Legion of Fire: Killer Ants!

Last updated
Legion of Fire: Killer Ants!
Legion of Fire - Killer Ants! Poster (1998).jpg
GenreHorror
Written by Linda Palmer
Wink Roberts
Directed by Jim Charleston
George Manasse
Starring Eric Lutes
Julia Campbell
Mitch Pileggi
Jeremy Foley
Music by Daniel Licht
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producers Irwin Meyer
Michael I. Levy
Producer George Manasse
Cinematography Don E. FauntLeRoy
Editor Jim Cross
Production companies Producers Entertainment Group
Grosso-Jacobson Productions
World International Network
Original release
NetworkFox
ReleaseJune 24, 1998 (1998-06-24)

Legion of Fire: Killer Ants! (alternatively titled Marabunta) is a 1998 made for TV horror movie, made for the Fox TV channel.

Contents

In 2005, Legion of Fire: Killer Ants! was released on DVD in Germany under the title Marabunta. [1] No announcement has been made on the possibility of an English language release, although it is still shown regularly during the Sci Fi Channel's weekend movie marathons under its alternative name Marabunta. It is also available on NowTV. [2]

Plot

Dr. Jim Conrad is visiting the small town of Burly Pines, Alaska to fish. While out with a friend, they discover a moose that has been stripped clean of meat. They presume hunters left it for scavengers, but then the hunters arrive and say they had shot it two hours earlier and had been tracking it since. A shopkeeper is found in the same condition in his home. The authorities think it may have been a predator, but Jim is unsure. During the autopsy, Jim finds something on the man's body. When he looks at it under a microscope, it is the jaws of a marabunta, a South American ant known for traveling in waves, killing everything in their path. After questioning Police Chief Jeff Croy and his men, Jim figures out that the ants must have arrived on a boat that had crashed a few years ago, leaving logs of South American wood behind. The ants had hibernated in the wood until recent seismic activity had made it warm enough to support them.

Jim teams up with Croy and schoolteacher Laura to try to find a way to stop the ants. Jim and Karen go to the beach where the wood from the ship washed up to kill the queen. The ants attack Jim's friend, who is piloting the helicopter. While trying to fight them off, his actions cause the helicopter to lift off and crash into the mountain. Jim and Laura find themselves surrounded by the ants. They hold them off using a flame thrower and shotgun until they can reach a nearby canoe, which they take downstream until they reach a waterfall and go over it. Having survived the falls, they find an old cabin with a motorcycle. They get it started just as the ants reach them and ride it back to town. They convince Croy to evacuate the town. Croy has local Native American Gray Wolf handle the evacuation and tells his son Chad to go with them. When everyone is out of town, Gray Wolf is to blow up the only road out of town. Chad goes back to his father against his wishes and returns to help while Gray Wolf sets up the dynamite. At the school, Jim and Laura create a mixture that can kill the ants, but the ants attack the school. Chad gets trapped in a school bus while Jim and Laura are chased to the school's top floor. Croy arrives in his truck, and they escape with help from Jim's formula. They make their way out of town, but Gray Wolf is forced to blow the pass early when he sees the ants making their way along it.

After determining the ants' pattern, they decide to blow up the local dam and flood the entire town to kill the ants. Jim and Laura get some dynamite and head to the dam. They leave Chad in Croy's truck parked on top of the dam as a lookout while they dig holes in the earthen side of the dam at intervals and insert the dynamite with different length fuses. While they are working, a rescue helicopter, sent by Gray Wolf, arrives to carry them out of town. Chad gets in, and once they have lit the dynamite, Croy and Karen join him. Jim has trouble lighting his fuse, and an aftershock knocks him down, but he is finally able to get it lit. The pilot flies the helicopter down to where Jim is, and, with Croy's help, he gets aboard just as the dynamite explodes.

The dam is destroyed, and the water floods the entire valley, including the town. The pilot lands the helicopter on a nearby hill, and the group looks at the flooded valley, hoping the ants have drowned. Jim decides to stay for a while to study the area more. He warns the group that they cannot be sure all of the ants, including the queen, died and that any survivors would probably go back underground and into hibernation. As the movie ends, surviving ants are shown walking on some stones near the water's edge, where it is discovered the queen is indeed alive and has wings, thus potentially repeating the cycle.

