The Food of the Gods (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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H.G. Wells' The Food of the Gods, also billed as just The Food of the Gods, is a 1976 science fiction thriller film released by American International Pictures and was written, produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon.
The Food of the Gods starred Marjoe Gortner, Pamela Franklin, Ralph Meeker, Jon Cypher, and Ida Lupino. This film was loosely based on a portion of the 1904 H. G. Wells novel The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth. The film reduced Wells' tale to an "Ecology Strikes Back" scenario, common in science fiction movies at the time.
Michael Medved gave it the Golden Turkey Award for "Worst Rodent Movie of All Time".
Plot
The "food" mysteriously bubbles up from the ground on a remote island somewhere in British Columbia. Mr. and Mrs. Skinner (John McLiam and Ida Lupino) consider it a gift from God, and feed it to their chickens, which grow larger than humans as a result. Rats, wasps, and grubs also consume the substance, and the island becomes infested with giant vermin. One night, a swarm of giant rats kill Mr. Skinner after his car tire is punctured in the forest.
A professional football player named Morgan (Marjoe Gortner) is on the island for a hunting trip with his buddies when one of them is stung to death by giant wasps. After ferrying his friends back to the mainland, Morgan returns to investigate. Also thrown into the mix are Thomas and Rita (Tom Stovall and Belinda Balaski), an expecting couple; Jack Bensington (Ralph Meeker), the owner of a dog food company, who hopes to market the substance; and Bensington's assistant Lorna (Pamela Franklin), a bacteriologist. After Morgan locates and dynamites the giant wasps' enormous nest, he and the others become trapped in the Skinners' farmhouse, surrounded by giant rats. Morgan's friend Brian (Jon Cypher), Bensington, and Mrs. Skinner are killed by the rats.
Morgan blows up a nearby dam, flooding the area and drowning the rats, whose size and weight render them unable to swim. After the waters clear, the survivors pile up the bodies of the rats, spilling the jars of "F.O.T.G." and gasoline on them before burning them. However, several of Mrs. Skinner's jars of "F.O.T.G." are swept away, drifting to a mainland farm. The substance is consumed by dairy cows, and in the film's closing scene, schoolchildren are shown unwittingly drinking the tainted milk, implying that they will also experience abnormal growth.
Cast
- Marjoe Gortner as Morgan
- Pamela Franklin as Lorna
- Ralph Meeker as Jack Bensington
- Jon Cypher as Brian
- Ida Lupino as Mrs. Skinner
- Belinda Balaski as Rita
- Tom Stovall as Thomas
- John McLiam as Mr. Skinner
- Chuck Courtney as Davis
- Reg Tunnicliffe as ferry attendant
Sequel
A sequel (if only in name) entitled Food of the Gods II was released in 1989.
