Them! | Flamethrowers in The Ant Nest | Warner Classics

Bombs, Bazookas and Flamethrowers, what can stop... Them!

About Them! (Theatrical Release - June 19, 1954):
Man has split the atom and ushered in a new era. But how could he know he would also create Them? Them! is a landmark movie about giant radiation-mutated ants that gets better with age and boasts remarkable, Academy Award®-nominated special effects. Starring James Whitmore, James Arness and Edmund Gwenn, Them! begins in New Mexico with a child wandering in shock, a ransacked general store – and a battered corpse full of enough formic acid to kill 20 men. It ends with an epic struggle in the 700 miles of storm drains under Los Angeles, where the insect hordes are beaten. But they’re not conquered, because they spawned a generation of films about radioactive creatures. Some approximate the terror, but few have equalled the artistry of Them!

[stephenmark]

Them! is the best of the 1950's giant bug movies. Not just entertaining in a kitschy way, it is actually a legit good film.

[steamtorch]

One of my favorite movie lines of all "Spit's all that's holding me together right now, too."

[evolvetrooper]

Hearing the ants make that chirping is still awesome a big part of my childhood thanks to my dad

[nicholasmartin]

This was before Antstop and Raid sprays were invented - but after we had invented the nuclear bomb. Classic film. It scared me when I was a kid in the 70s. I’ve remembered formic acid ever since.

[mickeyberry]

When I seen this movie for the first time I was mesmerized by it. Fascinated to no ends.

[MM]

I always liked that the female scientist was actually a partner in this film. She wasn't a jerk about it or the self-important DEI types we get now, but she wasn't a screechy fainter that was more common in female roles of movies of this time. She came across as somebody you'd want at your back while crawling through a hive during a bug hunt.

[hcobda]

"C'mon you apes! You wanna live forever?"
"It's an ant hive! A bug hive!"
"i need a scientist. You're it until you're dead
or i find someone better."

[cane]

The Primordial Starship Troopers! What I love about this movie is it made clear early on that they can be beat and are not a major threat on an induvial level, which is pretty different from monster movies in which the monsters are portrayed as almost unstoppable, They are dangerous do to how rapidly they breed and spread. They are more like an invasive species that need to be doubt with then a malevolent force.

[pameladowe]

I remember seeing this film in an outdoor cinema with my dad and sister. It had quite an impact on me - my first horror film.

[alexius]

One of the best sci fi films of the 1950’s…

[AnnaJohnson-ks]

I so remember this. Watching as a kid while waiting for my Dad to come home from work.

[sonrouge]

Wonder what led the creators to come up with that shrieking sound the ants made. The movie wouldn't have been half as good without it.

[robwalsh]

Most audiences today know James Whitmore as Brooks from the Shawshank Redemption but few would know he was a pretty tough-looking Marine!

[wisconsinfirenerd]

In that state trooper uniform in back during the planning session, you can see a young James Whitmore, who would be acclaimed for his portrayal of Brooks Hanlon in The Shawshank Redemption forty years later

[raymondstrehl]

They don't know how good they have it
We had to wait for it to come back on 🐜🐜🐜🐜

[Valen-xuwy]

This scared me when young. An adult remake would be nice.

[CristySFM]

8:56 "oh finally someone found us! We've been stuck behind this wal- HOLY F**K!!!"

My grandmother had this on VHS and I would watch it all the time next to the og war of the worlds and other classic 50s films funny enough one movie I hated as a kid was horror express now it's one of my top 5 favorite horror films

[lawrencewiddis]

Air Corps saves us again! “Off we go into…”

[MrSunlander]

Warner Brothers could've at least spoken to a Myrmecologist, so they would've found out that ants are female, only producing males for breeding with new queens. Still among my ab-fab favorite sci-fi films, and made in a time when so many similar films were just horrible.

[juanmanuelparadacontreras]

Todo un clásico en la extensión de la palabra.