Adam Finch is a major character in The Thing 2011.
Biography[]
After Norwegian researchers discover an extraterrestrial and its spacecraft buried in the Antarctic, Adam along with his boss, Dr. Sander Halvorson, seek out American paleontologist Kate Lloyd to extract the creature from the ice. Kate, at first hesitant about going to Antarctica with such little information, was soon convinced by Adam to lend her excavating skills, due to their long-standing friendship.
Upon arriving at Thule Station they are brought to the crash site, where they are amazed and shocked by the gravity of the discovery. They extract the creature in a single block of ice and return to the outpost to celebrate their accomplishment. However, due to Dr. Halvorson's carelessness the (very much alive) creature escapes its icy prison, and goes on a rampage; managing to kill the station's Alaskan malamute and a member of the research team before being incinerated. Its burnt corpse - along with Henrik's partially-digested remains - are subsequently autopsied by Halvorson, Adam and Kate. To Kate's horror and Halvorson's fascination, they find that Henrik was in the process of being absorbed (and replicated) by the organism; with a metal plate used to set one of the man's bones now outside his body.
Following the autopsy, Kate takes a sample of Henrik's tissue for further analysis and watching through a microscope, she discovers the Thing's cells predating on Henrik's remaining tissue, consuming it and then imitating it. Based on this discovery and the autopsy, Kate hypothesizes that the thing might be a shape-shifter, able to imitate its prey after consuming it. Kate shares her discovery and observations with Adam who, still shaken by the events of the previous night, was unable to confirm or deny her conclusions.
Shortly thereafter, an imitation of Griggs reveals itself on-board a departing helicopter, causing it to crash during the ensuing chaos. Unable to contact the outside world due to an oncoming storm, station commander Edvard Wolner prepares to travel to a nearby research station for help. Kate, fearful that one or more of the group may be impostors, attempts to prevent the men from leaving and shares her hypothesis. Increasingly impatient with the paleontologist's apparent hysteria, Edvard and Halvorson accuse Kate of paranoia and Adam, when questioned about her observations of the Thing's cellular activity, is uncertain. As a result, few of the scientists are willing to listen to her and they continue with their plan.
After the Juliette-Thing rampages through the station, the group (including Adam) now become convinced of her sanity and they set about quarantining the facility and burning the Thing's remains. Halvorson offers to develop a blood serum test to determine if a person is an imitation by mixing a suspect's blood with a pure blood sample and observing the reaction. However, the lab bursts into flames shortly after Halvorson and Adam begin working on their project, leaving no chance for the test's implementation. Tempers flare immediately, with both Adam and Halvorson being accused of sabotaging the lab. Attempting to restore order, Kate improvises a simpler, if less certain test - examining the team for metal tooth-fillings which the organism cannot imitate. She eventually narrows down the number of suspected Things to Colin, Halvorson, Edvard, and Adam (who only flosses his teeth). - the latter of whom complains that the test is unfair to those of the team (such as himself) who have good oral hygiene.
Death[]
The Edvard Thing assimilates Adam to become Split Face
As paranoia breaks out, there is an altercation which results in a flamethrower fuel tank explosion, throwing Edvard against the wall. As they carry the injured man back to the rec room, the Edvard-Thing transforms, killing Jonas and Derek before incapacitating Adam with a stabbing blow from its whip-like tentacle. As the wounded American lies on the floor and screams for help, the Edvard-Thing pins him down and slowly merges its face with his to become the split-faced Thing. Kate attempts to incinerate the creature, but is unable to and watches as it drags away the now limp Adam to be fully assimilated elsewhere.
Split-Face[]
Once assimilation is complete, Split Face returns and starts to stalk the camp for other members of the team. It finds a terrified Dr. Sander Halvorson hiding under a desk and easily assimilates him into a separate Thing. It then looks for the remaining members, and comes across Sam Carter, who is cornered in a storage area by the creature. Sam arms himself with a kitchen knife and prepares for his fate. As Split Face comes around a corner to confront Sam, it starts to express rage upon its two fused faces, and then charges at him in an attempt to assimilate him as well. However at the last moment, a flamethrower being wielded by Kate Lloyd erupts through the room which sets the creature on fire. It charges through the wall of the camp and tries to douse the flames in the cold, damp snow but it is finally killed by a few more blasts of fire from Kate. The creature lets out one last howl as it perishes slowly in the snow.
It should be noted that Kate wanted to roast it further, but Carter told her to stop and she did. As the 1982 movie reveals, this was a mistake; there was still a significant amount of active cells, able to form tentacles and attack Bennings.
When the corpse of Split Face was seen in the 1982 movie, empty cans of kerosene were lying next to it, suggesting it had suffered similar fate to Bennings-Thing. However, according to the 2011 prequel, the kerosene had actually been used to burn the remains of Juliette-Thing and Karl earlier, and it would seem that Split Face simply ended up near the empty cans already lying there.
Near the end, Matias is seen back to the station from refueling his helicopter. Horrified by what he saw upon the remains of the Split Face, he yells out if anyone can hear him, but is confronted by Lars and is proven to be human by him, The two later chased after the assimilated dog in a chopper, which marks the beginning and the doom of Outpost 31.
The Split Face-Thing's partially burned remains were later discovered by R.J. MacReady and Dr. Copper during their investigation at the Norwegian Outpost only to find it destroyed, they also found a large chunk of ice and the records regarding the Norwegian crew's discovery of a UFO. MacReady and Copper brought the remains back to the U.S. Outpost 31 for further examination, the entire crew were in shock to see such a deformed creature, Garry ordered Dr. Blair to run an autopsy on the remains.
During the autopsy with Copper and Fuchs, Blair discovered that the creature possesses what seems to be a normal set of human organs such as Heart, Lungs, Kidneys, Liver, Intestine etc. which originally belonged to its hosts Adam Finch and Edvard Wolner. After the autopsy, the dog imitation that the crew adopted earlier revealed its true form and it began to assimilate the crew's sled dogs. The crew was able to kill it by incinerating it. Blair later conducted an autopsy on the creature and also discovered normal sets of canine internal organs just as similar to the Split Face-Thing, he concludes that they are dealing with an organism capable of perfectly assimilating other life forms.
Split-Face Death[]
Split Face's remains along with the Kennel-Thing remains were stored in the storage room by Bennings and Windows; however, parts of the Split Face-Thing were still alive and formed several tentacles, managing to assimilate Bennings. Windows saw what the remains did and ran off to find help. Windows was able to find MacReady and told him what happened, and they went to the storage room but found no signs of Bennings. However, they were able to spot him trying to escape outside; the entire crew surrounded the Bennings replica, and MacReady incinerated it.
Not taking any chances, it was decided that creature's remains had to be destroyed, so they piled up the remains of Split Face, the Kennel-Thing and the Bennings imitation, and completely incinerated them.