Them! (1954 film)
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Them! is a 1954 science fiction film about humanity's battle with a nest of giant mutant ants.
One of the first of the "nuclear monster" movies, Them! was the biggest moneymaker for Warner Bros. pictures in the year of its release. Originally conceived to be in 3D and Technicolor, these expensive propositions were scrapped due to Jack Warner's insecurity regarding its box-office potential. The film still featured higher production values than most of the genre-mates which followed it.
Cast
- James Whitmore – as Sgt. Ben Peterson
- Edmund Gwenn – as Dr. Harold Medford
- Joan Weldon – as Dr. Pat Medford
- James Arness – as FBI Agent Robert Graham
- Onslow Stevens – as Gen. O'Brien
- Sean McClory – as Maj. Kibbee
- Chris Drake – as Ed Blackburn
- Sandy Descher – as the Ellinson girl
- Mary Ann Hokanson – as Mrs. Lodge
- Fess Parker – as Alan Crotty
- Olin Howlin – as Jensen
Plot
The film begins with Peterson (Whitmore) investigating a string of mysterious attacks and killings in the New Mexico desert. The death of a vacationing FBI agent and most of his family - except for an hysterical little girl - brings in Graham (Arness), and the discovery of a strange set of tracks attracts the attention of the Medfords (Gwenn and Weldon), a father/daughter team of entomologists from Washington D.C., who theorize and then prove that the culprits are a nest of giant ants, mutated by nearby atomic testing. The authorities attack the nest with poison and kill the inhabitants, but not before two young queens hatch out and fly away to establish new nests. One ends up onboard an ocean-going freighter, which is overrun by the ants, then sunk by the military. The other sets up her nest in the Los Angeles sewer system, forcing the US Army to declare martial law and launch a major assault. Peterson rescues two young boys from the nest, at the cost of his own life. The nest's queen and egg chamber are destroyed with flamethrowers, but the senior Dr. Medford issues a grim warning that the atomic genie has been let out of the bottle, and further horrors may await mankind.Quotes
DR HAROLD MEDFORD: We may be witnessing a Biblical prophecy come true - the beasts will reign over the earth.
The ELLINSON GIRL: [screaming hysterically]: - - - - THEM ! - - - - THEM !
Trivia
- A young Leonard Nimoy has a small, uncredited role as an Army sergeant, while future Davy Crockett portrayer Fess Parker has a cameo as a witness to one of the queen ants' flight.
- It later inspired a classic computer game called It Came From the Desert.
- Joe Dante's 1993 movie Matinee, starring John Goodman parodies both "Them!" and the lifestyle of horror movie director William Castle. Elaborate and deliberately hokey special effects are shown.
- In Sweden, the movie title was translated to "Spindlarna", which means The Spiders in Swedish.
- Them! was the inspiration for ['We are THEM!'] (2005), by visual artist Mark Hatter. The project used miniature stage sets and stimuli creating a satire of an ant-sized world, claiming to "Educate and Improve" the common black garden ant.
External links
- [How To Steal A Scene, by James Whitmore]
- [The Thunder Child Them! Sourcebook]
- [Suite of the film score re-recorded on "Monstrous Movie Music" label]
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