#monsterdon

modern movies could learn a lesson from old timey b movies. you can just suddenly end your movie. just boom. just its over. things don't need to resolve

#monsterdon

Wait! I have an idea. Hear me out. #monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd

i need an audio oscillator, a boat, chewing gum, a pitcher full of martini and a giant grasshopper in a bikini

#Monsterdon #TheBeginningOfTheEnd

#monsterdon #beginningoftheend1957

@RobynGoodfellow

They still use forced perspective in Chicago twice a year to set the clocks for DST.

Thanks to lessons learned filming this movie, Chicago became a world leader in skyscraper building by applying forced perspective to get the materials where the workers needed them!

#monsterdon #thebeginingoftheend

#Monsterdon

We've been using frequencies that were filtered. Now we're gonna try unfiltered. Maybe menthol frequencies.

#monsterdon

They're trying to Theremin the bug to death. #Monsterdon

I bet the US Army hasn't updated their Locust Invasion plans since the end of the Cold War...

#Monsterdon

Oh no way! The area of my childhood! Many's the time on the Amtrak from Highland Park to Urbana I heard the conductor announcing "RANTOUL! Next stop, Rantoul!"

#Monsterdon

"It's 70 degrees, Ed."

Cooler by the lake.

#Monsterdon

Look, the locusts were headed to Chicago looking for food, right? Just send a mess of hot Italian beef sandwiches and Polish sausage out on a barge to lure them into lake Michigan.

Bing, bang, boom, problem solved, we all go out for beer and deep dish.

#Monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd

lofi beats to chill/study locusts to

#monsterdon #beginningoftheend1957

Heart-warming to see hand-made special effects no matter how dreadful the result

#Monsterdon

#monsterdon Ah yes, Madame Coogie

🦖MONSTERDON 🎞️

⁉️THE TRIVIA END 🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗
RESPONSE TO REVIEWS

Producer-director Bert I. Gordon did not care whether reviews were bad....

"The movie audience these days consists almost entirely of teenagers. Either they're naïve and go to get scared, or they're sophisticated and enjoy scoffing at the pictures. There isn't much a teenager can scoff at these days, you know."

Is the Monsterdon audience that different? Discuss.

#Monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd

Polygraph a giant locust? HahaHAHA amazing

#Monsterdon

This general really wants to bomb Chicago. He must be from Milwaukee.

#Monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd

“i used to fool around with radio” is the silent generation’s version of Gen X’s “i went from phreaking public telephones as a kid to hacking computers instead of going to college”

#Monsterdon #TheBeginningOfTheEnd

dangit! almost forgot #Monsterdon so am stuck watching late the colorized version of The Beginning of the End, but had to watch a movie with Peter “have you seen a grown man naked” Graves.

Airplane!, Polics Squad and Naked Gun introduced me to a lot of b-movie actors from the 50s and 60s.

I got me a Chrysler, it's a big as a whale, and we're ready to destroy Ludlow!

#monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd #GrasshoppersVsPostcards

🗣 WHAT’S THE FREQUENCY KENNETH?!?!?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S0z3aU_MQ9Q

#Monsterdon #TheBeginningOfTheEnd

this is amazing. i love this. grasshoppers climbing the building is an absolute must clip #monsterdon

#Monsterdon Maybe the bomber should stand by, in case they can't replicate the lab result in the field?

"You can't drop an atom bomb on Chicago!"

sounds like a skill issue to me

#Monsterdon

They should get Gillian Anderson on the case.

#Monsterdon

"In a way I feel responsible."

...In a *way*???

#Monsterdon

"Pull over, I saw something."

Oh that's just the Beginning. You see it a lot in Illinois. #Monsterdon

LMAO as they fuck off into the water, they play those godzillaesque horns 🎺 dun Dun DUN!

welp. this was short and satisfyingly bad.

well done crew. we did it!

#Monsterdon #TheBeginningOfTheEnd

@CactuarJoe the first movie this year that i needed an "i kind of low key liked it actually?" option for.

#monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd1957

*walks over to "_ DAYS SINCE SOMETHING HAS FUCKED OFF INTO THE SEA" sign*
*erases 57*
*writes 0*
*shamefully walks back*

#Monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd

The sad thing is, that brief moment of hugging is more denouement than most #Monsterdon get.

