The Swarm is a 1978 disaster film about a killer bee invasion of Texas. It was adapted from a novel of the same name by Arthur Herzog. The director was Irwin Allen, and the cast included Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Fred MacMurray , and Henry Fonda. Despite negative reviews and being a box office failure, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design. A group of soldiers led by Maj. Baker is ordered to investigate a basement level station... which they believed was attacked. After Baker contacts his commander, General Slater , they begin to investigate who drove a civilian van into the base. It is revealed to be owned by a scientist named Dr. Bradford Crane . Slater orders two choppers to check for a black mass , and they are sent out of the sky. The film was released initially at 116 minutes. When released on laserdisc in the 1980s, it was expanded to 156 minutes. This 156-minute version is the one available on DVD.
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| Release date: | July 14, 1978 |
| Directed by: | Irwin Allen |
| Rated: |  |
| Runtime: | 116 Minutes |
| Producer: | Irwin Allen |
| Editor: | Harold F. Kress |
| Music by: | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Cinematography: | Fred J. Koenekamp |
| Screenplay by: | Arthur Herzog, Stirling Silliphant |
| Estimated budget: | $21,000,000 |
| Genre: | Disaster, Action |