Them! (1954)

Them! (1954)

Year: 1954

IMDb Rating: 7.2/10

Genres: Sci-Fi, Horror

Directors: Gordon Douglas

Cast: James Whitmore, Joan Weldon, Edmund Gwenn, James Arness

In the New Mexico desert, Police Sgt. Ben Peterson and his partner find a child wandering in the desert and soon they discover that giant ants are attacking the locals. FBI agent Robert Graham teams up with Ben and with the support of Dr. Harold Medford and his daughter Dr. Patricia 'Pat' Medford, they destroy the colony of ants in the middle of the desert. Dr. Harold Medford explains that the atomic testing in 1945 developed the dangerous mutant ants. But they also discover that two queen ants have flown away to Los Angeles and they are starting a huge colony in the underground flood control tunnels of that city. When a mother reports that her two children are missing, the team begin searching for them. Will they arrive in time to save the children and destroy the colony?

Them! is a 1954 black-and-white science fiction giant monster film starring James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, and James Arness. Produced by David Weisbart, the film was directed by Gordon Douglas, based on an original story by George Worthing Yates that was developed into a screenplay by Ted Sherdeman, with adaptation by Russell Hughes. The film is one of the first of the 1950s "nuclear monster" movies, and the first with big bugs as the threat. A nest of gigantic irradiated ants is discovered in the New Mexico desert, and they quickly become a national threat when it is found that two young queens and their consorts have escaped to establish new colonies. The national search that follows culminates in a battle with the last surviving colony in the concrete spillways and storm drain system of Los Angeles. Critical reception was largely positive at the time of release, and Them! came to be regarded as one of the best American science fiction films of the 1950s. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the special effects category.

The earliest atomic tests in New Mexico cause common ants to mutate into giant man-eating monsters that threaten civilization.

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