the andromeda strain

Director: robert wise

Actor: james olson,arthur hill,david wayne,kate reid

Data Published: Fri Mar 12 1971

Genres: Mystery,Sci-Fi,Thriller

Key Words: scientist,alien,new mexico,based on novel,new mexico desert

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066769/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain_(film)

Description: The Andromeda Strain is a movie starring James Olson, Arthur Hill, and David Wayne. A team of top scientists work feverishly in a secret, state-of-the-art laboratory to discover what has killed the citizens of a small town and learn...

Plot: After a satellite, a U.S. government project code-named Scoop, crashes near the small rural town of Piedmont, New Mexico, almost all of the town's inhabitants die instantly. Suspecting that the satellite brought back an alien organism, the military activates an elite scientific team it had previously assembled for just this type of emergency. Wearing sealed protective suits, Dr. Jeremy Stone, the team leader, and Dr. Mark Hall, the team surgeon, are dropped in Piedmont by helicopter, where they search for the satellite. They find that the town's doctor had opened it in his office out of curiosity and that all of his blood had crystallized. Stone and Hall retrieve Scoop and locate two survivors — a sixty-two-year-old alcoholic and a six-month-old infant. The team of four core research scientists, who also include Dr. Charles Dutton and Dr. Ruth Leavitt, are summoned from their academic and research appointments to a massive, secret, high-tech underground facility in Nevada, named Wildfire, where they undergo a full day of decontamination procedures, descending through four disinfection levels to a fifth level, where laboratories are located. If the organism threatens to escape, this facility includes an automatic nuclear self-destruct mechanism to incinerate all infectious agents. Dr. Hall is entrusted with the only key that can deactivate the device. By examining Scoop with powerful cameras, the team discovers the microscopic alien organism responsible for the deaths. The greenish, throbbing life form is assigned the code name Andromeda. Andromeda kills animal life almost instantly and appears to be highly virulent. Members of the team study the organism using animal subjects, an electron microscope, and culturing in various growth media in an attempt to learn how it works. Hall tries to figure out why the old man and the baby survived. A military jet crashes near Piedmont after the pilot radios that his plastic face mask is dissolving. Meanwhile, Dr. Stone, the creator of the Wildfire laboratory, is accused by Dutton and Leavitt of designing the lab for the purposes of research into biological warfare. Unbeknownst to other members of the team, Leavitt's research on the germ is impaired by her epilepsy, which is triggered by flashing red computer lights in an experiment she is performing. Hall realizes that the old drunk and the baby didn't die because their blood was acidic either from drinking Sterno or from crying continuously, suggesting that Andromeda can survive only within a narrow range of blood pH. Just as he has this insight, the organism mutates into a non-lethal form that degrades synthetic rubber and plastics. It escapes the containment room into the room where Dutton is working. Once all the lab's seals start decaying from Andromeda's escape, a five-minute countdown to nuclear destruction is initiated. Hall rescues Leavitt from an epilepsy attack set off by the flashing red lights of Wildfire's alarm system. Meanwhile, the team realizes that the alien microbe would thrive on the energy of a nuclear explosion and would consequently be transformed into a supercolony which could wipe out all life on Earth. Hall races against the clock and the lab's automated defenses to reach a station at which he can insert his key and turn off the nuclear bomb before it is too late. He endures an attack by automated lasers as he crawls through the lab's central core until at last he finds a working station, disables the bomb, and collapses. Hall awakens in a hospital bed. His colleagues reveal that clouds are being seeded over the Pacific Ocean, which will cause rain to sweep Andromeda out of the atmosphere and into alkaline seawater, rendering it harmless. The movie ends with Stone testifying to a senator that, while they were able to defeat an alien pathogen this time, they may not be able to do so in the future.