R.C. Whitley was a U.S. Military Colonel and Blake's superior. The character appears in the 2002 video-game The Thing, where he served as the primary antagonist, and was portrayed by actor William B. Davis.
History[]
Whitley collaborated with the bio-engineering company Gen Inc to research on an extraterrestrial being known as "The Thing" that was discovered in Antarctica. He secretly established a hidden research facility in order to improve on the development of the Cloud Virus.
He assigned Blake and his team to investigate the U.S. Outpost 31 and ordered it to be destroyed, Whitley ordered Blake and Bravo Team to return to base, however Blake insisted on assisting Alpha Team after losing contact with them at the Norwegian Outpost, which got him unintentionally involved in Whitley's plot.
After Blake rescued Faraday, Whitley confronted Blake and revealed that he was behind everything. Blake tried to fight back, but Whitley sedated him. Later, Whitley offered himself to serve as a test subject for the B4 strain of the Cloud Virus, however, when Faraday insisted that Whitley was not suitable as a test subject, Whitley personally killed him and took off. Whitley planned to get the Things out of Antarctica via cargo planes, but his plan was foiled by Blake. Whitley then set his Military Outpost to self destruct, but Blake manage to survive and chased him through the snow field and fighting off Whitley's Black Ops unit.
Whitley injects himself with the B4 strain of the Cloud Virus and briefly confronts Blake at the Test Field, Blake shot a couple of nearby barrels but Whitley is hardly affected by the explosion, he later tells Blake that an evacuation team is on its way to rescue him and he intends to infect the whole world with the Thing. He later mutates into a massive creature, but is defeated by Blake with the assistance of R.J. MacReady.
Whitley Bugs[]
Points/subsections prefixed with (Xbox) were observed in an emulated Xbox version of the game and may or may not be reproducible in other versions.
Dome Level[]
Recruiting Whitley[]
Method 1a - Level Start, Pacifist[]
(Xbox) At the start of the Dome mission, if you run and angle the camera in just the right way and open the squad menu at just the right time, you can actually catch Whitley in view before he starts running away, and at a close enough range to issue him a Follow command before the cutscene triggers. When successful, he will turn towards Blake at the beginning of the cutscene but will not go anywhere.
Method 1b - Level Start, Grenade[]
A much easier version of method 1a above: at the start of the mission, before leaving the elevator and triggering the cutscene, use the Grenade Launcher to stop/slow Whitley down by shooting the wall outside the elevator bank and hitting him with the splash damage before he starts running. Stun Grenades work best; when hit with a Stun Grenade, Whitley will not only stop moving for the stun duration, he will also be forced to walk along his usual path instead of running, allowing you to easily catch up to him long before he even reaches the turn in the valley. When using other grenades, care must be taken not to shoot the grenade too close to Whitley, otherwise he may end up getting gibbed or burning to death before the cutscene ends and you can get close enough to heal him. It's possible for him to tank non-stun grenades and still end up running before you can catch up to him if you don't get the impact location correct, and he can end up tanking any grenade type if you trigger the cutscene too early.
Method 2 - Reverse-Dome[]
After playing through the initial valley area normally, you can skip the Dome completely by following the cliffside to the right, then up and around the stacked freight containers. But if you enter the Dome from the door you normally *exit* the Dome from and backtrack to the short corridor with 3 trip mines and an explosive barrel in an alcove, you'll find Whitley there, just waiting for you to trigger the Dome cutscene (see comments below for video links).
Notes[]
- Whitley is classed as a Soldier, and he starts with full trust in the player (his trust will decrease from 100% trust to 0% if the player attacks him even once, including if you use recruitment method 1b above). His name is misspelled as "Whitely" in the squad menu. Whitley doesn't talk, and can be killed like any other squad mate. If given a weapon, he does fight against the Black Ops soldiers. Whitley passes the Blood Test, even though he's the B4 Cloud Virus carrier.
- Once Whitley reaches about the halfway point of the corridor he normally turns into after the beginning cutscene, he teleports to the Dome, and three Black Ops soldier spawn in that vicinity, most likely behind you. Upon opening the door at the regular entrance to the Dome, if Whitley was following the player when he teleported, then he will run from his teleport spot in the Dome to the player.
- (Xbox) Whitley can't be pushed past the top of the hill next to the freight containers which the player traverses when using the reverse-dome path, even with grenades.
- (Xbox) If the Dome cutscene is triggered after recruiting Whitley, the cutscene will play normally, and afterward, Whitley will disappear, taking any gun and ammunition he has with him.
- (Xbox) It's possible to use the reverse dome method, position Whitley near the crawlspace section, then force him to crouch using a Black Ops enemy spawned on the far side of the crawlspace section. This will allow you to push Whitley into the crawlspace, and from there you can push Whitley all the way through even if he stands back up. This allows you to take Whitley with you all the way to the end of the level (due to lack of pathing zones, you will have to push him at least to the scaffolding area, then from the far edge of the scaffolding area, to the next-level trigger point) though as usual, he will not accompany you into the next level regardless.[1]
Ghost Whitley[]
If Whitley is killed using any method (including grenading him before the first cutscene, sniping him right after the first cutscene, finding and killing him using the Reverse Dome trick above, or first recruiting him using any method before killing him), the Dome cutscene can still be triggered, but Whitley's usual animations will not be played, though his voice lines *are* still played - even his footsteps while walking up into the oil spill can still be heard.
