Attack of the Crab Monsters

And the lord said,

"I will destroy man whom I have created

from the face of the earth;

both man, and beast, and the creeping thing,

and the fowls of the air;

for it repenteth me that I have made them."

Make that line fast.

Everybody ashore.

Strange.

We can only see a small part of the island from this spot,

but yet you can feel lack of welcome,

lack of abiding life, eh?

Yeah, I felt the same when I came here before to rescue your first team.

I not only knew that they were gone,

but that they were lost completely and forever, body and soul.

Please, lieutenant,

some of those men were our friends from the same institute.

Sorry, Miss Hunter.

I'm not so sure you are right, monsieur Quinlan.

Maybe their bodies are gone,

but who can tell of their souls, eh?

Maybe if I call to them they will answer...

Their ghosts will answer.

McLane!

Hello!

Hello!

McLane!

Where is the house, lieutenant?

You can't see it from the shore.

It's back in the hills, at the head of that gorge,

just hidden in the cliff.

How fitting.

Might as well have a look at it.

Well, they're coming in with the second load of

supplies from the plane. I'll have it sent right up.

Hold your headway!

You're gonna broach!

Tate, sit down in there!

Well, get him up!

I see him. He's on the bottom.

What's the foul-up there?

God help us.

Cover him.

You know, I wish they'd get back.

I don't like being out here all alone with old Tate's rigor mortis.

Sam, how did a nervous guy like you ever get involved in demolitions work?

Nervous? What do you mean, nervous?

I'm not nervous, just a little high-strung, that's all.

Come on... help me get these pineapples inside.

You know, I don't know what we're gonna use these for out here anyway.

Unless it's to practice pitching to those babies out there.

Took his head off... his head?

I'm afraid so.

We're gonna take him back to Enewetak for burial.

I hope that man's death is not an omen of things to come.

Frankly, doctor, I wouldn't care to stay here with you,

but if you run into trouble or you need extra supplies,

you can always reach the base by radio.

That is, if this rotten weather will let us get back to the base at all.

Something in the air is wrong.

Can you tell me what it is, lieutenant?

Well, I don't know, sir.

Maybe it's because there's no sound,

no animal noises of any kind.

Well, looks like we got the dynamite by mistake.

- Looks like it. - I'll cart it back down to the beach.

Oh, excuse me, doctor.

That's quite all right. Just call me Martie.

Okay, Martie.

You know, the navy boys really fixed this place up.

I'm almost gonna enjoy being here.

Yeah, you'd never think it was a complete wreck a few months ago.

If you want to see a wreck, take a look at my back.

Karl, it'll be dark in a few minutes.

Want to come watch the takeoff?

- I'd like to. - I'll get the others.

Lieutenant, I don't want to annoy you again, but nothing was left?

Not a hair, nor a fingernail clipping?

Only McLane's journal?

Well, that's all, doctor.

That they are dead, I can believe possible,

but to vanish from the face of the earth? No!

The navy thinks they were all at sea

in their small boat when the typhoon hit.

Lost with all hands is an old story.

Yes, but...

Everybody okay?

- Yeah, it looks that way. - You okay, Mac?

Yeah, nothing that getting off this old pile won't cure.

See you in a month!

- One month, no more, oui? - Oui!

- We'll watch you from the cliffs. - Au revoir!

Did you hear those sounds just before the quake?

What sounds, mon ami?

A deeper booming and rumbling?

No, I'm afraid not.

Doctor Carson means the explosions.

We should get up to the cliffs.

Hey, Hank, you're a scientist.

How come they need a demo team like us on this hunk of dirt?

I'm no scientist. I'm a technician and a handyman.

So, you still don't know what's going on?

Well, you remember that first big H-bomb test?

The one that blew Elugelab Island right out of the ocean?

Who forgets that?

A tremendous amount of the radioactive fallout came this way.

A great seething, burning cloud of it sank into this area,

blanketing the island with hot ashes and radioactive seawater.

Dr. Weigand's group is here to study fallout effects at their worst.

Dr. James Carson is a geologist.

He'll try to learn what's happening to the soil.

The botanist, Jules Deveroux,

will examine all the plant life for radiation poisoning.

Martha Hunter and Dale Drewer are biologists.

He works on land animalism, while she takes care of the seafood.

Dr. Karl Weigand is a nuclear physicist.

He'll collect their findings and relate them

to the present theories on the effects of too much radiation.

We blow up mountains for the geologist Carson.

But this is the second bunch of brains to come out here.

What happened to the first?

They were here,

and a storm hit.

Then they were gone. That's all anybody knows.

Doesn't anybody wonder?

Everybody wonders.

They just don't like to talk about it.

Come on, we'll miss the takeoff.

Hank, get to the radio.

There's something.

It's a commercial station,

probably Manila or Samoa.

It's all from beyond the area of disturbance.

I don't get a thing on the navy bands.

Keep trying.

All those men killed...

We can't even send word through this storm.

The navy'll send a search plane, honey.

No, the navy will assume

that Lieutenant Quinlan decided to remain here,

rather than risk the storm.

Enewetak's probably getting as much static as we are.

Probably, which means we can't do anything

until conditions improve.

So why don't we let Hank keep trying

while we begin our own working?

We have to go over McLane's journal

sooner or later, so it might as well be now.

Then let us go into the living room.

"Thursday, March 11.

"Today Dr. Ben Diaz' culture failed to produce

"any sign of bacteria,

"though left for five days in the open."

"Friday, March 12.

"This afternoon, Professor Carter found

"a large piece of flesh having the same composition

"as that of the common earthworm,

"but measured 24 inches by 8.

"With this section as a measure,

"the wormlike creature would be more than five feet in length.

"Most intriguing is the tissue's consistency.

"It proved impossible to cut,

"knives passing through the flesh,

"leaving no mark.

"Fire was applied to the tissue,

"and the calorie result..."

The journal ends there.

Well, it's getting very late

Why don't we work out tomorrow's schedule and then get some sleep.

What about that 5-foot night crawler?

Well, excuse me for being so stupid.

Me and that book you're reading.

We weren't laughing at you, Hank.

It's just that McLane didn't really mean to imply

that the flesh was from a big worm.

He said, "from a wormlike creature."

You know, it might've been a sea worm.

They've been known to grow much longer than 5 feet.

Well, excuse me for shooting my mouth off,

but the journal didn't say anything about the sea...

Just talked about worms.

Nothing in my experience leads me

towards McLane's worm theory.

Nothing.

You would know better than I.

But why, I ask, did the writer stop

in the middle of a sentence?

Yes, why, Karl?

Unless something really unusual happened,

I'm sure he would've finished.

We shall find out, I think.

Well, gentlemen, I will head down

to south valley in the morning.

You know, I haven't seen any insect life since we arrived.

Shh. Quiet.

Listen.

Just the wind.

You nearly frightened me to death.

Well, now, I couldn't very well

announce myself underwater, could I?