Them (2007) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

The high-pitched hum emitted from the ground triggered a response in the girl because it was the same frequency the ants use to communicate. This sound, produced by the giant mutated ants, appeared to have a neurological effect on humans, causing the girl to stir from her catatonic state. However, when the sound faded, she collapsed back into unconsciousness, suggesting the ants' communication frequency had a direct physiological impact on her.

Foreshadowing: Earlier in the film, the girl's inexplicable condition near the damaged caravan hints at an unseen force affecting her.

• catatonic girl
• hum
• ant communication
• Alamogordo
• giant ants

Blackburn was lured away by the ants, likely using their pheromone-based communication or the same high-pitched hum that affected the catatonic girl. After Peterson discovered the store owner's murdered body, Blackburn mysteriously vanished without a trace. The ants' ability to influence human behavior through sound or chemical signals explains his disappearance, suggesting they were already actively hunting humans in the area.

Foreshadowing: The murdered store owner foreshadows the danger lurking in the desert, and the ants' presence explains why no struggle was found.

• Ed Blackburn
• disappearance
• general store
• murder
• Alamogordo

Dr. Medford explains that the giant ants mutated due to radiation exposure from the first atomic bomb test conducted at Trinity Site near Alamogordo in 1945. The radiation caused the ants to grow to massive sizes and develop aggressive, violent behavior. This explains why the ants first appeared decades after the bomb test, the creatures had been growing and breeding underground in the desert.

Foreshadowing: The film's setting in Alamogordo, home of the first atomic test, establishes the radiation connection early.

• mutation
• radiation
• atomic bomb
• Trinity test
• Alamogordo
• giant ants

Dr. Medford, a myrmecology expert, used formic acid, the chemical ants produce as a defense mechanism, to revive the catatonic girl. The potent fumes of formic acid shocked the girl's system and pulled her from her trance. In her panicked response, she screamed 'Them! Them!', the first clear indication that ants were the source of the mysterious threat.

Foreshadowing: The girl's cryptic exclamation directly points to the ant menace that the investigation will uncover.

• formic acid
• myrmecology
• catatonic girl
• them
• ant pheromones

Inside the nest, Pat discovered evidence that two queen ants had hatched and escaped, each capable of establishing entirely new colonies. This meant the threat was far greater than a single colony, the two queens could spawn multiple new nests across different locations, exponentially multiplying the danger. The discovery explains why the authorities had to launch a worldwide hunt to track all the mutant insects.

Foreshadowing: The existence of multiple queens explains why the threat continues to spread beyond the initial desert location.

• queen ants
• colonies
• nest
• hatching
• escape

After escaping the nest, one queen ant and her offspring stowed away on a freighter traveling from Acapulco. The ship's crew was found dead, killed by the aggressive mutant ants. This demonstrates how the queens could spread the threat globally through maritime commerce, prompting the Navy to sink the vessel to prevent the ants from reaching populated shores.

Foreshadowing: The international search reveals the ants' potential to spread beyond the American Southwest.

• freighter
• Acapulco
• queen ant
• Navy
• international

Peterson discovered the two missing boys trapped near the ants' colony in the drainage system. However, during the rescue attempt, Peterson was ambushed and killed by a giant ant. The boys' fate remained dire as Graham arrived with military forces, though they ultimately fought through the ant colony to reach them.

Foreshadowing: The hospitalized patient's account of ants in the drainage system foreshadows this deadly confrontation.

• missing boys
• drainage system
• Los Angeles
• Peterson
• ant attack

The pilot had been institutionalized after claiming he was coerced by aliens into witnessing giant ant encounters. While dismissed as delusional, Graham and Pat investigate him because his claims aligned with the actual ant threat. His story, once considered raving lunacy, turned out to be a distorted account of real encounters with the mutant insects.

Foreshadowing: The pilot's wild story initially seems implausible but gains credibility as the investigation progresses.

• pilot
• Brownsville
• Texas
• alien
• coercion
• institutionalized

The mutant ants survived underground for decades following the 1945 atomic test, growing in size and number through their queen's reproductive capabilities. The queens lay eggs that hatch into new workers and soldiers, allowing the colony to expand silently beneath the desert. Their underground nest remained hidden until the discovery of the catatonic girl brought human attention to the area.

Foreshadowing: The decades-long silence after the atomic test suggests the ants were developing undetected.

• colony
• underground
• survival
• queen
• eggs
• workers

Graham arrived with armed forces and the Medfords called for flamethrowers to eradicate the remaining ants and their queen. The intense heat and fire destroyed the colony in a final confrontational battle. However, the victory was bittersweet, Peterson had already been killed, and Dr. Medford's reflection on atomic testing since Trinity suggests the broader implications of humanity's nuclear experiments remain unresolved.

Foreshadowing: Dr. Medford's earlier theory about radiation mutation sets up this apocalyptic confrontation.

• flamethrowers
• military
• final battle
• queen
• ant colony