This is the age of the rocket, the jet, atomic power.
When man prepares to reach for the stars,
but before he dares to launch himself into space,
there is one great question to be answered.
What happens to life in the airless void above earth's atmosphere?
Will life remain untouched,
unharmed by its flight through space,
or will it change into, what?
There was only one way to find out,
and we were working on it.
All yours, Mr. Morgan.
Thank you, Dr. Brady.
Eh, let's see, monkey, wasps,
crabs, spiders, and a Guinea pig.
Mac, Dr. Brady's being very generous this morning.
Let's load the passengers, huh?
It's 10:14, 10:15, we set the Roman rockets.
40-second flight plan, Jim.
Let's hope they land inside the county.
Yeah!
10:15 minus five,
four,
three,
two,
one.
Off they go in the wild, blue yonder.
Above the atmosphere, the yonder is not blue.
It's black.
Well, thank you, Dr. Brady.
I bet you read that in a book.
No, thank you.
208 miles straight up.
Nothing up there but airless space
and a flock of cosmic radiation.
You ever have the itch to get up there yourself?
Not me, I'll wait and see
what happens to the test animals.
Mm-hmm, you and me both!
Mr. Morgan, the second rocket!
She's not coming down.
Defective vane maybe.
I'm losing contact.
She's out of radar range.
She was way over normal velocity.
Yeah, I know.
Friction coefficient?
Well, Quent, let's go ask the computer a few questions, huh?
Better sit down, Quent, this'll take some time.
- Have a seat there. - Thanks.
Trajectory, 319, speed of flight, 427, 364.
Fuel weight, 119, burn efficiency 5.32.
Friction coefficient, 0.79.
Don't know if we'll get an answer.
I hope so.
Well how 'bout it?
I hope it's a good one.
Data's insufficient for a positive answer,
only an approximation.
Well, I'll tell ya one thing.
If it comes down in a populated area, it won't be good.
Yeah.
Well, the rocket went into almost escape velocity, and...
Let's take a look at the globe.
It'll orbit halfway around the world
and come down-
- come down where?
If the computer is correct,
just off the coast of Africa.
What happened, Arobi?
It's macongo, doctor.
He gave up his breath and his soul
at the last going down of the sun.
How did he come to be this way?
He followed a trail into Green Hell.
You were his blood brother, Arobi.
Where we you when he died?
No farther than a small stone's throw,
but he was hidden from me by a turn in the trail.
I heard him scream.
I ran to him.
You saw what had attacked him?
I saw nothing.
Tell me, what did you see?
Give him a hand, we'll take him inside.
We'll find out what killed him.
That will put an end
to all this superstitious prattling about monsters.
He died of paralysis of nerve centers.
Was it snake venom?
There is a resemblance, but the dose was too massive.
No poisonous snake known to science
could inject the quantity of poison present.
Besides, the nature of the material injected
completely different, couldn't possibly be from a snake.
Then you do not know what killed macongo.
Not yet.
The men know!
Arobi, that's superstition.
They were prepared to see monsters in Green Hell,
so naturally, they did.
Doctor, the animals flee from Green Hell.
This, I have seen!
The small monkeys and the large elephants,
all flee, all run madly away!
Even the birds in the air do not remain!
Since when?
Week, uh, two.
Doctor, it may be we are superstitious,
but is a monkey frightened by a superstition?
Does an elephant run from superstition?
Will a bird not alight in a tree because of superstition?
Then there is something, some thing strange,
perhaps even monstrous, but a thing of nature,
not of evil spirits!
Hey, what's so interesting in the news?
Take a look at that.
Yeah, things are rough all over!
But these riots reported monsters.
What's that got to do with us?
According to the computer,
the rockets we lost six months ago landed in Africa.
Do you think there's a connection?
I could be wrong, I hope I am.
But Quent, we've sent up hundreds of test animals,
exposed them to cosmic radiation.
None of 'em ever turned out to be monsters or giants.
But none of them were exposed for more than 40 seconds either.
See these Guinea pigs?
Yeah.
They were sent up day before yesterday.
40 seconds exposure at 206 miles altitude.
They look fine.
Sure, but their fur's white.
What's the matter with that?
It was brown when they were sent up.
These two were sent up last week.
Mm-hmm.
They've been in a trance ever since.
Any injuries?
