Them!



Them! is a 1954 American black and white science fiction film about a nest of gigantic irradiated ants discovered in the New Mexico desert. The film is based on an original story treatment by George Worthing Yates, which was developed into a screenplay by Ted Sherdeman and Russell Hughes for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros. Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.]. It was produced by David Weisbart, directed by Gordon Douglas, and stars James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon and James Arness.

One of the first of the 1950s "nuclear monster" movies, and the first "big bug" film, Them! was nominated for an Oscar for its Special Effects and won a Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing. The film begins as a simple suspense story, with police investigating mysterious disappearances and unexplained deaths; it slowly develops into a horror story about radiation-enlarged giant ants. To build suspense, these giants are only heard on occasion and not seen until nearly a third of the way into the film.

 ==Plot[edit] == New Mexico State Police troopers Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) and Ed Blackburn (Chris Drake) discover a little girl in shock, wandering the desert near Alamogordo. They retrace her steps to a mobile home owned by an FBI agent named Ellinson, who was on vacation in the area with his wife and two children. The side of the trailer was ripped open from the outside, and the rest of the family is missing. The girl briefly responds when strange, distant sounds echo out of the desert on the wind.

More mysterious deaths and disappearances occur. A general store owner named "Gramps" Johnson is found dead; his store is also torn apart from the outside. No cash was taken from the register, but a barrel of sugar was smashed open. Gramps' Winchester rifle was fired and is now twisted out of shape. Peterson leaves by car to check on the little girl and then make a report, leaving Blackburn to guard the store alone. Blackburn hears a strange, pulsating sound outside and leaves to investigate; off-camera gunshots are fired, the strange sound grows faster and louder, and Blackburn' screams are heard.

A single, oddly shaped footprint is found near the trailer, and a plaster cast is made and sent to Washington, D.C. Peterson's boss later points out that Gramps, a crack shot, had time to fire all his ammunition at his attacker. Even more puzzling is the coroner's determination of Johnson's cause of death: a broken neck and back, skull fracture, crushed abdomen, and "enough formic acid in his body to kill 20 men."

The FBI sends agent Robert Graham (James Arness) to investigate after the bureau is unable to identify the footprint. With him he brings Dr. Harold Medford (Edmund Gwenn) and Dr. Pat Medford (Joan Weldon), a father/daughter team of entomologists from the Department of Agriculture. At the footprint's site, the senior Medford examines the footprint. He later tries an experiment on the Ellinson girl by exposing her to formic acid fumes, reviving her from a catatonic state; she screams and yells out "Them! Them!"

His suspicions are validated by her reaction, but he won't reveal his theory quite yet; doing so prematurely might lead to a nationwide panic. Daughter Pat then encounters a giant, eight-foot long foraging ant. The lawmen empty their .38 revolvers into the insect with little effect. On directions from the senior Medford, Peterson and Graham shoot off the ant's antennae, blinding it; they then empty their Thompson submachine gun's magazines, finally killing it. Medford finally reveals his theory: the giant ant was likely mutated by irradiation from the first atomic bomb test near Alamogordo.

After the giant ants' nest is located by helicopter, poison gas bombs are tossed in, and Air Force General O'Brien (Onslow Stevens) orders soldiers into the nest to kill any survivors. Deep down inside, Pat Medford finds evidence that two other queen ants have hatched and have left to establish new colonies. Trying to avoid a general panic, the government covertly investigates any reports of unusual activity, even sightings of "flying saucers."

The Coast Guard receives a Morse Code message saying a giant queen has hatched her brood in the hold of a freighter heading to South America; giant ants attack the ship's crew but only a few survivors escape to be rescued. The freighter is later sunk by heavy U. S. Navy gunfire. Another report leads them to a rail yard with a smashed boxcar missing its 40 ton cargo of sugar. Another report takes them to a state psychiatric hospital in Brownsville, Texas and to a pilot (Fess Parker) who insists that his small plane was forced down after nearly colliding with three UFOs shaped like giant ants; agent Graham believes his story, then quietly but firmly requests the pilot remain hospitalized until further notice.

