Beginning of the End (film)

Beginning of the End is a 1957 American science fiction film that was both produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon. The cast includes Peter Graves, Peggie Castle, and Morris Ankrum. In the story, Dr. Ed Wainwright, an agricultural scientist played by Graves, uses radiation to grow enormous vegetables. These vegetables are then eaten by locusts, which are the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers. The locusts become gigantic as a result and attack Chicago. The film is widely noted for its poor special effects, though reviewer Bill Warren remarked that it is "almost compellingly watchable" despite being a "goofy little movie." According to a 1995 article in the National Wildlife Federation's magazine, this film is the most popular one shown at the Insect Fear Film Festival at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It was released on June 14, 1957, and was shown as part of a double feature with *The Unearthly* (1957).

The plot begins when newspaper photojournalist Audrey Aimes discovers the town of Ludlow, Illinois, completely destroyed, with all 150 residents missing and presumed dead. The fields are barren, as if locusts ate everything. Suspecting a military cover-up, Aimes visits a nearby USDA experimental farm, where she meets Dr. Ed Wainwright. He has been using radiation to grow oversized fruits and vegetables to fight world hunger. Wainwright tells her that locusts have eaten radioactive wheat from a nearby silo, and there have been other strange incidents. The locusts, now the size of city buses, rampage across the countryside, eating crops and then turning to humans. Wainwright and Aimes work with General John Hanson, Colonel Sturgeon, and Captain James Barton to find a solution. Gunfire and artillery are ineffective, and the swarm heads toward Chicago. The Army and Illinois National Guard try to protect the city, but the monsters invade, eating people and damaging buildings. General Hanson proposes using a nuclear weapon to destroy Chicago, but Wainwright realizes the locusts are warm-weather creatures. He creates an electronic decoy mating call using test-tone oscillators to lure them into Lake Michigan, where the cold water incapacitates and drowns them. The plan succeeds, but Wainwright and Aimes worry that other insects or animals might have eaten radioactive crops.