#Monsterdon So these observation posts, they're still there?

They were just going to sit there in the city to observe the atom bomb going off?

OMG the locusts have reached the south side of Chicago, my birthplace 😨

#Monsterdon

#monsterdon it's ok guys, Warshington said we're allowed to bomb Chicago

"The suburbs of Paxton must be held."

Gently, like hamburger. #Monsterdon

love how they filmed in exactly two locations:

1) office
2) woods

#Monsterdon

For the record, "No, that's not how photosynthesis works."

#monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd #GrasshoppersVsPostcards

I have to say those kind of massive cars are gratifying to drive.

Here's my painting of my old '56 Chevy from many's the long year since (background is [formerly] Rural Route 1 in Monee, Illinois, as a matter of fact)

#Monsterdon

"This one did."

Fucking redditor response there, she KNOWS THAT, DIPSHIT. #Monsterdon

Tubi has sensed I like bad movies so it has autoplayed Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

#monsterdon

🦖MONSTERDON 🎞️

⁉️THE TRIVIA END 🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗

Despite being profitable, Beginning of the End had a prophetic title. AB-PT shuttered its operations immediately after releasing the film. We still don't know why. Beloved Bert went to work at AIP right after though.

#Monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd

In Chicago, Bug Steps On You #Monsterdon

Yeah by the way, you can't read the galvanic skin response of a grasshoppers because they don't have skin, and more importantly they don't have sweat glands.
#monsterdon

That guy is 37?!? Is that in dog years?

#monsterdon

"WHERE WERE YOU ON THE NIGHT OF THE 24TH"
*screescreescree*
"Don't you dare bring my mother into this."

#monsterdon

"You know... I'm 37 years old..."

And I've never even-- Well, nevermind. #Monsterdon

"We should nuke them. It's the only way."
"Isn't that what created this?"
#monsterdon

The Biblical solution to locust plagues is to free your Jewish slaves, right?

#Monsterdon
#BeginningOfTheEnd

Ed Wainwright doesn't look like he has ever wrought a wain in his whole life 🤨

#Monsterdon

Welp, that was a pretty good #Monsterdon flick, even if we fell short of a convincing massive pile of drowned giant locusts at the end. Both leads had genuine talent, the writing and effects were at least up to par for a 1957 giant radioactive grasshoppers movie, and it was a lot of fun overall.

Thanks for the good time, everybody. Go forth and polygraph the giant insect of your choice. And always remember, playing excruciatingly loud music on your boat saves lives.

#beginningoftheend

the locusts are going to da soudside.

da pope is from da soudside.

coincidence?

I THINK NOT!

#Monsterdon #TheBeginningOfTheEnd

I really enjoyed that. It was very Bert I. Gordon, very silly, and a whole lot of fun to riff on.

Thanks for all your toots folks.

And as always, thanks @Taweret for organizing!

Till next time!

#Monsterdon
#BeginningOfTheEnd1957

The locusts fuck off into the sea, and the movie is over. Textbook landing

#Monsterdon

I think they should've nuked Chicago anyway. Just to be sure. #Monsterdon

It'll be the Prudential Building although he maybe couldn't say the name

#Monsterdon

What if grasshopper counters with own sonic weapon?

#Monsterdon

I'm going to cultivate that smoky '50s actress voice and accent. I bet people will take me seriously.

#Monsterdon

HE WAS ONLY TWO SEMESTERS FROM RETIREMENT

#Monsterdon

"You can't stay here with a nuclear bomb over your head!"

I lived in Chicago when Blagojevich was mayor, it wasn't that different. #Monsterdon

Expecting the movie ends with Peter Graves in a bar chatting up a young lady:

"…anyhoo, long story short, that's how they came up with the grasshopper drink before you now. Drink up, baby."

#monsterdon

@xerozohar They should try Good Entomologist Bad Entomologist. #Monsterdon

@_L1vY_

I hear it’s the baddest part of town, and if you go down there you better just beware…

#Monsterdon

"A billion dollars worth of damage"

Lady, that's a Tuesday in 2026

#Monsterdon

PEEPING LOCUST!? #Monsterdon

AND WE HAVE A TITLE DROP

#Monsterdon

"Is this a standard bug hunt sir?"

