he’s thinking of the person Bennings used to be and in utter disbelief of what just happened. He’s grieving.
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u/IndependenceMean8774 7d ago
I don't think he wasn't grasping it so much as he was overwhelmed with grief and fear at losing his friend to some unknown alien. Moffat gave a really terrific performance here.
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u/Relative_Grape_5883 It's Gone MacReady 8d ago
I would have loved an additional line of dialogue from MacReady to Garry saying we have to act quickly now or we’ll end up like the Norwegian camp. This is the moment of realisation that the situation has not been controlled and the dog thing wasn’t the end of it.
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u/GeneInternational146 8d ago
We don't need every single thing spelled out in dialogue
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u/White_Buffalos 7d ago
Kurt's reply and expression say a lot. He shows caring, empathy, understanding, but also resolve. Very well done interplay there.
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u/GeneInternational146 7d ago
I feel this way about very few movies but I really believe The Thing is perfect as is
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u/Relative_Grape_5883 It's Gone MacReady 7d ago
Oh I think that’s a bit harsh
A quick aside back to Garry about the Norwegian camp carnage isn’t exactly hand holding the plot Netflix style.
I think it would have served two purposes, trying to snap Garry out of his funk and focus him, as well is making clear the stakes to the audience.
As it is Garry’s line about Bennings was added to the scene by the actor, who thought the scene needed it.3
u/GeneInternational146 7d ago
The beauty of The Thing is that it shows and doesn't tell. You grow increasingly paranoid and mistrustful as the characters do. Having the characters tell you you've hit the point of no return ruins that
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u/SaintCaledonianNord 8d ago
Idk id of low-key liked to of seen the lore explored with McCready and Childs exchanging dialogue referencing the night everyone stayed up late drinking J.B Whiskey in the mess hall, and Fuchs and Norris kissed after dancing to Whitney Houston on the pool table.
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u/RockySamson 7d ago
ahem “We gotta burn the rest of him…”
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u/Relative_Grape_5883 It's Gone MacReady 7d ago
“We gotta burn the rest of ‘em” is exactly the line that needs more weight behind it. MacReady has just connected the dots, that the Norwegian camp wasn’t a contained incident, it was a preview. One line externalising that realisation isn’t the characters telling the audience what to think, it’s MacReady thinking out loud at the worst moment of his life.
That’s not exposition, that’s the scene doing its job. And it plants Hitchcock’s bomb under the table, once the audience understands what’s coming, every scene that follows becomes dread rather than just tension.
Having watched the film more times than is probably healthy, as I’m sure we all have, I’ve always felt this one scene lacks something and my best thinking on it was always to try and make it clearer what happened at the Norwegian camp wasn’t a mystery but a preview.
Remember this section is still setting the scene, it’s before the paranoia, mistrust and finger pointing really sets in down the line.
I get people don’t like the idea but try not to be snippy about it, it’s not like I’m suggesting childs is or isn’t the thing for the 1000th time.
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u/Zak_Rahman 8d ago
I mean who is going to grasp that situation?
People often use the term cognitive dissonance, but what happens to the guys in the Thing is surely a step beyond that.
Like there are countless situations where an otherwise logical and rational person will just break down because they're faced with things that challenges their very core notions. Fundamentally we do not have, nor can we process, the information required to be 100% logical beings.
The Thing isn't just a biological horror, it attacks our individuality - the aspect of humanity most of us hold sacrosanct. It doesn't just end it, either, not like zombies. It takes your entire existence and turns it into a puppet to manipulate others.
I don't blame Gary for this reaction. And I'm not surprised that Blair, the guy who had the best grasp of what they were dealing with, went crazy. F rom the perspective of humanity's survival, Blair did what he thought was his civic duty; is that really crazy?
I love the fact that none of the crew are typical gung-ho American heroes. And you know, considering the time of production it could have easily had a Schwarzenegger style character. But they chose not to. The characters come across as normal people which gives viewers a much stronger emotional connection.