The Andromeda Strain
“Let's stick to established procedures.”
“Establishment gonna fall down and go boom.”
Penned by science thriller guru Michael Crichton, a former doctor himself, there’s no glossing over technical detail in 1971's The Andromeda Strain.At times it actually seems as if the laboratory set and the gadgetrytherein grab more spotlight than the actors themselves. Director RobertWise had helped build mainstream sci-fi film with 1951's The Sound of Music. The Andromeda Strain let him put the emphasis back on things that don't sing and dance.
No one in Piedmont, New Mexico, is singing or dancing, that's forsure. A government research satellite that was busily, and secretly,collecting deadly microorganisms from outer space has just crash-landedthere. Buzzards circle overhead, and reconnaissance photos indicateeveryone’s dead. A crack team of radiation-suit-wearing scientistsheaded by Dr. Jeremy Stone are collected from around the country andsent into the body-strewn ghost town. To the science team’s horror, allthe dead bodies have powder in their veins, instead of blood. All, thatis, except for the two lone survivors that are found—a crying baby andthe town drunk.
The scientists and the two survivors steal away to an undergroundgovernment research facility, where “Project Wildfire” is underway.With the threat of a worldwide epidemic looming, the science teamperforms tests, tests, and more tests…computer printouts area-printing, vials of blood are a-taken. As the team works on a cure,the nasty extraterrestrial virus begins to mutate and is soon able todissolve plastics. If this keeps up, the scientists fear, the killerbug might ultimately be able to escape the confines of the lab andenter the unsuspecting world.
Eschewing big-name Hollywood stars, The Andromeda Straincast an ensemble of low-key, relatively little-known character actorsin the major roles, and they made for authentic looking and soundingbrainiacs. There were scenes that were nearly silent, scenes with verylittle action (but loaded with tech talk), and overall, cinematographythat evoked documentary filmmaking. The movie certainly had somemelodramatic, "the end is near" Hollywood moments, especially in itsfinale, but it explored the not-so-glamorous, real-life world ofscience, too.
It may not have been glamorous, but it made for a good, solid thriller. The Andromeda Strain was one of the biggest hits of 1971, leading to a long string of sci-fi thrillers from author Crichton (Westworld, Coma, Jurassic Park) that continues today.
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