Williams was a Medic assigned to the Arctic Marines' Alpha Team and tasked with investigating the Thule Station. The character appears in the 2002 video-game The Thing.
History[]
Williams, along with the rest of Alpha Team, was ordered to investigate the Norwegian Outpost only to find it partially destroyed and seemingly deserted. The team members were attacked by several Thing beasts during their investigation and suffered heavy casualties. Williams and the team discovered a secret underground hangar, however, he got separated from the rest of the team in the storm during their investigation. He was able to make it to a nearby outpost building but several Thing beasts were present there as well. Fearing for his life, he barricaded himself in the mess hall.
After spending some time in the mess hall, he encountered Blake and Pace, but he drew his flamethrower at them in a paranoid outburst. Blake tried to convince him that they were indeed real humans who wanted to confirm whether Williams did indeed have access to the Radio Room, but unwilling to trust his comrades yet, Williams requested them to kill the Full Walkers he encountered in the area. After succeeding in killing all three Walkers, Williams joined the team and found the radio in the Radio Room was thrashed. Reading in a computer terminal about a nearby Norwegian Medi-Center, Blake decided to go there to seek an emergency radio. The team was then ambushed after finding out the radio had been stolen. They held off countless swarms of incoming Thing beasts, eventually coming across two assaulting Brute Walkers and an unknown Assimilant. After succeeding in killing the creatures, they spotted and pursued the Norwegian Radio Operator Iversen, who ran and locked himself in the Pyron Hangar. Williams, just like Pace, eventually succumbed to the Thing and transformed into an Assimilant, Blake was forced to kill it and continued his investigation further into the outpost.
Strategy to keep Williams from turning into The Thing[]
- A level design oversight in the game lets you keep Williams alive all the way to the end of the Norwegian Weather Station level, by using a trick that bypasses completely the building where he inevitably is scripted to burst out. By either throwing a few flares or firing with the blowtorch or flamethrower at the locked door located at the base of the storage building outside (the door that leads to the room with Walkers and explosive barrels where the key to the Weather Station is) you can bypass the whole building Williams is meant to turn into an Assimilant in. The door will blow up and lets you get the key within the room without any of the things inside coming out, as they either don't spawn or inevitably die from the exploding barrels and fire. (Confirmed to work on both PC and PS2).
- Players should exercise caution if using the trick to keep him alive further into the station. Williams will panic at many of the corpses found in the Weather Station, and can quickly lose his mind, shooting his weapon indiscriminately and killing the player. To prevent this, either quickly push him out of the area causing fear, disarm him, give him a higher-class weapon for a courage boost, or give him an adrenaline shot if available.
- Although Williams can be kept alive all throughout the Norwegian Weather Station level by using the trick above, he won't follow Blake to the Pyron Hangar and disappears like so many other NPCs that cannot follow Blake further, as he's programmed not to reappear after this level (he can't physically follow Blake to the Pyron Hangar anyway, as he can't climb using the beam).
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Just like Pierce, due to the nature of the mission objectives, he cannot be coerced before completing the mission.