The Swarm

1978

1h 56m

IMDb RATING

5.0/10

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Thriller

Science Fiction

Horror

Scientist Dr. Bradford Crane and army general Thalius Slater join forces to fight an almost invisible enemy threatening America; killer bees that have deadly venom and attack without reason. Disaster movie-master Irwin Allen's film contains spectacular special effects, including a train crash caused by the eponymous swarm.

Directors

Irwin Allen

Writers

Arthur Herzog III(novel by)

Stirling Silliphant(screenplay by)

Stars

Michael Caine

Katharine Ross

Richard Widmark

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Videos2

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Trailer
Watch Swarm, The (1978)

Photos32

Top cast

Michael Caine

Brad Crane

Katharine Ross

Capt. Helena Anderson

Gen. Thaddeus Slater

Dr. Hubbard

Maureen Schuester

Felix

Anne MacGregor

Dr. Andrews

Rita

Jud Hawkins

Maj. Baker

Maj. Clarance Tuttle

Dr. Walter Krim

Gen. Thompson

Paul Durant

Dr. Newman

Dr. Martinez

Pete Harris

Directors

Irwin Allen

Writers

Arthur Herzog III(novel by)

Stirling Silliphant(screenplay by)

All cast & crew

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Review

Featured review

Before we had Murder Hornets...We had THE SWARM!!!! In the 70s, this was one of the media's tools to terrify the populace. Unbelievably as it may seem, when released this movie scared the pants off of America in the same way that Jaws did when it made it to the theaters. The Killer Bee swarms in South America, created in cross-breeding African and Western Honeybees, of course had to share the stage with the other big threats of the day: The Upcoming Global Ice Age and Nuclear Power Plant disasters, both of which also made minor appearances in this film. Nevertheless, the fashionable fear in 1978 was bees and Hollywood was there to make sure YOU got the message that Man was bad and Nature would soon kick his ass. That asides, the movie in itself now is laughable, no better than the Global Warming Fear Films that the SyFy channel (AKA NBC) churns out today. The movie passes well beyond the level of believable when train passenger cars explode as they roll down a hill, the nuclear plant explodes like an atomic bomb killing 36 thousand people or when the military decides to burn Houston like Sherman did Atlanta, even though the bee swarms are not inside buildings or cars. The over-the-top fiction that even 2 stings from these bees will kill you, even though Science (oh, doesn't the Left like to laud that term up on a pedestal when it suits their agenda) knew at the time that the level of toxin in this new strain of bee was no more lethal than that of the average Honeybee. Rather, it was their aggressiveness in tracking threats and ruthlessness of their attack, compared to normal bees, that was the true fact of concern. The movie does bring a grade A cast to the table and most of the performances are respectable, although I did find the fact that Michael Caine liked to explode and shout through scenes rather disconcerting and over-dramatic. There are plenty of other situations that make no sense, like Henry Fonda's character using himself for a guinea pig when he's the only one who can work on a serum or Michael Caine breaking out a pane of glass to gain entry to a locked building, when people were already inside who could have opened the door, when the bees were attacking the town (and now had easy access to all the people in the building via the broken glass). Unlike the other disaster films of that decade, The Swarm doesn't even come close to being a serious threat and is little more than an inconvenient buzzing in the ear of the audience.

Ragnar_Danneskjöld10 Feb, 2021