Them!

Them! is a 1954 American black-and-white science fiction monster film from Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by David Weisbart, directed by Gordon Douglas, and starring James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, and James Arness. The film is based on an original story treatment by George Worthing Yates, which was then developed into a screenplay by Ted Sherdeman and adaptation by Russell Hughes. Them! is one of the first of the 1950s "nuclear monster" films, and the first "big bug" feature film to use insects as the monster. A nest of gigantic irradiated ants is discovered in the New Mexico desert; they quickly become a national threat when it is discovered that two young queen ants and their consorts have escaped to establish new nests. The national search that follows finally culminates in a battle with Them in the concrete spillways and storm drain system of Los Angeles. New Mexico State Police Sgt. Ben Peterson and Trooper Ed Blackburn discover a little girl in a catatonic state wandering the desert near Alamogordo. They take her to a nearby vacation trailer, located by a police spotter plane, and find evidence that she was there when the trailer was attacked and nearly destroyed. The trailer was owned by FBI Special Agent Ellinson, on vacation with his wife, son, and daughter; the other members of the girl's family remain missing. In an ambulance, she reacts to a pulsating high-pitched sound coming from the desert by sitting upright, eyes open, but no one else notices her reaction, and she lies back down when the noise stops. At a general store owned by "Gramps" Johnson, the officers find his dead body and a wall partially torn out. Peterson leaves Blackburn behind to secure the crime scene. Blackburn later goes outside to investigate a strange, pulsating sound. Gunshots are heard, the sound becomes faster and louder, and Blackburn goes missing. Peterson's captain later points out that both Johnson and Blackburn fired at their attacker. A huge amount of formic acid is found in his body.