Them!

Them! (1954)

19 mistakes - chronological order

(2 votes)

Continuity mistake: When the girl wakes up in the ambulance, she has much less dirt on her forehead for one shot. It reappears as she lays down. (00:09:00)

Dr Wilson

Visible crew/equipment: When the state policemen meet for the first time, the shadow of some equipment is seen on the wall behind them. It falls and you can even hear it. (00:17:30)

Dr Wilson

Continuity mistake: When Patricia is pouring formic acid in the glass, the nurse's hands change position on the girl's chair. (00:23:35)

Dr Wilson

Visible crew/equipment: When they find the giant nest in the desert, several parked cars and trucks are visible in the background. It is supposed to be an isolated place. (00:34:00)

Dr Wilson

Other mistake: When they encounter the first ant, the policeman runs out of ammo, but the FBI agent fires at least nine shots. Not bad for a snubnose revolver that holds 5 or 6 rounds.

Revealing mistake: When Bob and Ben prepare to gas the ant nest, an ant appears below them. But its legs move too slowly, compared to the speed in which it appears; it rather looks like it is driving across the ground on (hidden) wheels.

Factual error: The crew gasses out the ant hill by dropping chemical grenades into the hole. But there are two reality mistakes about the grenades: 1) chemical grenades do not explode; they spray their contents into the area; and 2) considering the size of the ants, the size of their nest must be gigantic, and therefore, it would take more than a hundred grenades to flood it completely with cyanide gas.

Factual error: Grandpa Johnson's .30-30 Winchester rifle was apparently bent by the giant ants during their attack on his store. But as we can see later, the ants' mandibles are too thin and too curved to provide enough gripping and leverage area for bending a metal rifle barrel that severely.

Daniel4646

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Impossible. When Ben Peterson is killed near the film's end, you can see that the ant's mandibles leave too much space even as they clamp shut. And their slender form is made for grabbing bites, not sturdy enough for crushing jobs.

That's just what I was talking about, if not quite correctly worded.

Daniel4646

Revealing mistake: When the giant ants' nest is taken under fire with bazookas, it can be seen that the back-blast jets are just inserted, e.g. the 'zookas are not actually fired. Also, there is a cut between the 'firing and some of the explosions visible in the same frame.

Continuity mistake: When they go to visit the trailer, Pat is surprised by an ant on a bluff. When they shoot it, it falls with it's head just over the edge and two bushes in front of it. They switch to a camera angle from behind the ant and now its head is further back and there is a large white rock in front of the ant's head.

mrfrede

Factual error: In order to keep the giant ants inside the New Mexico nest, the protagonists bombard the entrance hole with phosphorus shells. Phosphorus burns at an average temperature of 5,000° Farenheit. At this temperature, the heat from the shells should have fused the sand around the entrance hole to glass (the threshold for this process is about 4,200° Farenheit), yet the sand remains unchanged.

Daniel4646

Continuity mistake: When the police went into the trailer her did not have a pencil in his pocket, in the trailer bedroom he had a pencil in his shirt pocket to pick up the gun. Then in the next scene it is gone.

Continuity mistake: When the first officer is left alone at the store and hears the weird noise he shuts off the light. There is a different length of string than what was on it a second before.

Continuity mistake: When the two officers drive up to the first destroyed trailer the awning at the rear of the trailer is very visible. When the officer walks to the back of the trailer the awning is gone.

Continuity mistake: Near the beginning, the two cops leave the trailer to go to Gramps' store. When they leave, the shadows are low but there should be plenty of daylight left. They arrive at the store and it's pitch black out, but it was only a twelve mile drive.

mrfrede

Factual error: When they put the pin on the map of Texas to mark the city of Brownsville, they are hundreds of miles off in West Texas near the city of Alpine. Happens around the time the patient who crashed the plane is interviewed in the hospital in Brownsville.

Robert Graham: And I thought today was the end of them.
Dr. Harold Medford: No. We haven't seen the end of them. We've only had a close view of the beginning of what may be the end of us.

More quotes from Them!

Trivia: When Ben Peterson is killed by a giant ant, he emits a high-pitched, half-choked death scream. This scream has been used in many other movies ever since: in Small Soldiers (when Brick Bazooka loses his legs); in Star Wars - A New Hope, when Luke shoots a stormtrooper in the shaft-swinging scene; in Lord Of The Rings - The Two Towers, when an Elf warrior is thrown off the Helm's Deep wall; and in Lord Of The Rings - Return of The King, when a Gondor soldier fleeing from Osgilliath is snatched up and dumped by a Nazgul steed. I guess that makes it the most used death scream in movie history.

More trivia for Them!

Question: Did anyone notice, or can explain how both James Whitmore, a state trooper, and James Arness, an FBI agent suddenly become outfitted in Army or National Guard uniforms, fully qualified to fire bazookas, etc and more or less in charge when the action moves to the pursuit in the LA sewer? seems like there would have been jurisdictional issues there (at least for James Whitmore).

Answer: Like the General said, the less people that know about the ants the better. They were a special task force assigned with the equipment and deputized to use any and all measures to stop the ants. Since the movies was set in the 1950's, James Arness and James Whitmores were most likely veterans of WW II and Korea.

More questions & answers from Them!

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