R.J. MacReady

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R.J. MacReady or "Mac" is the main protagonist in John Carpenter's 1982 horror film The Thing. He is played by Kurt Russell.

R.J. MacReady is an anti-social helicopter pilot and a Vietnam veteran stationed at U.S. Antarctic research outpost. He lives on his own in a shack outside of the main base proper; stationed inside include three medical officers (Blair, Fuchs, and Copper), a radio operator (Windows), a dog handler (Clark), two mechanics (Childs and Palmer), a cook (Nauls), a geologist (Norris), a metereologist (Bennings), and a base commander (Garry). However it is evident that Garry is not very charismatic; he quickly hands over his post after the beginning of the threat.

When the events in The Thing take place, Mac is the first to take charge. He keeps the group relatively calm and is elected the leader after Garry admits he is not up to the task. He tries to keep his team together, but the virus begins to spread and after one person is infected, it is hard to stop it from getting somebody else. Eventually, the team suspect MacReady of being "The Thing", and they try to toss him out into the cold Antarctic night. Mac refuses and demands he is to be trusted, holding a stick of dynamite to threaten them. A rivalry with team member Childs develops through this and it is apparent that they dislike each other (but share a mutual respect).

After watching the behaviour of one of his infected team mates, he comes up with the idea that each part of The Thing is an individal animal with in-built desire to survive. He uses this theory to create a test, by holding a hot wire to a small set of dishes individually filled with his, and the remaining survivors blood. If the blood reacts and tries to crawl away from the needle then that survivor is a Thing and is instantly killed. When it turns out he is not infected, the group falls back behind him and follows his orders once more. With only a few team members left, Mac launches a full-scale attack on "The Thing." He orders that they destroy the base with explosives, and head into the basement to take care of the monster once and for all. Doing so, his remaining team members are killed, but Mac destroys the creature in its physical form.

Escaping from the exploding base, Mac takes a seat outside in an old shack and is joined by Childs, who has apparently survived. Both question the other as to whether or not they are infected, but eventually admit that they are too tired to resist the other if they were infected. Together they share a bottle of whiskey. Mac is suggested to have continued his battle against "The Thing" after the credits roll. The official video game (which serves as a sequel) sees him rescuing Blake at the end, proving that he did indeed survive. Others write off the game as an unofficial sequel and believe Childs was infected, thus infecting Mac with the virus through their sharing of the whiskey bottle.