9 / 10
Them! is the foundational atomic-age giant-insect film and one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s. Gordon Douglas directed. Ted Sherdeman wrote, from a story by George Worthing Yates. James Whitmore plays Sergeant Ben Peterson, the New Mexico state trooper investigating a series of strange deaths in the desert. Edmund Gwenn plays Dr. Harold Medford, an entomologist called in to identify what is killing people. Joan Weldon plays Dr. Patricia Medford, his daughter and colleague. James Arness plays FBI agent Robert Graham. The film is structured as a procedural that gradually reveals that nuclear bomb testing in the New Mexico desert has produced colonies of giant mutant ants. The ants are intelligent. They are spreading. The third act takes the action to the storm drains beneath Los Angeles for a climactic battle.
The film made approximately two million dollars at initial release on a two hundred thousand dollar budget. It was Warner Bros.’ highest-grossing film of 1954. The success established the giant-creature subgenre that dominated drive-in science fiction through the rest of the decade. Tarantula (1955), The Beginning of the End (1957), Earth vs. the Spider (1958), and dozens of others followed the template Them! established.
The Procedural Structure
The first half of Them! is a police procedural. The deaths are mysterious. The investigation moves carefully. The clues accumulate. The audience is invited to figure out what is happening alongside the characters. The ant colony is not revealed until forty-five minutes into a runtime of ninety-four minutes. The slow reveal is the film’s most important structural decision. The horror is in the absence rather than in the presence. The audience knows something is killing people. The audience does not know what.
The first ant is shown in the desert during a sandstorm. James Whitmore and James Arness see it before the audience does. Their reactions tell the audience that something impossible has happened before the impossible thing is shown directly. The technique is used by every subsequent monster movie that bothers to do it properly. Most modern productions show the monster too early. Them! shows it precisely when the audience can no longer wait.
For Writers
Withholding the central image of a monster movie until the audience has earned it is one of the strongest structural choices available. Them! holds back the ants for forty-five minutes. The audience builds the monster in their imagination before seeing it. The lesson is that what the reader imagines is usually scarier than what the writer shows. Delay the reveal. Build the absence. The monster the reader has constructed will be more vivid than the monster the writer can describe.
The Ants
The giant ants are practical effects. The production built full-scale ant puppets approximately seven feet long. The puppets had articulated mandibles, articulated legs, and could move under their own power on rails or be carried by puppeteers concealed below the camera frame. The effects work is more convincing than 1954 audiences had any reason to expect. The ants behave like ants. They communicate through pheromones. They cooperate against threats. They protect their queen.
The decision to model the ants on actual ant behavior, rather than on generic-monster behavior, is part of why the film works. The audience learns that two queens have escaped the original New Mexico colony. The biological reality of how ant colonies form gives the second act its dramatic engine. The hunt for the queens is structurally similar to a manhunt because the script understands what ants actually are. Most subsequent giant-creature films lost this rigor.
For Writers
Biological accuracy in creature fiction produces stories that less accurate fiction cannot. Them! used real ant biology as the plot’s structural foundation. The queen mechanism. The pheromone communication. The cooperative behavior. The lesson is that researching the actual organism your fictional creature is based on usually produces material the writer could not have invented. Real biology is stranger than fictional biology. Use it.
The Politics
The film’s political subtext is more direct than most 1950s science fiction. The ants are explicitly the result of nuclear weapons testing. Dr. Medford’s final speech notes that humanity has entered a new era and that what comes next will depend on humanity’s willingness to confront the consequences of its decisions. The film argues that nuclear testing has produced effects we do not understand and that the giant ants are only the first of many likely consequences.
The argument is delivered through dramatic action rather than through speech. The atomic test sites are dangerous. The desert has been changed. The ants are evidence of the change. The film does not editorialize beyond Medford’s closing remarks. The audience supplies the political response. The argument lands because the film has demonstrated the consequences before stating them.
For Writers
A political argument delivered through demonstrated consequences is more durable than one delivered through speeches. Them! shows what nuclear testing has done. The audience reads the warning without being instructed. The lesson is that fiction’s political work happens through the events of the story rather than through characters explaining what the events mean. Show the consequence. Let the reader make the argument. The reader is more likely to retain a conclusion they reached than one they were told.
Craft Note
The giant-ant practical work is the 1954 film’s central craft. Gordon Douglas stages the desert location photography around full-scale ant models that were the largest creature effects of their decade. The technique demonstrates how creature features work best when the audience can see the practical work supporting the suspension of disbelief. The ants are scary because they are physically there.
The Verdict
9/10. The best giant-creature film of the 1950s and one of the foundational atomic-age science fiction films. The procedural structure is rigorous. The creature effects are exceptional for their period. The political subtext is delivered through demonstration rather than instruction. The Los Angeles storm drain climax is one of the most effective set pieces in 1950s genre cinema. Watch it.
FAQ
Are the ant effects really that good?
For 1954, yes. The practical puppets hold up better than most contemporary CGI ants would.
Did James Arness become Marshal Dillon?
Yes. Arness played Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke (1955-1975) for twenty years. Them! was an important early credit.
Is the political subtext deliberate?
Yes. Dr. Medford’s closing speech makes the argument explicit. The 1954 production was responding to ongoing public anxiety about atomic testing in the American Southwest.
How does it compare to other 1950s creature features?
Better than most. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) is the more politically ambitious film. Them! is the better-executed creature feature.
Did Edmund Gwenn act in this?
Yes. Gwenn had won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Them! was a later-career genre credit.
Is the Los Angeles climax really under the city?
Yes. The storm drains of Los Angeles were used as the actual location, with appropriate set dressing. The geography is largely accurate.
Should I watch this?
Yes. Foundational viewing in 1950s science fiction.