The Andromeda Strain (film)
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- This article is about the 1971 film. For the book, see The Andromeda Strain.
The film was directed by Robert Wise and starred Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid, and David Wayne. The film follows the book very closely. There is a strong feel for technology and government procedures and formalism. The main set, in bright primary colors, becomes increasingly claustrophobic as the four scientists work in isolation, interrupted only by disembodied voices of the computer or PA system.
Synopsis
After a US government satellite crashes near the village of Piedmont in New Mexico (Arizona in the book), a disease attached to the satellite kills all but two of the town's inhabitants. An elite scientific team takes the satellite into a secret underground laboratory in Nevada, known as the Wildfire Complex, in order to study it. The pathogen mutates into a form that degrades rubber gaskets. This engages an automatic mechanism designed to set off a nuclear weapon beneath the complex, eradicating all traces of the disease before it can reach the surface. However, the alien disease is able to thrive on the enormous energy source and would be able to mutate into an untold numbers of forms. To stop the explosion, one scientist races to shut down the bomb before it can detonate.Trivia
- In the novel, the character of Ruth was actually Peter.
- When making the scene in the movie where one of the doctors has an epileptic seizure due to watching a blinking red light, care had to be taken when choosing the frequency of the blinking, so it was the less likely frequency to trigger seizures among the theater audience.
- The film was recast as an art-house movie in Anne McGuire's 1992 Strain Andromeda The. With permission, McGuire reversed the original film shot by shot so that everything unfolded in reverse order, although with each scene running in normal time with comprehensible dialogue. "Every action is followed by its stimulus, every comment by its query, you find yourself in a dizzying spin, grasping desperately for causal certainty, yet firmly held by the reversibility of suspense." (Steve Seid)
- A young Michael Crichton makes a cameo appearance in a non-speaking role during the scene where Dr. Hall is told to break scrub because he has to report to Wildfire.
- In creating their song "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub", Apollo Four Forty sampled the line "...Let's go back to the rock and see it at four-forty" (referring to 440x microscope magnification).
Cast
- Arthur Hill — Dr. Jeremy Stone
- David Wayne — Dr. Charles Dutton
- James Olson — Dr. Mark Hall
- Kate Reid — Dr. Ruth Leavitt
- Paula Kelly — Karen Anson
- George Mitchell — Jackson
- Ramon Bieri — Maj. Manchek
- Eric Christmas — Senator Phillips (Vermont)
- Ken Swofford — Toby
- John Carter — MP Capt. Morton
- James W. Gavin — Dempsey
- Reuben Singer — Dr. Rudolph Karp
References and external links
- The Andromeda Strain (1971), DVD ISBN 6305077487.
- [DVD Savant - a long and detailed essay on the film] (includes a discussion of the apparent killing of the monkey)
- [Detailed film review from And You Call Yourself a Scientist!]
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