''The Andromeda Strain'' is a 1971 American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

produced and directed by

Robert Wise Robert Earl Wise (September 10, 1914 – September 14, 2005) was an American film director, producer, and editor. He won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for his musical films ''West Side Story'' (1961) and ''The Sound of ...

. Based on

Michael Crichton John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavily feature tech ...

's 1969 novel of the same name and adapted by

Nelson Gidding Nelson Roosevelt Gidding (September 15, 1919 – May 2, 2004) was an American screenwriter specializing in adaptations. A longtime collaboration with director Robert Wise began with Gidding's screenplay for ''I Want to Live!'' (1958), which ...

, the film stars Arthur Hill, James Olson,

Kate Reid Daphne Katherine Reid (4 November 1930 – 27 March 1993) was an English-born Canadian stage, film, and television actress. She played more than one thousand roles, most notably onstage in '' Death of a Salesman'', in the 1980 film ''Atlantic C ...

, and

David Wayne David Wayne (born Wayne James McMeekan, January 30, 1914 – February 9, 1995) was an American stage and screen actor with a career spanning over 50 years. Early life and career Wayne was born in Traverse City, Michigan, the son of Helen M ...

as a team of scientists who investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin. With a few exceptions, the film follows the book closely. The

special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...

s were designed by

Douglas Trumbull Douglas Hunt Trumbull (; April 8, 1942 – February 7, 2022) was an American film director and innovative visual effects supervisor. He pioneered methods in special effects and created scenes for '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''Close Encounters o ...

. The film is notable for its use of

split screen Split screen may refer to: * Split screen (computing) Split screen is a display technique in computer graphics that consists of dividing graphics and/or text into adjacent (and possibly overlapping) parts, typically as two or four rectangular ...

in certain scenes.

Plot

The story unfolds in flashback, told by Dr. Jeremy Stone as he testifies before the United States Senate Committee on Space Sciences in 1971: After a U.S. government satellite crashes near the small rural town of Piedmont,

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

on February 5, nearly all the residents are dead. A military recovery team from

Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USS General Harry Taylor (AP-145), USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in K ...

tries to recover the satellite but is unsuccessful. Suspecting that the satellite has brought back an alien organism, the military activates an elite team of scientists. Wearing protective suits, Dr. Stone, the team leader, and Dr. Mark Hall, a surgeon, are dropped into Piedmont by helicopter. They discover the town's doctor opened the satellite in his office and that all of his blood has crystallized into a powder. They soon discover that almost all of the town's victims' blood has crystallized, causing rapid death. Two other townspeople have committed suicide after going insane. Stone and Hall retrieve the satellite and find two survivors, a 69-year-old

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomin ...

man named Peter Jackson and a six-month-old crying infant, Manuel Rios. In addition to Stone and Hall, the elite team also includes Dr. Charles Dutton and Dr. Ruth Leavitt, who are summoned to a top-secret Nevada underground facility, code named Wildfire. Upon arrival, they undergo extreme decontamination procedures, descending through four disinfection levels to a fifth level where laboratories are located. This underground lab complex has sophisticated technology, including CRT computer displays and

lasers A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

. If the organism threatens to escape, the Wildfire facility includes an automatic nuclear

self-destruct A self-destruct is a mechanism that can cause an object to destroy itself or render itself inoperable after a predefined set of circumstances has occurred. Self-destruct mechanisms are typically found on devices and systems where malfunction could ...

mechanism to incinerate all

infectious agents In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...

. Under the "

odd man hypothesis ''The Andromeda Strain'' is a 1969 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton, his first novel under his own name and his sixth novel overall. It is written as a report documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating the outbreak o ...

", Dr. Hall is entrusted with the only key that can deactivate the device, the theory being that an unmarried male is the most dispassionate person within a group to make critical decisions in a crisis. By examining the satellite with powerful cameras, the team discovers the microscopic alien organism causing the deaths in New Mexico. The greenish, throbbing life form is assigned the code name "Andromeda." Inhaled through the lungs, Andromeda kills biological life almost instantly via a

blood clot A thrombus (plural thrombi), colloquially called a blood clot, is the final product of the blood coagulation step in hemostasis. There are two components to a thrombus: aggregated platelets and red blood cells that form a plug, and a mesh of c ...

in the

brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...

and

blood clotting Coagulation, also known as clotting, is the process by which blood changes from a liquid to a gel, forming a blood clot. It potentially results in hemostasis, the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel, followed by repair. The mechanism o ...

causing

asphyxiation Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can i ...