Well, none that our instruments can detect,
but maybe we don't have the right instruments.
Is this one all right?
She hasn't been sent up yet.
Now here, there's mama, spider crab.
On the left, we have baby.
0h, baby's a whole lot bigger!
Yeah.
Mama was exposed to cosmic rays before she had baby.
Result, in one generation, mutation of the genes,
resulting in practically doubling the size of the offspring.
Well, Quent, I see what you're driving at,
but there's a lot of difference
between a crab that develops to be twice as big as normal
and a gigantic monster.
Sure, there's a big difference in 40 seconds exposure
and 40 hours, too, Dan.
40 hours exposure is what the wasp in the lost rocket got.
Look, you've seen pictures
of the survivors at Hiroshima, haven't you?
Well, sure.
Radiation did that, Dan.
Quent, what you're thinking about sounds like a nightmare.
Yeah.
Nobody was anxious to believe in my theory, not even Dan.
On the other hand, nobody could afford to ignore it.
I had written a report and sent it to project headquarters.
They didn't like it much there
and promptly passed it on to Washington.
Finally, my request for leave of absence
for Dan and myself to investigate was granted.
They gave us a letter for the territorial agent
in Libreville and wished us luck.
If there was anything in my hunch, we were going to need it.
We booked passage on two for immediate departure,
destination, Africa.
I shall, of course, give you all the assistance I can,
Dr. Brady, Mr. Morgan, but there are problems.
Such as?
The situation in the interior is highly disturbed,
possibly dangerous.
We'll chance that.
Do you really believe your theory
of mutated wasps is true, Dr. Brady?
I believe it may be so.
I thought the reports at first merely mass hysteria.
The monsters are said to be concentrated
in the mount virunga area.
The natives call that area Green Hell.
Now this is where we are now.
Your first objective should be the village of Mongwe.
But that's out of our way!
You'll find Dr. Lorentz and his daughter at Mongwe.
He's established a hospital and mission there.
Well, that's fine.
Well, the man's a Saint.
He spent 40 years of his life among the natives,
curing their bodily ills,
trying to free their minds of fear and superstition.
He'll be of more help to you than anybody else could be.
We'll stop at Mongwe.
Good.
Of course it'll take some time organizing a safari,
particularly in view of the trouble in the interior.
However, we'll be as quick as we can.
Thank you very much.
We are still here in Libreville.
The territorial agent was cooperative,
but not too quick in arranging for our departure.
As we sit around the hotel waiting, I find myself wondering
just what is happening in the interior
and to the natives and to Dr. Lorentz.
What's wrong, Arobi?
Listen!
Strange sound, I've never heard it before.
I did, the day maconga disappeared.
We must keep going.
They were frightened, in panic!
I've never seen them like that except when there was a fire.
There was no fire, it was that sound
and we come close to Green Hell.
Doctor, look!
Footmarks of a monster!
Denba's good luck charm!
Mount virunga, a very peaceful volcano at the moment.
The sound, it's much louder.
Must be getting closer
to whatever's responsible for it, Arobi.
I'm going down alone.
Please, doctor, let me go.
I'm much younger than you.
You better stay up here.
If I get in trouble, you'll be able to help.
We should turn back.
But we've got to know!
I'm afraid for you.
So am I, but all my life, Arobi,
I've believed that knowledge drives out fear.
I must go on in that belief.
We've already been here a week and three days.
Eh, you don't organize a safari overnight,
particularly when you're buying beads, brass wire,
mirrors for the hostile natives.
Heh, personally, I would prefer a general sherman tank.
Well, we've got the next best thing, Dan.
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
Careful of that baby bomb!
U.S. army's newest development.
Potent, portable, pulverizing.
Do you expect to use a weapon as deadly as this
against a flock of insects?
Well, I don't know, Dan,
but if we do, we've got 'em.
Yes.
Well, sometimes, I'd sell all I know about science
for a nickel when I would have
to pay any attention to your nightmares.
The wasps were real.
Yeah, but wasps are only about that big.
You're forgetting mutation.
Nah, I'm remembering mutation.
Now, suppose your mutated wasps are twice as big,
three times it, well, all right,
let's be generous and say they're 10 times as big.
You're still a long ways
from having yourself a gigantic monster.
Sure, sure, if mutation always worked the same.
Small steps, one at a time,
but sometimes, it just jumps.
Yeah.
