The Thing

The Thing is the name given to the hostile alien creature featured in the 1938 short story "Who Goes There?" that, compared to the deviated story of the 1951 film "The Thing from Another World", was made into a 1982 film John Carpenter with a prequel to it released in 2011. Ultimately, the Thing's true body is a mystery as it most appears as who ever it impersonates.

Though they mainly appears as primary villain, their appearance in 2002 video game The Thing as main villains are actually done in hiding the true main villain.

Description
In nature, the Thing is basically an ambush predator, isolating a potential victim or threat to consume and assume its form. In certain cases, usually when exposed or the person it assimilated is fatally inflicted, the Thing will discard all causion and defend itself by manifesting features that may be of its natural form, including tendrils, claws, and mouths. But the Thing's most dangerous aspect is its cells, each a functional life form that can become independent from the main body when severed by force or separate to assimilate and self-preservation. For this reason, it is necessary to destroy the body down to the cellular level, with incineration an effective method.

Timeline
Its origins a mystery, the Thing crash landed in a spacecraft within the icy fields of Antarctica 100,000 years ago and was frozen. However, in 1982, the spacecraft and the Thing were found by a team of American and Norwegian explorers/researchers under Dr. Sander Halvorson, who hired Columbia University paleontologist Kate Lloyd to take a sample of the creature's blood as it was brought to the base in a block of ice. But later that evening, the Thing bursts from the ice and kills Lar's Alaskan Malamute while ingesting Henrik before it was burned alive. However, an autopsy of the scorched alien corpse reveals that its cells are still alive and in the process of assimilating Henrik.

When Kate realizes the Thing had assimilated others, she places the base on quarantine to weed out the Thing based on those who still have metal fillings in their teeth and such. However, eventually the majority of research team were infected and incinerated before Sander, having been infected, makes a run for the spaceship before Kate manages to kill the monster and heavily damages the ship to be beyond any repair. Thinking the Thing is dead, Kate leaves for the nearest area of civilization to put the event behind her. However, Lar's dog, having been infected and lying low until the time was right, makes its way to an American Antarctic research station with Lars attempting to kill it before he was shot by Lt. Garry, the station commander. Helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady and Dr. Copper fly to the Norwegian's camp, finding the charred remains of the various Things included the burnt yet preserved corpse that was the station's commander Edvard Wolner after it assimilated Sander's assistant Adam Finch.

After the two-faced corpse was brought to the base, the Americans realize the Thing's presence too late when Lar's dog was placed in a kennel with the station's sled dogs and attempted to assimilate them all. After Childs incinerates the creature, with the team finding the ruins of the spacecraft, the autopsy done by Blair confirms the Thing's nature as he later proceeds to trap everyone on the base and kill the remaining dogs so no one can leave until the Thing is truly dead before being locked in a tool shed by the others as they devised a way to weed out the Thing by using its autonomous cells to weed out the assimilated. By the time that the McRandy and the other normal humans remain, they learn that Blair got assimilated and is building a small escape craft. Realizing that the Thing may also intentionally freeze itself to wait for a rescue team in the spring, MacRandy resolves to kill it with dynamite around the complex. After the Thing that Blair became is dead, with Garry and Nauls killed off prior, MacReady finds Childs with both thinking the other got assimilated before seeing no point in distrusting each other as they would die of frost within hours.

Events in Video Game
In 2002 video game "The Thing", which serves as sequel for the 1982 film and set 3 months after events of the said film, it's revealed that The Thing still alive and waiting for more victims to absorb and kill. This time, there are more numerous Things at once, and worse, everything became more complicated as most of them have been captured as means to turned into bioweapons by Gen Inc. Things goes wrong however, following their escape, Whitley, the true main antagonist, has inject himself with Cloud virus, the virus based on Thing's cells and planned to infect the whole world with Thing Beasts. Fortunately, Blake, protagonist of the game, foiled his plan and destroyed him with help of MacReady, sole survivor of the 1982 film, before he had a chance to infect the rescue team.

In the video game, The Thing was regarded more like viral organism that has the ability to replicate the original biological entity, including their clothing. This likely due to in the said game, The Thing has developed a new replication method where the said method was more superior and deadlier than that in movie: It able to break it's own body cells so the said cells could move independently and lived in unicellular level, something that unfortunately, made some of it's separated cells ended up used for development for Cloud Virus in game.

Video Game Variants
Giving that all appeared Things are now in more numerous type and numbers than that in movies, they were categorized in these types:

Scuttlers
A form of Thing that has assimilated and formed from mutilated body parts (often from those whom already assimilated by Thing's cells). These autonomous small Things' primary transformation involves manifesting teeth, arachnid-like limbs, and also a pair of strong hind legs that enable them to leap toward the non-assimilated lifeforms. Aside leaping, they could either attacking by biting or spitting digestive fluid as projectile. They could be crippled easily by crippled it first with few shots from guns before finished by a single blast from flamethrower. They were based on mutated form of Norris' head after mutated by Thing's cells.

Scuttler Pods
A form of Thing that in form of fleshy, blob-like biomass that immobile but dangerous due to manifesting Scuttlers as means of defense. Their prime weakness is incapable of moving nor having alternate means of defense and can be destroyed by a blast of flamethrower and variety of firearms.

Walkers
Form of Thing that manifest as humanoid monster with deformed torso, deformed claw hands, and insectoid legs that formerly humanoid ones. Their early form were brutish, muscular monster with a huge, transparent hole in their torso.

Imitations
Imitations are form of Thing that also previously appeared in the films. They perfectly assumed their victim's appearance and able to transformed to their mutated form when their potential victims lower their guard. For the game incarnations, they tend to retain some elements of their hosts' appearance like clothes that still intact though their limbs mutated, similar with the mutated Palmer in 1982 film.

Dog Beasts
Thing beast that similar with mutated form of Lar's dog as both formerly has assimilated dogs. But unlike the latter, Dog Beasts still retain their limbs (though the said bodyparts also mutated to the point where they could support their weight as well as enable them to run at the tremendous speed).

Ruptures
They are form of huge Things that take up an entire room or even be part of the room integrated into the architecture. Typically, they have human forms imbedded in them and attack with tentacles, teeth and fluids. They are not mobile and are confined to the location in which they are met, which made them vulnerable due to unable to avoid their enemies' attacks.

Trivia

 * He is a basis for The Abnormal from the Doug episode, Nightmare on Jumbo Street.