User reviews

OK. I'm reading these reviews and I keep seeing the same things. Its shows its age. What ? That's like saying the aircraft in a WWII movie show their age. Of course it shows its age - this was the 1970s. Did you expect to see Pentium 4s with DVD Drives? If thats you main criticism then the movie must be good.

It is good. Probably one of the most realistic and suspenseful movies of its kind ever made. Though PURSUIT was pretty good as well. Robert Wise does a very good job of building the story in a leisurely pace that keep you rivetted. I've seen the movie now about a dozen times and it still keeps me interested. Its not one of those movies where you can stop it and watch the remainder the next day. It has to watched in one sitting. I think the casting of ordinary Joes in the leads was very telling. This is a story about science not about characters.

It will be interesting to see what they will do with the remake. Obviously the story is still relevant today - maybe even more so then in the late 60s.

A satellite from the SCOOP project has crashed into the desert town of Piedmont, the SCOOP project basically entails that the satellite scoops outer space for any alien micro-organisms. After the crash all the residents of Piedmont are killed with the exception of a baby and an old gentleman booze hound. Mankind is on the verge of being destroyed by a leaked alien virus, so a crack team of scientists are gathered in the hope of containing and understanding the virus before the world gets devoid of human life!

Taken from the novel by Michael Crichton, this film is a wonderful lesson in tension building as we follow the scientists through a carefully structured sci-fi plot that will eventually become a race against time thriller. What makes The Andromeda Strain stand out against other genre pieces is the astute and believable approach to the subject matter, we are (in the main) in the presence of proper scientists. There's no super hero tricks forthcoming from these people, these are sensible honest intelligent folk using their combined knowledge to hopefully save the planet? A masterstroke from the makers is that they used largely unknown actors for the film, this gives the story an added grounded believable factor, thus a very useful way of drawing the audience into the drama unfolding. The direction from Robert Wise is very clued in for serio narrative drive, the set design for the underground research facility is top notch, and the actors all give stoic and intelligent performances.

However, it's not without a niggle, for after the excellence of the films first two thirds, it's disappointing to find that the final act reverts to type, which somehow seems misplaced given what the viewer has just been through. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine sequence of events that fuels the dramatic slant, but it comes off as just a bit too glossy in light of the preceding structure. Still, The Andromeda Strain is an intelligent, smart, mature, and knowing film that is standing the test of time for being a great piece of science fiction cinema. 8/10

And yet, you just can't help yourself. Under Robert Wise's direction, this tale of microbiological Armageddon unfolds with such perfectly metered suspense that by the 100th viewing, you STILL find yourself glued to your couch. You HAVE to see how it turns out, even though you already know.

Although the film is well over 20 years old, and the computer equipment at the Wildfire laboratory shows its age, this is a perfect change-of-pace film for any movie monster fan. Heck, you've probably already let your kids see the bloody carnage in "Jurassic Park" anyway.

Instead of the usual radioactive mutated towering apparition that flattens cities and topples skyscrapers, the monster in "The Andromeda Strain" is so tiny, it takes powerful electron microscopes to see it. The average movie monster can only cause damage wherever he can stomp, smash or exhale a blast of fiery breath. Andromeda has the potential to be carried to every corner of the world by the winds, where it could conceivably wipe out all life. Try to top THAT, Godzilla!

The real star of the film is Wildfire itself. A government facility located (we thought) safely away from populated areas, it bristles with everything a microbiologist needs to avert a biological disaster. . .or does it?

Seeking an unprecedented realism, director Robert Wise insisted that everything on the set be real, from the computer terminals (with their quaint light pens) all the way to the electron microscopes. The Wildfire set is every microbiologist's dream come true and it's populated by a quartet of actors!

Since the presence of a big-name star might blunt the impact of this high-tech visual feast, Wise carefully assembled a cast of fine actors who just don't happen to be household names. Without rehashing the characterizations, we'll just say that Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson and Kate Reid couldn't possibly have been more perfect for their roles. With a less competent cast, "The Andromeda Strain" could have degenerated into a parody of itself. This is gritty work, saving the world from biological annihilation. It takes real ACTORS, not just pretty-boy movie stars!

Go ahead. Be scared out of your wits by something so tiny, you can't even see it. I dare you to try and get up before it's over.