I don't know, Dan.
I may be way off base on this thing.
But you don't think you are.
That's the important thing.
Any event, we take off early in the morning,
now how 'bout gettin' some sleep?
You go ahead, I'll be along in a minute.
Okay, goodnight, Quent.
Goodnight, Dan.
That was the night of the 24th.
On the morning of the 25th, our safari got underway.
The agent had hired us the best guide in central Africa,
an arab named Mahri.
Dan and I with Mahri's help worked out a schedule.
In order to reach Dr. Lorentz's hospital
in the village of Mongwe,
we had to walk a little over 400 miles.
Our schedule called for 15 miles per day average.
All things being equal,
we figured to reach Dr. Lorentz in about 27 days.
I found out soon enough that being on a safari
meant putting one foot in front of the other
and then repeating the process.
The first few days were murder,
and it was obvious that working over test tubes
was not the right way to train
for a hike across the plains of Africa.
A week went by and then another.
We were maintaining our schedule,
and I should have been pleased, but I wasn't.
Something was eating at me.
It started like a simple itch in my brain,
and as the days passed, it grew into a feeling.
I tried to put my finger on it but couldn't.
Instinctively, I knew something was going to happen.
The only trouble was, I didn't know what.
Do you hear anything?
Yeah, it sounds like drums.
Yeah.
Drums?
War drums, yanangas.
I hope they haven't seen us.
There wasn't anything we could do but keep moving forward
and hope we hadn't been spotted,
or that if we had, the natives would permit us
to pass through without causing trouble.
It didn't take long before we learned
we were wrong on all counts.
Dan, Mahri, hurry it up!
Now that's done it, Quent.
Yeah, let's get outta here!
To avoid any more native
tribes, we changed our course,
which added another 75 miles of hot,
wide open, waterless country.
The sun beat down as though it hated us,
and then we began to run out of drinking water.
In Africa, that means running out of time.
Hold it up, Mahri!
Sorry, Quent, I Never realized
how much the human animal depended on water.
Nah, it's empty.
I've got a little left here.
- No, no. - Drink it
or I'll pour it in the grass.
That's enough for now.
Feel better?
Yeah.
Let's get out of here.
I don't like the neighborhood.
All right, Mahri, let's go!
Stop, no, no!
No, don't drink!
What's the deal, Mahri?
Vultures, they only come when death is near.
Nobody drink till I return!
Water, water poisoned, no drink!
They were not mistaken.
The vultures are never mistaken.
What'd you find?
On the other side of the rise,
a lion died a few minutes ago, poisoned.
The water hole?
Poisoned.
Try chewing on these, Dan.
There's a little moisture in 'em.
Go on, try it, Dan.
Hold tight, Dan, hold tight and I'll drown ya.
Like the taste?
Not bad, it's not bad at all.
Oh, man, listen to it, will you, listen to it!
Nice, wet, welcome water.
Hey, Quent, don't let 'em turn it off.
Don't let 'em turn it off.
The rain kept coming, more than we needed.
Africa is a crazy place.
It either tries to dehydrate you or drown you.
We sat it out for two days.
Dan recovered nicely, but I was getting restless.
How much longer, Mahri?
Skies are persistent, doctor.
Perhaps the rain will continue a few more days, a few weeks.
In that case, we won't wait any longer.
Rain or shine, tell the bearers to get ready to go on.
Yes, sir.
You all right, Quent?
Yeah, yeah, I think so.
Here, let me get you your hat.
Hey, you don't look so good, fella!
Yeah.
Mahri, get a stretcher!
Okay.
The branch that fall in the storm.
Yeah, it's a pretty bad bruise.
All right, now easy with him!
He's conscious!
He may be conscious,
but I think he's still a little light in the head.
He has no fever anymore.
If nobody minds,
I'd like to interrupt this conversation
about me and ask you a couple of questions.
Like where am I?
You're in Dr. Lorentz's mission.
You passed out from pain, fatigue.
You were unconscious the day it took us to get here, and a half-day since.
And who are you?
- This is Lorna, Dr. - Lorentz's daughter.
Lorna, Dr. Brady.
Lorna.
How do you feel, fella?
I feel fine now.
Where's Dr. Lorentz?
He's out in the jungle.
Been gone some time now.
Why?
Same reason we're here.
After a shave and an outdoor shower,
I began to feel like myself.
