Together they do a little genetic splicing with the common cockroaches's DNA and create a "Judas Breed". The Judas speeds up the metabolism of the "Strickler" roaches and causes them to starve to death. The Judas kills off the virus and all the little kids are saved thanks to the Franken-couple. Meanwhile their Judases are supposed to die off in 160 days, but as Tyler's mentor Dr Gates (F Murray Abraham) says, "Evolution has a way of keeping things alive." This is where the film's moral subtext comes into play: when man attempts to play God, the results are disastrous. (There's some pretty heavy-handed Christian iconography in the film).

Three years later and the roaches have warped a 1000 generations of evolution to set up a colony in the subways and sewers of Manhattan. They've become highly adapted to their environment and are now six-foot flying cockroaches who can mimic their predators - man. With lungs and human innards, they stalk subways and devour the, scripted-as-disposable, homeless people that inhabit this subterrean world. And no one whose seen these critters so far has lived to tell the tale. Usually Hollywood's commandment of thou-shalt-not-kill-off-cute-kids is ignored when it comes to marking up the death toll. Chuy (Alexander Goodwin) is the one exception to this.