Loved this film since I saw it at the drive in back in the day. The one thing that keeps bothering me is the end when Mac throws the dynamite at the thing. If every organism is the thing then it seems pieces of the thing would have blown all over the place in the explosion and still be alive.
shareYeah, about that - you're right.
So when this whole global warming thing takes a more serious turn, there'd be no stopping the thing once it get's access to ocean life.
IMDB - Because some Trolls need more than just a bridge
Haha, but once they lost communication and sent a rescue party at some point after the weather broke there could be a part left as big as Norris's head. It could sprout legs and attack one of the rescue party. Or for that matter it could go to the warmth and find Macready or Childs.
shareEven without global warming, the alien remains or exploded pieces infecting a bird of flight, would certainly expand it's coverage. Once the alien can take to the air via a bird.....it's chances to spread increases significantly.
But the million dollar question is, can the alien micro-life survive a direct, close range explosive blast? Yes it seems logical bits and debris of the Blair-Thing would be ejected outward, but that doesn't necessarily mean it survived the blast. So if one were to find say a teaspoon of the Blair-Thing remains, would it be living or dead alien tissue? We will never know.
-------------------------
One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces.
No, MacReady had it right, explosive damage is actually the best way to outright kill the Thing.
This is because explosions cause both heat and kinetic energy, so it not only burns the Thing, but causes major trauma to every single cell (ie. massive internal injuries). Things like fire and acid are good weapons to use against a single celled organism like the Thing but there might be a gooey living core protected within the creature while only the outside of it is destroyed. Not so with a big enough explosion, every internal cell will be killed in addition to it's exterior ones.
Explosive damage is the right way to try and kill every last cell of the alien creature, or as good as it's going to get.
[deleted]