The Swarm

United States, 1978

Film
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From celebrated epic disaster movie director Irwin Allen, this tale of destruction wrought by swarms of millions of killer African and South American bees stands alongside “The Poseidon adventure” and “Towering Inferno” in Allen’s production record, though with a somewhat lesser impact. Entomologist Brad Crane (Michael Caine) discovers that deadly South American bees have been breeding with their harmless relations in the North. Worse still, something is making them come together in huge killer swarms and the terror of their destruction threatens to spread throughout North America. As the bees close in on Houston, Crane joins forces with General Slater (Richard Widmark) to try and stop the devastation. Filmed with an estimated 22 million bees, this doomsday epic also boasts a collection of stars including Katherine Ross, Olivia de Havilland, Henry Fonda, Fred MacMurray, Richard Chamberlain, Jose Ferrer, Patty Duke Astin, Lee Grant and Bradford Dillman.

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Collection

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Credits

director

Irwin Allen

producer

Irwin Allen

production company

Warner Bros Pictures

Duration

02:29:00:00

Production places
United States
Production dates
1978

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

314909

Language

English

Audience classification

PG

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Wikidata

Q1199715

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

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If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/91754--the-swarm/ |title=The Swarm |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=15 May 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}