Construction is such that each layer is a step in a decontamination process with the action occurring on the lowest level. The survivors and the satellite with its mysterious microscopic killer are taken to a laboratory five-stories underground. Scientists in specially constructed suits go in, retrieve the satellite and find two survivors - a baby and an old man. One of our satellites has landed there and the crew sent in to retrieve it instantly drops over. The picture gets off to a gripping start showing a small, Arizona town wiped out and bodies everywhere looking as if the inhabitants were suddenly and mysteriously stricken. It may be humor but Miss Reid is more vinegary than funny. There's no phony love interest dragged in, for example.He has changed one of the scientists to a woman but hardly for glamour reasons, Kate Reid not being the glamorous type. Producer-director Robert Wise has wisely not tampered overmuch with the book. THE FILM is based on Michael Crichton's recent best-seller. There's nothing wrong with formula when it works and it works with no strain in this movie. The story sounds as if it could happen.īasically 'Andromeda Strain' is good melodrama - a mysterious crisis followed by several minor problems topped by an exciting if contrived climax. The result has less hoked up horror than most offerings and more realism.

'Andromeda Strain' puts the emphasis on science in this tale of micro-organism picked up by a satellite which wipes out an entire town after the satellite's return to earth.

Tony Mastroianni Review Collection 'The Andromeda Strain' is superior science-fiction Cleveland Press May 15, 1971Ĭreatures from outer space are still the basic stuff of science-fiction thrillers.

He andromeda strain movie