. It appears to be highly

virulent Virulence is a pathogen's or microorganism's ability to cause damage to a host. In most, especially in animal systems, virulence refers to the degree of damage caused by a microbe to its host. The pathogenicity of an organism—its ability to ca ...

. The team studies the organism using animal subjects, an

electron microscope An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a hi ...

, and culturing in various

growth media A growth medium or culture medium is a solid, liquid, or semi-solid designed to support the growth of a population of microorganisms or cells via the process of cell proliferation or small plants like the moss ''Physcomitrella patens''. Different ...

in an attempt to learn how it behaves. The microbe contains

chemical element A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cannot be broken down into simpler sub ...

s required for terrestrial life (

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

and

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...

) and appears to have a crystalline structure, but lacks the DNA,

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

s, and

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha am ...

s present in all forms of terrestrial life, and directly transforms energy to matter with no discernible byproducts. Hall tries to determine why the two Piedmont residents survived. A military jet crashes near Piedmont after the pilot radios that his plastic

oxygen mask An oxygen mask provides a method to transfer breathing oxygen gas from a storage tank to the lungs. Oxygen masks may cover only the nose and mouth (oral nasal mask) or the entire face (full-face mask). They may be made of plastic, silicone, or r ...

is dissolving. Meanwhile, Dr. Stone, who created the Wildfire laboratory, is accused by Dutton and Leavitt of designing the lab for

biological warfare Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Bio ...

research. Unknown to other team members, Leavitt's research on the germ is impaired by her undisclosed

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

. Hall realizes that the alcoholic Jackson survived because his blood was acidic from drinking

Sterno Sterno is a brand of jellied, denatured alcohol sold in a can and meant to be burned directly in its can. Its primary uses are in food service for buffet heating, in the home for fondue, and as a chafing fuel for heating chafing dishes. Other ...

, and that the baby lived due to his blood being too alkaline from constant crying, suggesting that the organism, Andromeda, can survive only within a narrow range of

blood pH Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the ...

. Just as he has this insight, the organism mutates into a non-lethal form that degrades

synthetic rubber A synthetic rubber is an artificial elastomer. They are polymers synthesized from petroleum byproducts. About 32-million metric tons of rubbers are produced annually in the United States, and of that amount two thirds are synthetic. Synthetic rubbe ...

and

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

s. Andromeda escapes the

containment Containment was a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II. The name was loosely related to the term ''cordon sanitaire'', which was ...

room into the lab where Dutton is working. Once all the laboratory's seals start decaying due to Andromeda's escape, a five-minute countdown to nuclear destruction is initiated. Hall rescues Leavitt from an

epileptic seizure An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with los ...

, triggered by the flashing red lights of Wildfire's alarm system. Meanwhile, the team realizes that the microbe would thrive on the energy of a

nuclear explosion A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, t ...

and would consequently be transformed into a super-colony that could destroy all life on Earth. Hall races against the laboratory's automated defenses to reach a station where he can disable the nuclear bomb with his key. He endures multiple attacks by automated lasers as he climbs through the laboratory's central core. He finds a working station, disables the bomb with seconds to spare, and collapses. Hall awakens in a hospital. His colleagues reveal that clouds are being seeded over the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, which will cause rain to sweep Andromeda from the

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...

and into

alkali In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a ...

seawater Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has appro ...

, rendering it harmless. Stone finishes testifying to a

U.S. senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

by saying that while they were able to defeat the alien pathogen, they may be unable to do so in the future. The film ends with a computer feed suddenly stopping and the computer flashing the number "601", the Wildfire code for information coming in too fast to analyze.

Cast

* Arthur Hill as Dr. Jeremy Stone * James Olson as Dr. Mark Hall *

as Dr. Charles Dutton *

as Dr. Ruth Leavitt * Paula Kelly as Karen Anson (nurse, laboratory technician) * George Mitchell as Mr. Peter Jackson (Piedmont) * Mark Jenkins as Lt. Shawn (Piedmont Team) *

Peter Helm Peter John Helm Jr. (born December 22, 1941) is a Canadian-American film and television actor. Helm was born in Toronto, Ontario. Helm began his acting career in 1959, appearing in the television sitcom ''Too Young to Go Steady''. In 1960 he ap ...

as Sgt. Crane (Piedmont Team) *Joe Di Reda as Sgt. Burk (Wildfire Computer Technician) *

Ramon Bieri Ramon Arens Bieri (June 16, 1929 – May 27, 2001) was an American actor who starred in many films and TV shows. Television work Bieri starred as the title character in the NBC sitcom ''Joe's World'', from December 1979 to July 1980, playing J ...

