Andromeda Strain
Our Price: $18.99
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $9.17 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson, Kate Reid, Paula KellyDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Running Time: 130 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-01-28
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Image Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Andromeda Strain
Movie Review: a riveting alien encounter, that is still a suspense thriller...
Summary: 5 Stars
The first of Michael Crichton's novels to be made into a feature film, The Andromeda Strain (1971) is a gripping, tense, science fiction thriller that gets everything right. Directed by the highly accomplished Robert Wise (The Sound Of Music, The Haunting, West Side Story), the film is an example of masterful storytelling, featuring realistic hard science, futuristic sets, a terrific cast, a credible threat, and very believable special effects. The film immediately draws you in, and holds your attention throughout, even though the threat is at a microscopic level.
Scoop 7 a US satellite has crashed in the desert, near the town of Piedmont, Arizona. Contact has been lost with the recovery team, and dead bodies are visible in the town during an aerial flyby. Doctors Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) and Mark Hall (James Olson), dressed in protective suits, depart from a helicopter to investigate. They recover the Scoop 7, and in an eerie sweep through the town, they find it littered with dead bodies. The only survivors, an old man (George Mitchell) and an infant boy, are taken to a top secret underground government facility in the desert called Wildfire.
Dr. Stone, a Nobel prize winner, heads the Wildfire lab. Besides Dr. Hall, the Wildfire investigative team also includes pathologist Charles Dutton (David Wayne), and microbiologist Ruth Leavitt (Kate Reid). The underground facility has six levels, and the team has to first undergo a series of decontamination procedures in order to reach the lowest level, before they can begin the task of trying to determine what has caused the deaths. As a safety feature, the facility is designed to self destruct in the event of a biological breach. As the only single male, Dr. Hall is assigned the only key that will halt the self destruct sequence.
Finally reaching Level 6, the team begins their work. Aided by nurse Karen Anson (Paula Kelly), Dr. Hall examines the survivors, and tries to discern why they are still alive. The team makes some progress, learning that the microbe, which is given the code name Andromeda, has a crystalline structure, seems to be constantly mutating, and is transmitted through the air, where it is inhaled by its victims and causes the blood to clot. Andromeda continues to mutate, and begins consuming the seals in the containment lab, causing an emergency that initiates the self destruct sequence. Dr. Hall, guided by Dr. Stone has to scramble and dodge laser fire, to try and prevent a nuclear disaster.
The Andromeda Strain works well on so many levels, and was a huge commercial success, helping to introduce the term "PH" to the public consciousness. It's extremely well crafted, and although the technology is dated, the film stands the test of time quite well, in part because of its basis in reality, and focus on people engaged in scientific analysis, rather than relying on high tech gimmicks. The cooperation the filmmakers received from various governmental agencies and companies, help add to the realism of the technology featured in the film. Although some of the sets might appear a bit lavish, the general appearance of the Wildfire facility seems futuristic and also quite functional. The use of video is prevalent, and while computers are an important tool, they are featured in such a way that the massive advances in technology, isn't that evident. It is the scientists' ability to rationally analyze the facts, that makes the real difference.
The outstanding cast is all business, with no glamour picks like Raquel Welch in The Fantastic Voyage (1966). Arthur Hill and David Wayne are terrific, and certainly look the part. James Olson isn't leading man material, but he's great here, as the youngest member of the team. Crichton's character Dr. Leavitt, was changed from a man in the novel, to a female for the screen, and Kate Reid is very believable as a crusty middle aged expert in her field.
A true classic in the genre, The Andromeda Strain should be a part of any serious science fiction fans' collection. For its day, it really doesn't get much better than this. Multiple Academy Award winner Robert Wise, was a man of immense talent whose work spanned the gamut, from editing Citizen Kane (1941), to directing The Sound Of Music (1965), The Hindenburg (1975), The Sand Pebbles (1966) and many other notable films. In the science fiction genre, The Andromeda Strain joins The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), as one of Wise's finest accomplishments.
Summary of Andromeda Strain
When a satellite falls to earth near a remote New Mexico village, the recovery team finds everyone in the area dead except an infant and an old derelict. The survivors are brought to a five-story underground lab, where scientists attempt to determine the nature of the deadly microbe before it starts a world-wide epidemic. From the novel by Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park).The best-selling novel by Michael Crichton was faithfully adapted for this taut 1971 thriller, about a team of scientists racing against time to destroy a deadly alien virus that threatens to wipe out life on Earth. As usual with any Crichton-based movie, the emphasis is on an exciting clash between nature and science, beginning when virologists discover the outer-space virus in a tiny town full of corpses. Projecting total contamination, the scientists isolate the deadly strain in a massive, high-tech underground lab facility, which is rigged for nuclear destruction if the virus is not successfully controlled. The movie spends a great deal of time covering the scientific procedures of the high-pressure investigation, and the rising tensions between scientists who have been forced to work in claustrophobic conditions. It's all very fascinating if you're interested in scientific method and technological advances, although the film is obviously dated in many of its details. It's more effective as a thriller in which tension is derived not only from the deadly threat of the virus, but from the escalating fear and anxiety among the small group of people who've been assigned to save the human race. The basic premise is still captivating; it's easy to see how this became the foundation of Crichton's science-thriller empire. --Jeff Shannon
Similar DVD Movies
Time MachineWHV; Release date: 2010-11-09; DVD
Best price: $5.96
Price in other shops:
The Andromeda Strain MiniseriesBRATT,BENJAMIN; Release date: 2008-06-03; DVD
Best price: $5.19
Price in other shops:
Fahrenheit 451Universal Studios; Release date: 2003-04-01; DVD
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Fail-safe (Special Edition)Sony; Release date: 2000-10-31; DVD
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
Capricorn OneLions Gate; Release date: 2008-10-14; DVD
Best price: $1.79
Price in other shops:
Fantastic Voyage (Special Edition)Fox; Release date: 2007-06-05; DVD
Best price: $10.45
Price in other shops:
Silent RunningMCA; Release date: 2002-05-21; DVD
Best price: $8.32
Price in other shops:
The Omega ManWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-05-15; DVD
Best price: $2.41
Price in other shops:
Soylent GreenWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-03-25; DVD
Best price: $4.88
Price in other shops:
Logan's RunWHV; Release date: 2007-12-18; DVD
Best price: $3.51
Price in other shops: