Michael Crichton's Andromeda Strain

This taut techno-sci-fi thriller stars Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid and David Wayne. It was directed by Academy Award winner Robert Wise, who also directed The Sand Pebbles, The Sound of Music, West Side Story and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Plot (more detail below): A U.S. military satellite falls to earth near Piedmont, New Mexico. The recovery team finds the townspeople dead. A hand-picked team of scientists is assembled in a high-tech, underground facility to identify and defeat the "enemy" before it is too late.

• Arthur Hill - Dr. Jeremy Stone
• David Wayne - Dr. Charles Dutton (was Charles Burton in the book)
• James Olson - Dr. Mark Hall
• Kate Reid - Dr. Ruth Leavitt (was Dr. Peter Leavitt in the book)
• Paula Kelly - Karen Anson
• George Mitchell - Peter Jackson
• Ramon Bieri - Major Manchek
• Peter Hobbs - General Sparks
• Kermit Murdock - Dr. Robertson
• Richard O'Brien - Grimes
• Eric Christmas - Senator from Vermont
• Mark Jenkins - Lt. Shawn (Piedmont team)
• Peter Helm - Sgt. Crane (Piedmont team)
• Carl Reindel - Lt. Comroe

Warning: spoilers ahead!

The story opens with a military satellite crashing near the small town of Piedmont, New Mexico. A recovery team is dispatched, and when they arrive at the site it looks like everyone in the town is dead. The townspeople appear to have either died in mid-stride or by committing suicide.

The military calls in the Wildfire team. Major team members are:

• Dr. Jeremy Stone, Nobel prize-winning molecular biologist
• Dr. Peter Leavitt, disease pathologist, who suffers from epilepsy (Dr. Ruth Leavitt in the film)
• Dr. Charles Burton, infection vectors specialist (Charles Dutton in the film)
• Dr. Mark Hall, M.D., Surgeon, biochemistry and pH specialist

The government-sponsored Wildfire team's mission is to deal with extraterrestrial biological infestation. The team members are rounded up unceremoniously by the military and taken to the secret Wildfire laboratory near Flatrock, Nevada, sixty miles from Las Vegas. The underground lab, designed partly by Dr. Stone two years earlier, has five levels, each being more sterile and microorganism-free than the previous. The team undergoes a sixteen-hour decontamination process with Dr. Stone describing the setup as they descend through the levels. Stone requests that Piedmont be hit with a thermonuclear blast to prevent the spread of the disease, but it is delayed 24 to 48 hours by the President.

Stone uses a special key to arm the lab's nuclear device, a failsafe mechanism triggered if the lab's containment fails. He gives Hall the other key, since research on the "Odd-Man hypothesis" determined that "an unmarried male should carry out command decisions involving thermonuclear or chem-biol destruct contexts."

It turns out that two people survived in the town of Piedmont - a sick, Sterno-addicted man, Peter Jackson, and a crying infant, Jamie Ritter. The two survivors and the satellite are taken to the Wildfire lab. More investigation determines that the bizarre deaths were caused by a sulfur-based, crystal-structured, extraterrestrial microbe on a meteor that crashed into the satellite and knocked it from orbit. The microbe is composed of the chemical elements of terrestrial life (but not DNA, RNA, proteins or amino acids), yet it somehow directly transforms matter to energy and vice versa. It mutates at a rapid rate. Victims die when their blood clots after the organism is inhaled. The existence of the Piedmont survivors is a mystery, because they appear to be biologic opposites - an old man and a baby.

The microbe, named Andromeda, mutates with each growth cycle, changing its biologic properties. The scientists discover that Andromeda grows only in a narrow pH range; in a too-acid or too-basic growth medium, it will not multiply. Andromeda's pH range is 7.39-7.43, the same as human blood. The scientists determine the reason Jackson and Ritter survived is because both had abnormal blood pH - Jackson because of his sterno usage, and the baby because of its constant crying.

The scientists then notice a test rat in Dutton's lab has gotten loose but shows no effect of Andromeda and conclude that the organism has mutated to a non-lethal form. Meanwhile, Andromeda mutates and begins degrading any polymer plastic in the area, including the neoprene door and hatch seals in the entire Wildfire complex. This automatically arms a self-destructive mechanism in Wildfire, an atomic bomb, and triggers its detonation countdown. Ironically, given its ability to generate matter directly from energy, Andromeda would feed on such an explosion and rapidly infect the entire planet.

To prevent the atomic explosion, Dr. Hall must disarm the mechanism with his special key at one of several emergency substations throughout Wildfire. Unfortunately, he is trapped in an unfinished section with no substation. He must navigate the central core and avoid Wildfire's automatic laser beam-based defenses to reach a working substation on another level. Dr. Stone verbally guides him by watching the computer room monitor. Hall evades several laser shots but is stunned by a grazing shot to his cheek and one to his hand. Dulled by the pain, Hall reaches level four too late, as it has already been contaminated. With Stone's encouragement, Hall finally reaches the safety station on level three nine seconds before detonation and disarms the device.

The group finds out the next day that the now-benign Andromeda has continued to grow into a super colony, but is being infused with silver iodine which will force it into the ocean where the heavy alkalinity will destroy it.

The novel's epilogue reveals that a manned spacecraft, Andros V, was incinerated in atmospheric re-entry, because its polymer heat shield failed. Space flights are discontinued until further notice.

A TV miniseries version of the Andromeda Strain was announced by the SciFi channel in 2004; the project has subsequently moved to the A&E network.

The miniseries originally aired as a four hour two part mini-series, with part one premiering in America on May 26th and part two on May 27th, 2008. The series had previously aired in the UK on May 11th.

A fictional website has appeared, featuring references to trouble in Piedmont, Utah. It takes on the appearance of a blog, featuring posts and comments. This website is an apparent viral advertisement for the Andromeda Strain mini-series.
You can take a look at it here.

Top Movie Downloads

• Movies
• TV Shows
• Music Videos
• Games
• MP3s

Search, Download, Burn. Unlimited 24/7 access.
Millions are downloading - now it's your turn.

Click Here for more Information!