Case Study 1: The Swarm [1978]

{open to} a dusty, hot, southwestern American landscape. There are trees, some scrub growth and several nondescript-looking buildings apparently constructed out of cinderblock, ferro-concrete and plywood. There are a few empty vehicles with open doors, and the atmosphere is quiet and eerie. [colors are very bleached out1] A number of other vehicles arrive, and figures in protective clothing begin breaking into the buildings. Inside, everything is still and it is not until they have penetrated deeply into the site that the first corpse is encountered. There are no overt clues as to its recent demise. Shortly afterward a single living man is encountered, an entomologist. He claims to have arrived at the site [which has now been identified as a "strategic defense missile base"] shortly after the 'event.' In his van, parked outside, is a large array of electronic and chemical devices. He is arrested. {cut to} a family picnic in a nearby orange grove. By the style of dress it is most likely the mid- to late-1970s. The group consists of a man, woman and child. The man is evidently hungry, and, as the food is being set out on a picnic table, he begins to eat somewhat sloppily. There are bees nearby. The child is sent to the car for some item as the woman begins vigorously swatting the bees. There is a faint siren in the background. In a very short time the two adults are covered with bees {close-ups of apis mellifera} and begin stumbling and vocalising incoherently. The boy runs back to the car (a 1975 Ford Mustang) and locks himself inside. Bees cover the car. The boy, crying, fumbles with the ignition, starts the car, and it rapidly exits the field. This is the first appearance of the bees.

[The bees appear regularly from this point on. Often they appear on screen as nothing more than a massive black cloud that 'rains' down upon the landscape. Medium-range shots of swarming behavior punctuate the film, and on at least three separate occasions there is a simulated hallucinatory experience which employs extreme close-up cinematography of a species which is identified beyond doubt as apis mellifera, the common honey-bee, and which has until recently2 ranged widely throughout continental North America.]

The swarming bees move (from an indeterminate point in central America, it is noted) through the American southwest, penetrating and 'neutralizing' missile bases, factories, individuals or small groups, and a nuclear power-plant, over the course of the 14 hours it takes them to travel to Houston, Texas. At this point, the entomologist, who had been put in command of defensive efforts, is relieved by the military, and the decision is made to use 'neutrocide' [designation and chemical composition: unknown] against the approaching swarm. Neutrocide has no effect on the bees, who have 'evolved an immunity' to its effects, but it will leave a barren wasteland within which 'nothing will live for up to a decade.' Subsequently, the decision is made to torch the city of Houston. The bees simply move on, heading towards Chicago.

[Tacit evidence for chemically-induced genetic mutation; Embedded speculation concerning the increased intelligence of the bees (disputed intra-cinematically)]

At approximately the same time that this occurs, the entomologist's team determines that there is an instigating factor in the swarm's deadly attacks: the frequency-range of the warning sirens employed by government and military installations and townships throughout the area precisely mimics the 'electro-magnetic' signals given off by rival queen-bees, inciting the social insects to a swarming, offensive/defensive posture.

[Tacit evidence for electronic stimulus affecting behavior; Concerning the relation between electronics and genetics? Inconclusive. Embedded speculations on signal-to-bee communication ratio.]

The bees are (apparently) dispatched by mounting signal-producing oscillator/amplification assemblages on a series of rubber life rafts, and installing the floating sirens in the center of an artificially produced off-shore oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. As the bees begin to swarm around the oscillators, the oil slick is ignited.

>>>