associates. Slater sacrifices himself to save Crane and Helena from the bees. Helicopters playing the alarm sound from the ICBM bunker over loudspeakers lure the bees out to sea, where they douse the water with oil and set the swarm ablaze. Helena wonders if their victory was just temporary. Crane responds that he does not know, but decides that "if we use our time wisely, the world just might survive." Cast Production The film was announced in 1974 at the height of the disaster-movie craze. It was part of $38 million worth of projects Allen had lined up, others including The Day the World Ended (a project which was retitled and released in 1980 as When Time Ran Out....) The script was written by Stirling Silliphant, who had written The Towering Inferno for Allen. He said in December 1974 that Allen hoped to start filming in April 1975. Production was delayed in part because Allen decided to leave Fox for Warner Bros. Estimates of the numbers of bees used in the production ranged between 15 million and 22 million, including 800,000 bees with their stingers removed to enable the cast to work safely with them. About 100 people were employed in the production to care for and transport the bees during the film shoot. Olivia de Havilland was stung by a bee while filming. Fred MacMurray retired from acting after completing this film. Reception The film received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. It has a score of 9% on Rotten Tomatoes based on twenty-three reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. It was one of two disaster films (the other being Beyond the Poseidon Adventure) directed solely by the "master of disaster" Allen, who had experience directing several films and many episodes of his TV shows - and both featured Michael Caine in the leading role. The film is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John J.B. Wilson's book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of the 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made, where Wilson states that under Allen's unsubtle direction, "despite the enormous production budget, The Swarm turned the tale of an invasion of killer bees into the ultimate B movie." Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "nothing less than the ultimate apotheosis of yesterday's B-movie." Comparing the film unfavorably to recent blockbusters such as Star Wars and Grease, which also evoked old