Its construction alone represented an expenditure of more than $300,000.
It was necessary to excavate 17' into the floor of the sound stage in order to erect this 70' set element. The set constructed to represent it was one of the most elaborately detailed interiors ever built and occupied almost every square inch of Universal’s cavernous Stage 12, which, large as it is, proved to be not quite high enough to accommodate the soaring five-story central core of the structure. The Wildfire research laboratory, the main setting of The Andromeda Strain, is a completely sterile, five-level, underground facility equipped with the most sophisticated scientific and technological tools known to man. “ Andromeda,” he points out, “in many respects parallels what has been going on at the lunar receiving laboratory and is very much ‘now’ - about as contemporary as it is possible to get.” Wise, for whom the project marks the 34th picture in a phenomenal career, waited almost two years before finding in Andromeda the kind of contemporary story he had been seeking as a change of thematic pace from the period backgrounds of his last three ventures. A team of four distinguished scientists is called in to a top-secret laboratory to race against time in an attempt to characterize, contain and exterminate the deadly space-organism. The Project Wildfire Alert, previously established by the government for precisely such an emergency, is activated. Kline, ASC, the film documents the results of an epidemic crisis which occurs when a lethal extra-terrestrial micro-organism descends to Earth aboard a returning space probe capsule, instantly wiping out all but two of the 48 inhabitants of a remote desert village. Just such an epidemic is greatly feared by present-day scientists - as witness the strict enforcement of a two-week isolation quarantine for American astronauts returning from the moon.Īs written for the screen by Nelson Gidding and suspensefully photographed by Richard H. It projects an account of what could happen if an unknown and deadly outer-space organism should enter Earth’s atmosphere to plague its inhabitants. Although it falls within the category of science-fiction, it should, more accurately, be designated as sciencefact, because Andromeda is a story having a basic premise that is all too real. The Andromeda Strain, brought to the screen for Universal release by producer-director Robert Wise, is an off-beat thriller based on Michael Crichton’s best-selling novel of the same name.
This article originally appeared in AC May 1971. The accompanying article is based on his observations, as a student, of the extremely complex technology involved in the making of such an unusual feature. In this capacity, he did a variety of jobs during the entire preproduction and shooting phases of the film, thereby gaining an opportunity to experience a complete over-view of professional feature production. As part of a work-study program, he took a sabbatical from formal academic courses in order to accept an assignment as production assistant on The Andromeda Strain. At top, scientists examine a space probe that has returned to Earth, contaminated with a mysterious interstellar organism that threatens all life.ĪBOUT THE AUTHOR: Jon Bloom is a Communications student at Antioch College, with a major interest in Cinema. The basic premise is still captivating it's easy to see how this became the foundation of Crichton's science-thriller empire.A student’s-eye-view of the behind-the-scenes world attendant to the production of a super-dramatic “whatdunit” science-fiction thriller based on a best-selling novel. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.