The Chicago Locust Invasion

Bug out!

The Chicago Locust Invasion is an upcoming Syfy Original Movie that is the first in the Giant Bugs trilogy. It is a remake of the 1957 B-Movie Begining of the End.

Plot
The film opens in 1957 with newspaper photojournalist Anne Miller reporting upon a small town in Illinois which has been inexplicably destroyed. All 510 people in the town are missing, and the evidence indicates they are dead. Incredibly, the local fields are also stripped barren, as if a swarm of locusts had eaten all the crops. Miller suspects that the military is covering something up, and travels to a nearby United States Department of Agriculture experimental farm to learn what creature might have caused the agricultural destruction. She meets Japanese-American Dr. Travis Inago, who is experimenting with spraying cereal grains with chemicals tht accelrate their growth rate to end world hunger. Dr. Inago reports that there have been a number of mysterious incidents nearby, and that some locusts he has been keeping for study have eaten all the sprayed wheat stored in a nearby grain silo.

The tension in the film rises as reports of gigantic mutant locusts. Dr. Inago and Ms. Miller begin to track down the source of the mysterious occurrences, and quickly discover that locusts which ate the grain have grown to the size of Pickup trucks. The monsters have eaten all the crops in the area, and now are seeking human beings as a means of sustenance. It is also clear that they are headed for the city of Chicago. Wainwright and Miller meet with General Phillip Hanson, Colonel Jason Peter Sturgeon, and Captain Ryan Barton to strategize a solution. Machine gun and artillery fire seem ineffective against the creatures, and there are far too many to effectively deal with all at once. The United States Army and Illinois National Guard are called upon to help protect the city. But the monsters quickly invade Chicago, and began to feast on human flesh as well as destroy a few buildings.

General Hanson concludes that the only way to destroy the beasts is to use a nuclear weapon and destroy Chicago. However, Dr. Inago realizes that the locusts are warm-weather creatures. He concludes that he might be able to lure the locusts into Lake Michigan. There, the cold water will incapacitate them, and they will drown. The lure itself will be a tape recording of the locust mating call. The plan is put into effect, and works at the last possible moment. The monstrous locusts drown, but Dr. Inago realizes that the locusts may have gave birth, and there may be a new wave of Giant Locusts some time in the near-future.

The movie ends with a shot of

Production
Filming took place in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Reception
The movie has gotten negative reviews, although it has been called an improvement over BotE.