I watched Lorna as she played and replayed
a few lonely notes on the organ.
I wondered how long we would have to wait
before Dr. Lorentz returned from his expedition.
I wanted to hear his findings before Dan and I
again started out on the job that had brought us to Africa.
Miss lorentz!
Arobi!
Where's my father?
He's with his god.
How did he die, Arobi?
He went down into the path of the volcano.
Weren't you with him?
He ordered me to stay behind,
but when I heard him cry out, I ran to him.
He lay in the dust,
his life fled away.
I buried him there.
How do you know it was a monster that killed him?
This was buried in his shoulder.
I injected some of that stuff
we got out of the stinger.
The results were positive, the animal died like that.
Venom?
No question about it.
I've got the clincher.
I cross-sectioned the stingers under the microscope.
Take a look.
Living tissue inside the horny outer ring.
Mm-hmm.
Insect tissue.
Wasp tissue.
Quent, do you realize if what we've got here
is only part of the stinger,
can you guess how big the creature itself must be?
Yeah, well, we won't have to guess at it, Dan.
We'll see for ourselves.
Mahri, you take personal charge of those grenades.
Yes, sir.
- Help me with this other box. - Yes, sir.
Feeling better?
I'm all right.
I have no tears left.
Are you going on?
Yes.
I knew that.
This science, these experiments that drive you.
I'm beginning to wonder what good they are.
Look, Lorna,
the very work your father did here,
the work you helped him with,
curing the sick and fighting disease, infection, death.
It wouldn't have been possible without science,
without experiments.
Experiments sometimes fail,
they fail many times, but they have to be done.
I only know that there's no science
that can make my father live again.
You're very brave to go with them.
They go to finish the work your father began.
And maybe to die the way my father died?
Miss lorentz, until now,
the monsters remain in Green Hell.
It is easy to run away from a small section of Africa,
but if the monsters breed and multiply,
as all living things do,
and if soon there is not prey enough for them in Green Hell,
shall we leave all of Africa for them?
Dr. Brady, Mr. Morgan,
they'll go and they'll die!
All men die.
If a man-eating lion is near the village,
shall we not go out to kill it
even if in the killing there are other deaths?
What's the matter, Mahri?
In the night, the men of the safari
spoke with the men of the village.
Nothing wrong with that.
Except that this morning,
the men of the safari are all gone except Yugondera.
Gone where?
Back to the coast.
Why didn't you wake us up?
They left while all slept in the early light of dawn.
All right, we'll use men from the village.
If they will go.
Mahri, will you help me with the packing please?
Yes.
- Dr. Brady? - Mmhmm?
Nothing'll stop your going?
Well, they'll be men from the village,
as many as you need, to go with you.
Lorna, you're an angel.
I've decided to go with you, too.
But it isn't kind of a thing for a girl!
Look, I know the jungle better than you do.
Besides, the men wouldn't go without me.
Why not?
Well, they're afraid of Green Hell.
When I said I was going, a woman,
I shamed them.
You see, they couldn't admit that their fear
was greater than a woman's, so...
So we're glad to have you with us.
We'll leave tomorrow, Quent?
In the morning.
The bearers have seen the destroyed village.
They're extremely frightened and restless.
Will you please come, sir?
Sure, sure.
Lorna, maybe if you talk to 'em.
A stampeding herd of water buffalo
is not stopped by an arrow or a word.
We got not choice, Quent, we've got to go on.
All right, let's go.
Dan, Mahri, Arobi!
Typical wasp markings, but the size of them!
It's incredible!
They lead there, to Green Hell.
We march in the right direction.
Virunga's restless, she's angry today.
Oh, Quent, I'm afraid!
We must go back or go on.
We go on, go ahead, Arobi.
Cigarette, Dan?
No, thanks.
Got a match?
Yeah.
Thank you.
I'm sure all of you are well aware
of the many problems that lie ahead of us.
Even before Dan and I left our country,
we were concerned about one thing.
Wasps are insects.
They form a colony with the queen at the head.
The queen mates, lays eggs, and multiplies,
even more rapidly than any other form of life.
The creatures we pursue are wasps.
No matter how changed their shapes,
no matter how large they've grown.
They will multiply as rapidly as the tiny insects
from which they sprang.
They will overrun all of Africa
unless we quickly destroy their colony,
and, more important, their queen.
