MovieChat Forums > Them! (1954) Discussion > set where? Alamogordo, New Mexico??

set where? Alamogordo, New Mexico??

posted 17 years ago by Aylmer
5 replies | jump to latest

So where does this film supposedly take place? I used to live in Alamogordo, New Mexico and it's quite a ways to White Sands, like 10 miles, which it Southwest. However in the film they refer to Alamogordo as a separate city "this guy's from the FBI office in Alamogordo", and they whip out a map which indicates all the incidents are on the road between Alamogordo and El Paso (which is due south and nowhere near any white sand). There are no closer settlements to White Sands than Alamogordo except for Holloman Air Force Base.

However if I remember right, there's only ONE town on that road Arness points to (the one between Alamogordo and El Paso), called Orogrande... which was tiny, like 100 people, and would not have been nearly large enough to facilitate a 5+ man police force with two cars and a plane.

Is the beginning of the film supposed to take place in Orogrande... or more realistically Carizozo (which is much closer to the nuclear test Trinity site than Alamogordo)?

Also, where Arnes points to on the map as the location of the first atomic bomb test is waaay off. The site is almost 80 miles due north and west of where he's pointing, midway to Socorro which is way northwest of Alamogordo, not Southwest where he's pointing.

Are these mistakes or is this deliberate fictionalization?

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] rwsmith29456 16 years ago

I think they strung together some locations people have heard of so they could tie the story with the a-bomb testing grounds. Most people don't know how these area are truly related. It just makes it easier to fathom the story as being a result of nuclear testing.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Aylmer (628) 11 days ago

I am bumping this 17 year old thread because I STILL demand answers. That map scene is a pretty easy scene to be thrown-off by for anyone who lives (or has lived) in the White Sands area.

Incidentally I did visit the Blainey Ranch (outside of Palmdale, California where they actually filmed THEM) while location scouting for a movie that never got made about 12 years ago and it still looks exactly like the movie. There's even a slight crater in the ground where they originally dug the ants' nest opening. An odd choice to stand in for New Mexico though because there's cool Joshua Trees all over the place, whereas the White Sands area (Tularosa Basin) has none (mainly Mesquite Bushes and various cacti). For whatever reason, the presence of Joshua Trees did not throw me off as much as a kid because I figured there must be a hidden grove of them out in the desert somewhere.

It's also odd that the film makes no mention, nor takes into account any consideration, of the several large military bases nearby (namely Holloman AFB, Fort Bliss, and the smaller White Sands Missile Range, all of which I believe existed in 1954). I don't think you could ever really drive out in the desert and set up a trailer as depicted in the movie in the region they show (according to the map James Arness has)... maybe outside of around southeast of White Sands in the Orogrande/Dog Canyon area. My dad took my boyscout group camping north of Holloman once or twice back in the 80's when he was in the military and there are a couple cool oases hidden in there on Wsmr Rt 6 just west of Tulie Gate (complete with crayfish and lots of large trees - great places to set up a trailer), but there's no access to civilians.

[–] millsey72 (10939) 11 days ago

California