Phase IV is a 1974 science-fiction horror film. The only feature-length film directed by graphic designer and filmmaker Saul Bass, it stars Michael Murphy, Nigel Davenport and Lynne Frederick.
The interiors of the film were shot at Pinewood Studios in England and the exterior locations were shot in Kenya, though the film is set in the Arizona desert in the United States. It was produced by Alced Productions and Paramount Pictures.
The film was a box office flop and thus the only feature film directed by Bass. It has since gained a cult following, due to TV airings beginning in 1975 and also being shown on Mystery Science Theater 3000 during the KTMA era.
The film was inspired by H. G. Wells's 1905 short story "Empire of the Ants". A novelization of the script, written by Barry N. Malzberg, was published as Phase IV in November 1973.
Plot
After a spectacular and mysterious cosmic event, ants of different species undergo rapid evolution, develop a cross-species hive mind and build seven strange towers with geometrically perfect designs in the Arizona desert. Except for one family, the local human population flees the strangely acting ants. Scientists James R. Lesko and Ernest D. Hubbs set up a computerized lab in a sealed dome located in an area of significant ant activity in Arizona. The ant colony and the scientific team fight each other, though the ants are the more effective aggressors.
The narrative uses the scientific team as the main protagonists, but there are also ant protagonists going about their duties in the colony. The ants immunize themselves to the humans' chemical weapons and soon infiltrate their lab. Teams of ants penetrate the computers of the lab and short them out. After Lesko decodes an ant message, Kendra Eldridge (a young woman who has taken refuge with the scientists), becomes convinced that her actions have enraged the ants. Seeking to save the two scientists, she abandons the lab and apparently sacrifices herself.
Hubbs and Lesko begin to have different plans for dealing with the ants. While Lesko thinks he can communicate with the ants by means of messages written in mathematics, Hubbs plans to wipe out a hill he believes to be the ants' central hive. Delirious from a venomous ant sting, Hubbs can barely get his boots on, but is determined to attack the hive and kill the ant queen. Instead, Hubbs literally falls into a trap – a deep pit that the ants fill with earth. Helpless to save Hubbs and convinced that the ants will soon move into desert areas where their growth will exceed man's ability to control them, Lesko chooses to follow Hubbs's plan. He sets out to the hive with a canister of insecticide. Descending into the hive, Lesko hunts for the queen, but instead finds Kendra reaching out from under the sand. The two embrace and Lesko realizes that, far from destroying the human race, the ants' plan is to adapt the human race and make them a part of the ants' world. In a voice-over, Lesko states that he and Kendra do not know what plans the ants have, but they are awaiting instructions.
Cast
Nigel Davenport as Dr. Ernest D. Hubbs
Michael Murphy as James R. Lesko
Lynne Frederick as Kendra Eldridge
Alan Gifford as Mr. Eldridge
Robert Henderson as Clete
Helen Horton as Mildred Eldridge
David Healy as radio announcer (voice, uncredited)
Production
Ken Middleham, the wildlife photographer who shot the insect sequences for Phase IV, also shot the insect sequences for the documentary The Hellstrom Chronicle. Both feature extensive use of close-up photography of insects.
Computers used by Lesko were not dummy sets of flashing lights, but real-life computers, like the GEC 2050.
The idea for Phase IV was apparently hatched over cocktails in 1971, when Peter Bart at Paramount had dinner with Raul Radin and asked him what's cooking. Radin responded an ant story, though he actually had nothing. Radin subsequently called Bass, who had a friend who worked with ants and they quickly agreed to work together.
During production, Saul Bass was concerned with 20-year-old Lynne Frederick’s figure, since she was playing a 16-year-old. She was forced to wear a specially designed and painful iron-clad corset to bind her breasts (to make her appear younger) throughout production. Bass also attempted to persuade Frederick to restrict her diet to chicken broth and black coffee.
