Andromeda Strain
The Andromeda Strain
is a science-fiction 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 book was the basis for a 1971 movie of the same
name, directed by Robert Wise and starring Arthur Hill, James Olson,
Kate Reid, and David Wayne. The film follows the book very closely.
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.
Recently, the Sci Fi Channel has began production of
a miniseries, set for 2005, which could turn into a full series.
After a US government satellite crashes near the village
of Piedmont in Arizona (New Mexico in the movie), the disease kills
all but two of the town's inhabitants. An elite scientific team takes
the satellite into a secret underground laboratory in Nevada, known
as the Wildfire Complex (Wildfire), in order to study it. The vector
mutates into a form that degrades rubber gaskets, however. This engages
an automatic mechanism designed to set off a nuclear weapon beneath
the complex, eradicating all traces of the disease before it can reach
the surface. Unfortunately, it turns out that the alien disease would
thrive on such an enormous energy source and mutate into untold numbers
of forms. In a nail-biting conclusion, one scientist races to shut
down the bomb before it can detonate.
