WEBVTT
00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:33.600
Welcome back, listeners, to the introverted obelisk.
00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:35.439
I'm your host, Obi Knox.
00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:42.880
It's still August, and we're all still trying to survive the heat and endure the mosquitoes and the drone of the cicadas.
00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:45.600
And the obelisk is having its own bug problems.
00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:50.479
There appears to be a chrysalis hanging from one of the pipes down in one of the maintenance closets.
00:00:50.640 --> 00:01:05.280
Yeah, I I was just looking for a mop in a bucket, and uh it's roughly the size of a refrigerator, and judging by the empty coffee cup beneath it, I think somebody already decided it's somebody else's problem, and as such, I too have adopted the same philosophy.
00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:09.920
So tonight's giant insects are confined to the television screen, at least for now.
00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:16.159
We're taking a look at them, a film that helped define the atomic age creature feature.
00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:19.760
It's a movie built around one very comforting idea.
00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:29.040
That humanity detonated atomic bombs in the desert and accidentally created giant ants large enough to drag people screaming into underground nests.
00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:35.599
Because apparently the 50s looked at nuclear science and thought, there is absolutely no way this comes back to haunt us.
00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:40.239
And honestly, that feels exactly like the sort of thing Cold War America would actually lose sleep over.
00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:54.959
And then along comes them, which takes all of that fear and gives it mandibles, coordinated hive behavior, and the horrifying realization that ants already outnumber humanity before you make them the size of Buick's.
00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:58.560
Which honestly feels kind of rude just thinking about that.
00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:09.199
So, our film opens with the police discovering a little girl wandering alone through the wasteland, clutching a doll, and staring into space like somebody whose nervous system has permanently resigned.
00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:18.400
Nearby, a police officer is also found, but he's dead in his patrol car, with a look on his face suggesting his final thoughts was probably, this doesn't seem good.
00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:25.919
Well, the little girl refuses to speak at first, and when she finally does manage to whisper, she whispers a single word, them.
00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:36.800
And it is I don't know, it it's impressive to me because it somehow answers nothing, and simultaneously makes the entire situation seem very much more worse.
00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:57.039
The local authorities call in the FBI, and agent Robert Graham arrives alongside New Mexico State Police Sergeant Ben Patterson, who immediately becomes the closest thing this movie has to real heroes, because while everyone else is confused, they're actually investigating the situation like professionals, you know, instead of immediately running into traffic screwing about the apocalypse.
00:02:57.199 --> 00:02:59.120
Well, the investigation eventually brings in Dr.
00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:04.879
Harold Medford and his daughter Patricia Medford, entomologists specializing in ants.
00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:09.759
And one of the things them does remarkably well is treating the science seriously.
00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:17.039
The Medfords don't actually behave like eccentric movie scientists, you know, surrounded by bubbling beakers and irresponsible ambition.
00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:24.080
They feel like intelligent professionals who slowly realize nature has developed a deep, unsettling new feature.
00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:29.680
And then once the movie reveals the ants for the first time, you completely understand why everyone starts panicking.
00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:47.520
The creatures themselves are magnificent in that very specific 50s practical effects way, where you know, part of your brain understands you're looking at a giant mechanical ant puppet, while the other part of your brain immediately decides that that distinction doesn't matter because the things look horrifying once they start moving.
00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:59.919
And the ants are built as enormous articulate props covered in textured exoskeleton material, operated through a combination of hydraulics, wires, and mechanical rigs.
00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:08.240
And the result still works surprisingly well because the creatures, I gotta say, they feel like heavy, like real and physical.
00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:23.439
Like their legs scrape across the desert floor, you know, their antenna are constantly twitching, and their mandles clack together with this awful mechanical aggression that somehow feels more, I think, unsettling than if the movie hit tried to make them, like, you know, really graceful.
00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:25.199
And then there's the sound they make.
00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:26.240
Oh my god.