Notes[]
- If killed in an appropriate location, Whitley's body (full, headless, or giblets) will be visible during the Dome cutscene. His voice lines are still played as in the regular version of the cutscene, rather than coming from the direction of his body.[2]
- (Xbox) Whitley's body (or giblets) will disappear from wherever it is by the time control is returned to the player after the Dome cutscene ends.
- (Xbox) In the case of Whitley being sniped after the chase cutscene, an A-posing Black Ops may be seen during the Dome cutscene facing the outside corner of the turn from around which Whitley would have come. He acts and can be killed just as any other Black Ops after the cutscene ends. This might be one of the soldiers who were supposed to teleport to the valley once Whitley ran far enough to trigger their teleport.[3]
Final Level[]
Will-o'-the-wisp Whitley[]
(Xbox) From certain positions, the Whitley-Thing is visible in the distance before triggering the second cutscene but only at certain camera angles, and it can pop into and out of view as it sways around.
Blue Whitley[]
(Xbox) The Whitley-Thing sometimes appears very blue and may suddenly swap between this blue-saturated look and its normal look, including in some parts of the second cutscene as well as during the boss fight itself.
Recruiting Whitley[]
Method 1 - Quick Menu[]
(Xbox) Immediately after the second cutscene, you can bring up the item menu before the screen fades in from black. Doing so will allow you to use a Blood Test Hypo on yourself, which will prevent you from teleporting to and taking controlling of the helicopter turret. This will soft-lock the game, preventing you from progressing until you restart the level. The up-side is, if you turn around, you will see not only Whitley (in post-Dome cutscene, burned/veins popping but still human form), but MacReady (or rather, "McReady") as well, both standing within each other (in the same location) and both recruitable.[4][5]
Method 2 - Grenade into cutscene skip[]
(Xbox) You can actually fire a grenade toward your teleport destination seen by using the first method; it's possible to fire a grenade over the left cliff, trigger the second cutscene, then immediately skip the cutscene just in time to teleport straight into your own grenade, and prevent Blake from taking control of the turret that way.
Notes[]
- Using any of the methods above stop you from being forced to take control of the turret but do not actually stop the boss fight from triggering; after some time, the helicopter crash cutscene will play, and you will receive a Game Over - just as if you had taken control of the turret, then did nothing while Thing-Whitley smacked the helicopter out of the air.
- As in the Dome level, Whitley is classed as a Soldier, and he starts with full trust in the player (his trust will decrease from 100% trust to 0% if the player attacks him even once, including if you hit him with splash damage while attempting method 2 above). His name is misspelled as "Whitely" in the squad menu. Whitley doesn't talk, and can be killed like any other squad mate. Whitley passes the Blood Test, even though he's the B4 Cloud Virus carrier and, by the time you get the chance to test him, he has already transformed into the Whitley-Thing during the second cutscene.
- Notably, this Whitley (henceforth Final Whitley) uses a slightly different character model than the Whitley recruitable in the Dome level (Dome Whitley); Final Whitley has what appears to be burns or popping veins along the bottom/sides of his face as well as his neck and under his eyes. The area around his eyes is also darker, his eyes are bloodshot, his forehead wrinkles are more prominent, and overall he looks much more haggard than Dome Whitley (these details are perhaps easiest to see in his portrait in the squad menu). This model is actually visible during the Dome cutscene, after Blake ignites the oil pool Whitley is standing in.
Ghost Whitley[]
Similar to Recruiting Whitley method 2, you can launch a grenade at Whitley's location (as seen when recruiting Whitley) before triggering the first cutscene. When launched just right, the grenade will actually kill him, resulting in a similar glitch as the Dome Ghost Whitley bug wherein Whitley's human model will no longer appear in the first cutscene even though his voice lines and other SFX can still be heard. The Whitley-Thing will also still appear at the same time and place as in the regular version of the cutscene, albeit apparently out of nowhere rather than as part of Whitley's transformation.
Notes[]
- If a Flame Grenade is used, and the first cutscene is triggered before Whitley dies or the flames go out, Whitley will be seen on fire during the cutscene. If the regular duration of the flames expires while Whitley is on-screen, the flames will be seen going out.
- Combined with any of the Recruiting Whitley methods, Whitley's corpse (or giblets, if you can teleport and turn around before they disappear) can be seen after the second cutscene.
Trivia[]
- Whitley is voiced by William B. Davis who also portrayed the Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files.
- It seems that the Whitley's desire to be infected with the virus is due to an unspecified illness, possibly terminal cancer.
- In one of the computer journal entries, Faraday refers to Whitley as Commander instead of Colonel, which is his actual rank, although he might have referred to him as Commander because he was the leader of Gen Inc.'s entire operation in Antarctica.
- Whitley's name is misspelled frequently throughout the game (as Whitely, Whiteley, among others) in the game's objectives screen, in the game files and in computer journal entries.
- His full name is stated as being "R.C. Whitley." It's unknown what his initials stand for, but they're probably a joke by the U.K. developers, since it makes his name sound like "arsey," a common British swear word meaning difficult, unpleasant or belligerent behaviour. The initials could also be a nod or jab at R.J. MacReady.
- Whitley somewhat resembles Weyland from the "Alien" and "Alien vs. Predator" franchises.
Gallery[]
.png "Whitley betrays Blake - The Thing (2002).png (1.18 MB)")
.png "Whitley examines the specimens - The Thing (2002).png (1.75 MB)")
.png "Whitley confronts Faraday - The Thing (2002).png (1,006 KB)")
.png "Whitley shoots Farady - The Thing (2002).png (1.1 MB)")
