Damnation Alley, Part 2

The second set of insect monsters show up later in the film, after the military compound near Tanner and Keegan’s refuge explodes when a cigarette ignites a gas leak, and only two of the officers housed there survive, Major Eugene Denton (George Peppard) and Lt. Tom Perry (Kip Niven). The new insect monsters emerge in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the group encounters large formations of killer cockroaches while collecting supplies.

The first evidence of the roaches appears when they find a human skeleton picked completely clean by radioactive cockroaches emerging from the sewers. To emphasize their monstrous nature, the roaches attack Keegan, who is overwhelmed and killed in seconds. Tanner and love interest Janice (Dominique Sanda) encounter hordes of cockroaches in a department store, as well, but they escape on their motorcycle. “The whole town is infested with killer cockroaches,” Tanner exclaims, an insight proven when we see bare human bones throughout the town.

Cockroaches are constructed as monsters throughout these battles within the community, with little attempt to anthropomorphize them. As the survivors head toward the hope of sanctuary in Albany, New York, insects become monsters, even when they defy all accurate natural laws. Radiation serves as the culprit causing changes in insect life, alterations that don’t appear in any other species in the film. Ultimately Tanner, Janice, and Denton successfully combat all the insect monsters they encounter and find fellowship in Albany, with what we presume are the only remaining humans in the U.S. The transformed cockroaches presumably live on as monstrous nature that must be eradicated or avoided.