00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:31.360
It's this high-pitched shrieking chirp that the ants make throughout the film.
00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:35.839
And it's probably one of the most iconic sounds of the 50s science fiction.
00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:44.959
And it was created by blending recordings of tree frogs and bird calls into something that sounds completely alien while still feeling weirdly organic.
00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:52.959
It's the sort of noise that instantly tells your brain something enormous is nearby, and your day's about to get dramatically worse.
00:04:53.199 --> 00:05:02.560
So, following the clues of the desert, Graham, Peterson, and the Medfords eventually discover a massive ant nest hidden beneath the sand near the atomic test site.
00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:05.920
And this is where the movie fully reveals what it's actually about.
00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:18.319
Consequences, and and of course giant insects, but the ants are mutations created by the irradiation exposure from the Trinity atomic tests, which means humanity quite literally manufactured their own problem.
00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:24.399
And the movie never lets you forget that these creatures didn't crawl out of like, you know, ancient caves or come from another planet.
00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:27.680
No, that they're they're practically stamped with made in the USA.
00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:36.319
Well, the net sequence to me works amazing because Gordon Douglas directed it almost like it was a war film instead of a monster movie.
00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:54.160
Because you got soldiers advancing cautiously through tunnels, while you know you got flamethrowers illuminating the darkness, and then ants are emerging out of shadows of this horrible combination of like intelligence and almost like instinct that makes them feel like I think less like animals and more like an enemy military.
00:05:54.319 --> 00:06:09.279
And honestly, giant ants organized enough to establish underground colonies and defend queens are significantly way more terrifying than most giant monster movies because ants already function like a civilization before you make them radioactive.
00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:20.079
So the military eventually destroys the nest using flamethrowers, you know, machine guns, and pretty much just enough firepower to convince the desert that it has personally offended the United States government.
00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:22.959
But the Medfords realize something much worse has happened.
00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:25.360
Two queen ants have escaped.
00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:33.120
Which means somewhere out there, giant radioactive ant queens are potentially building new colonies.
00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:37.120
And now suddenly every day is getting dramatically worse again.
00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:47.439
And I gotta say, one of the smartest decisions the movie makes is shifting from, you know, the isolated desert horror and then moving into urban paranoia.
00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:57.120
Because once the queens disappear, the film stops feeling less like, you know, a contained creature feature and starts feeling more like the beginning of an infestation story.
00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:04.240
And let's face it, the possibility of giant ants spreading into populated areas, that's uh that's a nightmare.
00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:07.199
Like, that is the worst possible result.
00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:12.000
Because one monster can be killed, but an entire colony?
00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:13.279
That's something else.
00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:16.639
Well, eventually evidence leads authorities to Los Angeles.
00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:20.480
Because it's either Los Angeles or New York, always in these movies.
00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:25.360
And the ants have established a nest deep inside the city's storm drain system.
00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:34.560
And honestly, there's something deeply unsettling about realizing that, you know, giant or radioactive insects have apparently decided municipal infrastructure makes excellent real estate.
00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:36.000
Try to not think about it.
00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:44.720
The storm drain climax is probably the strongest section of like the entire movie, because it transforms Los Angeles into a subterranean war zone.
00:07:44.879 --> 00:08:02.319
Again, you got soldiers armed with flamethrowers moving through tunnels while the ants attack from the darkness, and the movie suddenly starts feeling weirdly modern because, you know, underneath all the 50s science fiction imagery, there's a very real fear of unseen threats living underneath civilization itself.
00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:13.040
And then we get the finale, which becomes especially tense when Sergeant Peterson sacrifices himself to save two trapped children during the final confrontation with the Queen.
00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:23.120
And the scene works because the movie has spent so much time treating Peterson like a genuinely decent guy, you know, and just instead of just disposable monster fodder.
00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:36.879
So when The Last Queen finally dies beneath the stream of fire and gunfire, you know, the city survives, the infestations stop, and we find that civilization has narrowly avoided becoming an all-you-can-eat buffet for radioactive insects.
