The team studies the organism using animal subjects, an electron microscope, and culturing in various growth media to learn how it behaves. The greenish, throbbing life form is assigned the code name 'Andromeda.' Inhaled through the lungs, Andromeda kills biological life almost instantly via a blood clot in the brain and asphyxiation. Hall is entrusted with the only key that can deactivate the device, the theory being that an unmarried male is the most dispassionate person within a group to make critical decisions in a crisis.Įxamining the satellite, the team discovers the microscopic alien organism that caused the deaths. If the organism threatens to escape, the Wildfire facility includes an automatic nuclear self-destruct mechanism to incinerate all infectious agents. They go through four sub-levels of decontamination procedures, arriving at the fifth sub-level laboratories. Ruth Leavitt, who join them at a top-secret Nevada underground facility, code named Wildfire. Stone and Hall retrieve the satellite and find two survivors, 69-year-old alcoholic Peter Jackson and six-month-old crying infant Manuel Rios.

They discover the town's doctor opened the satellite in his office and that all of his blood has crystallized into a powder, the same death befalling nearly all of the town. Mark Hall, a surgeon, are dropped in by helicopter. Suspecting that the satellite has brought back an alien organism, the military activates an elite team of scientists.ĭr. A military recovery team from Vandenberg Air Force Base tries to recover the satellite but is unsuccessful. government satellite crashes near the small rural town of Piedmont, New Mexico, on February 5, nearly all the residents are dead. Jeremy Stone recounts the events before the United States Senate Committee on Space Sciences in 1971:Īfter a U.S. The film is notable for its use of split screen in certain scenes.ĭr. The special effects were designed by Douglas Trumbull.

With a few exceptions, the film follows the book closely.

Based on Michael Crichton's 1969 novel of the same name and adapted by Nelson Gidding, the film stars Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid, and David Wayne as a team of scientists who investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin. The Andromeda Strain is a 1971 American science fiction thriller film produced and directed by Robert Wise.

The andromeda strain novel