The Andromeda Strain

1971
G
2h 11m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

41K

YOUR RATING

James Olson and Robert Soto in The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Play trailer2:00

2 Videos

87 Photos

Alien Invasion Mystery Sci-Fi Thriller

Top scientists work feverishly in a secret, state-of-the-art laboratory to discover what killed the citizens of a small town and how the deadly contagion can be stopped.Top scientists work feverishly in a secret, state-of-the-art laboratory to discover what killed the citizens of a small town and how the deadly contagion can be stopped.Top scientists work feverishly in a secret, state-of-the-art laboratory to discover what killed the citizens of a small town and how the deadly contagion can be stopped.

Director
- Robert Wise
Writers
- Michael Crichton
- Nelson Gidding
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

41K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Robert Wise
Writers
- Michael Crichton
- Nelson Gidding
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 4 nominations total

Trivia
Special effects to create the germ from space cost $250,000.

Goofs
At the beginning of the movie, vultures are shown circling over the town of Piedmont. Later, when the two scientists approach the town in a helicopter, the vultures are on the ground eating the flesh of the dead. The military even brought gas to kill off the vultures so they wouldn't fly off and spread the disease. What's interesting, is that no one gives a second thought as to why the vultures weren't dead. Even after they kill off a rat and monkey in the lab to test the disease no one wonders how it was that the vultures weren't affected. It is not unusual, in fact rather typical, for pathogens or chemicals to affect some species and not others, or at least affect them more slowly.

Quotes
[finding a man dead by self-inflicted drowning in a bathtub]
Dr. Jeremy Stone: I wouldn't believe you could commit suicide that way.
Dr. Mark Hall: Most of them died instantly, but a few had time to go quietly nuts.

Crazy credits
The opening credits read: "ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This film concerns the four-day history of a major American scientific crisis. We received the generous help of many people attached to Project Scoop at Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Wildfire Laboratory in Flatrock, Nevada. They encouraged us to tell the story accurately and in detail." "The documents presented here are soon to be made public. They do not in any way jeopardize the national security."

Alternate versions
Italian version is 10 minutes shorter than original version (released at 130 min.) and omits many scenes from a subplot about a fallen fighter plane.

Connections
Edited into The Six Million Dollar Man: Population: Zero (1974)

User reviews258

Review

Featured review

10/10

A Sci-Fi with a capital "S".

I have always been attracted by science, since my early childhood. I remember seeing this movie and being fascinated by the science and technology on display in it. Today, as a MSC EE, I can see that the science in "Andromeda Strain" is accurate. In fact, it's the most accurate of all Sci-Fi movies I have ever seen (and I have seen the great majority of Sci-Fi cinema).

That's one reason I love this movie.

But there are other, probably subjective reasosn for my adulation of "Andromeda Strain": believable people and believable situations (no "last microsecond decision/action/occurance", no over-the-top behaviour, just human quirkyness, no one-man-does-it-all but teamwork and birth of ideas) and the avoidance of the cliche of only-1-will-survive. So, yes, I liked the script a lot.

I also thought the actors were good and the setting was brilliant. I am not put off by dated computer technology: the film clearly illustrates the computing capabilities at the beginning of the '70, and I find something educative and strangely reassuring in that.

I give it 10/10, and am sad that nobody produced a Sci-Fi as scientificly accurate ever since.