00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:46.480
So the film was directed by Gordon Douglas and was released by Warner Brothers in 1954 during the absolute height of the atomic monster boom.
00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:54.960
But what I think separates this film from a lot of the other imitators was its scale and absolute seriousness.
00:08:55.039 --> 00:09:01.519
Because you see, Warner Brothers treated this movie like a major production instead of just a you know disposable B-movie filler.
00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:09.120
And that investment to me shows in everything from the cinematography to the creature feature to even the military sequences.
00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:11.039
And then, dude, the cast.
00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:12.799
Like this cast was stacked.
00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:18.559
You got James Whitmore, who is bringing like genuine like warmth and exhaustion to Sgt.
00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:19.279
Peterson.
00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:29.840
You got James Arnes, who appears, well, only briefly, as FBI agent Robert Graham, before later becoming television's gunsmoke legend, Marshall Dillon.
00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:32.799
And then you got Edmund Gwen's giving, you know, Dr.
00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:42.000
Medford a serious sense of intelligence and authority that, I mean, let's be honest, it helps ground a very ridiculous premise.
00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:45.200
You know, giant ants, nuclear testing.
00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:46.480
It's all silly.
00:09:46.559 --> 00:09:48.960
It just it is, but it's still well done.
00:09:49.200 --> 00:10:04.080
And I think with the actor's choice, it had to be done because the movie desperately needed actors capable of, you know, delivering lines about, again, giant radioactive ants, and they had to do it with like total and complete sincerity.
00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:07.360
And I have to say, they understood the assignment.
00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:18.879
Now, there's also this fascinating production detail connected to the film, because Warner Brothers originally planned to shoot portions of them in 3D and color.
00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:25.679
Mw well, you know, before budget concerns forced the studio to scale the production back to, you know, standard black and white photography.
00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:26.320
I don't know.
00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:29.440
I've I've seen this movie a few times, like three or four times at least.
00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:39.919
And I've tried to imagine it in color and even in 3D, and with given what we do have, like the finished result, I kind of feel that the limitations maybe helped the movie enormously.
00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:47.759
You know, because I feel like the black and white cinematography actually gives everything like a harsher, almost documentary feel.
00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:50.720
You know, that makes the ants seem actually believable.
00:10:50.960 --> 00:11:02.720
Because again, already said a few times, but like, it's a silly premise, but it's handled so seriously and delivered so just professionally, you almost forget how silly it is halfway through the film.
00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:08.080
And then, oh man, let's talk about this film's influence on science fiction, because it cannot be overstated either.
00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:21.360
Them essentially established the template for the giant insect movie and heavily influenced later films, I would say ranging from the beginning of the end all the way to aliens.
00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:25.600
And aliens is one of my favorite movies, so just stick with me for a second.
00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:28.320
Just just hold on, allow me to explain.
00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:38.080
I feel that you can see the DNA from them in these later stories, again, like aliens, because let's let's look at it.
00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:47.840
You have hive-minded creatures, you have military containment operation, and you got ordinary people slowly realizing the world underneath them has become hostile.
00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:50.399
I'm just saying, the DNA is there.
00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:52.559
And dude, them?
00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:54.399
It still works today.
00:11:54.559 --> 00:11:59.759
And I think it's because they understand that fear works best when it starts quiet.
00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:07.519
Because the film starts with, you know, first a dead police officer, then a terrified child, and then we get these strange sounds out in the desert.
00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:18.639
And people slowly starting to realize that something impossible has already happened, meanwhile the rest of the world just keeps on going about its business completely unaware.
00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:30.799
Like, the desert stretches endlessly beneath the sun, the highway still cut through the sand, city's still home of life, but underneath all of it, something radioactive has started breeding.
00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:32.960
And the movie never lets you forget it.
