is cornered by a giant tomato wearing earmuffs, hence cannot hear the music. Dixon saves her by showing the tomato the sheet music to "Puberty Love". He professes his love to her, in song. The film ends with a carrot that rises from the soil and says, "All right, you guys. They're gone now." Cast The film also contains the first screen appearance of Dana Ashbrook, then aged 10 or 11, as Boy on Boat (uncredited). Production Filming took place in Oceanside and other parts of San Diego County. The finished film contains footage of a real helicopter crash. In a scene showing law enforcement officers firing their weapons to ward off tomatoes in a field, a $60,000 Hiller Aircraft UH-12E that had been rented for the production was supposed to have landed in the tomato patch behind the officers, but during the landing, its tail rotor struck the ground, causing the craft to spin out of control near the ground, roll over, and burst into flames. The helicopter pilot escaped without serious injury. The crash was caught on film as the cameras were rolling at the time. The crash was later worked into the film. Music The theme song, written by DeBello, describes the tomatoes' rampages through the world, describing that they have killed a man named Herman Farbage while he was taking out the garbage, that the mayor is on vacation to get out of stopping them, that they have scared off the National Guard, and that they have even eaten the narrator's sister. This theme song is used in different variations over the course of the series, here simply sounding like the score of an old monster movie with lyrics and a more catchy tune. All other music was written by Gordon Goodwin and Paul Sundfor with lyrics by Dillon, DeBello, and Peace. The song "Puberty Love" was sung by the then-teenaged Matt Cameron, who later became the drummer for Soundgarden and since 1998 has been the drummer for Pearl Jam. Critical reception Upon release, Variety wrote that the film "isn't even worthy of sarcasm." Emanuel Levy gave the film a score of 2 out of 5. Time Out called the film a "one-joke spoof". Eric Henderson, reviewing the DVD edition for Slant Magazine in 2003 opined that "even more so than the Samuel Arkoff-like opportunism of the producers, and more so than some of the worst