The Andromeda Strain (1971) UHD limited edition (film review).
Anyone who saw ‘The Andromeda Strain’ back in the 1970s and even its many reshowings on TV instantly remembers this film. The film is a science fiction story that explores what would happen if an alien virus landed on Earth and was collected.
A downed satellite, Operation Scoop, hits the town of Piedmont, and Project Wildfire at Flatrock County, Nevada, is initiated. Dr Jeremy Stone (actor Arthur Hill) leads the team; Dr Charles Dutton (actor David Wayne), Dr Ruth Leavitt (actress Kate Reid) and MD/surgeon Dr Mark Hall (actor James Olson) are called in. The latter is unmarried and the odd man in the team to make the decision to stop a nuclear bomb going off in case the virus gets free. What they don’t know later, and just as well, the president delays authorising a nuclear detonation at Piedmont.
Stone and Hall are sent to the town to collect the satellite and find a baby (Robert Soto) and a drunk Jackson (actor George Mitchell) who are still alive. The virus turns the blood into dust with the rest of the people. There then becomes a need to work out why they survived, which is part of the gist of the film.
With Stone not reading his briefings, we get the lowdown from Stone on how the decontamination through the 5 floors. We might be more advanced now, but the principles are pretty much the same. I, the scientist, and what we know now would probably not do all contamination as shown now. The human body depends on various viruses, especially in its skin and gut, for survival. I do wonder just how long they could survive without them. Not too sure about their nutrients for food, as there’s no roughage.
Stone and Wayne are the determined scientists; Leavitt is the rebel, and Hall is just plain nervous until he gets to work. Then again, Hall is the one to stop a nuclear detonation, so I guess anyone would be nervous in his situation.
I’m sure the animal rights people might object to animals being contaminated by the virus, but this is standard practice to test how long the virus is active. In reality, they weren’t killed just dosed with some carbon dioxide and had a quick sleep before being revived with oxygen.
The medical procedures and such follow how they might have done it for real back in the early 1970s, which is why it feels convincing. Some people actually thought it was based off a real event at the time.
What the military outside don’t know is that there is a fault with the communications printer, and both sides think the other is being stubborn.
All other information remains classified. Beware of mutating and breathe as rapidly as possible to avoid contamination. Of particular interest is that there are no paper books used in Wildfire, as all of it has been put in the computer system. In that respect, this could be the first film version of digital books.
It’s a brilliant film, and the plot is ingrained in my head with me filling in details in the synopsis. There’s a scene I hadn’t seen before where they find a suicide in the town. The Wildfire Project below ground is nicely realised. You get caught up in the plot. I, the scientist now, would have to wonder why the vultures hadn’t died, but they might have passed the serious contamination stage. Even so, I think I would have taken or at least checked one of the vultures’ blood.
The audio commentary is by American film journalist Bryan Reesman, and it looks like he hasn’t read the original book, so I’m one up on him. At least he’s done his research, even if it sounds like he’s reading his notes, which he confirms, and watched the film several times and rehearsed. He refers to CSI and later films, but that’s some 35 years or so into the future. He was a bit concerned about how they could hear in those hazmat suits in the town. Objectively, it might be a little muted, but sounds would penetrate even more in such a quiet place. A lot of his information does look like he watched some of the extras here. I’m going to add my own comments here.
Could you clarify how Stone and Hall accessed the facility, given that there doesn’t appear to be a helicopter platform above it? He also confuses the cigarette to clear the lungs with a suppository. Reesman says they really used carbon monoxide on the test animals, but actually it was carbon dioxide. Monoxide does too much damage to the blood to be quickly revived. He also forgets that back in the 1970s, there was less thought about using animals in experiments; it was just done. Something else he gets wrong is saying the Andromeda Strain attacks plastic. It doesn’t; it’s rubber, or they would be in for some serious problems in Wildfire. Reesman says he isn’t good with science, but you have to wonder why he can’t note things properly from the text of the extras he had access to. When he concentrates on the film itself, he excels.
I hate saying this, but the 28-minute ‘A New Strain Of Science Fiction’ from 2019 by Kim Newman was so much waffle as he ploughs through so many non-genre medical films before touching on science fiction and horror films before and after ‘The Andromeda Strain’ that the film itself barely gets a mention. While reviewing his checklist of films that feature real-life equipment or include characters wearing HazMat suits, he neglects to mention ‘Phase IV’ (1974) and both bionic series that explored similar themes.
In sharp contrast, ‘Making The Film’ from 2001, running at 30 minutes, has director Robert Wise, scriptwriter Nelson Gidding and original author Michael Crichton announced in the indicia and neglects a massive contribution by special effects man Douglas Trumbull, who also explains that what he learnt on this film contributed to the cloud effects on ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’. If you want to spot Crichton’s cameo in the film, look for the operating theatre scene where Mark Hall is about to perform surgery.
The 12-minute ‘A Portrait of Michael Crichton’ from 2001 is basically an interviewer with the writer as he points out how he always wrote and got a travelogue published in a newspaper when he was 13. He didn’t like the odds of becoming a professional writer, so he did it as a sideline while training to be a doctor. In that position, he decided to write under the pen names of John Lange and Jeffrey Hudson, getting 5 books printed before using his real name. His second book of these was ‘The Andromeda Strain’, which he explains, because of his continuing education, he hadn’t needed to do research. Of course, the book became a bestseller.
Much of the other extras are the shooting script and various trailers. The stills gallery is quite extensive, with 158 pictures and another 56 devoted to promotional stills from around the world. It’s rather interesting seeing how different cast names are used with the latter.
‘The Andromeda Strain’ is a classic film. Did I say I liked it a lot? You get a lot more than I did with this advance disc. One can only hope something like this would happen in real life to check if extra-terrestrial contamination isn’t dangerous to us, let alone a cure. If it isn’t, Covid would seem insignificant in comparison.
GF Willmetts
May 2025
(pub: Arrow Films, 2025. 130 minute film. Price: £25.00 (UK), normal retail £29.99 (UK))
cast: Arthur Hill, James Olson, David Wayne and Kate Reid
check out website: www.arrowfilms.com/4k/the-andromeda-strain-limited-edition-4k-ultra-hd/16237696.html
