What happens in Vegas (1/8/08)
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X The Unknown. [Leslie Norman, 1956. Written by Jimmy Sangster.]
When a crack in the Scottish highlands abruptly opens into the pit of Hell and an evil amorphous lava creature from the earth's core oozes out — melting the faces from the skulls of passers-by, sputtering like an electrical short-circuit, and raising no slender possibility of general cataclysm — it poses a pretty algebraic riddle for Science and the Military, as represented by lean veteran atomic researcher Dean Jagger, who frames hypotheses, performs experiments, and builds rayguns, and the British Army, which sets off explosives, sprays napalm and machine-gun fire, and flies about in helicopters shouting frantic orders through static-laden walkie-talkies. — Their preliminary efforts to contain the faceless monster and its ravenous appetite for radioactive sustenance prove futile: no smidgen of radium is safe, no smear of uranium secure; and when the beast discovers the nuclear reactor conveniently situated in the neighborhood, fell consequences loom for their picturesque fellow north-Britons, among whom are numbered wailing peasant women, cute innocent children, and concerned clergy. — Sudden shrieks among the strings, the chatter of the Geiger counter, and the high-pitched whine of Jagger's ultrasonics accompany the chase as Men in Labcoats and Men in Uniform pursue the solution to this riddle; which demonstrates, conclusively, the relevance of mathematics to the national defense.
____________Swamp thing (7/25/07)
