Inch long ants?? damn that's already huge #monsterdon

"They make slave laborers of the ants that they go and kill"

#monsterdon

Ugh... Science class. #Monsterdon #THEM

Of course! Everything's bigger in Texas

#Monsterdon

Males seem to have quite the destiny there. Mate. Die. Done.

#Monsterdon

@jonny And you know he travels with the film in a can, AND the rolldown charts he used earlier. #monsterdon #them

The doctor is totally nerding out about ants. #Monsterdon

"Watch this demonstration of power!"

Absolutely fantastic lecture

#Monsterdon

"She loses her wings after the wedding flight."

Ya don't say. 1950s women.
#monsterdon

I guess ants that size being able to fly isn't any more a violation of the square-cube law than them being able to survive in the first place...

#Monsterdon #Them1954

the savage mandibles!

#monsterdon

Lifting a ton and a half or more? So all these men are min. 300 lbs?

#monsterdon

"...this ant got trapped in amber. In fact, my brother is working on making a very special type of amusement park using some of the creatures he's found in amber. It's gonna be all kinds of fun!"

#Monsterdon #Them

A young HR Giger suddenly has an awakening during these scenes.
#Monsterdon #Them

#Monsterdon you could find them even in the finest Chinese Nookie Factories! ;)

45 minutes into the film: So, what is an ant?
#Monsterdon

I enjoy the sound of an old timey film projector

#monsterdon

Oh great, another old Ant Safety military training film #monsterdon

the ability to deliver clear lines with a cigarette in your mouth was also essential

in hollywood in the 1950s

#THEM #monsterdon

"...extraordinary hush hush."
"Is that a technical term?"

#Monsterdon #Them

#Monsterdon us military desperate to destroy a powerful matriarchy
too real

"We haven't seen the end of.... THEM" #HeSaidIt

#monsterdon

I like the translucent eggs with twitching larvae inside.

Doc: "Burn everything!"

#Monsterdon #Them(1954)

They should make a modern version of this, but in space. And instead of ants, aliens. That drip acid. Million dollar idea. You’re welcome Hollywood. #Monsterdon

#Monsterdon I didn’t expect deadpan “you two act like it’s the end of the world.” “Well it could be.”

I hope no puppeteers were harmed during the making of this film.
#Monsterdon #Them

#Monsterdon didnt that one godzilla movie do literally that
you know. the bad one. that godzilla movie.

@blogdiva "Are you my mummy?"

#Monsterdon

"Very Strange"

Not really, except everything is just 1000x bigger

#monsterdon

#Monsterdon hatched egg trope started here. this scene is a historical monument.

Is this going to be a stand-up fight, sir, or another bug hunt?

#Monsterdon

She didn't have to even change the flash bulb

#monsterdon

"Spit's all that's holding me together now too." What?
#Monsterdon #Them

#monsterdon BURN EVERYTHING! (They know)

Burn it!! Burn everything!

#Respect

#monsterdon

#Monsterdon aliens ripped this off

noting the timing here, usually we only reach "front yard broad day with the flamethrower directly at the monster" in the last 15 minutes or so, we haven't even learned anything about the hubris of the atomic era. there has gotta be at least one more level of ant above this #monsterdon

Oh, the formicity! #Monsterdon

Action science lady in action!
Sure it's a basic 50s trope we have seen before, but she's fiery.
#Monsterdon #Them

That's it, a flamethrower #monsterdon. Now you're cooking

they need special anti-ant weapons #monsterdon

leave the ants alone!

#monsterdon

We are just about at the halfway point. This would be deep into the third act of many of the worse movies we've watched for #Monsterdon.

I wonder what the back half of this one holds for us!

@futurebird @brooke at least some kind of ant preservation area or ant park, set up some of those thumpers from half life 2 for containment and then give them all the sugar they could want #monsterdon

Heeeeere's Anty!

#Monsterdon #Them

In an era where other films were shooting real insects on post cards Them was building full on life sized giant animatronic props. My hat's off to them for that. #Monsterdon #THEM

You have to wonder what happened to all the sand the ants excavated to make these tunnels

#Monsterdon

#Monsterdon goddamnit mastodon every time someone here says grenade my eyes autoread gender.

theyre throwing genders at the ants! 💥BOOM💥

I assume cyanide gas in sufficient concentration to kill ants would also be toxic to humans by skin contact. Gas masks alone not enough.

#Monsterdon #Them1954

"Is this a standup fight, or is it just another bug hunt?" - Pvt Hudson

#monsterdon #them

@bunnyhero Would watch #Monsterdon

Flame thrower guy is regretting that burrito he ate earlier. #monsterdon #Them

Me at work this year: "There's no time to give you a fast course in insect pathology, so let's stop all the talk and get on with it."

#Monsterdon

:bing: do ants play dead?
#Monsterdon

Ummm... I just realized the old doctor is the good lady's dad. WHY was he ogling her?