00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:48.720
Alright, folks, well, until next time, keep your flamethrowers nearby, keep your eyes on the desert horizon, and if somebody in a 1950s science fiction movie tells you the ants seem unusually large this year, maybe start packing your bags.
00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:51.120
Good night.
00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:53.120
And roll credits.
00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:33.600
Welcome back, listeners, to the introverted obelisk.
00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:35.439
I'm your host, Obi Knox.
00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:42.880
It's still August, and we're all still trying to survive the heat and endure the mosquitoes and the drone of the cicadas.
00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:45.600
And the obelisk is having its own bug problems.
00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:50.479
There appears to be a chrysalis hanging from one of the pipes down in one of the maintenance closets.
00:00:50.640 --> 00:01:05.280
Yeah, I I was just looking for a mop in a bucket, and uh it's roughly the size of a refrigerator, and judging by the empty coffee cup beneath it, I think somebody already decided it's somebody else's problem, and as such, I too have adopted the same philosophy.
00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:09.920
So tonight's giant insects are confined to the television screen, at least for now.
00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:16.159
We're taking a look at them, a film that helped define the atomic age creature feature.
00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:19.760
It's a movie built around one very comforting idea.
00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:29.040
That humanity detonated atomic bombs in the desert and accidentally created giant ants large enough to drag people screaming into underground nests.
00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:35.599
Because apparently the 50s looked at nuclear science and thought, there is absolutely no way this comes back to haunt us.
00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:40.239
And honestly, that feels exactly like the sort of thing Cold War America would actually lose sleep over.
00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:54.959
And then along comes them, which takes all of that fear and gives it mandibles, coordinated hive behavior, and the horrifying realization that ants already outnumber humanity before you make them the size of Buick's.
00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:58.560
Which honestly feels kind of rude just thinking about that.
00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:09.199
So, our film opens with the police discovering a little girl wandering alone through the wasteland, clutching a doll, and staring into space like somebody whose nervous system has permanently resigned.
00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:18.400
Nearby, a police officer is also found, but he's dead in his patrol car, with a look on his face suggesting his final thoughts was probably, this doesn't seem good.
00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:25.919
Well, the little girl refuses to speak at first, and when she finally does manage to whisper, she whispers a single word, them.
00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:36.800
And it is I don't know, it it's impressive to me because it somehow answers nothing, and simultaneously makes the entire situation seem very much more worse.
00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:57.039
The local authorities call in the FBI, and agent Robert Graham arrives alongside New Mexico State Police Sergeant Ben Patterson, who immediately becomes the closest thing this movie has to real heroes, because while everyone else is confused, they're actually investigating the situation like professionals, you know, instead of immediately running into traffic screwing about the apocalypse.
00:02:57.199 --> 00:02:59.120
Well, the investigation eventually brings in Dr.
00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:04.879
Harold Medford and his daughter Patricia Medford, entomologists specializing in ants.
00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:09.759
And one of the things them does remarkably well is treating the science seriously.
00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:17.039
The Medfords don't actually behave like eccentric movie scientists, you know, surrounded by bubbling beakers and irresponsible ambition.
00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:24.080
They feel like intelligent professionals who slowly realize nature has developed a deep, unsettling new feature.
00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:29.680
And then once the movie reveals the ants for the first time, you completely understand why everyone starts panicking.
00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:47.520
The creatures themselves are magnificent in that very specific 50s practical effects way, where you know, part of your brain understands you're looking at a giant mechanical ant puppet, while the other part of your brain immediately decides that that distinction doesn't matter because the things look horrifying once they start moving.
00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:59.919
And the ants are built as enormous articulate props covered in textured exoskeleton material, operated through a combination of hydraulics, wires, and mechanical rigs.
00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:08.240
And the result still works surprisingly well because the creatures, I gotta say, they feel like heavy, like real and physical.
00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:23.439
Like their legs scrape across the desert floor, you know, their antenna are constantly twitching, and their mandles clack together with this awful mechanical aggression that somehow feels more, I think, unsettling than if the movie hit tried to make them, like, you know, really graceful.