There's an echo of 2001 and a foreshadowing of The Parallax View in this paranoiac sci-fi drama. The movie delights in presenting the tools of science and questions the direction and authority of those elected or selected to preserve us. The pacing strikes modern audiences as slow - it is - but that's the film's greatest success: suspensefully unfolding at a snail's pace. Some of the dialog is stilted and some points are far too belabored (the scene where Dr. Mark Hall, James Olson, is instructed on the use of his key is a tedious overplaying of the moment). The cast do what they can with dialog that sounded a little trite and predictable in its day and sadly is the main thing that mars an otherwise hypnotic journey into the dangers of modern governments and modern science. At the film's core, however, is a lesson that bears repeating, lest we forget.

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.

I am going to go as far as saying the movie is unique in every way. Where detail loses to generalization - this movie digs deep in the small details. Where the enemy of a "regular" sic-fi movie is a horror flick alien - here it is the horror of helplessness against an organism just some microns in size. Being slow-paced, showing attention to detail and carefully serving audience the more or less csi-like approach to science, minus the action and theatrics, makes this movie some kind of anomaly as if scientists were themselves to chose what *they* would like to see as an action movie, rather than being dictated what some people view science as ... and that could just as well be traced to old Frankenstein movies where "science" is a collection of random gadgets and stereotypical special effects. This is the kind of originality that sets Andromeda Strain apart, with a unique atmosphere and a very original approach to putting the viewer if not in the hot seat, then at the very least in a tense situation. I give it 6 points none the less, because I can see how this kind of movie will never have great appeal with the general audience.

Robert Wise is an under rated director but in his body of work are such gems as 'The Body Snatcher', 'The Set-Up', 'The Day the Earth Stood Still', 'Odds Against Tomorrow', 'The Haunting', 'West Side Story', 'I Want to Live!' and on its own terms, 'The Sound of Music'. He managed to make genre films more interesting and watchable than other more celebrated directors.

'The Andromeda Strain' is an engrossing film from beginning to end. It is science fiction, alien virus comes to earth type thing, but has more depth than just that. The scientists, played very well by Arthur Hill, David Wayne, Kate Reid and James Olson, are fallible and have real emotions. Yet in them is a longing to know, to discover, to solve. Most popular cinema celebrate the fist or the gun but part of the excitement of this film is the use of the intellect to tackle the problem. Brains and not brawn is key.

The early scenes in the town of Piedmont are fascinating. Nothing dramatic, only small details adding up to a large tragedy. Restrained film making is not common but in this case it is really effective. After these scenes the film moves on as fear and wonder grip the scientists to a satisfying conclusion.

The electronic music is just right, the sets are atmospheric, the hard ware plausible and the photography simple and effective. A mention should be made of Paula Kelly as a nurse, an excellent actor and shamefully under used in films. (She is great in 'Sweet Charity' too.)In a supporting role she gives an intelligent, spirited performance.

A near perfect film. Hopefully no one will re-make it.

Robert Wise made the daring decision not to cast any big name stars in The Andromeda Strain.. It certainly save on the budget. But it also lent a nice ring of authenticity.

The story behind Michael Crichton's science fiction novel and the movie is that a small northern California town has been wiped out by a new strain of virus. The only survivor are a wino and an infant. Scooping them up four scientists Arthur Hill, James Olson, David Wayne, and Kate Reid take them to a secure location as they race against time to prevent a pandemic. This thing creeps up silently and moves fast.

It's not like anything seen on earth. It's called The Andromeda Strain because that's the nearest galaxy to the one planet earth is in The Milky Way. The four have to race against time to come up with an answer.

Robert Wise got a lot of tension out of this film, especially at the climax when it is race against time to prevent a self destruct from occuring just as are four are finding answers.

They do find an answer. And ironically it's from some of the most plentiful things we have on planet earth is where the cure comes from.

This one is a science fiction classic.

The 1970s were a time before some of the "intelligentsia" of American culture began to abandon rationality and reject science on pseudo-ethical grounds. Unsurprisingly, then, 1970s sci-fi is often better informed by science than the sci-fi of later decades, and it is also often more thoughtful and intelligently written. The Andromeda Strain is one of the best hardcore sci fi epics from a decade which brought us such genre classics as 2001, Solyaris, Silent Running, and the original Rollerball. Unlike most of these films, however, Andromeda Strain does not strain believability beyond its bounds, nor does it indulge in metaphysical tangentializing or philosophical moralizing.