Cast

Critical reception

The movie did not fare well with critics. In the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a reviewer commented that the movie "continues a great, cheesy tradition of ant-menace movies." [3] The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film calls it a "standard SF-thriller." [4] Eric Fowler at the Indianapolis Morning Register was less kind, calling the film, "a blot on the history of sci-fi and an insult to ants everywhere."

Related Research Articles

<i>Wolf</i> (1994 film) 1994 American romantic horror film by Mike Nichols

Wolf is a 1994 American romantic horror film directed by Mike Nichols and starring Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, Kate Nelligan, Richard Jenkins, Christopher Plummer, Eileen Atkins, David Hyde Pierce, and Om Puri. It was written by Jim Harrison and Wesley Strick, and an uncredited Elaine May. The music was composed by Ennio Morricone and the cinematography was done by Giuseppe Rotunno.

<i>The Naked Jungle</i> 1954 film by Byron. Haskin

The Naked Jungle is a 1954 American adventure film directed by Byron Haskin, and starring Charlton Heston and Eleanor Parker. Telling the story of an attack of army ants on a Brazilian cocoa plantation, it was based on the 1937 short story "Leiningen Versus the Ants" by Carl Stephenson.

<i>Great White</i> (1981 film) 1981 Italy"`UNIQ--ref-00000003-QINU`" film

Great White is a 1981 Italian horror film directed by Enzo G. Castellari, having originally been assigned to Ruggero Deodato. In the film James Franciscus and Vic Morrow attempt to save hundreds of swimmers in a coastal resort after a large great white shark starts terrorizing the area and eating tourists.

<i>The Paleface</i> (1948 film) 1948 film by Norman Z. McLeod

The Paleface is a 1948 American Comedy Western film directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Bob Hope as "Painless Potter" and Jane Russell as Calamity Jane. In the movie, Hope sings the song "Buttons and Bows". The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year.

<i>Benji the Hunted</i> 1987 American adventure drama film

Benji the Hunted is a 1987 American adventure drama film directed and written by Joe Camp and produced by Ben Vaughn. It is the fourth film in the Benji series. The film is about Benji trying to survive in the wilderness and looking after orphan cougar cubs after their mother is shot and killed by a hunter. It was released by Walt Disney Pictures. This was the last Benji movie to star Benjean, daughter of Higgins, in the title role.

<i>The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course</i> 2002 "`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000004-QINU`" film

The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course is a 2002 adventure comedy film based on the nature documentary television series The Crocodile Hunter. It stars Steve Irwin, his wife Terri Irwin in her film debut, Magda Szubanski and David Wenham, and was directed by frequent Irwin collaborator John Stainton. Released in between the series' fourth and fifth seasons, Collision Course follows Steve and Terri attempting to save a crocodile from "poachers", unaware that the two men are actually American CIA agents on their trail as the crocodile has unwittingly swallowed a satellite tracking beacon. This was Steve Irwin's final film appearance before his death in 2006.

<i>First Blood</i> (novel) 1972 novel by David Morrell

First Blood is a 1972 American action-thriller novel by David Morrell about a troubled homeless Vietnam War veteran, known only by his last name of Rambo, who wages a brutal one-man war against local and state police in Kentucky. It was adapted into the 1982 film First Blood starring Sylvester Stallone, which ended up spawning an entire media franchise around Rambo.

<i>Carnosaur 2</i> 1995 American film

Carnosaur 2 is a 1995 action horror film directed by Louis Morneau, and the sequel to the 1993 film Carnosaur. It is the second installment in the Carnosaur film series. It stars John Savage, Cliff DeYoung, Rick Dean, Ryan Thomas Johnson, Arabella Holzbog and Don Stroud. The film is about a team of technicians who go to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository to investigate problems concerning power and communications. They discover that the facility has been overrun by cloned dinosaurs. The film's plot shares many similarities with the 1986 film Aliens.