as Major Arthur Manchek (Scoop Mission Control) *

Carl Reindel Carl Warren Reindel (January 20, 1935 – September 4, 2009) was an American actor, known for portraying Lieutenant Kenneth M. Taylor in the epic war film ''Tora! Tora! Tora!''. He also played "Stanton" in Steve McQueen's hit film ''Bullitt'' ...

as Lt. Comroe (Scoop Mission Control) *

Frances Reid Frances Reid (December 9, 1914 – February 3, 2010) was an American dramatic actress. Reid acted on television for nearly all of the second half of the 20th century. Her career continued into the early 2000s. Although she starred in ma ...

as Clara Dutton * Peter Hobbs as General Sparks *

Kermit Murdock Kermit Murdock (20 March 1908 – 11 February 1981) was an American film, television and radio actor known for his avuncular and professorial character portrayals. His more prominent character roles in major motion pictures included Dean Poll ...

as Dr. Robertson (White House Science Advisor) *

Richard O'Brien Richard Timothy Smith. known professionally as Richard O'Brien, is a British-New Zealand actor, writer, musician, composer, and television presenter. He wrote the musical stage show ''The Rocky Horror Show'' in 1973, which has remained in conti ...

as Grimes *

Eric Christmas Eric Cuthbert Christmas (19 March 1916 – 22 July 2000) was a British actor, with over 40 films and numerous television roles to his credit. He is probably best known for his role as Mr. Carter, the principal of Angel Beach High School, in th ...

as Senator Phillips (Vermont) *

Ken Swofford Kenneth Charles Swofford (July 25, 1933 – November 1, 2018) was an American film and television actor often cast as a villain or a police officer. Between 1962 and 1995, Swofford's film credits included '' Thelma & Louise'', '' Skyjacked ...

as Toby (Technician) * John Carter as Capt. Morton (military police) * Richard Bull as Air Force Major *James W. Gavin as Dempsey (helicopter pilot) (uncredited) *

Garry Walberg Gerrit Christian Walberg Jr. (June 10, 1921 – March 27, 2012) was an American character actor primarily known for his work on television. He performed in numerous TV shows from the early 1950s until the early 1990s, including ''Johnny Staccat ...

as a scientist (uncredited) *

Emory Parnell Emory Parnell (December 29, 1892 – June 22, 1979) was an American vaudeville performer and actor who appeared in over 250 films in his 36-year career. Early years Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Parnell trained as a musician at Morningside ...

as Pete "Old Doughboy" Arnold (uncredited) *

Georgia Schmidt Georgia Schmidt was an American actress of German descent. Schmidt was the original voice of the Mrs. Beasley doll made by Mattel. She is probably best known as playing the first Talosian alien in the first episode of the original Star Trek serie ...

as Old Lady (Piedmont) (uncredited) *

Victoria Paige Meyerink Victoria Paige Meyerink is a producer and former child actress. At the age of four, Meyerink became Danny Kaye's co-star on the CBS variety series ''The Danny Kaye Show'' and, in 2006, was honored by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former ...

as Additional Character *

Don Messick Donald Earle Messick (September 7, 1926 – October 24, 1997) was an American voice actor. He was best known for his performances in Hanna-Barbera cartoons. His best-remembered vocal creations include Scooby-Doo, Bamm-Bamm Rubble and Hoppy in ...

as Alarm Voice *

makes a

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

in a non-speaking role during the scene where Dr. Hall is told to break scrub, because he has to report to the Wildfire research facility.

Background

Film rights were bought by Universal for $250,000 in 1969. The cast of characters in the novel was modified for the film, including by replacing the male Dr. Peter Leavitt in the novel with the female Dr. Ruth Leavitt. Screenwriter

suggested the change to Wise, who at first was not enthusiastic, as he initially pictured the female Dr. Leavitt as a largely

decorative Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...

character reminiscent of

Raquel Welch Jo Raquel Welch ( Tejada; September 5, 1940) is an American actress. She first won attention for her role in ''Fantastic Voyage'' (1966), after which she won a contract with 20th Century Fox. They lent her contract to the British studio Hammer ...

's character in the 1966 film ''

Fantastic Voyage ''Fantastic Voyage'' is a 1966 American science fiction adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Harry Kleiner, based on a story by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby. The film is about a submarine crew who are shrunk to microscop ...

