>> I couldn't believe what happened to him at the end of the movie.
He dies so gruesomely in the fangs of the ant. I wasn't expecting this at all..."
THEM is one of my top 5, all-time favorite movies. In fact, it might even be #1 give that I've watched it sooooo many times that I've lost count. It just has great repeat viewability. And I still remember that the very first time I saw it, as a kid, I was totally horrified when Ben gets it. On the other hand, as DavidEMartin points out in his reply (in this thread) think of it this way: Ben's death wasn't entirely in vain...
Though it wasn't the first instance in movie history where it happened, Ben's death did add itself to a long, proud line of secondary characters getting themselves shockingly knocked off -- which, to this day, helps to keep audiences on their toes as to "who" will survive to the very end.
Also, I've always thought that if THEM were made today, Ben's "death" would be fodder material for a sequel, when a studio would inevitably make THEM 2. That's because if you watch the movie, you'll notice that he gets grabbed by the ant and shaken about...the soldiers immediately show up and shoot the ant (good thing with THAT many bullets flying none of them hit him!)...and then Ben gets dropped to the ground, at which point he says a few final words to Robert in gasping breaths.
HOWEVER...as Robert is kneeling over Ben, the extra/soldier standing right behind him gets one line and yells out "Medics!" And then as Robert stands and turns to him, notice that he DOESN'T shake his head as if to say "No need, it's too late", but INSTEAD he makes a sweeping gestures with his arm, as if to say "Do what you can."
Anyway, as a long time THEM! geek fan, I've always thought that had the movie been made today -- and going by today's movie-making and business sensibilities -- the studio would have inevitably made THEM 2. And then they would bring Ben back for the sequel and you'd find out that he actually did survive -- though now, as a character bit, he'd be confined to a wheelchair or something, to account for his spine being injured by the ant's mandibles. But at least he'd be alive and sequels being what they are, now he'd be looking for some payback!
From ED WOOD...
Is there a script?
No, but there's a poster!
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rcwire
13 years ago
I think Bob Graham dismisses the situation with a wave of his hands out of frustration he couldn't save his buddy. The call for "medics" was when another soldier gets hit by a timber roof support. Ben is dead, he dies saving the kids, and that immortalizes his character.
Think of other heroes who get almost to the end and then get killed.
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Deluge69-663-991830
13 years ago
"Think of other heros who get almost to the end and then get killed."
The first example that comes to mind is when "secondary hero" Russell Johnson sacrifices his life when he kills the giant crab at the very end of Roger Corman's ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957). Radiation also took the blame for creating the giant crabs; naturally.
I liked his character over the first lead, Richard Garland, who naturally survives with the girl. Johnson made a far more likable hero who should have survived, and he definitely deserved the girl a lot more than Garland's bland character, who doesn't really do that much, except when comforting his "honey". And how many times did he keep calling her that? Whoops! Excuse me, it's still the 50's.
Guess the "moral" is "Life is so unfair that it's always the jerk who gets the girl, instead of the real man who did all the dirty work."
Can we all relate to that time worn pain?
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