The Radioactive Hopper Horror: Unraveling Beginning of the End’s Atomic Onslaught
In the shadow of the mushroom cloud, nature’s smallest soldiers became Chicago’s biggest nightmare.
Released in 1957, Beginning of the End captures the pulse of post-war America gripped by atomic dread, transforming everyday grasshoppers into colossal killers through Bert I. Gordon’s low-budget ingenuity. This giant insect thriller stands as a stark emblem of 1950s science fiction horror, blending B-movie thrills with potent social commentary on humanity’s hubris.
- The chilling origins of radiation-mutated grasshoppers and their relentless march on civilisation.
- Bert I. Gordon’s pioneering yet primitive special effects that defined the era’s monster mayhem.
- A prescient critique of nuclear testing amid Cold War fears, echoing real-world anxieties in monstrous form.
From Lab to Apocalypse: The Frenzied Narrative
The film opens in rural Illinois, where experimental agricultural research unleashes unintended chaos. Entomologist Dr. Ed Peters, portrayed by Peter Graves, and reporter Audrey Aimes, played by Peggie Castle, stumble upon a ghost town near a government grain silo. Disemboweled human remains litter the streets, hinting at a predatory force beyond comprehension. Their investigation reveals grasshoppers swollen to car-sized proportions, their exoskeletons gleaming under the sun, driven by insatiable hunger after feeding on irradiated wheat.
Peters traces the mutation to atomic bomb tests contaminating the food chain. The insects, exhibiting pack behaviour uncharacteristic of their species, swarm southward toward densely populated areas. Military brass, initially dismissive, mobilises when the hoppers overrun a freight train, derailing it in a cacophony of twisted metal and screeching brakes. Graves delivers a measured performance as the scientist-ranger hybrid, his calm demeanour contrasting the escalating panic.
Audrey’s resourcefulness shines as she photographs the carnage, her flashes capturing mandibles ripping through flesh. The duo flees to Chicago, where the grasshoppers infiltrate via Lake Shore Drive, scaling skyscrapers like living siege engines. Soldiers deploy flamethrowers and artillery, but the bugs’ sheer numbers overwhelm defences. A pivotal sequence unfolds atop the Pure Oil Building, where Peters broadcasts a desperate sonic lure using a giant cricket call to divert the horde into Lake Michigan.
The climax pulses with tension as the insects mass on the Grant Park shoreline, their chirps amplified into an ear-splitting roar. Submerged by the lure, they drown en masse, symbolising a fragile victory snatched from annihilation. Gordon peppers the narrative with stock footage of locust plagues, seamlessly integrating real insect swarms with superimposed giants for visceral impact.
Atoms of Anxiety: Nuclear Fears Giant-Size
At its core, Beginning of the End channels the pervasive terror of nuclear proliferation. The 1950s witnessed Operation Upshot-Knothole and other tests irradiating vast swathes of Nevada, mirroring the film’s contaminated wheat fields. Grasshoppers embody the invisible fallout, mutating innocuous life into apocalyptic threats, a direct nod to public outcry over strontium-90 in milk and food supplies.
Class tensions simmer beneath the monster metaphor. Rural farmers bear the brunt of experimental agriculture funded by distant labs, their livelihoods devoured by science’s excesses. Peters embodies the enlightened expert bridging town and gown, critiquing bureaucratic inertia that prioritises secrecy over safety. This echoes Senator Brian McMahon’s 1952 warnings on atomic testing’s biological perils.
Gender roles reflect era conservatism yet hint at evolution. Audrey evolves from damsel to documentarian, wielding her camera as a weapon against denialism. Her partnership with Peters prefigures buddy dynamics in later disaster films, challenging the lone hero archetype.
Environmental undertones emerge starkly. The hoppers’ rampage indicts humanity’s dominion over nature, accelerated by wartime innovations. Gordon, influenced by his own World’s Fair exhibits on science, crafts a cautionary tale where progress devours its creators.
Mandibles Meet Metropolis: Urban Siege Sequences
Chicago’s skyline becomes a battlefield in sequences that innovate urban horror. Grasshoppers clamber up the Wrigley Building, their legs puncturing concrete like spears. A soldier’s flamethrower blast illuminates a hopper’s innards in fiery orange, the creature retaliating by snapping him in half mid-air. These moments leverage matte paintings and miniatures for scale, evoking dread through disproportionate destruction.
The train derailment stands iconic, blending model work with newsreel authenticity. Hoppers burrow through boxcars, spilling grain that fuels their frenzy. Sound design amplifies menace: chitinous clicks swell into thunderous stomps, composer Albert Glasser layering strings with locust choruses for primal unease.
In Grant Park, thousands of superimposed insects form a writhing sea, their eyes glinting like jewels. Peters’ sonic gambit draws biblical parallels to plagues, the lake’s waves claiming the horde in a cathartic deluge. These scenes prioritise spectacle over gore, heightening psychological strain.
Big Bugs on a Shoestring: Special Effects Mastery
Bert I. Gordon’s effects define the film’s charm and limitations. Split-screen compositing merges live actors with tarantulas and grasshoppers filmed separately, creating convincing scale discrepancies. Rear projection places Graves against hopper footage, though optical inconsistencies reveal wires and matte lines.