Developed from what I consider to be Michael Crichton's best book, the Andromeda Strain takes its cue directly from the hard realism of that book, along with its documentary style and scientific background research. Though aspects of the plot defy biological probability, if not law, almost the entire film is plausible. Also borrowed from Crichton's writing is the general point the film attempts to make - one which is present in nearly all of Crichton's work - that along with technological advance comes risk. Fortunately, however, this story does not reach the near-paranoid levels of technophobia which sometimes appear in later works.

A great ensemble cast full of not easily recognized character actors represent a team of scientists called together to contain and manage a deadly virus-like organism which has arrived on a crashed space research probe. The virus has already wiped out an entire town, and now the scientists must work at a breakneck, sleepless, pace to determine what the organism is, how it spreads and grows, and how it can be killed or contained. Their only major clues, it seems, are an old man and a baby who survived the initial outbreak. To avoid spoilers, I will avoid any further details regarding the plot.

The only aspect of the film which really seems dated is the strange electronic soundtrack, which, at times, seems more derivative of 1950s sci-fi than more modern stuff. Suffice to say that this is one of the best uses of the 'as-it-happens' documentary film-making style. The entire film is delivered in a very refreshingly straightforward manner, with believable dialog, actors that look like real people, and a pace that builds constantly from start to finish.

Highly recommended.

Within the logic confines of the Cold War and the eternal quest for the upper hand in annihilation, space becomes a frontier for seeking the next new biological weapon. When a US satellite crash-lands in a remote town of Piedmont in New Mexico a sudden outbreak of a cosmic threat causes almost the entire town to die in mid-step. The terrifying reality of an uncontrollable epidemic initiates a clandestine Wildfire project, where the finest scientific minds are whisked away to a secure underground facility with state of the art technology and a self-detonating nuclear device set to explode to prevent any potential outbreak. The project itself was formed by a group of prominent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) specifically for this eventuality: to counterattack any extraterrestial form of life, that could cause a deadly epidemic. Together with fellow scientists Charles Dutton (David Wayne), Ruth Leavitt (Kate Reid) and Mark Hall (James Olson) they descend into the facility, where they attempt to isolate the new life form and diagnose the two survivors of Piedmont: an crackpot drunkard and a helpless infant.

Transcending into Robert Wise's feature is a prolonged pay-off, mostly focused on the procedural side of such a scenario, slowly building the story and only about midway do we finally get down to actually finding out what the titular Andromeda strain is, which in turn leads to an intense and riveting finale. Meanwhile however we snail downward the facility with five separate levels - each with scenes of progressive sterilisation. The journey to the heart of the facility, where the nitty gritty essence of the research starts, is essentially tedious, albeit serving its purpose of setting up the final act and acknowledging the relapsed tension that such an occurrence would create. Although the fate of the world being at hand, the road to salvation is slow, meticulous and affords no space for a misstep. Despite the slow unwinding there is also little in the way of character development, possibly only Kate Reid's cantankerous Ruth offering a stronger imprint on proceedings, which are otherwise dominated by the science and the crawling Armageddon.

Midway the lethargic pacing stalled my interest, but once the story unfolds all the pieces fall into place delivering a high-tempo ending within this otherwise sedentary movie. Coupled with arguably the most exact scientific jargon in sci-fi features history and a overall believable background (despite some ridiculous mumbo-jumbo by one of the scientists about the possibility of microorganisms being sentient) delivers a sombre piece that can bore most, but will engage those who offer the movie their mind and body.

These "old" science fiction movies always have a certain special tension and atmosphere like "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Capricorn One". Something I sometimes miss in todays movies.

Sure the pace is slow, especially the beginning but that's what helps to build up the tension. It certainly makes the race against time ending even more suspenseful.

The style of the movie can be called unique. Especially the camera work and editing. It's very experimental, almost Brain De Palma like and I like it a lot. It makes the movie's style special and unique and it adds to the atmosphere.

The story is good and is told in such a way that it actually becomes to some extend believable. With the exception of some clichéd moments and the ending. The movie begins slow and mysterious and builds up the tension extremely well, while the ending itself is quite spectacular and fast. This also makes the movie special and worth remembering. Some of the scene's you will never forget. The virus itself (the adromeda strain) is pretty scary and disturbing, mainly because you don't know what it is or what it does and how it can be stopped.

There are also some nice character played by not so well known actors. What's great about the characters is that they all feel very human and not perfect. I like the fact that they don't all like each other and don't always agree.

A classic science fiction/thriller that deserves to be better known.

8/10

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The problem with this film is simple. It takes a serious sci-fi story which is carefully crafted to be believable, and turns it into over-dramatic schlock.

