MovieChat Forums > Village of the Giants (1965) Discussion > What about the giant cat?

What about the giant cat?

posted 12 years ago by matrix29
6 replies | jump to latest

In the beginning of the movie the creatures enlarged by "The Goo" are in order:

A stray cat (which threatens the main characters Tommy Kirk as Mike, Nancy Charla Doherty as Nancy, Ronny Howard as The Genius) which is then chased off by the barking dog. The enlarged stray cat is never seen again in the film.

Two ducks are enlarged by The Goo. One is verifiability later killed then eaten at a barbeque (shown roasted on a spit over an open flame). The whereabouts of the other giant duck is unknown.

The family dog is enlarged by The Goo. It is later returned back to normal size near the end of the movie and remains alive to the movie end.

A brown hairy tarantula spider (improbable to find unless it was a pet of The Genius) is enlarged by The Goo in the basement lab of The Genius. It is killed by electrocution when Mike kicks loose a water pipe and electrocutes the spider with a dose of household electricity from a broken lightbulb on a line.

Shortly thereafter, a few members of the gang of weird party-obsessed teenagers break into the basement lab of The Genius and steal The Goo. They divide up The Goo and enlarge themselves into giants (per the title of the movie). All of the giant teenagers are returned to normal size and remain alive by The Genius and his yellow colored smoke bomb antidote.

Note that after the teenagers turn themselves into giants and hold the town hostage, The Genius creates an orange-red hydra creature which then crawls out of the Conical Flask down the drain of his lab sink to never be seen again except in the 1975 movie, "Shivers" by David Cronenberg (also known as "They Came From Within").

No other animals or humans are enlarged in the movie.

Creatures not killed or normalized at the end of the movie are the enlarged giant cat and the condition unknown giant duck.

[–] mrogers1 12 years ago

Believe it or not its probably the most asked question about the film and something I think about every time (the few times I have) seen the movie.

The fate of the cat is never revealed or seen.

I believe in an interview with Bert I. Gordon the question is asked of "What ever happened to the giant cat after he left the room?" and he pretty much just shrugs and says "I don't know".

I'm assuming he got shrunk back down when Genius put the smoke through the town at the end but again there is nothing to prove that.

I still don't get how the cat got outside of the house in the first place as he just walks out of the door into another room but not through a wall.

I think the ending would have been so much cooler if they reference the cat instead of the dwarfs at the end as that would have left for a much more fitting B movie ending moment showing the still giant cat padding through the streets as it fades to credits.

But the official answer from Gordon himself is there is no answer. Yeah why bother to tie up loose ends like a gigantic cat stomping through the neighborhood? I mean silly details like that and all.

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[–] vestdennis 10 years ago

I'm watching this on TCM now (4:15am) and I'm thinking we should have used this movie instead of waterboarding on Gitmo terrorists. I'm give up anything to stop watching.

As for the cat, yeah it would be a tad hard to forget about him. But he eventually returned to normal size and starred in Alien (as Jonesy).

***just kidding*** maybe it was one of the early Morris the cats?

[–] namaGemo 10 years ago

I dvred this the other night and I kept saying throughout the movie the very same thing I said when watching Tentacles....."what a piece of 5hit!"

[–] dr-kandimba-1 9 years ago

Yeah, I also spent most of the movie hoping to see the giant pussy. What a disappointment.

[–] Jetfire1959 9 years ago

From the trivia section:

Almost every human or animal that was grown in size in this movie was dealt with prior to the movie's end either by killing said creature (in the case of the ducks and spider) or shrinking them back down (in the case of the giant teenagers and Wolf the pet dog) thus ending their giant reigns prior to the movie's conclusion. That is, with the exception of the orange tabby cat that was the first to be grown in the movie. After the now giant cat exits the room (presumably to the outside as everyone in this movie can exit and enter buildings without destroying walls or needing doors) the fate of it is never revealed or referenced again in the entire films run. Bert I. Gordon himself had no answer or details on what the fate of the cat was when asked at a later date and as far as anyone knows, the cat was left as a giant even after the movie ended, making for quite a revealing plot hole never dealt with.

Sticks and stoned may break my bones, but they'll break yours,too. 

[–] Jetfire1959 9 years ago

From the trivia section:

Almost every human or animal that was grown in size in this movie was dealt with prior to the movie's end either by killing said creature (in the case of the ducks and spider) or shrinking them back down (in the case of the giant teenagers and Wolf the pet dog) thus ending their giant reigns prior to the movie's conclusion. That is, with the exception of the orange tabby cat that was the first to be grown in the movie. After the now giant cat exits the room (presumably to the outside as everyone in this movie can exit and enter buildings without destroying walls or needing doors) the fate of it is never revealed or referenced again in the entire films run. Bert I. Gordon himself had no answer or details on what the fate of the cat was when asked at a later date and as far as anyone knows, the cat was left as a giant even after the movie ended, making for quite a revealing plot hole never dealt with.

Sticks and stoned may break my bones, but they'll break yours,too. 