An alcoholic in a Los Angeles hospital "drunk tank" reveals to agent Graham that he's been seeing giant ants outside his window. The body of a mutilated man is recovered, and Graham and the Medfords connect the body to a report of a missing man and his two young sons; its quickly discovered the man was flying a model airplane with his sons near the hospital and very close to theLos Angeles River; a broken model plane is found near an opening into river's large storm drain system. Given this significant threat, the U. S. Army declares martial law and a curfew for Los Angeles; more troops are assigned to find and then assault the new nest in the storms drains under the city.

State policeman Peterson finds the two missing boys alive deep inside the drain system, but they are now trapped near the ants' nest. He calls for reinforcements and goes in alone to rescue the boys, finally getting them to safety. Before he can escape he is attacked by a giant ant and later dies from his injuries. FBI agent Graham arrives too late with the reinforcements, but they must fight off the ants just before a cave-in temporarily cuts off Graham. Several ants charge him, and he is able to hold them off long enough with machine gun fire for the other troops to tunnel through and rescue him. The queen and her young "princess" hatchlings are quickly discovered and then destroyed using flamethrowers.

The film ends with the senior Medford issuing a cautionary warning: "When man entered the atomic age, he opened the door to a new world. What we may eventually find in that new world, no one can predict." ==Cast[edit] == Cast notes ==Production<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == Opening color title from Them!, with the background in black and white and the title in color.<p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">When Them! began production in the fall of 1953, it was originally conceived to be in 3-D and Warner Color. During pre-production, tests were to be shot in color and 3-D. A few color tests were shot of the large-scale ant models, but when it was time to shoot the 3-D test, Warner Bros' "All Media" 3-D camera rig malfunctioned and no footage could be filmed. The next day, a memo was sent out that the color and 3-D aspects of the production were to be scrapped; black and white and widescreen would now be the film's format. Warner Bros. hoped to emulate the "effective shock treatment" effect of its previous science fiction thriller The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms; ultimately, however, the film was not shot in widescreen. Because of the preparation of certain shots, many of the camera set-ups for 3-D still remain in the film, like the opening titles and the flamethrowers shots aimed directly at the camera.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height:1em;">[3]
 * Leonard Nimoy has a small, uncredited part as an Air Force sergeant in the communications room
 * Other actors who appear in small parts include John Beradino, Willis Bouchey, Booth Colman, Richard Deacon, Lawrence Dobkin, Ann Doran, William Schallert, Douglas Spencer, Dub Taylorand Harry Wilson.
 * When casting his planned Davy Crockett episode of the Disneyland television show, Walt Disney viewed the film to see James Arness, who had been recommended for the role. However, Disney was more impressed by a scene with Fess Parker as an inmate in a mental ward of the Texas hospital. Watching Parker's performance, Disney realized he had found his Davy Crockett.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height:1em;">[2]  John Wayne saw the film and, impressed with Arness' performance, recommended him for the role of Marshal Matt Dillon in the new Gunsmoke TV series, a role that Arness went on to play from 1955 to 1975.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Although Warner Bros. was dissatisfied with the color results, the film's titles were printed in a vivid red and blue against a black and white background to give the opening of the film a dramatic "punch." This effect was achieved by an Eastman Color section spliced into each film print.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height:1em;white-space:nowrap;">[citation needed]  TheVHS tape release in 1985, the subsequent laser disc, and the later DVD release have retained this black and white with color title effect.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The entrance to the ants' final nest was shot along the concrete spillways of the Los Angeles River, between the First and Seventh Street Bridges, east of downtown. The depiction of the Chihuahua Desert of southern New Mexico is actually the Mojave Desert near Palmdale, California. Mercy Hospital was a real institution and is now Brownsville Medical Center.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Actor James Whitmore wore "lifts" in his shoes to compensate for the height difference between himself and James Arness. It has also been noted that Whitmore employed bits of "business" (hand gestures and motions) during scenes in which he appeared to draw more attention to his character when not speaking.