How realistic is The Swarm? Deep-sea explorer Antje Boetius on the sci-fi series and the legacy of Avatar creator James Cameron

The sci-fi thriller series Der Schwarm paints a disturbing picture on ZDF: Based on the novel by Frank Schätzing, natural disasters and sea creatures are beating down on people and scientists all over the world have to realize that an unknown intelligent being in the deep sea is apparently the Attacks coordinated.

Science fiction or reality? marine researcher dr. Antje Boetius in an interview about The Swarm

The international giant production has been available in the ZDFmediathek since February 22, 2023 and will be shown on TV from March 6, 2023. To figure out, how much truth behind the threat of The Swarm stuck, we talked to deep-sea researcher Professor Dr. Antje Boetius spoke.

Moviepilot: Did you immediately agree when the request came to become a scientific advisor for the series adaptation of The Swarm?

dr Antje Boetius: Sure, because Frank Schätzing’s Der Schwarm was a bestseller and was also read and appreciated by us marine researchers. When it came out in 2004, it was about our current research. It was a great approach that to combine rather unknown research with something fictitious and adventurous, which was nevertheless close to reality. Looking back, one can say: Reality is even faster, more extreme and harder than fiction.

So I immediately said “yes” to advising on the series because I’m very concerned with how to get science out there. This is sometimes difficult for us researchers. Sometimes we are too complicated in our language or the data is not really tangible or the small steps of knowledge are too boring for the general public. But according to Frank Schätzing’s book The Swarm, every child knew what a gas hydrate was. We couldn’t have held so many lectures. So should we additionally use the power of art and cultureto reach the general public? I’m just trying out different formats.

How were you involved as a consultant on The Swarm? Have you ever had to say, “Unfortunately, that doesn’t work at all”?

I was first involved in setting the scene: How do you work on a research ship? How is science today? and how diverse is it? How do doctoral students talk to female bosses, how do academic advisors talk to politicians? But also: When scientists gain knowledge that is essential for the survival of mankind – where do they go with it anyway? How are they noticeable?

Then came the script and dialogue check. As with Frank Schätzing, events that are as real as possible should be woven into fiction. So I showered the team with feedback on microorganisms, worms, whales, and underwater robots to put scientific observations into fiction. I probably have them too annoyed with my many suggestions. [lacht] At some point, a very nice email came from creative showrunner Frank Doelger, who was also involved in Game of Thrones. He thanked for the many tips and wrote that he would use them where they related to the real world of science. But he would make the cut to fiction where the foreign power of the Yrr is at stake. So it remains exciting for the audience to guess where that is in the story.

Deep sea explorer is a very special profession. So you’ve never had thalassophobia, the fear of deep water?

No, I wanted to go to sea from an early age and spend as much time as possible underwater in the ocean. When I found out that there is such a thing as a profession, I pursued it further. For me it is amazing that people are afraid of deep water, because water carries. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a pool two meters deep or the sea four kilometers below you. There is no physical difference.

Of course, the biggest question we non-marine biologists ask ourselves when watching The Swarm is: what is reality? Perhaps we’ll start with the jelly of the Yrr: is there anything comparable in nature or in the deep sea?

For form and complexity there is nothing like it, but not as a vengeful world power. My own research area is protozoa, bacteria and archaea – microorganisms that form consortia and cooperate, for example to eat up the greenhouse gas methane. Thanks to them, the large amount of gas from the sea floor does not even reach the surface. Your achievement is to make the earth habitable for us humans at all. So you belong to a web of life that keeps everything sane. And we humans still don’t really understand this achievement or even do damage, for example when dealing with the seabed.

There are a variety of slime-forming protozoa that can grow explosively and are also self-luminous, they can appear in masses. When diving, you will also encounter almost transparent jelly-like creatures that can become huge. For example “Salps” or Colonial Polyps. Some of them form meter-long chains and threads and shine in a way similar to how it is now [in Der Schwarm] is shown. You always see that when you dive and it’s dark in the submarine. You can look out and it lights up and flashes like a giant firework display.

In The Swarm, many of the emerging threats and natural phenomena are presented as new and atypical…

The exciting thing is that many of the exciting stories à la “What does nature do to take revenge on humans?” in the book The Swarm real basics have. For example, tsunamis triggered by decaying gas hydrates. Or: Although humans do not fall into the prey pattern of orcas, suddenly there are groups of orcas off Spain that have learned to push small boats around. And this gigantic slime plague in the Sea of ​​Marmara, where the sea suddenly solidified into a thick slime due to nutrient discharge and heat waves, so that not even boats could get through.

There is so much where nature has overtaken fiction. If you don’t know that everything can be explained scientifically then one would perhaps also think that the ocean is taking revenge on us humans. But the reason is: If we humans disturb processes in the ocean, then this can have enormous disadvantages for us.

What about the reality content of topics like collective memory that play a role in the book and in the series?

That’s harder. There is definitely intelligence in many animals in the sea. One only has to consider how whales communicate over long distances. And now we know that it is Interspecies Communication there, which plays a big role in the series.

It’s about different species that have not gone through an evolution together and find a common language. This Inter-Species Communication there is in the sea, for example between different whale species that cooperate with each other and hunt as a team. In the sea, many creatures, especially in the deep sea, rely on cooperation. They exchange chemical signals and coordinate with each other.

Speaking of communications and whales, did you happen to see the new Avatar movie, which has some parallels to The Swarm, e.g
if it
is it about cooperation within nature?

Not yet! But I have times JamesCameron met at an ocean research event. He had set himself the goal of being the first person to dive alone into the Mariana Trench. He’s a total ocean fan anyway and gives the seas a lot of visibility in his films. James Cameron did something important for the ocean. Getting involved with the fascination of the sea like he did can lead to astonishing insights. And so does the series The Swarm.

Series replenishment after The Swarm: The 20 best series starts in March on Netflix, Disney + and more

Need more fresh streaming tips? You can find the most exciting series that you can stream on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and more in March here in the monthly preview:

We have checked the long starting lists of the streaming services and present you the 20 big highlights of the month in the Moviepilot podcast stream trawl. Also included are new seasons of The Mandalorian and Netflix’s fantasy hit Shadow & Bone, as well as a highly anticipated sci-fi series with a mega cast.

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