Michael Crichton, when writing the book, took special care to allow us to see all the technology through the eyes of his characters. Through his careful education of his characters and the reader, he makes the reader feel as though it's all true. It all could have happened, or is happening... It makes the reader feel that the sense of mystery that the characters are feeling.

All that is gone from the film.

What you get is a cheap "2001 A Space Odyssey" knockoff with "space age" (as popular in 1971) design, unlikely and unlikeable characters and laughably edgy, improbable dialogue. It's not really a terrible movie so much as it's a disposable movie of its time. I read the book in the 70's and loved it, saw the film in the 80's and was very disappointed by it.

I strongly suggest reading the book. Or, if you must see this film, read the book first, so that you can get maximum enjoyment out of the book without knowing how it ends...

After a military satellite crashes near a remote desert town, investigators find that the town is still intact but that the bodies of the townsfolk are lying lifeless in the streets. Further investigations makes them believe that a virus from outer space has been brought down to Earth. Tests show it to be very virulent and so as secret tests are done to find an antidote, plans are being made to nuke the town before it can spread worldwide. Wise yet again shows his adeptness with different genres, here adapting the Michael Crichton novel. The film is full of the usual sci/fi paraonoia about humanity meddling with science, but its done very well and although its slow, its still quite riveting viewing. The cast of virtual unknowns helps the films immensely as does the electronic score.

I really love this film, and its funny because most people Complain about its slow pace, but I believe that this is one of the reasons that the film is so good, and pace does build up towards the end.

I understand that this film isn't for everybody, but I am a Michael Crichton fan, and I enjoy the way he introduces his sci-fi characters into his novels.

I agree with other user comments that this film was way before its time, and disagree with others who don't seem to be able to differentiate between the music and the sounds in the film.

The film has so many qualities, and is a must see for any sci-fi fan.

9/10

Robert Wise directed this engrossing thriller based on a novel from Michael Crichton, about a team of four scientists(played by James Olsen, Arthur Hill, David Wayne, and Kate Reid) who try to isolate an extraterrestrial virus brought back to Earth by a satellite that crashed in Piedmont New Mexico, killing most of the residents, except an old(alcoholic) man, and a baby. The team try to find out the connection between such two entirely different people, in hopes it will lead them to a cure.

Interesting and well-acted film is smart and effectively directed, with many nice touches, and a stark atmosphere in the decimated town, contrasted nicely with the clinical setting in the protective underground laboratory where they study the alien virus, which threatens the world if unleashed.

Easily - EASILY - the best film Michael Crichton has had anything to do with. (That is, of the ones I've seen. For the record, the rest are: `Westworld', `The First Great Train Robbery', `Disclosure', `Jurassic Park', `Twister', and `Congo', although I've never made it to the end of `Congo'.) Does this say something about Crichton's career, or the state of film-making, or neither? Can't say.

Whatever - this is pretty darned good science fiction. Sure, it has the vices we've come to expect: scientists with a tendency to act like the crew of the Enterprise, and central protagonists who begin the film by swimming through treacle and end it by leaping tall buildings in a single bound. As for the former problem, well, it's not so bad here as it usually is. As for the latter, well, it's easy to forgive, because we're put through a very tense ride before our heroes crawl out of the treacle - even afterwards. They don't make films this tense these days. Or at least, this particular film would have been less tense if it had been made these days. I don't think a modern director would have resisted the temptation to goof off at some point.

THAT'S part of the charm. The film's idea of how scientists behave is rather a silly one, but at least the scientists aren't forced to act GOOFY in order to show that scientists are really human, after all - as if there was any need to show this. And I'll say this: whatever the scientists were like, the SCIENCE is much more intelligent than a modern public has any right to expect. So far as I could tell (not that I'm an expert in anything) it only stretches into fantasy when it needs to. Wise gives us information, and plenty of it - not techno-babble.

I've heard people snicker at the thirty-year-old look of the film, but I think they're nuts. The art direction is wonderful. In a way it does the same thing as the original Star Trek: it creates a coherent, claustrophobic world by force of sheer simplicity. But to see `The Andromeda Strain' is to see it done WELL.

This has lost a little bit just due to its ageing however the story and the drama still hold up very well.

This is not an over the top film which I think is why it works so well, there is a crisis but everything that is dealt with in the movie makes sense and is logical rather than 'we need to shoot the asteroid out of the sky' kind of stuff.

By staying grounded in its style it helps to keep the viewer connected as we don't have to suspend belief for the movie to work.