00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:25.199
And then there's the sound they make.
00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:26.240
Oh my god.
00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:31.360
It's this high-pitched shrieking chirp that the ants make throughout the film.
00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:35.839
And it's probably one of the most iconic sounds of the 50s science fiction.
00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:44.959
And it was created by blending recordings of tree frogs and bird calls into something that sounds completely alien while still feeling weirdly organic.
00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:52.959
It's the sort of noise that instantly tells your brain something enormous is nearby, and your day's about to get dramatically worse.
00:04:53.199 --> 00:05:02.560
So, following the clues of the desert, Graham, Peterson, and the Medfords eventually discover a massive ant nest hidden beneath the sand near the atomic test site.
00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:05.920
And this is where the movie fully reveals what it's actually about.
00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:18.319
Consequences, and and of course giant insects, but the ants are mutations created by the irradiation exposure from the Trinity atomic tests, which means humanity quite literally manufactured their own problem.
00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:24.399
And the movie never lets you forget that these creatures didn't crawl out of like, you know, ancient caves or come from another planet.
00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:27.680
No, that they're they're practically stamped with made in the USA.
00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:36.319
Well, the net sequence to me works amazing because Gordon Douglas directed it almost like it was a war film instead of a monster movie.
00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:54.160
Because you got soldiers advancing cautiously through tunnels, while you know you got flamethrowers illuminating the darkness, and then ants are emerging out of shadows of this horrible combination of like intelligence and almost like instinct that makes them feel like I think less like animals and more like an enemy military.
00:05:54.319 --> 00:06:09.279
And honestly, giant ants organized enough to establish underground colonies and defend queens are significantly way more terrifying than most giant monster movies because ants already function like a civilization before you make them radioactive.
00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:20.079
So the military eventually destroys the nest using flamethrowers, you know, machine guns, and pretty much just enough firepower to convince the desert that it has personally offended the United States government.
00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:22.959
But the Medfords realize something much worse has happened.
00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:25.360
Two queen ants have escaped.
00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:33.120
Which means somewhere out there, giant radioactive ant queens are potentially building new colonies.
00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:37.120
And now suddenly every day is getting dramatically worse again.
00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:47.439
And I gotta say, one of the smartest decisions the movie makes is shifting from, you know, the isolated desert horror and then moving into urban paranoia.
00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:57.120
Because once the queens disappear, the film stops feeling less like, you know, a contained creature feature and starts feeling more like the beginning of an infestation story.
00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:04.240
And let's face it, the possibility of giant ants spreading into populated areas, that's uh that's a nightmare.
00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:07.199
Like, that is the worst possible result.
00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:12.000
Because one monster can be killed, but an entire colony?
00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:13.279
That's something else.
00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:16.639
Well, eventually evidence leads authorities to Los Angeles.
00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:20.480
Because it's either Los Angeles or New York, always in these movies.
00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:25.360
And the ants have established a nest deep inside the city's storm drain system.
00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:34.560
And honestly, there's something deeply unsettling about realizing that, you know, giant or radioactive insects have apparently decided municipal infrastructure makes excellent real estate.
00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:36.000
Try to not think about it.
00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:44.720
The storm drain climax is probably the strongest section of like the entire movie, because it transforms Los Angeles into a subterranean war zone.
00:07:44.879 --> 00:08:02.319
Again, you got soldiers armed with flamethrowers moving through tunnels while the ants attack from the darkness, and the movie suddenly starts feeling weirdly modern because, you know, underneath all the 50s science fiction imagery, there's a very real fear of unseen threats living underneath civilization itself.
00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:13.040
And then we get the finale, which becomes especially tense when Sergeant Peterson sacrifices himself to save two trapped children during the final confrontation with the Queen.
00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:23.120
And the scene works because the movie has spent so much time treating Peterson like a genuinely decent guy, you know, and just instead of just disposable monster fodder.
