Sci-fi thriller The Andromeda Strain blends the fine line between fact and fiction in the film adapted from Michael Crichton’s novel.

The film follows a team of four scientists as they investigate a deadly organism from outer space. It made its way to Earth when a U.S. government satellite crashed in Piedmont, New Mexico. Unfortunately, there were only two survivors. With the rest of the town dead, there’s a biological crisis and it’s up to the team to get it under control at the underground Wildfire facility. The facility was originally built for germ warfare and the paranoia thinking of the time could easily see someone also believing that the government was behind it. One wrong suggestion and it could become a deadly worldwide pandemic.

Robert Wise’s approach in directing the film was to appear as factual as possible. The fact that they do not go with major stars certainly makes the film even more believable. With what Wise is doing here, casting someone like Gregory Peck would just take audiences out of the film. No offense to the late Gregory Peck.

In writing the screenplay, Nelson Gidding’s gender-flip’s Kate Reid’s scientist character from male to female. Mind you, this was 1971 and there were female scientists. Female scientists just were not having the same opportunities on screen as they were few and far between. Gidding’s screenplay otherwise captures the paranoia that would dominate the screen during the 1970s.

The filmmakers make great use of their limited sets, which would get an Oscar nomination for Production Design (formerly Art Direction). We see the same tunnel throughout the film, only it gets repainted so as to appear as a different floor. The sets look exactly what I’d expect from a sci-fi film during the early 1970s. Hell, the inner core took some six months to build. Meanwhile, Douglas Trumbull–a few years removed from 2001: A Space Odyssey–handles the film’s visual effects alongside James Shourt and Albert Whitlock. Trumbull nearly went bankrupt in the process. A good chunk of his work would be CGI in today’s era especially with all the microscopic enlargements.

Novelist Michael Crichton also gets an opportunity to cameo in the film. He’s in the scene where they are pulling Dr. Hill from surgery. Given his height, there are few opportunities to cameo so of course, he’s sitting down.

Over 50 years later, The Andromeda Strain remains one of the best films in the killer virus genre in terms of accuracy and attention to detail.

DIRECTOR: Robert Wise
SCREENWRITER: Nelson Gidding
CAST: Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson, Kate Reid, Paula Kelly, George Mitchell, Ramon Bieri, with Peter Hobbs, Kermit Murdock, Richard O’Brien, Eric Christmas, Mark Jenkins, Peter Helm, Joe DiReda, Carl Reindel, Ken Swofford, Frances Reid, Richard Bull, John Carter

Universal Pictures released The Andromeda Strain in theaters on March 12, 1971. Grade: 3.5/5

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