Optically printed swarms multiply real locusts into armies, a technique honed from Gordon’s amateur magic lantern shows. Miniature buildings crumble under puppet legs, pyrotechnics simulating explosions. Budget constraints—under $200,000—yield ingenuity, repurposing World Without End sets for Chicago facades.
Critics like Bill Warren praise the earnestness: imperfections enhance retro allure, unlike polished CGI descendants. Glasser’s score syncs perfectly with bug movements, masking seams through auditory illusion. These methods influenced Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness practical effects revival.
Close-ups of mandibles, achieved via macro lenses on dead specimens, convey grotesque realism. The effects, while rudimentary, propel narrative momentum, proving vision trumps polish in cult classics.
Cold War Critters: Genre Context and Legacy
Beginning of the End slots into the giant insect cycle ignited by Them! (1954), yet carves distinction through hoppers over ants. Post-Hiroshima, films like Tarantula (1955) and The Deadly Mantis (1957) proliferated, all wrestling atomic guilt. Gordon’s entry, distributed by Republic Pictures, grossed modestly but endured via TV syndication.
Production anecdotes abound: real grasshoppers sourced from Midwest plagues, actors drenched in Chicago rain for authenticity. Censorship dodged explicit violence, focusing implication. Remakes eluded it, though Starship Troopers (1997) satirises similar bug wars.
Cult status bloomed via Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffs, highlighting comic absurdities. Modern reappraisals, as in Wheeler Winston Dixon’s Producers Releasing Corporation, laud its socio-political prescience amid Fukushima echoes.
Influence ripples to Godzilla kaiju and Cloverfield found-footage invasions, cementing grasshopper grotesquery in collective psyche.
Victory’s Bitter Aftertaste: Concluding Reflections
Ultimately, Beginning of the End transcends B-movie trappings, offering a mirror to an era teetering on self-destruction. Its monsters, born of bombs, warn that true horror lurks in laboratories, not legends. Gordon’s fable endures, reminding viewers that unchecked ambition breeds biblical-scale reckonings.
Director in the Spotlight
Bert I. Gordon, born Irving Gordon on September 24, 1916, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, emerged from a modest Jewish immigrant family. Fascinated by cinema from youth, he built 16mm projectors and screened films in his garage. After serving in the Signal Corps during World War II, honing film processing skills, Gordon entered commercial production in Chicago, creating educational shorts for the World’s Fair.
His feature debut, The Cyclops (1957), launched a career in giant creature spectacles, earning the moniker “Mr. B.I.G.” for oversized obsessions. Gordon pioneered split-screen effects without optical printers, relying on in-camera tricks. He produced, directed, and wrote most works, often with wife Flora and daughter Susan.
Key filmography includes Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), blending saucers with stop-motion from Ray Harryhausen; The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), tracking a radiation-enlarged soldier’s tragic rampage; War of the Colossal Beast (1958), its sequel; Village of the Giants (1965), teens-grown gigantism with Ron Howard; Picture Mommy Dead (1966), psychological thriller; The Food of the Gods (1976), adapting H.G. Wells with oversized rats and wasps; Empire of the Ants (1977), Joan Collins battling giant insects; and Bog (1983), his final eco-horror.
Gordon influenced low-budget sci-fi, mentoring Roger Corman affiliates. Retiring in the 1980s, he passed on January 8, 2011, at 94, leaving a legacy of resourceful genre filmmaking celebrated in documentaries like The American Nightmare.
Actor in the Spotlight
Peter Graves, born Peter Aurness on March 18, 1926, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, grew up alongside brother James Arness in a Lutheran family. Initially pursuing radio, he adopted “Graves” to avoid nepotism after James’s Gunsmoke fame. WWII service as a cook in the U.S. Army Air Forces shaped his disciplined persona.
Debuting in Naked City uncredited, Graves broke through in sci-fi: It Conquered the World (1956) as a heroic scientist; Killers from Space (1954); then Beginning of the End. Television stardom followed with Fury (1955-1960) as a rancher, Whiplash (1960-1961) as an Australian drover, and iconically Mission: Impossible (1967-1973, 1988-1990) as Jim Phelps, earning Golden Globes.
Film highlights: Stalag 17 (1953) POW; Fort Defiance (1951); Red Planet Mars (1952); Voice of the Cat People (1944 juvenile); Texas Across the River (1966) comedy; The Ballad of Josie (1968); Airplane! (1980) and Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) as the bumbling Captain Oveur, parodying his straight-man image.
Awards included TV Land honours; narration for Biography. Graves advocated aviation, founding the National Airplane Association. He died March 14, 2010, at 83 from a heart attack, remembered for square-jawed integrity across genres.
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Bibliography
Warren, B. (1982) Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of 1950-1952. McFarland & Company.
Dixon, W.W. (2009) Producers Releasing Corporation: 20 Poverty Row Thrillers, 1944-1948. McFarland & Company.
McGee, M.L. (1988) Fast and Furious: The Story of American International Pictures. McFarland & Company.
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Interview with Bert I. Gordon (2004) Fangoria, Issue 234. Fangoria Publishing. Available at: https://www.fangoria.com (Accessed 15 October 2023).
Hardy, P. (1986) The Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction. Aurum Press.