00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:36.879
So when The Last Queen finally dies beneath the stream of fire and gunfire, you know, the city survives, the infestations stop, and we find that civilization has narrowly avoided becoming an all-you-can-eat buffet for radioactive insects.
00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:46.480
So the film was directed by Gordon Douglas and was released by Warner Brothers in 1954 during the absolute height of the atomic monster boom.
00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:54.960
But what I think separates this film from a lot of the other imitators was its scale and absolute seriousness.
00:08:55.039 --> 00:09:01.519
Because you see, Warner Brothers treated this movie like a major production instead of just a you know disposable B-movie filler.
00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:09.120
And that investment to me shows in everything from the cinematography to the creature feature to even the military sequences.
00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:11.039
And then, dude, the cast.
00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:12.799
Like this cast was stacked.
00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:18.559
You got James Whitmore, who is bringing like genuine like warmth and exhaustion to Sgt.
00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:19.279
Peterson.
00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:29.840
You got James Arnes, who appears, well, only briefly, as FBI agent Robert Graham, before later becoming television's gunsmoke legend, Marshall Dillon.
00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:32.799
And then you got Edmund Gwen's giving, you know, Dr.
00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:42.000
Medford a serious sense of intelligence and authority that, I mean, let's be honest, it helps ground a very ridiculous premise.
00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:45.200
You know, giant ants, nuclear testing.
00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:46.480
It's all silly.
00:09:46.559 --> 00:09:48.960
It just it is, but it's still well done.
00:09:49.200 --> 00:10:04.080
And I think with the actor's choice, it had to be done because the movie desperately needed actors capable of, you know, delivering lines about, again, giant radioactive ants, and they had to do it with like total and complete sincerity.
00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:07.360
And I have to say, they understood the assignment.
00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:18.879
Now, there's also this fascinating production detail connected to the film, because Warner Brothers originally planned to shoot portions of them in 3D and color.
00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:25.679
Mw well, you know, before budget concerns forced the studio to scale the production back to, you know, standard black and white photography.
00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:26.320
I don't know.
00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:29.440
I've I've seen this movie a few times, like three or four times at least.
00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:39.919
And I've tried to imagine it in color and even in 3D, and with given what we do have, like the finished result, I kind of feel that the limitations maybe helped the movie enormously.
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You know, because I feel like the black and white cinematography actually gives everything like a harsher, almost documentary feel.
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You know, that makes the ants seem actually believable.
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Because again, already said a few times, but like, it's a silly premise, but it's handled so seriously and delivered so just professionally, you almost forget how silly it is halfway through the film.
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And then, oh man, let's talk about this film's influence on science fiction, because it cannot be overstated either.
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Them essentially established the template for the giant insect movie and heavily influenced later films, I would say ranging from the beginning of the end all the way to aliens.
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And aliens is one of my favorite movies, so just stick with me for a second.
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Just just hold on, allow me to explain.
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I feel that you can see the DNA from them in these later stories, again, like aliens, because let's let's look at it.
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You have hive-minded creatures, you have military containment operation, and you got ordinary people slowly realizing the world underneath them has become hostile.
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I'm just saying, the DNA is there.
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And dude, them?
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It still works today.
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And I think it's because they understand that fear works best when it starts quiet.
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Because the film starts with, you know, first a dead police officer, then a terrified child, and then we get these strange sounds out in the desert.
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And people slowly starting to realize that something impossible has already happened, meanwhile the rest of the world just keeps on going about its business completely unaware.
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Like, the desert stretches endlessly beneath the sun, the highway still cut through the sand, city's still home of life, but underneath all of it, something radioactive has started breeding.
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And the movie never lets you forget it.
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Alright, folks, well, until next time, keep your flamethrowers nearby, keep your eyes on the desert horizon, and if somebody in a 1950s science fiction movie tells you the ants seem unusually large this year, maybe start packing your bags.
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Good night.
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And roll credits.
