Legion of Fire: Killer Ants!
Encyclopedia
Legion of Fire: Killer Ants! (alternatively titled Marabunta) is a 1998 made for TV horror movie, made for the Fox
TV channel.
In 2005, Legion of Fire: Killer Ants! was released on DVD in Germany under the title Marabunta. 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.
that has been stripped clean of meat. They presume it was left by hunters for scavengers, but then the hunters arrive and say they had shot it two hours earlier and had been tracking it since. They wonder what could have stripped a moose bare so quickly. A shopkeeper is found in the same condition in his home. The authories think it may have been a predator, but Jim isn't so sure. During the autopsy, Jim finds something on the man's body and quietly takes it to study. When he looks at it under a microscope, he discovers that it is the body of a marabunta
, a South American ant
that is known for traveling in waves, killing everything in their path. After questioning Sheriff 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 school teacher Karen to try to find a way to stop the ants. Jim and Karen go to the beach where most of the wood from the ship washed up to try to find and kill the queen. While they are searching the area, Jim's friend, who is piloting the helicopter, is attacked by the ants. While trying to fight them off, his actions cause the helicopter to lift off and crash into the mountain. Jim and Karen 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 is safely back to town. They convince Croy to evacuate the town. Croy has local Native American Gray Wolf handle the evacuation, and tell 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 Karen create a mixture that can kill the ants, but while they work, ants attack the school. Chad gets trapped in a school bus while Jim and Karen are chased to the top floor of the school. Croy arrives in his truck, and they are able to escape it in 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 all of the ants. Jim and Karen go get some more dynamite and they head to the dam to set it up. They leave Chad in Croy's truck parked on top of the dam as 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 their 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 at 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 can't be sure all of the ants died and that any survivors would probably go back underground and into hibernation. As the movie ends surviving ants, including the queen, are shown walking on some old logs.
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
TV channel.
In 2005, Legion of Fire: Killer Ants! was released on DVD in Germany under the title Marabunta. No announcement has been made on the possibility of an English language release, although it is still shown regularly during the Sci Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
's weekend movie marathons under its alternative name Marabunta.
Plot
Dr. Jim Conrad is visiting the small town of Burly Pines to fish. While out with a friend, they discover a mooseMoose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...
that has been stripped clean of meat. They presume it was left by hunters for scavengers, but then the hunters arrive and say they had shot it two hours earlier and had been tracking it since. They wonder what could have stripped a moose bare so quickly. A shopkeeper is found in the same condition in his home. The authories think it may have been a predator, but Jim isn't so sure. During the autopsy, Jim finds something on the man's body and quietly takes it to study. When he looks at it under a microscope, he discovers that it is the body of a marabunta
Army ant
The name army ant is applied to over 200 ant species, in different lineages, due to their aggressive predatory foraging groups, known as "raids", in which huge numbers of ants forage simultaneously over a certain area, attacking prey en masse.Another shared feature is that, unlike most ant...
, a South American ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
that is known for traveling in waves, killing everything in their path. After questioning Sheriff 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 school teacher Karen to try to find a way to stop the ants. Jim and Karen go to the beach where most of the wood from the ship washed up to try to find and kill the queen. While they are searching the area, Jim's friend, who is piloting the helicopter, is attacked by the ants. While trying to fight them off, his actions cause the helicopter to lift off and crash into the mountain. Jim and Karen 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
Waterfall
A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation:Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens...
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 is safely back to town. They convince Croy to evacuate the town. Croy has local Native American Gray Wolf handle the evacuation, and tell 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 Karen create a mixture that can kill the ants, but while they work, ants attack the school. Chad gets trapped in a school bus while Jim and Karen are chased to the top floor of the school. Croy arrives in his truck, and they are able to escape it in 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 all of the ants. Jim and Karen go get some more dynamite and they head to the dam to set it up. They leave Chad in Croy's truck parked on top of the dam as 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 their dynamite, Croy and Karen join him. Jim has trouble lighting his fuse and an aftershock
Aftershock
An aftershock is a smaller earthquake that occurs after a previous large earthquake, in the same area of the main shock. If an aftershock is larger than the main shock, the aftershock is redesignated as the main shock and the original main shock is redesignated as a foreshock...
knocks him down, but he is finally able to get it lit. The pilot flies the helicopter down to where Jim is at 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 can't be sure all of the ants died and that any survivors would probably go back underground and into hibernation. As the movie ends surviving ants, including the queen, are shown walking on some old logs.