Them!

 Them! is a 1954 science fiction monster film which stars James Whitmore (The Asphalt Jungle), Edmund Gwenn (Miracle on 34th Street) and James Arness (TV show Gunsmoke).  It is considered one of the best of its genre during the decade of the 1950s.  I remember seeing it at the Oswego Theater when I was a child.

On July 16, 1945, the first experimental atomic bomb was detonated near White Sands, New Mexico.  Three weeks later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, which led to the end of World War II.

Is it possible that the result of the radiation from the first test in New Mexico could affect the size of the ant population in the area?  That is the premise of the film Them!

While on patrol, New Mexico State Policeman Sergeant Peterson (Whitmore) and his partner discover a little girl in shock wandering alone in the desert.  She was part of a family that was on vacation in the area.  The police find their trailer utterly destroyed, but not sure by what.  The little girl's family is missing.

Near the site of the trailer is a general store that was also destroyed in a similar manner.  The owner was found dead.  An autopsy showed a huge amount of formic acid.

As the little girl's father was a FBI agent, the FBI sends Special Agent Graham (Arness) to help the local police with the case.  

"After a strange impression is found in the sand near the trailer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sends scientist Dr. Harold Medford (Gwenn) to assist with the investigation. Medford exposes the little girl to formic acid fumes, which releases her from her catatonic state; she screams in panic and yells "Them!"."

"Medford finally reveals his theory: a colony of giant ants, mutated by radiation from the first atomic bomb test in New Mexico is responsible for the area's deaths. The US Army orders a helicopter search, and the giant ants' nest is found." 

"Cyanide gas bombs are tossed inside, and Graham and Peterson descend into the nest to check for giant ant survivors. Deep inside, they find evidence that two queens have hatched and escaped to establish new colonies."

Is this the end of human beings as the dominant species on earth?