It should hook you right in!

From the day I first saw this movie back when it first came out, it has stuck in my mind for over 30 odd years. Kind of makes you think about how many of the same facilities the government has and has had in operation doing the same functions. New military toys, area 51 and on and on.

A very well made movie that has etched itself into my mind. keeps you thinking and watching the movie keeps you glued to your seat.

I would advice anyone that has not viewed this movie to give it a shot. These same type of facilities are all over the world, the question is how many are really as secure as they were designed to be.

Just like in the movie there always could be some unknown or alien substances that cannot be contained, or might just feed on the materials used to restrain them.

The Andromeda Strain is a suspenseful story (Michael Crichton) about a deadly virus that killed all people in a small town and about a scientific team that took some samples of the virus and now, in the facilities of an underground bunker, tries to figure out how to decipher and to cope with the "Andromeda Strain."

Very good and convincing acting, good production value and a tight plot make this one a highlight and a fine example of an on science oriented sci-fi movie. There are not many movies around with such an approach on the theme "deadly virus", some I remember (and like) are Contagion (Soderbergh, 2011) and Outbreak (Petersen, 1995).

The Andromeda Strain = a real gem - if a movie about a virus outbreak does not mean turmoil, action and gunfights for you. Sure, some stuff looks now more than just a little outdated (our technologies and science knowledge evolved a lot since 1971) but still this movie is suspenseful and good like a movie by good ol' Hitchcock.

First of all, I must confess that I am a Si-Fi nut. I've seen lots of Si-Fi movies and The Andromeda Strain is definately in my top five. The plot is very interesting in that it deals with a microscopic organism from outer space that is brought back to Earth by a satellite. The cast is outstanding, especially Arthur Hill who plays the leader of the research team. One of the great things about the movie is that it moves right along. So many movies seem to lag, especially at the beginning as the characters are being introduced. However, in this movie, even the beginning is exciting. I've watched this movie over and over, and never seem to get tired of it. It's just plain fun.

I remember seeing THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN as a child and being terrified by it mainly down to the opening scenes of a USAF unit going into a deserted village to retrieve a crashed satellite and finding .... You'll have to watch the movie to find out what . But after re-seeing the movie again as an adult I can still say the opening sequence is heart stopping in its tension simply down to the fact that the audience is allowed to use its imagination as to what has happened to the villagers and the recovery team . This is one of the most effective openings I have ever seen in a science fiction movie

Unfortunately it's impossible for the production to keep up the tension though I will give credit for everyone involved in trying . It's just that for reasons of plot the story then revolves around a small team of uber scientists sitting in an underground lab researching something they've found from outer space and finding a way of making sure it doesn't wipe out life on Earth . The main problem is that the story then starts getting bogged down in scientific fact which makes it very difficult for the audience , then to appease the audience the last ten minutes involve a literal race against time which wouldn't look out of place in a James Bond movie . I guess a mainstream audience member who disliked the massive amount of techno-babble on display perked up at the exciting countdown at the end while a microbiologist student who understood the technical dialogue wished the movie had ended on a more intelligent note

There are one or two other slight problems . I did find Dr Ruth Leavitt , written and played as some beatnik intellectual very irritating . But I guess if THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN was remade today we'd see Hilary Duff or Lindsay Lohan as a nobel prize winning scientist so let's not complain about Kate Reid's performance too much . Unless I missed something isn't there a plot hole involving a crashed Phantom jet ? What caused it to crash ? Surely it couldn't have been exposed to the alien visitor unlike say the helicopter that brought back the satellite

But I shouldn't nit pick too much since THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN is a very effective sci-fi chiller though a more modern audience might be put off by a large amount of talky scenes and an absence of special effects

Stiff-upper-lip film-adaptation of Michael Crichton's popular 1969 novel about team of no-nonsense scientists, three men and one woman, investigating mysterious deaths caused by an even stranger organism from space which fatally clots human blood. Douglas Trumbull's special effects and Richard H. Kline's perceptive cinematography give the illusion this is heady stuff indeed, but, with Robert Wise directing (at his most flaccid), the end results are hardly an improvement over the cheapjack sci-fi's from the previous two decades. Wise is so fearful of not being taken seriously here that he eliminates nearly all personality from the film, causing his actors to come off as two-dimensional props. The scary undercurrent of the plot--of populations being destroyed by an unseen enemy--provides tension for the first two-thirds of the picture, but it's too clinical, too inert to be labeled a thriller. ** from ****