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About This Quiz
The thrillers of the '80s and '90s had serial killers, and today's have radical terrorists, but the 1950s might have had the biggest scare of all -- giant postnuclear bugs! Relive the terror of "Them!" with our quiz!
"Them!" was part of the 1950s "big bug" genre. What kind of bugs, exactly, are involved?
ants
The ants have mutated to about nine feet long, because of exposure to atomic radiation from a nuclear test in the desert. The film does a good job of making them look scary, with big, sharp mandibles.
flies
roaches
spiders
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"Them!" starts in the desert of which state?
Arizona
California
New Mexico
In filming, the desert outside Palmdale, California, stood in for the area outside Alamogordo. Look out for telltale Joshua trees.
Texas
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What are State Troopers Peterson and Blackburn looking for?
giant ants, of course
a stranded motorist
a wandering little girl
One squad car and a plane search for the girl, who was sighted wandering in the desert. It's important they find her -- exposure in hot desert conditions can be fatal.
an escaped convict
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When they find the little girl, what does she say to Peterson and Blackburn?
"Where's my dad?"
"I got away."
"They're coming!"
nothing
The little girl, whose age is estimated to be about six, is in shock and remains silent. For the child actress, Sandy Descher, this was probably an easy introduction to the job!
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What is Sgt. Peterson's first name?
Al
Ben
His underling, the trooper Blackburn, is named Ed. (But he gets killed pretty quickly, so don't get attached).
Bob
Eric
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After picking up the girl, where are Peterson and Blackburn sent by dispatch?
back to base
to an abandoned car and trailer
The vehicles seem to belong to a vacationing family, but no one is on the scene. The troopers later find out the little girl was part of the family, headed by FBI agent Alan Ellinson.
to the general store
to a domestic disturbance
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What is odd about the way the Ellinson trailer was damaged?
it shows signs of radiation exposure
it shows signs of fire damage
its side is caved out, not caved in
Peterson points this out. If the trailer was hit by another vehicle, you'd expect the damage to be inward, not outward.
the trailer hitch is bent in a knot
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What do the men hear while outside the car and trailer?
the birds falling silent
another child crying in the distance
a loud rustling noise
a high-pitched ululation
If you hate the noise, you might as well turn off the movie at this point. You'll hear it over and over again, whenever the ants are near.
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The general store the men go to next is owned by ________ Johnson.
Doc
Gramps
Gramps's store is a mess, and deserted, like the car and trailer. Peterson and Blackburn find poor Gramps in the store's cellar, dead.
Stevie
Wayne
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At both the Ellinson trailer and Gramps's store, a mess has been made with what?
clothes
cans of food
water
sugar
In the trailer, a box of sugar cubes is ripped open and spilled. In Gramps's store, larger bags of sugar have been interfered with. Unfortunately, as we're about to find out, sugar isn't enough -- these ants have turned carnivorous.
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What is Gramps Johnson's cause of death?
his chest was crushed
his neck & back were broken
his skull was fractured
he had a lethal dose of formic acid in his system
any or all of these
The coroner gives all of these as a possible cause of death. He ends by saying that Johnson "had enough formic acid in him to kill 20 men." Formic acid is from the Latin "formica," meaning -- wait for it! -- "ant"!
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Who played Robert Graham, the FBI agent?
James Cagney
James Arness
Arness was better known for playing Marshal Matt Dillon on "Gunsmoke." His height was an astonishing six feet, seven inches. Co-star James Whitmore wore lifts in his shoes to compensate.
James Brolin
Sterling Hayden
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Why do the police send for help from the Department of Agriculture?
they fear crops will be lost
they can't identify a big animal print
Technically, Bob Graham sends the print "to Washington." Only after the FBI is unable to identify the mark does the USDA get involved.
Peterson has a personal connection there
it's the closest U.S. government bureau
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When Dr. Medford arrives, what does the USDA scientist look like?
a distinguished old man
a smartly-dresed young woman
a trim African-American
both #1 and #2
There are two Dr. Medfords: an old man with a quasi-British accent and his competent, well-dressed daughter. Women come off well in the film: there's an accomplished doctor and a female Army intelligence officer so cool that her underling is Leonard Nimoy!
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The Medfords share what unique scientific specialty?
eschatology
campanology
myrmecology
"Myrmecology" is the study of ants.
neurobiology
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What revives the Ellinson girl from her shock?
The younger Dr. Medford splashes her with ice water
The older Dr. Medford waves formic acid under her nose
Formic acid is said to have a pungent odor. It certainly works on the girl, who jumps from her chair and yells "Them! Them! Them!"
Agent Graham tells her that her family is dead
she sees ants in the hospital cafeteria
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How wide is the strange animal print found in the desert?
five inches
half a foot
one foot
12 centimeters
From the 12-centimeter width, the older Dr. Medford estimates the ants must be eight feet long, at least. However, he won't yet share his theory that these are giant ants.
