The Thing ending explained

What happens

The station is burned and the creature seems destroyed. MacReady and Childs, the last survivors, sit freezing in the snow. Each may be human or may be the Thing, and nothing in the film settles it.

The last image

MacReady and Childs sit side by side in the snow beside the burning ruins, wary and waiting, as the screen fades out on them.

Three readings

1 · Both are humanTwo worn-out survivors share the last of the warmth, and trust is all they have left.

2 · One is infectedThe creature has survived inside one of them, and the other cannot tell.

3 · Nobody can knowThe film refuses to answer, so the doubt itself is the point.

What it says

Every test the men tried has failed, so the ending leaves them with only each other's word. Carpenter ends on that doubt because the film is about lost trust, and any proof would take its force away.