The Andromeda Strain
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One of the persistent fears about space exploration is the age old fear of plague. What if space exploration brought back a dangerous microbe? The Andromeda Strain is a 1969 science fiction novel published 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.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
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[edit] Synopsis
After a US government satellite crashes near the village of Piedmont, 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, in order to study it. The vector mutates into a form that degrades rubber gaskets. 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. However, the alien disease is able to thrive on the enormous energy source and would be able to mutate into an untold numbers of forms. To stop the explosion, one scientist races to shut down the bomb before it can detonate.
[edit] Production
- Robert Wise - Director
- Michael Crichton - Writer (book)
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[edit] Cast
- Arthur Hill — Dr. Jeremy Stone
- David Wayne — Dr. Charles Dutton
- James Olson — Dr. Mark Hall
- Kate Reid — Dr. Ruth Leavitt
- Paula Kelly — Karen Anson
- George Mitchell — Jackson
- Ramon Bieri — Maj. Manchek
- Eric Christmas — Senator Phillips (Vermont)
- Ken Swofford — Toby
- John Carter — MP Capt. Morton
- James W. Gavin — Dempsey
- Reuben Singer — Dr. Rudolph Karp
[edit] Trivia
When making the scene in the movie where one of the doctors has an epileptic seizure due to watching a blinking red light, care had to be taken when choosing the frequency of the blinking, so it was the less likely frequency to trigger seizures among the theater audience.
The alien "virus" turns out to be crystal based, and although it contains the same atoms as "normal" life, it lacks DNA/RNA, proteins and amino acid. It is able to transfer energy to mass directly. Crystal-based life have also appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and it has also been given some serious thoughts from A-life scientists.
The film was recast as an art-house movie in Anne McGuire's 1992 Strain Andromeda The. With permission, McGuire reversed the original film shot by shot so that everything unfolded in reverse order, although with each scene running in normal time with comprehensible dialogue. "Every action is followed by its stimulus, every comment by its query, you find yourself in a dizzying spin, grasping desperately for causal certainty, yet firmly held by the reversibility of suspense." (Steve Seid)
A young Michael Crichton makes a cameo appearance in a non-speaking role during the scene where Dr. Hall is told to break scrub because he has to report to Wildfire.
[edit] Odd Man Hypothesis
The Robertson Odd Man Hypothesis is a fictional hypothesis articulated in the book and also mentioned by name in the film. In the book the explanation is presented as a page from a report, a method repeated in the film:
- "Results of special testing confirm the Odd Man Hypothesis, that an unmarried male should carry out command decisions involving thermonuclear or chem-biol destruct contexts."
The Odd Man Hypothesis states that unmarried men are capable of carrying out the best, most dispassionate decisions in crisis situations.
A page of statistics is then shown, titled "Group: Index of Effectiveness", ranging from .343 for married males to .946 for single male scientists. Then listing the same for each of the main characters (Stone .687, Dutton .543, Kirke .614, Leavitt .601, Hall .899).
Thus Hall is given the control key to halt, if necessary, the automated self-destruct system built into the Wildfire base.
The fabrication of a scientific principle with supportive numbers and charts is a hack literary technique called the false document.
[edit] References and external links
- Crichton, Michael (1968). The Andromeda Strain. ISBN 0345378482.
- The Andromeda Strain - IMDB
- Dvd Savant - a long and detailed essay on the film (includes a discussion of the apparent killing of the monkey)
- Detailed film review from And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
[edit] Fan Opinion
This was one of my favorite science fiction films as a teenager in the late 1970s. A local TV station here in Kansas City ran a show around lunchtime on Saturdays called "Science Fiction Theater." The Andromeda Strain was shown often. This film got me hooked in the ways in deals with the dangers of hard science. Instead of featuring space ships and laser gun battles, we see a group of scientists in a top secret lab dealing with the dangers posed by a threat that is invisible to the naked eye. A good example of the "social issues" science fiction that was popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. WikiSysop 10:43, 7 Feb 2006 (PST)
[edit] Links
[edit] External Links
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