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The Wilhelm scream, created three years earlier for the film Distant Drums, is used multiple times during the action sequences, e.g., when a wooden beam falls on top of a soldier in the Los Angeles storm-drain sequence.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The giant ants were constructed and operated by unseen technicians supervised by Ralph Ayers, and were actually purpleish-green in color. However, during the climactic battle sequence in the Los Angeles sewers, there is a brief shot of one ant moving in the foreground with its side removed, revealing its mechanical interior; this technical "glitch" has been obscured in the DVD releases of the film. ==Response<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Them! was released in June 1954<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Warren_4-0" style="line-height:1em;">[4]  and by the end of that year had accrued US $2 million in distributors' domestic (U.S. and Canada) rentals, making it the year's 51st biggest earner.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Gebert_5-0" style="line-height:1em;">[5]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The New York Times review noted " . . . from the moment James Whitmore, playing a New Mexico state trooper, discovers a six-year-old moppet wandering around the desert in a state of shock, to the time when the cause of that mental trauma is traced and destroyed, Them! is taut science-fiction."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1em;">[6]  "Brog" in Variety opined it was a "top-notch science fiction shocker. It has a well-plotted story, expertly directed and acted in a matter-of-fact style to rate a chiller payoff and thoroughly satisfy the fans of hackle-raising melodrama."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Brog_7-0" style="line-height:1em;">[7]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Since its original release, Them! has become generally regarded as one of the very best science-fiction films of the 1950s. Bill Warren described the film as “… tight, fast-paced and credible…[T]he picture is suspenseful."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Warren_4-1" style="line-height:1em;">[4]  Phil Hardy’s The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction noted, "Directed by [Gordon] Douglas in semi-documentary fashion, Them! is one of the best American science-fiction films of the fifties."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Hardy_8-0" style="line-height:1em;">[8]  Danny Peary believed the film "Ranks with The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers as the best of the countless fifties science fiction films."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Peary_9-0" style="line-height:1em;">[9] In the Time Out Film Guide, David Pirie wrote, "By far the best of the 50s cycle of 'creature features'...retains a good part of its power today."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Pirie_10-0" style="line-height:1em;">[10]  Of the 24 reviewers included in a Rotten Tomatoessurvey of critics regarding the title, 100% reflect a positive reaction.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1em;">[11]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">American Film Institute lists ==In popular culture<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Film and television <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Music <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Video games
 * AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills - Nominated<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1em;">[12]
 * AFI's 10 Top 10 - Nominated Science Fiction Film<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1em;">[13]
 * Both Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch and Eight Legged Freaks have scenes in which sequences from Them! are included.
 * An unfinished episode of the animated series Invader Zim, concerning giant ants, was entitled "Those!" as a direct reference to the Warner Bros. film.
 * In the TV series Gilmore Girls, Season 3 Episode 3, Rory references Them! when conversing with her mother.
 * An episode of the Animal Planet cable series The Most Extreme uses footage from the film.
 * In the Futurama episode "Fry and Leela's Big Fling," Elzar's restaurant has "Them!, any style" as "today's special." Fry and Leela can be seen eating giant ants as if they were lobsters.
 * Van Morrison's band Them was named after this film.
 * New Jersey punk band the Misfits have a song entitled "Them!" which has lyrics directly inspired by the film, on their 1999 release Famous Monsters.
 * The award winning video game series "It Came From the Desert" was inspired by Them!.
 * The hidden Command & Conquer: Red Alert Giant Ants campaign parodies this film.
 * The video game Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense has a level where giant ants wreak havoc on players.
 * Fallout 3, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic irradiated wasteland, has a side-quest involving giant mutated fire ants titled "Those!" in homage to the film.