The Andromeda Strain is a 1971 science-fiction film, based on the novel published in 1969 by Michael Crichton about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly disease of extraterrestrial origin which causes rapid, fatal clotting of the blood. 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. The special effects were designed by Douglas Trumbull. 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. The character of Dr. Peter Leavitt in the novel was replaced by a woman, Dr. Ruth Leavitt, in the film. In addition, the character of Charles Dutton in the film--played by Wayne--was named Burton in the novel (no reason was given for this name change).
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. A single set was repainted to create all the color-coded corridors of Wildfire. Robert Wise filmed all the scenes that take place on a "level" and then the set was repainted. Wise would use this trick again in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. When filming the scene in the movie where Dr. Ruth Levitt 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 least likely frequency to induce seizures among the theater audience.
Comic relief is provided by George Mitchell as a town drunk who survives the "strain".
At the end of the movie, the "strain" is carried out over the Pacific Ocean where cloud seeding causes the "strain" to be carried into salt water which kills the "strain".
According to the IMDB, a mini-series version of the story will be released in 2008.
Footage and stills from the movie were used in the first serial episode of the Six Million Dollar Man. The episode itself deals with a town where all the citizens have succumbed to some external force.
A U.S. Army satellite (Scoop VII) falls to earth near Piedmont, New Mexico. The recovery team experiences difficulties as it becomes clear that the satellite has performed its intended function all too well, and has brought back something from space. A team of scientists is assembled in a high-tech, underground facility to identify and defeat the "enemy" before it is too late. Written by Bruce Janson
When the capsule of the Scoop Mission returns to Earth and lands in the small town of Piedmont, it brings a mutant living being and all the population, except a crying baby and an old man with ulcer, dies with clotted blood. A team of five scientists - the leader Dr. Jeremy Stone, Dr. Charles Dutton, Dr. Mark Hall, Dr. Ruth Leavitt and Dr. Kirkie - are summoned and gathered together in the top secret Wildfire facility. Fighting against time, they try to understand the reason why the old man and the baby survived and research an antidote to Andromeda, the ultimate biological weapon. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
