| “ | Whether we make it or not, we can't let that Thing freeze again. Maybe we'll just warm things up a little around here. We're not gettin' outta here alive. But neither is that Thing. | „ |
| ~ MacReady to his remaining companions, determined to take down The Thing no matter the cost. |
R.J. MacReady is the main protagonist of the 1982 film, The Thing, who quickly becomes the crew's leader after a shapeshifting alien superorganism starts killing his crew.
He was portrayed by Kurt Russell.
His Good Ranking[]
What Makes Him Admirable?[]
- After two Norwegians suddenly attacked their research base. MacReady assists Dr. Copper in going to the Norwegian base, in order to find out what could have happened to them. There, MacReady discovers a large block of ice that is completely hollowed out, together with deformed bodies and research tapes. MacReady and Copper then take as much evidence with them for an analysis.
- After hearing all the turmoil coming from the dog kennel, MacReady pulls the fire alarm in time for everyone to be both alerted and aware of what’s going on.
- He furthermore ordered Bennings to let Childs bring with him a flamethrower, which inadvertently would be the reason why the Kennel Thing was defeated in time.
- MacReady and his group review the research tapes and find out that the Norwegians dug something out of the ice with explosives. This makes MacReady fly himself, Norris, and Nauls to the location. The trio find out that at the sight is a giant crater with a spaceship in it, together with a hole in the ice which has the same shape that MacReady found earlier.
- When Bennings got assimilated by the Thing and the creature created a nearly completed copy of him. MacReady burns the Bennings-Thing alive before it can cause any harm to the remaining humans.
- Blair goes crazy from the paranoia and begins destroying the base’s radio equipment. MacReady and the others take him down and decide to lock him in a tool shed.
- After the Thing destroyed the group’s blood bags, which made them unable to perform a blood test to prove whose human or not. Paranoia and mistrust break out in the group, with Windows attempting to shoot Gary, but MacReady steps in and is able to make Windows lower his weapon before he could do anything drastic.
- Shortly afterwards, MacReady uses this moment of unrest to appoint himself as the new leader. He burns the ruined blood bags and reinstates to the group what The Thing’s goals are and how it’s trying to reach it. Therefore, MacReady swears that they will find out whoever the alien is.
- The first two orders he gives is to isolate the three main suspects for the time being, which are, Copper, Gary, and Clark. He also asks Fuchs to restart with another blood test.
- MacReady makes multiple voice recordings of himself explaining the current situation, hoping that if all of them were to be killed or assimilated. Maybe someone could reach the tapes and be informed of the Thing and its capabilities.
- Once Fuchs goes missing, MacReady makes Nauls and Windows go along with him to search for their lost companion.
- After MacReady returned, he is attacked by Norris and the rest who now all suspect him of being The Thing. MacReady fights him and the others off, only for Norris to then suffer from a heart attack. Despite having attacked him, MacReady orders his group to untie Copper so he can take care of Norris.
- During Norris’ defibrillation, The Thing suddenly reveals itself and bites off Copper’s arms. But MacReady burns the creature alive with a flamethrower before it can do anymore damage.
- With both doctors now dead, MacReady comes up with his own blood test that revolves around him sticking a hot needle in a petri dish of each remaining members’ blood. Knowing that The Thing’s cells are its own organism trying to survive. His plan is successful, as he finds out that Palmer is a Thing who MacReady both burns and blows up. While the Palmer-Thing was able to kill Windows, MacReady made sure to burn Windows’ corpse so his remains couldn’t fully be assimilated and later on transform.
- When MacReady and the remaining survivors try to use the test on Blair, they find out that Blair is a Thing and has been building a small spaceship in his shack, and later on destroyed their generator to remove the base’s heating system. Knowing that they will all eventually freeze to death, MacReady decides to completely blow up the research base in a sea of fire and explosions, hoping that the Thing will be caught up in it.
- MacReady blows up the remainders of the base and eventually the Blair-Thing during the final confrontation.
- With most of his crewmembers dead and the base destroyed, MacReady accepts his fate, knowing that he will freeze to death. Only does Childs suddenly show up before him, while MacReady doesn’t known for sure if he is The Thing or not. MacReady decides to let the paranoia rest and wait together with Childs to see what happens next. Sharing a bottle of liquor with him before he inevitably dies from the cold.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- Because one of the main themes in the film is paranoia. It can be reflected back MacReady’s behavior to even his own allies. He generally doesn’t take empathic approaches to most of his decisions, and he’s got many wrathful, jerkish, and cynical moments that at some points overcomplicates the already existing tensions between the characters.
- Overall, his hardheaded behavior can even be considered too questionable for NPG.
- Since MacReady is very pragmatic in his decision making. He’s shown himself to be very Lethal, to the point where he was fully willing to take down anyone who didn’t wish to follow his commands. An example of this is when he killed Clark point blank after he tried rushing towards him.
- Despite this, MacReady’s execution of Clark was completely done out of self-defense, considering that Clark was trying stab MacReady first. Therefore, MacReady’s murder of Clark is mostly a minor prevention, but his overall lethal aura over the other characters isn’t.
External Links[]
- R.J. MacReady on the Heroes Wiki