But if the rifles are powerless against them-
- we've brought weapons from our country, Mahri.
These.
They're filled with an explosive called gelignite.
Have you seen weapons like these before?
You, Arobi?
No, but I've seen rocks blown up when they built a road near Libreville.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, this is a little different.
Much more powerful.
Who is it?
It's Quent.
I'm sorry if I frightened you.
I'm always frightened now.
I wish you were safely out of here.
I wish we all were.
No one will be safe
until we destroy the queen and her colony.
You come from a country so far from here.
Why should you be concerned about what happens to us?
Oh, a feeling of responsibility, I guess.
Now, after you pull the pin,
you've got to get rid of it in a hurry.
These are kind of heavy, so the best thing to use
is a sort of a stiff-arm motion like that.
You understand?
Well, Quent?
Nothing we can do until the sun comes up so we can see.
Better try to get some sleep.
I'll stay up for a couple of hours, then waken one of you.
All right, wanna put this back?
Yeah, get some rest, Lorna.
Dan!
Listen!
Arobi, we couldn't be mistaken.
I've heard that sound before!
They're all around us, but they didn't come right at us.
Maybe they don't like fire.
Let's find out, here.
Dan, where's the kerosene?
All right, get back!
I could see no signs of the beast or creatures
that had surrounded our camp the night before.
Luckily, I was right.
Whatever it was didn't like fire,
and we kept ours brightly burning
until the night faded into dawn.
As I looked out over the plain, I could taste the fear I felt,
fear not only for myself,
but for everyone else in the group.
I felt certain we were going to discover what it was
that had killed Dr. Lorentz,
and I wondered when we found it,
would we be able to stop it.
As we broke camp, I told Arobi and the others
to check their ammunition
and I kept asking myself the same question.
If we found it, would we be able to destroy it?
I didn't know the answer, so I did the one thing
everybody else does when they face the unknown,
I quietly prayed.
We stand at her feet.
The old girl's really smoking this morning.
Yeah, all right, let's keep moving.
There it is again.
Yeah.
Wonder where it's coming from.
I don't know.
Wait here.
All right, let's go!
Hold that a sec, would you, Quent?
How you doin', Lorna?
Fine.
Leave your packs here and bring your ammo.
Dan, I'd like to see you a minute.
You all stay here.
- Dan? - Yeah?
Check your ammo.
Be sure Lorna's got hers.
Right.
Sounds like the whole colony's close by.
You stay with them,
I wanna take a look up ahead, okay, fine.
Watch yourself.
Take care of this for me, will ya?
There's the queen!
I'd never have believed it!
Probably our only chance to get at them,
while they're together.
Yeah, come on.
Mahri, go up that hill and dig in.
Arobi, you flank Mahri on the left.
Lorna, get over against the mountainside and stay there.
- Dan, you stay with me. - Right.
When I give this signal,
toss your first and second grenades into the bowl
and get away as quick as you can,
then come back here and await instructions.
Let's pray it works, let's get the grenades.
All right, let's go.
It didn't work!
Quent?
Yeah, yeah, where are ya?
Right over here.
Boy, are we glad to see you.
I was afraid you wouldn't make it.
How are you?
Where's Lorna, is she all right?
Yeah, she's right next to me here.
The rest?
Eh, kind of shaken up, but we're all right.
Arobi?
Light the torches, will you?
We gotta find a way out of here now.
It's a pretty good size cavern.
Well, this way is as good as any, I guess.
Suppose you lead the way, huh?
Stick close to the wall.
- Pretty narrow right in here. - Yeah.
I don't know, Dan.
I don't see any daylight.
Ow, I think we better keep going, though.
Well, let's rest a minute.
Dan, the cavern splits here.
Huh?
Dan, you and Mahri explore that end of the cave.
I'll take this end.
Lorna, you and Arobi stay here.
Lorna, we think we found a way out!
Has Quent come back?
Not yet.
Quent!
Quent! Quent!
Quent!
- You okay? - Are you?
Oh, I just feel fine.
Take the lead, Dan.
All right, now, stay close together.
Well, it took a volcano to do what we failed to do.
Nature has a way of correcting its own mistakes.
My father must be pleased.
The death of the creatures
will bring about the deliverance of my people.
The gods have been kind.
They've taught us as Dr. Lorentz taught us, to have faith.