locusts are just ordinary grasshoppers that sometimes swarm and create huge amounts of damage. Tod has arrived in hollywood like everyone does, in pursuit of success and he sees around him the evidence of how that success is fleeting or unattainable for most people in hollywood. he's building a large artwork in his apartment based around faces of ordinary people he sees who look beaten down by the disappointment of hollywood's reality. no character in the movie has pure motivations. all of them are ticking time bombs of rage. finally, in a crowd of people living vicariously off the success of others, Homer, whose whole life feels like disappointment, comes to the end of his fuse. his action sets off the swarm. Tod sees the denizens of hollywood explode with pent up rage at their failed ambitions. he drags himself across the street and leans on a lamp post where for a moment he looks right at us like we're to blame but then his gaze drifts away. when Faye goes looking for him, he's left his apartment. the book tells us what he does after the riot but the movie lets us decide for ourselves.