the swarm

Director: irwin allen

Actor: michael caine,katharine ross,richard widmark,richard chamberlain

Data Published: Fri Jul 14 1978

Genres: Horror,Thriller

Key Words: swarm,bee,killer bee,bees,self experimentation

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078350/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swarm_(film)

Description: The Swarm is a movie starring Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, and Richard Widmark. A huge swarm of deadly African bees spreads terror over American cities by killing thousands of people.

Plot: A group of soldiers led by Major Baker, is ordered to investigate the basement level of a missile base, which appears to have been attacked, and the garrison all but wiped out. After Baker contacts his commander, General Slater, they begin to investigate a civilian van found parked at the base. It is revealed to be owned by a scientist, Dr. Bradford Crane, one of the few survivors of the attack, but not someone stationed at the base. Slater orders two helicopters to track a large airborne mass moving slowly away from the base. The mass is revealed to be a swarm of bees, which engulfs the two helicopters, killing their crews. Crane insists to Slater that the base was attacked by this swarm, composed of deadly African killer bees. Slater doesn't trust Crane, but Helena Anderson, one of the base's doctors, supports Crane's story. Meanwhile, in the countryside, a family is attacked by a swarm of the bees. Their teenage son, Paul Durant, manages to escape in a Mustang, although he is also stung, and crashes into the Marysville town square, where the citizens are preparing for the annual flower festival. The boy is brought into the hands of military personnel, where he hallucinates a vision of giant bees attacking him, on account of the after-effects of the bee stings. Much to Slater's annoyance, Crane is put in charge by the President and calls in many experts to help. Wheelchair-bound, Dr. Walter Krim, arrives at the base and confirms to Crane that the very war they have feared for a long time has started with the bees. At the gates of the base, Slater must confront angry country bumpkin Jed Hawkins, who demands to see the dead body of his son, who was killed by the bees. Hawkins takes the body bag and departs, leaving the entire watching crowd silent over the loss. Slater suggests airdropping poison on the swarm, but Crane considers the ecological possibilities of the situation, and overrules him, instead focusing on a solution that will kill the bees without harming people and the environment. Recovering from his earlier bee attack, Paul and two of his friends go in search of the hive to firebomb it, which results only in angering the bees, which make their way to Marysville and kill hundreds, including some children at the local school. Crane and Helena take shelter at the local diner, with pregnant café waitress Rita. Reporter, Anne McGregor, watches from the safety of her news van, hoping to get some exciting footage about the siege. After this most recent attack, Slater suggests evacuating many of the townsfolk in a train. However, the bees engulf the train as well, causing it to derail and crash, killing most of the occupants including a love triangle made up of school superintendent, Maureen Scheuster, retiree, Felix Austin, and town Mayor, and drug-store owner, Clarence Tuttle. Confined to a hospital bed, Rita gives birth to her child, falling in love with the doctor in the process, but Paul, who has fallen ill again, succumbs to the after-effects of the stings and dies, devastating Helena. The savage swarm heads for Houston, so Crane drops eco-friendly poison pellets designed by Dr. Hubbard, on them, but the bees ignore the pellets, evidently intelligent enough to sense danger. Working on an antidote to the bees' venom, Dr. Krim, self-injects to keep track of the results, although the trial proves fatal, and Krim dies from the effects of the venom. Meanwhile, nuclear power plant manager Dr. Andrews, is convinced that his plant can withstand the attacks of the bees, ignoring the warnings of Dr. Hubbard. However, at that moment, the alarm sounds and the bees invade the plant, killing both Andrews and Hubbard, as well as completely destroying the plant and wiping out an entire town. Washington orders that operations to stop the bees be placed under military control and Slater takes charge. He orders the evacuated city of Houston to be deliberately torched by soldiers with flame-throwers, hoping the conflagration will destroy the swarm. Helena, who was stung during the attack on Marysville, falls seriously ill again. Crane analyzes tapes from the original bee attack of the base and comes to the conclusion that their alarm system attracted the swarm into the base as the sound resembled a signal from the swarm's queen. The bees break into the headquarters building so Slater and Baker use a flame thrower to allow Crane and Helena to escape, but at the cost of their own lives. Helicopters successfully manage to lure the bees out to sea, placing floating buoys, with speakers emitting the sound Crane discovered, into an area of water doused with oil. When the swarm arrives, the oil is set ablaze by missiles fired from the nearby coast, destroying all of the bees.