Andromeda Strain, The (1971)
The Andromeda Strain (1971), produced and directed by Robert Wise.
A returning space probe brings back a deadly alien organism: it wipes out an entire desert town almost instantly, turning human blood into powder. Luckily the best and brightest have prepared for this and assemble a team of scientists in the usual super-secret underground base. Take care: a nuclear bomb is on hand to correct any mistakes they make. Meanwhile, out in the world, things are not going according to plan...
Michael Crichton's first book was phenomenally successful; it was serialized in my home town paper. That made sense at the time but I'm no longer sure why. Maybe the high-tech space race had prepared people for a science mystery procedural, or perhaps it was dark forebodings about biological warfare.
I remember this one fondly but it hasn't worn very well. As nostalgia, sure, but even as such the slow, deliberate pace is a problem. The scientists are methodical and that is part of the detection procedural, but we can take only so much of their obvious pride in new gadgetry: a CAT scanner! Light pen! Interactive computer with natural language expert system! It's not wrong to be dated (how could it be otherwise?) but a certain amount of "stuff" is enough.
Notes:
The deadly space-probe is like Night of the Living Dead (1968).
The lone scientist in an empty airliner is like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
The countdown to atomic detonation is like Goldfinger (1964).
They break into multi-pane images a few times, which was supposed to be the next big thing back then.
Techno-brutal score.
I hope no lab animals were harmed while making this. In an extra, director Wise says not: the monkey was suffocated with carbon monoxide then revived at the last instant. He claims the ASPCA supervised and approved. It looks unpleasant.
Available on Blu-ray. My thumbnails are from an all-region German import. Black levels are poor.
