When Wilford Brimley's Blair Was (Likely) Infected
James Stevens Wilford Brimley's Blair plays a major role in John Carpenter's The Thing, and here's when the crazed scientist was likely infected by the alien.
Wilford Brimley's Blair played a major role in The Thing, and here's the point in the story when he was likely infected by the titular creature. Director John Carpenter had an incredible run during the '70s and '80s, starting with his 1976's siege thriller Assault On Precinct 13. Of course, it was Halloween that made his name and spawned a whole subgenre of its own, and after following up with more modestly budgeted projects, he made the leap to studio filmmaking with 1982's The Thing. This was a remake of The Thing From Another World, and the story saw twelve men trapped in the Arctic with a shapeshifting alien.
John Carpenter's The Thing is considered a sci-fi classic now, from the direction to the superb practical effects. Sadly, it was critically savaged for its bleak tone and gory effects and was a box-office disappointment. Critical opinion has completely turned around on the movie since 1982, and in the years that followed it received a prequel movie, a video game and other assorted spinoffs like a comic series.
Another key element to The Thing is its great ensemble cast. It was the third collaboration between Carpenter and Kurt Russell, while it also marked the screen debut of prolific character actor Keith David. Another key performer is Wilford Brimley as Blair, the scientist who figures out the creature's lifecycle, but later has a breakdown and destroys the base's communications equipment so the alien can't escape. The Thing's ending reveals that Blair himself is an imitation and has been secretly building a saucer to escape the base, but while many assume he was infected after his incarceration, according to producer Stuart Cohen, this may not be the case.
On his blog The Original Fan, Cohen details the casting process of Blair, and that Halloween star Donald Pleasance was strongly considered. Ultimately, Wilford Brimley was cast as Blair in The Thing because of his more grounded, everyman quality, and the sense that viewers would forget about Blair during his time off-camera. Cohen also revealed it was very much the filmmaker's intent that Wilford Brimley's Blair was infected early in the story, and his "breakdown" was a ruse to keep himself/itself isolated so he could work on an escape plan in private.
This likely means Blair was infected the first night the dog-thing imitation was at the base. If so, this makes The Thing itself extremely clever, as Blair later stokes the paranoia of the men by revealing the creature's capabilities, and then isolates them in the base. While they're distracted hunting for other imitations, the Blair-Thing is essentially left alone. While this may have been the filmmakers' intention, the beauty of the way The Thing is constructed is that the opposite could easily be true. Maybe Blair was entirely human before he was locked away, only to be infected later on. Given how tactical the alien is during the story, Wilford Brimley's Blair being copied early on feels like the more likely answer, however.