<i>White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf</i> 1994 American film

White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf is a 1994 American Northern adventure film directed by Ken Olin and starring Scott Bairstow, Alfred Molina, and Geoffrey Lewis. Based on characters created by Jack London, it is a sequel to the 1991 White Fang. Filming entirely took place in Aspen, Colorado as well as British Columbia, Canada's Metro Vancouver region. Released in theaters by Walt Disney Pictures on April 14, 1994, it was later released on VHS on October 19, 1994, by Walt Disney Home Video.

<i>Miracles</i> (1986 film) 1986 comedy film directed by Jim Kouf

Miracles is a 1986 American comedy film about a newly divorced couple who can't seem to get away from one another. The film was written and directed by Jim Kouf.

<i>Terminator Salvation</i> (video game) 2009 video game

Terminator Salvation is a third-person shooter action video game, released on May 19, 2009 to coincide with the release of the film of the same title on the same week. It was developed by The Halcyon Company's gaming subsidiary, Halcyon Games, along with Grin and published by Equity Games and Evolved Games. The game was Grin's last game and was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, mobile, and iOS.

<i>Dare to Be Scared</i> Book by Robert D. San Souci

Dare to Be Scared: Thirteen Stories to Chill and Thrill is a 2003 children's horror short story collection by Robert D. San Souci and illustrated by David Ouimet, consisting of thirteen stories. It is the first book in the Dare to be Scared series, which consists of four books.

<i>Bloodmoon</i> (1997 film) 1997 American film

Bloodmoon is a 1997 American action/martial arts film directed and choreographed by Tony Leung Siu Hung. The film was produced by Keith W. Strandberg and Ng See Yuen and stars Gary Daniels, Chuck Jeffreys, and Darren Shahlavi.

<i>Stampede</i> (1949 film) 1949 film by Lesley Selander

Stampede is a 1949 American Western film directed by Lesley Selander and starring Rod Cameron, Gale Storm, Johnny Mack Brown and Don Castle.

<i>White Fang</i> (1973 film) 1973 film directed by Lucio Fulci

White Fang is a 1973 Italian Northern adventure film directed by Lucio Fulci and produced by Harry Alan Towers. The screenplay by Roberto Gianviti was based on Jack London's 1906 novel White Fang. The film, starring Franco Nero, Fernando Rey and Virna Lisi, gained great commercial success and generated an official and several unofficial sequels.

<i>Killer Nerd</i> 1991 American film

Killer Nerd is a 1991 comedy horror film. It was directed by Mark Steven Bosko and Wayne Alan Harold and stars Toby Radloff in his first film.

<i>Twisted Nightmare</i> 1987 film by Paul Hunt

Twisted Nightmare is a 1988 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Paul Hunt and starring Rhonda Gray, Cleve Hall, and Robert Padilla. Its plot follows a group of young people who return to a summer camp they attended in their youth, and are killed off by a hulking killer.

<i>Flight of the White Wolf</i> 1990 Japanese film

Flight of the White Wolf is a 1990 anime film directed by Yosei Maeda.

Scare Package is a 2020 American anthology horror comedy film created by Aaron B. Koontz and Cameron Burns. It features a series of horror shorts written and directed by Aaron B. Koontz, Courtney Andujar, Hillary Andujar, Anthony Cousins, Emily Hagins, Chris McInroy, Noah Segan, and Baron Vaughn.

<i>Minuscule 2: Mandibles from Far Away</i> 2018 film

Minuscule 2: Mandibles from Far Away is a 2018 French adventure comedy live action animated film based on the TV show Minuscule and a sequel to Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants and was released on January 30, 2019.

References

  1. ↑ "Marabunta: Die Killerameisen greifen an". Amazon.de. Retrieved 2009-03-18.
  2. ↑ "Marabunta". NowTV . Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  3. ↑ Nolston, Noel (1998-06-24). "Critic's Choice". Star Tribune (Minneapolis). Archived from the original on 2012-10-25. Retrieved 2009-03-18.
  4. ↑ Young, R.G. (2000). The encyclopedia of fantastic film: Ali Baba to Zombies. Hal Leonard. p. 351. ISBN   978-1-55783-269-6.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.