#Monsterdon

Imagine giant sentient ants in the 1950s being like "take us to your leader" and getting fed up like "the REAL leader! We want to talk to someone who isn't a useless drone!!!"

#Monsterdon

Look Robert, I couldn't stop my sexualized headstrong daughter from accompanying you in a mission of almost certain death
#monsterdon

@whknott this is the 1950s. Pretty sure not

#Monsterdon

Bazooka Joe vs THEM
#Monsterdon #Them

@rberlim@hachyderm.io 50s sci-fi is occasionally cool like that

#monsterdon #Them1954

not a firearm person but just once i’d like to shoot a bazooka #Monsterdon

you're can't come you're a dumb old girl

#monsterdon

"You think they're all dead?"

Oh sure, we've only got another hour left in the film. I'm assuming it's all denoument from here out. #Monsterdon

#Monsterdon when all else fails throw grenades until they stop coming

@paco Or 2024.

#Monsterdon

Are they going to launch cyanide gas into the ant hill with a rocket launcher? #Monsterdon

Fuck the military industrial complex, but also, bazookas are pretty cool #monsterdon

It was probably a Sikorsky H-5.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_H-5

#monsterdon

Oh now they've given the cop a flamethrower?
I appreciate lot of men back then could have been in WWII but this is getting out of hand, does he operate a tank later?

#monsterdon

I like how they pat the bazooka guys on the head for doing a good job. It’s sweet. #Monsterdon

They are going inside a giant ants nest? They must have Ellen Ripley on their team!
#monsterdon

ORBITAL NAPALM INCOMING

#monsterdon #them #helldivers

White phosphorus against the ant colony? But that's a war crime!

#Monsterdon #Them1954

"We don't want to damage the nest!"

"So what DO we do?"

How long would it take for your team to build some sexy lady ant costumes

#Monsterdon

So we've got military people and cops that were probably in the military in WW2 or Korea, I guess.

#monsterdon #Them1954

I lost track, what myth are we busting here?

#THEM #monsterdon

direct hit captain

er, general

#Monsterdon

We arrived at bazookas surprisingly quickly considering the scene that immediately preceded it.

#Monsterdon

#Monsterdon for once the scientist has _no compunction_ about murdering all the ants, he's excited to come up with myrmico-genocide plans

That escalated quickly. You know it's the 1950s when everything escalates to bazooka. #monsterdon

Oh sure, doc. Just a little ant dungeon crawling. #Monsterdon

Pat has a StereoRealist 3d camera.

This was supposed to be a nod to the fact that Them! was in 3d. Unfortunately, the production crew broke their 3D camera and Them! was not filmed in 3d. Sadly.

#monsterdon

Lots of talk about formic acid because of #monsterdon so I'll just say that I once had to take a liquid medicine which had been mixed with formic acid to keep me from using it to drug people, and it tastes bad but not all that bad. The trick is to mix it with citrus, which then tricks your brain into thinking it's just strong citrus. Dasani makes a water enhancer which is pina colada flavored which was excellent at disguising the taste.

"we go into the nest and find out." okay, dr doolittle can stay. #monsterdon

"So what you're proposing is... a bug hunt, man."

#THEM #monsterdon

I really, really want to lay phosphorous over a mound with a bazooka.

#Monsterdon

stridulatory organs are primarily found among arboreal ants, and the airborne sound of stridulation is only used in very close range communication, and usually is directed as vibrational communication through a common substrate like a leaf or a branch. so the stridulation being extremely loud is like they are treating the earth as just one of their branches, that they are 'arboreal' as their arbor is the galaxy, and should be causing a ton of earthquakes and causing gravitational waves as an alert signal to ants on neighboring planets #monsterdon

Cloud seeding! By god, this fiction is properly scientific

#Monsterdon

Bazooka Time!!! Yes!!!

#Monsterdon

@Rozzychan ants can exchange money for goods and services!

#THEM #monsterdon

I see at least two skulls in that scattered bonepile ...

#Monsterdon #Them(1954)

"pardon my model, i didn't have time to build it to scale" #wrongMovie #monsterdon

You know what you gotta do. You need a GIANT ANT-MIMIC SPIDER. <https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/223684992>

#Monsterdon

Mic drop, ribcage drop, potato potáto #monsterdon

@moira Wake me when we get to the Empire of the Ants anthill, that's a couple streets down. #Monsterdon

The doctor’s frustration with the absurdity of the radio communication rules is somewhat endearing. #Monsterdon

Maybe the ants represent the other, or the Lacanian real, or they are rhizomatic.

#Monsterdon

Helicopter English is exactly the same as normal English except that you have to say "over" after every sentence

Don't worry about having to be speak more clearly to be understood over the static, nope, definitely not a concern

#Monsterdon

"He's not a young man, and he probably shouldn't have made this trip, but he's a scientist, and, well, giant goddamn ants"

#monsterdon

Wait there's a big obvious ant hole down there with giant ants!

Go in for another look

#monsterdon