Case Study 3: Them [1954]

{first shot}: low camera angle, the sky framed by the stark branches of a joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia). A light, single-engined aircraft appears in the distance through the branches of the joshua tree, its motor barely audible. The aircraft is a civilian-model, perhaps an early Cessna or Beechcraft, the sort of plane that is often used for aerial spotting and crop-dusting. The plane files in an arc, mid-screen, through the branches.

{next shot}: Mid-range shot, high camera angle (approximately 600), looking down on light plane against background of the desert floor. There is a fair amount of scrub growth (sage, ocotillo, and more joshua trees). The plane occupies the lower third of the screen, slightly off-center, towards the left; its forward direction is to the right. In the upper quarter of the screen a faint line bisects the desert, parallel with the top of the screen and the direction of flight. It is a road; there is a vehicle, on the road, moving in the same direction as the aircraft, entering the screen from the upper right corner.

-00.29.01		{cut}: to inside aircraft cockpit.
-00.28.25		{cut}: to interior of vehicle; it is a police car. There are two uniformed officers inside.
-00.28.39		{cut to}: POV of officers, looking out front windshield at desert, road ahead.
-00.28.18		[radio]: ". . . . maybe the guy who sent in that report drank his breakfast . . . . . . . . hey . . . wait a minute . . . ."
-00.28.02		{cut}: To overhead shot of a small figure on the desert floor. Aircraft circles.
-00.27.55		[radio]: ". . . . it's a kid, alright . . . . maybe fifty yards off the road . . . ."
-00.27.30		{tracking shot}: A small child in pigtails and a tartan shawl, silent, with a shocked, blank look on her face, walking from the right side of the screen. -the child is picked up and carried to the police car. [radio noise, static] ". . . . I said . . . there's a trailer about three miles ahead of you . . . on the side of the road . . . . better check it out"
-00.25.60		{dolly shot}: Pull up to car (1953 Ford) and trailer (Airstream clone); POV from inside police car. The child is sleeping. The officers exit their vehicle, and begin to inspect the trailer. It has a gaping hole in one side, and there is refuse, money, scattered on the floor. An officer bends down:
-00.23.34		". . . . this blood must be ten, twelve hours old . . . . whatever happened here must have happened last night, or early in the morning . . . .check outside . . . ."
-00.23.23		". . . . sure no traffic accident . . . . this wasn't caved in . . . it was caved out!"
-00.22.30		". . . .found this. There are six or seven more scattered over there . . . ." ". . . .sugar . . . ." One officer walks back to the car to report in [radio static]. ". . . .car 5W . . . we're twelve miles north of the cross-roads, halfway up the secondary road to White Butte . . . ."
-00.21.07		[first appearance of cyclical oscillating sound]
-00.20.41		". . . .the wind . . . . pretty freakish in these parts . . . sandstorm kickin' up . . . ." [the officers call for an ambulance and a forensic team. the little girl is taken to a hospital, and plaster casts are made of some odd depressions in the sand. the officers get into their vehicle, and respond to a report about something strange at johnson's store. they drive off.]
-00.19.30		[Another patrol car arrives at rance (sic) Johnson's store. It has been damaged, apparently ransacked. {POV} to right, front of police car, store.]
-00.18.45		[inside store: background noise, am band transmission] "[diseases] . . . such as cholera, malaria, sleeping sickness . . . .( ) approximately permanent plague conditions . . . which . . . have virtually been eliminated . . .( )"
-00.17.34		[a body is found, illuminated by the outer arc of a swinging electric light; later we find out that it is ed blackbird, who has been staying at Johnson's] ". . . .this wasn't pushed in . . . it was pulled out . . . . just like at the trailer . . . . " ". . . look at this . . . . sugar . . . ." " . . . money wasn't taken here either . . . . " " . . . .okay . . . . This is another 914 . . . ."
-00.16.07		[second appearance of cyclical oscillating sound]
-00.15.11		[sound of gunshots]
-00.15.00		[silence, but for the wind, which is picking up]
-00.14.30		[back in the office] " . . . everything seems to indicate a homicidal maniac . . . " " . . . .This is Robert Graham. From the FBI office in Alamagordo." " . . . .lots of evidence loaded with clues . . . but nothing adds up . . . " [the medical examiner reports that ed could have died-] " . . . .any of five ways: his neck and back were broken; his chest was crushed; his skull was fractured . . .and, here's a weird one . . . he had enough formic acid in him to kill twenty men . . . . " " . . . . formic acid? . . . . "
-00.07.30		[(first indication of embedded hypothesis/identification); Appearance of elderly scientist and young daughter, flown in on a military bomber (B-25 Mitchell medium bomber)] " . . . .White Sands . . . 1945 . . . nine years ago . . . . " " . . . .hmmm . . . . that's just about right . . . . " [(First indication of embedded hypothesis/mechanism)]
-00.02.19		[third appearance of cyclical oscillating sound; on the desert, near alamogordo]
-00.01.47		[first appearance of mutation: a gigantic ant] [gunfire: .38 caliber, thompson sub-machine gun]
-00.00.45		[the mutated creature expires]
-00.00.32		" . . . .what is it? . . . . "
-00.00.00		[embedded theory of aberration, and misidentification of species by the elderly scientist]: " . . . .Capadotus pacitus [sic]- one of the family of formicidae . . . ." " . . . . a fantastic mutation. . . . probably caused by lingering radiation from the first atomic bomb . . . . notice its odor? . . . . "

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