The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Directed by Robert Wise

Film Review

With its groundbreaking special effects and a narrative that is driven mostly by mindwarping scientific exposition, The Andromeda Strain stands as one of the most sophisticated and intelligent sci-fi movies of all time.  Closely based on Michael Crichton's first bestselling novel, the film offers a chilling visualisation of an all-too real nightmare scenario and was highly topical for its time.  One of the biggest concerns about the 1969 NASA lunar mission was the possibility of a deadly space virus being brought back to Earth by the astronauts, and the prospect of germ warfare had begun to enter public consciousness.

Director Robert Wise was of the opinion that the subject of Crichton's novel was more science-fact than science-fiction and so went for a cold documentary-style approach.  This explains why there are no big name actors in the cast and why the film is shot in a clinically detached, realist fashion.  This approach is most effective in the film's chilling opening sequences, which reveal a dusty desert town strewn with corpses, a harbinger of the global disaster that is to come if the scientists fail in their mission.  Wise, one of Hollywood's most versatile filmmakers, had previously directed The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), one of the great classics of the sci-fi genre, and would later helm the first Star Trek movie.

The mood and content of The Andromeda Strain owe much to Hammer's Quatermass films of the 1950s (which were adapted from Nigel Kneale's BBC television serials).  Once the nature of the threat has been conveyed, the tension is gradually ratcheted up, building to a nerve-wracking climax, with an odd assortment of scientists caught up in a race against time to defeat a mutating microbiological organism.  Nelson Gidding's taut screenplay and Wise's masterful direction, to say nothing of the central performances, achieve the impossible, to make a pseudo-realistic science-based drama utterly compelling. 

Much of the credit for the film's striking realism should go to Boris Leven, who designed the stunning ultramodern sets, and effects designer Douglas Trumbull.  Having previously worked wonders on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Trumbull surpasses himself here with some revolutionary effects work, including the use of computer controlled photography to visualise the deadly space micro-organism.   Gil Mellé's electronic score is also an innovative touch and adds greatly to the film's brooding sense of menace.

The Andromeda Strain is a far cry from today's action orientated sci-fi movies and places great demands on the spectator.  With a runtime of just over two hours, the film is perhaps a little overlong and could have benefited from some judicious pruning (the seemingly interminable decontamination sequence merits some serious truncation.).  Equally, some of the plot developments are a little hard to swallow (a project equipped with the latest in scientific hardware is almost completely derailed by a printer paper-jam!) and the film does itself few favours when it gets preachy and starts ranting about Cold War politics and discriminatory employment practices.  When the film ends, it ends abruptly and with a swift plot resolution that pretty well undermines everything that has preceded it.  Crunch your popcorn at the wrong moment and you will completely miss how the micro-organism was destroyed.

Whilst it has its failings, The Andromeda Strain nevertheless remains one of the most gripping and intelligent films of its genre.  Some tongue-in-cheek humour deflects us from the plot defects and once the story has gathered enough momentum, its pace doesn't let up for a second.  The effects are still impressive, even by today's standards, and Crichton's concept can hardly fail to send shivers down the spine.  This is the stuff not of fantasy but of nightmare-inducing reality.

Film Synopsis

Returning to Earth after probing the dark reaches of space, a satellite drifts off course and crashes into Piedmont, a small town in New Mexico.   The team who are sent to recover the satellite find the town strewn with dead bodies.  The only survivors are a drunken old man and a baby.  Everyone else has died from a mysterious blood-clotting condition.   To investigate this potentially disastrous threat from space, a top secret project codenamed Wildfire is suddenly set in motion.  Four scientists are brought to an ultramodern laboratory situated deep beneath the Nevada desert.  Their mission: to identify the biological agent that wiped out the population of Piedmont and find a way to destroy it.  If they fail, the entire human race could become extinct within a matter of weeks...