History Film / PhaseIV

* ClosedCircle: Item one: the ants are surrounding the dome. Item two: Hubbs, in his emphasis to stay around to AdmireTheAbomination, deliberately left the scientists' car outside of the dome. Item three: the first thing that the ants sabotage within the lab is the radio transmitter, so they cannot call for a helicopter.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:When the ants manage to send a message which implies that they want a person from within the lab, she walks out of the lab to be taken by them. The GainaxEnding starts right when it is shown that the ants let her live]].

* TheSiege: Those within the lab are surrounded by a massive amount of ants that can think. The ''worst'' part is that the ants are quite able to enter the lab and sabotage it...

* ItCanThink: The ants. And the cast is divided between admiring this, being terrified by this, and are looking for a way to make contact with the ants.

* TitleDrop: The "phases" of the cosmic alignment (and the ants' increasing intelligence and efforts to conquer), which divide the film's acts, are put on-screen as titles

* AnimalNemesis: [[spoiler: Hubbs develops this mentality, after the ants have poisoned him. It starts with him merely wanting to "teach the ants their place" and ends with him ranting and destroying everything in sight so he can kill a single ant whom he feels is spying on them.]]

* MinimalistCast

* FakeAmerican: Lynne Frederick, whose English accent can be heard to slip in from time to time.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Kendra's grandmother was the voice of "Mother" in the first ''Film/{{Alien}}'' movie.

''Phase IV'' would seem, on the surface, to resemble many of the other "Man Vs. Bugs" films that came out during the Seventies (like ''TheSwarm'' and ''Film/KingdomOfTheSpiders''). Phase IV, however, is a bit more cerebral than its brethren; the conflict with the ants in this movie more resembles a game of chess than it does an action-packed physical battle. It was the first and only feature-length film made by Creator/SaulBass, who is better known for his innovative opening title sequences for various classic movies, like Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' and ''Film/{{Vertigo}}''.

* GainaxEnding: And how. SaulBass wasn't happy with the ending of the film, but ExecutiveMeddling forced him to do it this way.

''Phase IV'' would seem, on the surface, to resemble many of the other "Man Vs. Bugs" films that came out during the Seventies (like ''TheSwarm'' and ''Film/KingdomOfTheSpiders''). Phase IV, however, is a bit more cerebral than its brethren; the conflict with the ants in this movie more resembles a game of chess than it does an action-packed physical battle. It was the first and only feature-length film made by SaulBass, who is better known for his innovative, animated opening title sequences for various classic movies, like Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' and ''Film/{{Vertigo}}''.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Kendra's grandmother was the voice of "Mother" in the first ''{{Alien}}'' movie.

!!''PhaseIV'' provides examples of:

''Phase IV'' would seem, on the surface, to resemble many of the other "Man Vs. Bugs" films that came out during the Seventies (like ''TheSwarm'' and ''KingdomOfTheSpiders''). Phase IV, however, is a bit more cerebral than its brethren; the conflict with the ants in this movie more resembles a game of chess than it does an action-packed physical battle. It was the first and only feature-length film made by SaulBass, who is better known for his innovative, animated opening title sequences for various classic movies, like Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' and ''{{Vertigo}}''.

Things don't go entirely as planned however. A tragic accident involving one of their experiments results in the death of most of a farm family. Its lone surviving member--a teenage girl named Kendra-- is forced to take up residence with the two scientists to await transportation out of the area. [[ItGotWorse Things get worse]] when the ants sabotage the scientist's communication console, effectively cutting off everyone's sole means of escape. This might not have been a problem had the ants not proven themselves to be highly poisonous, and capable of building deadly traps. The humans aren't completely helpless--they have the science and ingenuity to counter the ants' measures. However, it remains to be seen which species will have the skill and intelligence to win the upcoming battle, much less survive it...

''Phase IV'' would seem, on the surface, to resemble many of the other "Man Vs. Bugs" films that came out during the Seventies (like ''TheSwarm'' and ''KingdomOfTheSpiders''). Phase IV, however, is a bit more cerebral than its brethren; the conflict with the ants in this movie more resembles a game of chess than it does an action-packed physical battle. It was the first and only feature-length film made by SaulBass, who is better known for his innovative, animated opening title sequences for various classic movies, like AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' and ''{{Vertigo}}''.

Things don't go entirely as planned however. A tragic accident involving one of their experiments results in the death of most of a farm family. Its lone surviving member--a teenage girl named Kendra-- is forced to take up residence with the two scientists to await transportation out of the area. [[ItGotWorse Things get worse]] when the ants sabotage the scientist's communication console, effectively cutting off everyone's sole means of escape. This might not have been a problem had the ants not proven themselves to be highly poisonous, and capable of building deadly traps. The humans aren't completely helpless--they have the science and ingenuity to counter the ants' measures. However, it remains to be seen which species will have the skill and intelligence to win the upcoming battle, much less survive it...

Although ''Phase IV'' once appeared on MysteryScienceTheater3000 during the KTMA days, it wasn't so much because of its quality as it was because of its sci-fi subject matter, its [[GainaxEnding strange, ambiguous ending]], and the fact that KTMA just didn't have a whole lot of movies in its library to choose from. (Pretty much anything they had that was remotely science fictiony --or remotely related to the Mystery Genre for that matter--wound up on the show.)

* TheChessmaster: While the humans put up a valiant effort, the prize has to go to the ants, who somehow manage to figure out and sabotage human technology, as well as build traps that would make Jigsaw proud.

* EvilBrit: While Hubbs certainly isn't evil, he doesn't seem all that concerned about the deaths caused by one of his experiments. He's more interested in fighting the ants than he is in showing the proper amount of tact for his actions. (Of course, he's right about the ants and is justified in wanted his experiments to continue, but he should have done more than just shrug and say "Oh well," upon seeing the bodies of his experiments' unintended victims.)

* [=~Hey, It's That Voice!~=]: Kendra's grandmother was the voice of "Mother" in the first ''{{Alien}}'' movie.

''Phase IV'' would seem, on the surface, to resemble many of the other "Man Vs. Bugs" films that came out during the Seventies (like ''TheSwarm'' and ''KingdomOfTheSpiders''). Phase IV, however, is a bit more cerebral than its brethren; the conflict with the ants in this movie more resembles a game of chess than it does an action-packed physical battle. It was the first and only feature-length film made by SaulBass, who is better known for his innovative, animated opening title sequences for various classic movies, like AlfredHitchcock's ''{{Psycho}}'' and ''{{Vertigo}}''.