The Andromeda Strain (1971)
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A team of scientists must contain a deadly extraterrestrial organism after a government satellite crashes in a rural town.
The story
After a U.S. government satellite crashes near the small rural town of Piedmont, New Mexico, nearly all residents are killed. Suspecting the satellite brought back an alien organism, the military activates an elite team of scientists. Led by Dr. Jeremy Stone and including surgeon Dr. Mark Hall, the team investigates the site and discovers the town's doctor opened the satellite, resulting in his death. They retrieve the satellite and find two survivors. The team then moves to a top-secret Nevada underground facility, code named Wildfire, to study the microscopic alien organism, which they assign the code name 'Andromeda.'
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Dr. Jeremy Stone recounts the events of a satellite crash in Piedmont, New Mexico, where a deadly extraterrestrial organism caused mass fatalities. Stone and surgeon Mark Hall find two survivors—an alcoholic and an infant—and transport the satellite to the Wildfire facility in Nevada. The team discovers 'Andromeda,' a microbe that kills via brain blood clots and asphyxiation. They learn it lacks terrestrial DNA and transforms energy to matter. During research, the organism mutates into a form that degrades synthetic materials and escapes into the lab. A five-minute nuclear self-destruct countdown is initiated. Hall realizes the survivors lived because their blood pH was outside the microbe's survival range. He must navigate the facility's core, dodging automated lasers, to disable the bomb. He succeeds with seconds to spare. The film ends with the team seeding clouds over the Pacific to neutralize the microbe, while a computer feed shows a warning code '601' indicating information coming in too fast to analyze.
- First release year
- 1971
- Runtime (minutes)
- 130
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Robert Wise
- Writers
- Nelson Gidding · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Arthur Hill · Dr. Jeremy Stone; James Olson · Dr. Mark Hall; Kate Reid · Dr. Ruth Leavitt; David Wayne · Dr. Charles Dutton; Paula Kelly; George Mitchell; Michael Crichton · physician
- Genres
- science-fiction thriller; disaster; techno-thriller; hard science fiction
- Themes
- planetary protection; biological warfare; scientific ethics; technological paranoia
- Tone and mood
- tense; paranoid; clinical; urgent
- Setting
- Piedmont, New Mexico and a Nevada underground facility in 1971
- Premise and plot tags
- alien microorganism; containment; nuclear threat; scientific investigation
- Source material / true-story basis
- Michael Crichton's 1969 novel
- Reception
- The film received mixed-to-positive reviews and was a moderate commercial success, noted for its scientific accuracy and dedication to the source material.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 68% · review count: 44; Metacritic · score: 60 · scale: 100 · review count: 9
- Awards and nominations
- Best Film Editing · Academy Awards · 44th · Nominated; Best Art Direction · Academy Awards · 44th · Nominated; Score · Golden Globe · Nominated
- Production trivia
- The film used advanced computerized photography for special effects.; Real laboratory scenes were shot at Caltech.; Composer Gil Mellé recorded actual laboratory sounds at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for authenticity.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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