The Swarm Quiz | S | 10 Questions

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. The swarm of the title, a horde of Africanized killer bees, wasted no time in doing its damage. Just before the film opened, the bees invaded what kind of military facility?

Answer: Ballistic missile complex

At the opening of "The Swarm", a military recon team scrambled onto the missile complex, trying to find out what happened to their comrades. The discovery of dead missile officers in the underground facility ultimately led to what was, at first, believed to be improbable.

2. Dr. Bradford Crane (Michael Caine), an expert on bees, arrived at the military facility too late to warn them of the invading swarm. But his knowledge proved valuable in fighting the swarm later on. When Crane gave instructions to gather his colleagues, what message did he ask the military to give them?

Answer: That the war he had been talking about had finally begun

For Bradford Crane, the swarm represented the prelude to a major invasion. He had warned a number of colleagues that the aggressive Africanized bees would continue migrating north from Central and South America until they reached the United States. Those more aggressive bees were likely to cause problems for the more docile American honeybee, which was responsible for pollinating billions of dollars in crops each year.

3. General Slater, the head of the military complex, opposed Dr. Crane's more scientific methods of dealing with the swarm and proposed more drastic measures that might have also wiped out industrious American honeybees. Which veteran actor played General Slater?

Answer: Richard Widmark

General Slater had a hard time believing that bees decimated his missile complex. He thought that the best way to deal with the bees was with a single massive knockout shot. He would have rather have dead American bees than dead Americans, he told Crane during one of several arguments. Eventually, he sacrificed his life so that Crane could carry out one last attempt at destroying the swarm.

A gifted actor who appeared in numerous television shows and movies during his career, Richard Widmark earned a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for his work in the movie "Kiss of Death" in 1947. He also earned an Emmy Award nomination for his work in the 1971 made-for-TV movie "Vanished". The year before appearing in "The Swarm", Widmark played an air force general in the motion picture "Twilight's Last Gleaming".

4. After taking aim at the military facility, the swarm decimated and ultimately forced the evacuation of a nearby town, that was getting ready to celebrate its annual flower festival. What was the name of this quaint little town?

Answer: Marysville

Marysville was like any typical small town. It was full of friendly people, had a town square with shops and a school, and had a friendly mayor by the name of Clarence Tuttle (Fred MacMurray, in his last movie role). As characters in the town attested, the flower festival was the highlight of the year.

5. Flowers were not the only thing in bloom in the small town. Felix, a retired mechanic (Ben Johnson), and the mayor of the town, Clarence Tuttle (Fred MacMurray) fought for the affections of Maureen Schuster (Olivia de Havilland). What kind of work did Miss Schuster do?

Answer: School superintendent

Miss Schuster was fond of both of her suitors, but she had a difficult time choosing between them. She had known Clarence all her life, but she also liked Felix, who brought his big-city knowledge to the small town. She promised Clarence that she would make her decision before the end of the school term.

Unfortunately, the love triangle fell apart when the evacuation train they were all riding on derailed after being attacked by the swarm.

6. After his parents were attacked by killer bees, Paul Durant (Christian Juttner) drove the family car frantically into town to tell everyone what happened. What kind of car did Paul drive into town and ultimately crash into a flower cart?

Answer: Ford Mustang

Paul and his parents were outside of town having a picnic when the bees attacked. Paul watched as his parents fell to the swarm, but he had the presence of mind to scramble to the family car and get out of the area. Unfortunately, his urge to get revenge led him and some friends to firebomb the swarm while it was at rest. Angered by the attack, the bees set out for Marysville.

7. Dr. Hubbard (Richard Chamberlain), one of Dr. Crane's colleagues, visited a nuclear plant in an attempt to get its manager, Dr. Andrews (Jos� Ferrer), to shut down before the swarm came in. But the bees caused the plant to explode, killing Andrews, Hubbard, and over 36,000 other people. In which city did this disaster occur?

Answer: Armsworth

"The Swarm" marked the second time that Irwin Allen killed off a Richard Chamberlain character. In 1974, Chamberlain's character, Roger Simmons, the son-in-law of the Glass Tower's owner Jim Duncan (William Holden), died when the breeches buoy failed in the blockbuster disaster film "The Towering Inferno".

8. Though Dr. Crane bumped heads constantly with General Slater, what specific act caused Slater to finally soften his stance toward the scientist?

Answer: He witnessed Crane praying.

As Slater and his chief aide, Major Baker (Bradford Dillman), walked in on Crane, who was sitting by the bed of the military base doctor, Helena Anderson (Katharine Ross), they heard him ask God to let Anderson, who was stung by a bee during the attack on Marysville, live.

When Baker turned to Slater and asked him if a praying scientist could be trusted, Slater replied that he wouldn't trust a scientist that didn't. Slater then told Baker to forget the idea of building a dossier on Crane.

9. If a small town was no match for an invading swarm, a big city didn't stand much of a chance, either. In fact, the White House ordered the controlled burning of which major metropolis, to combat the swarm?

Answer: Houston

To say that Houston had a problem would have been a major understatement. The city of over one million people found itself besieged by billions of killer bees. When asked how long the bees would stay there, Dr. Crane replied that if they had sufficient food and water, they might not ever leave.

10. Running out of options, and with a major city under attack, Dr. Crane finally realized that it was the sound of sirens that could lure the swarm out of town.

Answer: True

Analyzing the sounds of the bees and the sounds of the last moments of the men at the missile complex, Dr. Crane concluded that the sirens used when the base was under attack had the same frequency as the bees' mating call. Crane and Anderson escaped Houston and with the help of the US Air Force, dropped hundreds of floats armed with sirens into a massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. Once the bees converged on the slick, it was ignited by short-range surface-to-surface rockets. Even in victory, Dr. Crane knew that America's problems with killer bees were just beginning.

Source: Author cag1970

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor skunkee before going online.
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The Swarm Trivia Quiz

The legendary Irwin Allen tackled killer bees in the disaster movie "The Swarm". It's a movie that, despite its lack of success at the box office, helped cement Allen's claim to being "The Master of Disaster".

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