#Monsterdon

"I am listening!"

For a given definition of listening, sure. #Monsterdon

I'm an etymologist, did you know grasshoppper comes from the english Grass and Hopper?

I'm not a very good etymologist.
#monsterdon

Frank?! who hurt Frank?! where's frank? was there a frank? did I miss a frank?

#monsterdon

@ottaross Or here.

#Monsterdon

that's

that's not how radiation works :/

#Monsterdon

A more familiar Peter Graves role a few years later.

#Monsterdon

This is the other fantastical part: A supportive boss who is open to change.

SCIENCE FICTION!!
#monsterdon

Mostly they come out at night… mostly

#monsterdon #beginningoftheend1957

I'M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS, BUT

#Monsterdon

RIP Ludlow. There's a reason it's not the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign-Ludow

#Monsterdon

"Just follow the arrows, lady."
*lady proceeds to DDR down the road*

#monsterdon

So, this one was part of a Giant Arthropod movie craze that included Deadly Mantis, Tarantula (which featured a young Clint Eastwood in a very small role), Giant Gila Monster (not an arthropod, but still), Black Scorpion, et al.

Of course, the greatest of these was THEM! but the Owlbear loves them all.

#Monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd

How have these locusts not yet figured out that Peter Graves is trying to fool them into compromising themselves by broadcasting a signal and pretending to be something he's not?

Are they idiots? 🤦‍♂️

#Monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd #MissionImpossible

🦖#MONSTERDON Goodbye!

I love me a big bug movie! I also love the crazy commentary by the Real-Time Film Analysis Squad. Does anyone else feel itchy?

❤️ And thank you so much @Taweret@Taweret@timeloop.cafe for hosting this oddly rich event. Can't wait for the next one.

🅱️ and thanks @miru@ryan@social.miyaku.media for your stream which I used tonight! Convenient and bonus Ultraman is worth the early start!

#Monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd

so this movie is the PIED PIPER, but make it schmaltzy oscilloscopes and nuculear mutant bugs

#Monsterdon #TheBeginningOfTheEnd

Thanks as always to @Taweret for arranging the shebang!

#Monsterdon

This is the Beginning of the Never Watching That Again.

#monsterdon

and then the grasshoppers fucked off into lake michigan or something iunno

i'm tired.

thank @Taweret and @miru and everyone. thank.

#monsterdon

@amyfou #Monsterdon

Graves: "Wanna smooch?"

(crickets)

This is the most fun you can legally have crawling around on a postcard

#Monsterdon

@Taweret Honestly, it's his best work. This is pretty much peak Gordon.

#Monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd

It must feel great to fire an automatic rifle at a giant bug. #Monsterdon

I have turned my volume down three times now

#monsterdon

"The south side's getting some action."

Nothing new there, right? WOOOOokay sorry

#Monsterdon

🦖MONSTERDON 🎞️

⁉️THE TRIVIA END 🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗
By The Numbers: Production Costs

The War of the Worlds - $2 million
Them! - $1 Million
It Came From Outer Space - $532,000
Beast From 20,000 Fathoms - $400,000
Beginning of the End - $150,000 - $300,000 (typically for studio)

#Monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd

"The show is yours, Wainright."

Get these locusts into dresses, we're gonna give them the best can can line Chicago's EVER SEEN!!!

#Monsterdon

@SnoopJ Didn't he say he was 37? Didn't look like it.

#Monsterdon #BeginningOfTheEnd1957

That grasshopper is LYING!!!

#Monsterdon

oh my god they're giving the giant locust a polygraph

incredible stuff

#Monsterdon

i never understood the use of hats in Hollywood movies. in Puerto Rico, using hats indoors was bad manners. what gives? why do women use hata indoors in Hollywood movies?!?!?

(you can tell been #sewing all day)

#Monsterdon #TheBeginningOfTheEnd

"You can't drop an atom bomb on Chicago!"

Can I? I've got a grudge. #Monsterdon

This was really quite reasonable. Actually well done.

#monsterdon