John Carpenter's The Thing vs. Alien or Predator

Started by Predator Collector, Aug 01, 2009, 07:36:00 AM

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John Carpenter's The Thing vs. Alien or Predator (Read 38,517 times)

Kel G 426

THANK you, Xhan.  I like their enthusiasm, but I wish Thing proponents would realize that they can't take certain things for granted.  We don't know that the Thing can assimilate any organism.  We've only seen it imitate dogs and humans.  In all the universe, there must be some creatures that are immune to infection and the Alien is a good candidate.

On the other side of the coin, how do we know that Alien acid has any effect on the Thing?  The creature may be able to replicate an acid-proof skin without ever assimilating an Alien.

Let's look past the assimilation issue and focus on the more entertaining questions like how the fight would go down and what scenarios would bring them together!

Xenomrph

Quote from: kelgaard on Aug 13, 2009, 08:32:07 AM
THANK you, Xhan.  I like their enthusiasm, but I wish Thing proponents would realize that they can't take certain things for granted.  We don't know that the Thing can assimilate any organism.
We don't know it for sure, but that is the implication based on the movie. The very premise is that the Thing can imitate anything. If we're going to disregard the creature's premise, why even have the discussion?

Quote from: kelgaard on Aug 13, 2009, 08:32:07 AMIn all the universe, there must be some creatures that are immune to infection and the Alien is a good candidate.
Why? Why must there be uninfectable creatures, and why is the Alien a good candidate?

Kel G 426

I'm not disregarding the premise, I'm just pointing out that every rule has an exception.

Why have the discussion?  Well, if we all agreed on the assimilation factor, there would be nothing left to say.

Why? Why ask why? It just seems likely that some, maybe even several, species can resist assimilation.  We're talking millions of organisms here.  I could just as easily ask why the Thing must be an unstopable juggernaut, but I already know what the answer would be: merely touch, one cell, no contest, blah blah.  I've already mentioned why the Alien would be a good candidate.

I noticed that the one detail of my post you didn't question was the one that favored the Thing.  I've just realized one serious advantage the Thing has that will make you happy:  The Thing must be able to use weapons, right?  If it was smart enough to build a spaceship in secret, it could surely pick up a gun and pull the trigger.  In that case, maybe it really would be no contest, but I still maintain that the Alien would have roughly equal chances in a purely physical confrontation.

Xenomrph

I'm not so sure on that one - in a purely physical confrontation, I suspect it would be a lot like the T-800 vs T-1000 fight in Terminator 2, with one of the combatants easily outmaneuvering the other through its ability to shape-shift. The T-800 won because it was able to out-think the T-1000 and use explosives against it; I doubt the Alien would have that kind of forethought.

Cutting and stabbing a Thing doesn't work because each piece is a whole, and it can just shape-shift to account for the physical damage anyway.

I'm sure an Alien would go berserk and rip the Thing up... I just don't think it would matter much. I'd think that, in a strictly physical match-up, without the Thing assimilating the Alien or whatever, at best they would destroy each other, and at worst the Thing would out-maneuver the Alien and create some way to puncture/constrict/crush the Alien to death.

Kel G 426

I'm cool with that.  If the Alien is the underdog, I can cheer for it even more. I always imagine these things in the context of taking place in a movie.  I like to think that the climax of such a movie would involve the Queen battling a giant Thing monstrosity, with more and more Warriors joining in as the fight became more desperate.  Lot's of ripping and tearing and terrible screaming coming from both sides.  Just picture that hellishly cool imagery!

Meathead320

Meathead320

#125
Quote from: Xenomrph on Aug 13, 2009, 10:03:22 AM
I'm not so sure on that one - in a purely physical confrontation, I suspect it would be a lot like the T-800 vs T-1000 fight in Terminator 2, with one of the combatants easily outmaneuvering the other through its ability to shape-shift. The T-800 won because it was able to out-think the T-1000 and use explosives against it; I doubt the Alien would have that kind of forethought.

Cutting and stabbing a Thing doesn't work because each piece is a whole, and it can just shape-shift to account for the physical damage anyway.

I'm sure an Alien would go berserk and rip the Thing up... I just don't think it would matter much. I'd think that, in a strictly physical match-up, without the Thing assimilating the Alien or whatever, at best they would destroy each other, and at worst the Thing would out-maneuver the Alien and create some way to puncture/constrict/crush the Alien to death.


If there Alien's acid blood also still works on TFAW, then it has even more of a fighting chance, but is still the underdog.

I've got 3 plausible scenarios, all depending on what is or is not in play. We can argue all day long as to what is or isn't in play, but depending on what is, we have at least these options, take your own personal pick.

Scenario1:

If the Alien is not immune to infection, enough is said it becomes a TFAW as soon as it touches one:

Winner: TFAW by touching and thereby infecting the Alien.



Scenario 2: The Alien is immune to TFAW but its acid is useless (unlikely as the acid even burns through glass and industrial metals), but in this case the Alien's acid is compromised yet its immune system still fights off the TFAW virus nicely.

Winner:  TFAW here, as it just has to become something in its history that can physically take on an Alien, or the little pieces of it that the Alien rips off eventually overcome the Alien. The T-1000 effect if you will.


Scenario 3: Alien is immune to infection and its acid blood is still in play. In the event where the Alien is immune to infection,then its Acid blood would also still be in play is what I consider more likely. In this Scenario the two are more evenly matched, or at least the Alien has an ok fighting chance.

Winner: 70% TFAW 30% Alien. In this event I still give it to TFAW most of the time, as the TFAW could end up in a lot of pieces. So many that if most of them are destroyed by the Alien acid, when they gang up on the Alien, there would still be at least one little piece left over. Even if it had to lose 99% of its matter to the Alien Acid to kill the Alien, it still has a surviving piece, and that makes it the winner.

If there was more than one Alien, several of them, then with their numbers they would have enough acid blood to more than dissolve the problem, and likely would still be at least one Alien alive remaining.

Neomorph-01

I've been working on a Predator vs The Thing fanfic for a while so I have been thinking on this question - glad I found this thread.

I believe that the Xenomorph acid blood would make it virtually impossible for the Thing to assimilate (unless it had already assimilated another organism that has a natural defence against the acid blood) but the Thing would have more advantage in adaptability to shapeshift to kill. Might take a tough fight, but the Thing will kill the Xenomorph.

The Yautjas would be similar to humans, apart from the technology. Yautja weapons and bio mask would give them a better advantage against the Thing compared to humans against the Thing.
Scenario in my fanfic without revealing too much (which is not stated in the story but implied) was that some Yautja on a hunt got taken by surprise by a prey that turned out to be a Thing - a Yautja got assimilated. In my fanfic three Elite Yautja are hunting the Thing after that initial encounter, but they are more like Wolf Predator, there to eradicate all traces of the Thing. They wont use blades (risk of cutting bits off that become separate Things), but rather use plasmacasters, flamer-type weapons and the blue liquid (AvP: Requiem) to dissolve the Thing completely.
Still working on story but - isolated icy moon, science research base with small number of humans, and one Yautja ship shot down by another.

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