So the dog. Opening scene. If it’s just looking to infect everyone it possibly can, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for it to turn around and stare at the pursuing helicopter.
Are there prevailing fan theories about the reason that the dog, presumably the surviving thing, stopped and looked back at the pursuing helicopter?
A dog would not look back. It would keep running in panic. An intelligent being would stop, assess and devise a plan to stay alive.
It measures up the threat.
In that scene it becomes instantly clear that something is up. This is not a normal dog.
So for me, that scene just adds to the brilliance of that very good movie. For me its completely logical.
You’re right, conscious assessment is a great reason that the dog was seen looking back there
The Thing is my favorite horror movie. With that being said, they probably didn’t have a grand plan for the dog turning to look back. They probably didn’t even direct the dog to do that, because it’s a dog, it was probably looking back at it’s trainer in that scene.
The motive for the The Thing is always survive, and in that situation it was being hunted, and getting away from that threat was first and foremost it’s goal. After it was safe, it wanted to leave the arctic, to most likely infect and convert more life forms. It’s unknown if The Thing is a space faring race on it’s own, or just a parasitic hitch hiker who consumes life forms and adds their understanding it it’s own. If it’s just a consumer of life, then it’s goal would be to get out of arctic to population centers and get to work taking over and mimicking more organisms. If it’s intelligent and isn’t just a consume, it’d want to get off of earth to continue doing what ever Thing things it would normally do. I definitely lean toward it being a consumer, having tried to take over the original owners of the ship it crashed onto earth in.