The Swarm (1978)

Michael Caine: Brad Crane

Photos 

Quotes 

• Brad Crane : We've been fighting a losing battle against the insects for 15 years, but I never thought I'd see the final face-off in my lifetime. And I never dreamed, that it would turn out to be the bees. They've always been our friend.

• [Slater is about to attack the swarm with a highly toxic pesticide] 

  Brad Crane : General, if you use that, nothing will grow out there for the next 10 years!

  General Thalius Slater : Why worry about shaving when somebody's going to cut your head off!

• [Crane has found something at the ravaged picnic site] 

  Brad Crane : [holding it up]  Plastic. It's a piece of a plastic cup. There are pieces all around here.

  [he starts pointing out the other fragments] 

  Brad Crane : Look. Look, there. There. There.

  General Thalius Slater : What's so significant about that?

  Brad Crane : I'm afraid to speculate. But, I think, the bees, did this.

  Major Baker : Are you saying these bees eat plastic?

  Brad Crane : No, no. But I'm wondering. Your American honeybee has a weak mouth, that couldn't even break the skin, of a grape. But it looks like this species, is tearing up, plastic cups, possibly to line their hives. Now, if this is true, they didn't, just get here. I mean, the invasion, didn't, just now begin. They have been here some time. Breeding. Increasing.

  General Thalius Slater : So?

  Brad Crane : Well, suppose these bees, are using plastic, to insulate their hives.

  General Thalius Slater : No bee is that smart.

  Brad Crane : Suppose these African bees are.

• Brad Crane : I have cardio-pep in my van.

  Capt. Helena Anderson : Cardio-pep? I've just read an article in the medical journal about cardio-pep! By some scientist named... Crane, I think.

• Brad Crane : Are you endowing these bees with human motives? Like saving their fellow bees from captivity, or seeking revenge on mankind?

  General Thalius Slater : I always credit my enemy, no matter what he may be, with equal intelligence.

• [Crane's explanation of how he got inside a locked-down nuclear missile silo] 

  Brad Crane : That's a complicated story. It begins a year ago. But let's skip that.

• Brad Crane : These bees, General, are of joint concern, and they are killing Americans, without reference as to whether or not they have a serial number and are expected to salute YOU! So there will be no air drops of any kind until I give the OK!

  General Thalius Slater : Your OK, huh? Then just possible I can persuade you to attack this particular swarm, now that we know where it is! Attack and eliminate it!

  Brad Crane : Possibly, if you can explain to me, how you air drop chemicals, without killing the native insect life! If your chemical will kill the African bee, it will also kill the American bee, right?

  General Thalius Slater : Right! And better a few American bees than a lot of AMERICAN PEOPLE!

  Brad Crane : That is the point, General! The honey bee is vital to the environment! Every year in America, they pollinate six billion dollars worth of crops! If you kill the bee, you're gonna kill the crops! If you kill the plants, you'll kill the people! No! No, General! There will be no air drop, until we know exactly, what we are dropping, and where, and how! Excuse me!

  [Crane storms off] 

• [about the killer bees] 

  Brad Crane : We have been invaded, by an enemy far more lethal than any human force.

• [as helicopters drop special sound-emitting floats to attract the swarm to its doom] 

  Helena : Won't the noise of the helicopters drown out your sound?

  Brad Crane : No. It's an entirely different sonic level.

• Dr. Krim : I'm studying Tibetan levitation. In a few hundred years or so, I expect to be able to just float around. Are you still writing dirty books?

  Brad Crane : Not this year.

  Dr. Krim : Raunchiest thing I ever read. The paper of yours on the mating habits of Bombus medius.

  Brad Crane : Yeah, those queen bees really are something.

• Brad Crane : Is it me you're seeing? Or a bee?

• [final lines] 

  Capt. Helena Anderson : Did we finally beat them? Or is this just a temporary victory?

  Brad Crane : I - I don't know. But we did gain time. If we use it wisely, and if we're lucky, the world might just survive.

• [Crane is talking to a sting victim who is hallucinating a giant bee] 

  Brad Crane : [while the giant bee is hovering next to him]  There's no bee here. I promise you, there's no bee here.

• General Thalius Slater : Who are you?

  Brad Crane : I'm an entomologist.

  General Thalius Slater : Bugs?

  Brad Crane : Insects, General!

• Brad Crane : Look, what I do for a living isn't important. What is important, critical, is that there are probably other invading swarms and what these bees did here, they can do again, all over the Southwest and, ultimately, all over the country.

• Brad Crane : What happened here, Captain?

  Capt. Helena Anderson : I'm sorry, sir. You mean you don't know?

  Brad Crane : Well, not exactly.

  Capt. Helena Anderson : We were attacked by bees.

  Brad Crane : Attacked?

• Brad Crane : It's damn hard to believe that insects have accomplished what nothing in the world could have done, except germ warfare or a neutron bomb: neutralize a ICBM site.

• Brad Crane : Get inside! The killer bees are coming! Everybody get inside! You understand?

• Brad Crane : How will you prevent the wind from carrying your pesticides across cities, parks, farms, and schools?

  General Thalius Slater : Sometimes you have to choose the lesser of two evils.

  Brad Crane : Ridiculous, General!

• Brad Crane : Captain, feed this into the computer: African bees attack a train 70 miles northwest of Houston. Now, give me the revised time figures, please.

• General Thalius Slater : The bees have formed almost a complete circle. Billions of 'em. And that's what we've been waiting for.

  Brad Crane : Waiting for what?

  General Thalius Slater : The battle plan is to get 'em all into one area - and then *zap* 'em.

• General Thalius Slater : English?

  Brad Crane : American.