He does so, and we end with scientists seeding clouds in order to wash the Andromeda Strain from the atmosphere into the Pacific ocean, killing it once and for all. Hall has been given the key to deactivate this system, and he has to race through a system of computer-controlled lasers in order to prevent them all from being incinerated. This initiates another peril: Their lab also holds a nuclear device set up to explode if anything goes wrong, and that's now been triggered.ĭr. As rubber seals keeping the virus contained begin to corrode, it is released into the laboratory at large. It turns out that the organism is prone to constant mutation, and soon evolves into a form that eats away plastic. Another problem erupts, however, before they can put this knowledge to use. They manage to figure out that the organism is vulnerable to variation in Ph levels, so the alcohol in the old man's blood saved him, as did the salinity of the baby's tears.
Together, this team descends into the laboratory – stopping at each level to be disinfected in increasingly meticulous ways – then tries to figure out how to stop the deadly organism, which they've named the Andromeda Strain. In addition to Stone and Hall, two other scientists are flown in: Dr. This facility, which Stone designed, extends beneath the surface of the Nevada desert for six stories, and was built for exactly this purpose.
They grab the satellite and two townspeople who have mysteriously survived, whisking an alcoholic old man and an infant to a secret government laboratory. Watch a Trailer for 'The Andromeda Strain' Mark Hall (James Olson) – are dropped into the scene, they discover that the organism kills people by turning their blood to dust. Everyone in the town immediately dies, when a pair of scientists in protective gear – Dr. The story of The Andromeda Strain involves an alien virus brought back to Earth by a satellite that crash-lands near a New Mexico town. Wise soon moved on to mainstream success with things like West Side Story and The Sound of Music, but he was never one to turn down a genre project: He directed the fantastic horror film The Haunting in 1963, and would go on to helm the first film in the Star Trek franchise in 1979. That movie tells the story of an alien invasion, and was one of the most influential sci-fi films of its decade. Director Robert Wise was tasked with the job – and for good reason, as he was able to handle both big-budget movies and intimate genre-oriented adventure stories.Īfter starting as an editor at RKO – he was nominated for an Oscar there for editing Citizen Kane – Wise moved into directing and scored his first big hit with The Day the Earth Stood Still in 1951. The scientists methodically study the alien life form unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device should it manage to escape.The 1969 book was such a success that Universal Studios immediately purchased the rights, and decided to make it into a film. Dutton, Leavitt and Hall (David Wayne, Kate Reid, and (James Olson, respectively)- go to the facility, known as Wildfire, and try to first isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont (an old wino and a six-month-old baby) survived. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) advocated for the construction of a secure laboratory facility that would serve as a base in the event an alien biological life form was returned to Earth from a space mission. Many years prior to this incident, a group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Storyline: The Andromeda Strain (1971) When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico, are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency.