I am currently watching one of my favorite Sci-Fi B-movies: "Them!" - the story of giant mutant ants created by the first atomic explosion at Trinity Site, NM.
James Arness, James Whitmore, and Fess Parker! 1954.
It's a pretty terrible movie, and I could devote blogspace to a lengthy commentary on "how Hollywood fantasies poisoned America against nuclear energy"... but I won't.
Instead, I'll comment on the ecological error featured in the early scenes.
The story begins in New Mexico, in the desert around Alamogordo, New Mexico - near White Sands Missile Range and Trinity Site.
These desert scenes are notable for the featured vegetation: Joshua Trees.
Joshua Trees are the signature plant of the Mojave Desert, in southern California. (The signature plant of the Sonoran desert in AZ is the Saguaro cactus.) The signature plant of the Chihuahuan desert in southern NM is lechugilla... and other Chihuahuan desert plants are mesquite, creosote, and yucca. Joshua Trees? Nary a one!
This error of convenience seems perfectly consistent with the movie's central premise: that the first atomic blast created a race of giant mutant ants. A fun story-line, but little relationship to reality.
Still, I watch the movie... pretty much whenever it's on TV!
Bring on the giant mutant ants!
Being on Medium
2 months ago
2 comments:
Ever see "Night of the Lupus"? Same basic idea. I'm drawn to it like a moth to a flame too.
Actually I took a seminar on teaching science with science fiction. Them was the featured movie, the way you teach from science fiction is to point out the violations of science. Why can't ants get the size on Semi-trucks? Then you point out the limitations of the exoskeleton relative to size and strength of legs, there are other errors that can be pointed out as well.
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