strange/weird things

[Babydoll]

I was watching a Dr. Who show when I realized that they used salt to kill the aliens.  

What was some strange/weird things use to kill the creatures/aliens in movies?

Like salt killing an alien or water melting the Wicked Witch of the West.

[ErikJ]

Remember it was the common cold that saved the world in War of the Worlds
So why couldn't something simple kill and alien or a witch

[Mofo Rising]

Only mentioning it because it's on TV right now, but Head & Shoulders was used to kill the aliens in EVOLUTION.

[Dano]

Salt water killed the triffids in "Day of the Triffids."

Didn't antifreeze kill the snowman in "Jack Frost"?

[Babydoll]

There was the music that kill the aliens in Mars Attacks.

[J.R.]

Head & Shoulders was used in Evolution, but it shouldn't have wrked. They needed Selenium, when in fact the active ingredient in H&S is Selenium Sulfide, a completely different substance.

And salt killing the aliens? Puh-lease. There's salt almost everywhere on Earth, those aliens would have died ten minutes into the attack. I can't remember what it was, but there was a movie (possibly a kiddie flick) in which the enemies were pure hate, so showing them affection destroyed them.

[Mofo Rising]

Along the same lines as the salt thing, water was the catalyst for destruction for the aliens in SIGNS.

So water was their major weakness.  Explain to me why they would want to invade a planet 80% water.

[Foywonder]

The sea monsters in HORROR OF PARTY BEACH were killed with sodium.
They live in salt water, but sodium can kill them?

Maybe I'm just not up on my marine biology, but doesn't the ocean contain salt water which would contain then sodium?

I've always wondered if the makers of the film did that on purpose or if they just didn't care.

[Squishy]

The aliens in "Signs" run around NEKKID on a planet that's mostly water, the atmosphere of which contains tons of water, attacking beings that are mostly water. And wa-wa burns them. In other words, the invasion is doomed on the basis of fog and dew alone. Of course, these are aliens that can travel across the galaxy but need crop circles to guide them. WTF? Man, somebody slap the crap out of M. Night S. until he starts seeing dead people.

Whether it's "The Beginning of the End" or "The Swarm*," I've always hated the "secret-exact-frequency-that-leads-the-killer-bugs-to-their-doom" bit.

*In Arthur Herzog's novel, the killer bees succeed in spreading across America, but an early attempt to sabotage the bees' genes with mutated queens--thought to have failed--has actually worked, making the bees literally (get this) Too Stupid To Live. Like the Scream-a-piller from a recent "Simpsons" episode (a helpless, self-destructive bug described as "sexually attracted to fire"), the bees abruptly don't know to stop swarming when they hit land's end, or open flame, or snow. They burn and drown and freeze and starve, and in a year, they're history.

[Andrew]

Roger laughed a number of the weasels to death in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

They also used salt water to destroy "The Monolith Monsters."

Shooting a volcano with heavy artillery, thus making it erupt, was used to cook "Rodan" and his mate.

Poor creatures, "The Flesh Eaters" are killed by human blood.  Talk about a problem - their main prey on the island is people!

Pure rainwater killed the mutants in "Day the World Ended."

Destroying all of the world's closets worked in "Monster in the Closet."

I think that the ultimate has to be Thor! suddenly transforming into an angel and defeating Satan in "Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare."

[raj]

This thread & the fire extinguisher one remind me of an old (yikes?!) board game, The Awful Green Things from Outer Space.  Basically, you're in this space ship which gets invaded by aliens.  There are some basic items around the ship, knives, fire extinguishers, acid, pool sticks and Zgwortz.  Each time you play, you get to redo the effect that each item has on the aliens, either kill, shrink, stun, or grow them.  It kinda sucks when you use an area effect item on a bunch of them, and they multiply.

Really fun game, put out by TSR.  Probably not available any more.

[Cullen]

The Doctor Who episode with aliens being destroyed by salt was "Image of Fendahl," and that is an over simplification of the matter.  What was being killed by salt was the Fendahleens, the lesser parts of the greater whole.  In the first place, the Fendahleens could freeze people in their tracks with a form of mind control.  Only those with really strong wills could resist.

On top of that, once complete, the Fendahl was a God, nearly unstoppable.

(Besides, the Fendahl didn't choose to go to Earth.  It had been reduced to a skull by the time it reached our world.)

Doctor Who is one of my favorite series.  It lasted nearly thirty years, and in that time had PLENTY of bad episodes, clumsy special effects, and dubious acting.  But, when it was good, it was very, very good.

"Image of Fendahl" was the episode that made me a fan as a kid, and, in a way, led me down my current path in life.

Now, whether I should be GRATEFUL for this or not remains to be see...
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[peter johnson]

In "Something Wicked This Way Comes", one of the devil-baddies is destroyed by a bullet that a smile has been carved into.
peter johnson

[John]

>Whether it's "The Beginning of the End" or "The Swarm*," I've always hated
>the "secret-exact-frequency-that-leads-the-killer-bugs-to-their-doom" bit.

 Or the "Hey look, this book has exactly what we need to defeat the monster!"

>Doctor Who is one of my favorite series. It lasted nearly thirty years

 And would probably still be on the air cranking out new episodes if the idiot head of the BBC didn't have a personal grudge against it. (at least that's what I was told)

>In "Something Wicked This Way Comes", one of the devil-baddies is destroyed
>by a bullet that a smile has been carved into.

 I thought it was actually a wax bullet, the idea being that the wax would melt due to the heat and make it safe to fire at someone from a distance, but the smile carved into it killed them. Or maybe that was just in the book. It's been too long since I've read it and can't seem to find the passage right now.

[Flangepart]

Humm...how many bullets have been modified to suit the baddies. Heh...in a Slyvester McCoy/ Brigadear exchange, the old soldier said U.N.I.T. was makeing bullets for all known threats! Gold for Cyberman, Silver for werewolves, wood for vampires...makes sence, realy. I think its not the guns that fail in monster killing, its the ammo!