''. When Gidding explained his take on Leavitt, Wise resolved the question by asking the opinion of a number of scientists, who were unanimously enthusiastic about the idea. Eventually Wise came to be very happy with the decision to make Leavitt female, feeling that Kate Reid's Dr. Leavitt was "the most interesting character" in the film. Another minor change was the character of Burton in the novel, who became Charles Dutton in the film; no reason was given for this name change. ''The Andromeda Strain'' was one of the first films to use advanced computerized photographic visual effects, with work by

, who had pioneered effects for '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', along with James Shourt and

Albert Whitlock Albert J. Whitlock (15 September 1915 – 26 October 1999) was a British-born motion picture matte artist best known for his work with Disney and Universal Studios. Life and career Whitlock began his film career as a page at Gaumont Studios in ...

who worked on '' The Birds''. Reportedly $250,000 of the film's budget of $6.5 million was used to create the special effects, including Trumbull's simulation of an electron microscope. The film contained a faux computer rendering, created with conventional film-making processes, of a mapped 3-D view of the rotating structure of the five-story cylindrical underground laboratory in the Nevada desert named Project Wildfire. The filming in the fictional town of Piedmont took place in

Shafter, Texas Shafter is a ghost town in Presidio County, Texas. The Texas Attorney General's Office gives a population of 11 as of the 2000 Census. It was named in honor of General William R. Shafter, who at one point commanded the nearby (relatively speakin ...

, while other filming was conducted at

Ocotillo Wells, California Ocotillo Wells is an unincorporated community in San Diego County, California, United States. It is west of the Imperial County line on California State Route 78 at an elevation of . The name became official in 1962 when it was adopted for fede ...

Reception

Box office

''The Andromeda Strain'' was a box office success. Produced on a relatively high budget of $6.5 million, the film grossed $12,376,563 in North America, earning $8.2 million in United States theatrical rentals. It was the 16th highest-grossing film of 1971.

Critical response

The opinion of critics is generally mixed, with some critics enjoying the film for its dedication to the original novel and with others disliking it for its drawn-out plot. At

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a 67% approval rating based on 39 reviews, with an average score of 6.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Although its urgent subject matter warrants less a deliberate pace, ''The Andromeda Strain'' brings Michael Crichton's techno-thriller to the big screen with striking intelligence and an engrossing sense of paranoia." Roger Greenspun of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' panned the film in the 22 March 1971 issue, calling the novel "dreadful." John Simon called ''The Andromeda Strain'' "a tidy film, yet it completely fades from memory after its 130 minutes are over."

Scientific response

A 2003 publication by the

Infectious Diseases Society of America The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) is a medical association representing physicians, scientists and other health care professionals who specialize in infectious diseases. It was founded in 1963 and is based in Arlington, Virginia. ...

noted that ''The Andromeda Strain'' is the "most significant, scientifically accurate, and prototypic of all films of this iller virusgenre ... it accurately details the appearance of a deadly agent, its impact, and the efforts at containing it, and, finally, the work-up on its identification and clarification on why certain persons are immune to it."

Awards and honors

The film was nominated for two

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

: * Best Art Direction (

Boris Leven Boris Leven (in early film credits – ''Boris Levin''; August 13, 1908 – October 11, 1986) was a Russian-born Academy Award-winning art director and production designer whose Hollywood career spanned fifty-three years. Born in Moscow in t ...

, William H. Tuntke, Ruby R. Levitt); lost to ''

Nicholas and Alexandra ''Nicholas and Alexandra'' is a 1971 British epic film, epic historical drama film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, from a screenplay written by James Goldman and Edward Bond, based on Robert K. Massie's 1967 Nicholas and Alexandra (book), boo ...

'' * Best Film Editing (

Stuart Gilmore Stuart Gilmore (March 8, 1909 – November 19, 1971) was an American film editor who had over 45 editing credits along with 10 directing credits. He was nominated for three Academy Awards with the last nomination being posthumous. Career Gilmor ...

, John W. Holmes); lost to '' The French Connection'' The film was nominated for science fiction's 1972

Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation is given each year for theatrical films, television episodes, or other dramatized works related to science fiction or fantasy released in the previous calendar year. Originally the award covered both ...

(for works appearing in calendar year 1971).

References

External links

* * * *
''The Andromeda Strain''
film review at Taint The Meat.com *
The Andromeda Strain
', analisis at Cinephilia & Beyond {{DEFAULTSORT:Andromeda Strain, The 1971 films 1970s disaster films 1970s science fiction thriller films American disaster films American science fiction thriller films Biological weapons in popular culture 1970s English-language films Films about extraterrestrial life Films about space hazards Films about viral outbreaks Films based on American novels Films based on science fiction novels Films based on thriller novels Films based on works by Michael Crichton Films directed by Robert Wise Films scored by Gil Mellé Procedural films Techno-thriller films Universal Pictures films Films set in New Mexico Films set in Utah Films shot in Texas Films shot in California Films set in Washington, D.C. 1970s American films Films produced by Robert Wise