John Carpenter's The Thing vs. Alien or Predator

[Predator Collector]

One of my favorite movies is the 1982 movie John Carpenter's The Thing. This terrifying alien species was also featured in some Dark Horse Comics, and eventually a video game.

I started this thread to discuss for fun, and I want you to please post your opinion regarding what you think would happen if either an Alien or a Predator came in contact with John Carpenter's The Thing.

If the Alien (Xenomorph) or Predator was to come in contact with The Thing, would either species be able to defend themselves against becoming infected by The Thing? Keep in mind that one cell is enough for The Thing to start assimilating and take over an entire organism creating a perfect imitation! So The Thing is capable of mimicking ANY species at a micro cellular level.

In my opinion, the Predator's technology (vision modes) would be incapable of telling the difference between what is an actual Alien or Predator and what is The Thing...what do you think?

[Xenomrph]

The Thing wins, hands down. It'd infect either one, and then that's it, game over.

[Sabres21768]

Nope...I don't see The Thing getting past the Alien's acidic blood.

It may try to duplicate it, but would ultimately fail as soon as it breached the Alien's exoskeleton.

[Xenomrph]

Nope...I don't see The Thing getting past the Alien's acidic blood.

It may try to duplicate it, but would ultimately fail as soon as it breached the Alien's exoskeleton.

The Thing would instantly assimilate and adapt to that, however. That's what the Thing does. :p Just because Alien acid is potent acid doesn't make it some sort of unstoppable mystery substance that annihilates anything it comes into contact with. It's just acid. If the Thing can adapt to and replicate human stomach acid, I don't see why it couldn't handle Alien acid blood.

Not to mention the biggest flaw in your claim: by replicating the Alien's exoskeleton, the Thing would be acid-proof anyway.

[Sabres21768]

Just because The Thing can replicate stomache acid doesn't mean it can replicate MOLECULAR acid.

[ShadowPred]

It can replicate anything...every damn cell in it's body is ALIVE for christ's sake. So I say THE THING would win any day of the damn week, this is really no contest.

[Xenomrph]

Just because The Thing can replicate stomache acid doesn't mean it can replicate MOLECULAR acid.

You realize that ALL acids are molecular acids, right? That link even specifically references 'Alien' and points out how meaningless the term "molecular acid" is.

[Xhan]

Alien "blood" eats through things acid can't.

[Predator Collector]

I agree with you Xenomrph and ShadowPred. The Thing can replicate anything, and I strongly agree with the article "What is a example of molecular acid?" on the fact that ALL the substances we call "acids" are molecules. Thanks for the link, Xenomrph.

[TheMonolith]

Biologically, it is a superior organism.
That being said, I think that Predators and Aliens could put up a good fight against it.

[Xenomrph]

Alien "blood" eats through things acid can't.

What do you mean by that? I'm no expert on acids - the only chemistry classes I took were in high school.

That said, I'm still confident that the Thing could replicate Alien "blood" without an issue.

I'd think the Predator *might* be able to put up more of a fight, but the Alien is f**ked. It closes to melee range, merely touches a Thing, and the Thing instantly wins. Physical attacks don't do anything to the Thing because every piece of it is its own organism. You have to destroy every cell and Aliens just don't have that ability. Predators might be able to pull it off if they resorted to their plasma weaponry.

[ShadowPred]

EXACTLY. Even if the damn predator or alien can touch THE THING...then the fight is already over, merely touching it will get you "killed"...The Thing will win and just spread afterwards.

[Xenomrph]

On the topic of Alien "blood", Wikipedia had an interesting comment:

In the Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem documentary: "Science of the Alien", it is theorized that the aliens' acid blood could be some type of "hydrosulphuric acid" composition due to its corrosiveness and the conspicuously toxic effects on living human tissue. The documentary also speculates that Aliens are immune to their own acidic and toxic liquids due to a endobiological build-up similar to the human stomach's ability to protect itself from its digestive fluids. The documentary takes this theory one step further and speculates that the Alien organisms protection system against its own toxic hydro sulphuric acid is protecting the rest of the organism with what is basically a bio-organic produced teflon isolation.

[SiL]

I'm with Xenomrph. Alien and Predator are screwed. Yes, Alien acid eats through plenty. But there's also clearly stuff it doesn't burn through.

[Johnny Handsome]

Well, the Alien has to make contact with it in order to kill a thing, the Predator doesn't, he can just blow it away, so I'm not sure about Predator getting owned by default.