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When do we first see a giant ant?
when one kills Ed Blackburn
when one attacks Patricia Medford
This is at about the 28-minute mark, or nearly a third of the movie's running time. It's a classic rule of scary movies: Don't bring your Big Bad out too early.
when one attacks Bob Graham
there's one hiding behind the general store
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When Peterson is firing at the ant, where does the older Dr. Medford say to aim?
the eye
the antennae
Dr. Medford says the ant is "helpless without them!" Peterson soon cuts the ant down with a spray of sub-machine-gun fire.
the underbelly
the thorax
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Why will bombing the nest at night only worsen the problem?
ants are more aggressive at night
ants sleep too deep in their tunnels to be affected
the nest will be mostly empty at night
Dr. Medford explains that in hot weather, like that of the desert, the ants will go out at night to look for food. Bombing their nest will just leave them on the surface with nowhere to retreat to.
it'll just make the ants angry
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How do they destroy the ant nest?
by flooding it
with powerful sonic waves
with cyanide gas
with flamethrowers
both #3 and #4
The older Dr. Medford suggests either flooding the tunnels, or using gas. After the men use the latter method, they have to go down into the tunnels with Patricia Medford and do some hands-on mop-up with the flamethrowers.
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Why, according to Patricia Medford, is the threat not over with the destruction of the nest?
the atomic radiation might have caused mutations elsewhere
the new-hatched queens have flown away
The younger Medford has insisted on checking out the ruined nest, and it's a good thing. She recognizes from the broken eggshells that "princess ants" have taken to their wings and left the nest already.
formic acid has gotten into the water supply
some ants might still be on the surface
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According to Patricia Medford, how long can queen ants lay eggs from one mating?
three months
six months
more than a year
15 to 17 years
One-night stands have serious repercussions when you're an ant.
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What structure do the ants infest next?
the Carlsbad Caverns
an abandoned church
a ship at sea
The SS Viking sends a distress signal after the ants emerge from its hold. The ship eventually has to be sunk by a Navy ship, the USS Milwaukee.
a hollow mountain
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Who played the Texan ranchhand-pilot who spotted flying ants?
Wilford Brimley
Sean McClory
Fess Parker
Reportedly, Walt Disney (the man, not the company) screened the film to assess whether James Arness would make a good Davy Crockett. Instead, Disney was impressed with Parker's work as Alan Crotty, the ranchhand locked up a mental ward, and cast him.
Dabney Coleman
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After telling Crotty that he'll talk to the doctor about getting him released, what does Graham do?
asks the doctor to release him
tells the doctor to keep him confined
Graham wants Crotty confined so he can't tell his story about flying ants. The law-enforcement characters in the movie are very concerned with preventing a mass panic.
tells Pat Medford he doesn't think the sighting is legitimate
tries to find the doctor but can't
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What is stolen from a rail car in Los Angeles?
ant traps
guns
sugar
The outside of the rail car is caved out, like the Ellinson trailer was, and forty tons of sugar are missing. Peterson and Graham question the rail yard's watchman, who is suspected of complicity in the theft -- but this time, unlike with Crotty, Graham allows the man to be released.
television sets
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What does the mental ward inmate Jensen say he's seen outside his window?
ants and an airplane
The ants look too big to fit in the airplane, Jensen says. This will make sense later, when the men find a crushed model airplane at the site of the suspected infestation.
ants and bees
loads of sugar and honey
monkeys and tigers
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What part of Los Angeles have the ants infested?
Griffith Observatory
the La Brea tar pits
the canals of Venice
the storm drains
Jensen saw the storm drain opening from his window, and the ants going in and out. Pat Medford has explained that this kind of opening is attractive to ants -- the hold of the SS Viking would have looked much the same.
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Why can't the military and police just gas the storm drains?
it'll taint the water supply
the Lodge boys, Jerry and Mike, might be hiding inside
This requires troops to go into the tunnels with guns and flamethrowers. Fun fact: Several members of the cast were military veterans who'd handled flamethrowers in real life.
San Quentin refuses to release its supply of cyanide gas
the gas could back up into private homes
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Which character dies in the storm drains?
the older Dr. Medford
the younger Dr. Medford
Bob Graham
Ben Peterson
Ben dies nobly. He saves the Lodge boys, who were hiding from the ants in a narrow crevice. Then he's caught by an ant himself, and dies of his wounds.
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Who delivers the film's moral about the dangers of the atomic age?
Bob Graham
Major Kibbee
the older Dr. Medford
Medford warns that humanity has "opened a door to a new world. What we'll find in that new world, no one can predict." The ironic thing is that several of the characters smoke like chimneys throughout the film. Perhaps a better moral would have been Smoking Is Not Cool. After all, sixty years later, mutant monsters have failed to appear, while cancer has cut a swath through the "Greatest Generation." (Not that we're preaching or anything!)
the younger Dr. Medford
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Was it true? Bonus round: Can ants really lift 20 times their own weight?
yes, as Dr. Medford says
An ant really can do this, and it's not just queens. That wouldn't make much sense, as the queen's job is mainly to lay eggs. The average worker ant can perform this feat.
no, it's more like 10 times
no, it's more like twice their weight
yes, but only queens can
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Was it true? Bonus round: Do ants really go to war?
yes. they do attack other ant colonies
Dr. Medford says that only ants and man go to war. And, in fact, ants will attack other colonies, defeat them, and take away their eggs. The ants that hatch from those eggs become "slaves" for their new colony. It's an incredibly complex social structure!
no, they're peace-loving
no, but individual ants will fight to the death
sort of -- they will attack other bug species en masse
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Was it true? Bonus round: Which body part do ants NOT have?
ears
lungs
eyes
both #1 and #2
Dr. Medford says that ants "breathe through their sides," which is basically true: they have holes throughout their bodies that take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. They also have no ears, relying strongly on their sense of smell and on feeling vibrations.
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/35
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