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Them! (12A*) + Presentation by Sarah Hart

Science On Screen

,Cinema 2
Still from Them!

A definitive cinematic exploration of the fears of the atomic age, featuring a national emergency involving the FBI, the US military and of course, giant mutated ants. 

This B-movie gem from 1955 was Academy Award-nominated for Best Special Effects and is widely considered one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s. We begin with a young girl wandering through the desert, catatonic with shock. What could she have seen to provoke such a response? Thanks to the efforts of the police and FBI, as well as a couple of myrmecologists (the  study of ants), we soon have the answer.

Why, it was giant ants of course! 

Professor Sarah Hart will explore what mathematics can tell us about the implications of growing very large or very small – could the giant ants in Them! ever exist in real life? Professor Hart is a mathematician and author of Once Upon a Prime: the Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature (2023), Professor of Mathematics at Birkbeck.

Tagged with: Cinema Science on Screen

USA dir Gordon Douglas 89 min

*Local classification

Cinema 2

Location
Barbican Cinema 2 & 3 are located on Beech Street, a short walk from the Barbican’s Silk Street entrance. From Silk Street, you’ll see a zebra crossing that will take you across the road to the venue. 

Address
Beech Street
London
EC2Y 8DS

Public transport
The Barbican is widely accessible by bus, tube, train and by foot or bicycle. Plan your journey and find more route information in ‘Your Visit’ or book your car parking space in advance.