"A group of scientists investigate a deadly new virus before it can spread." IMDb
The Andromeda Strain is the 1971 film adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel of the same name. It's really a different breed of movie than exists today, and I'm gonna try really hard not to compare it to other virus movies from more recent years, because that's really not fair to this movie...welp, I tried. Let's compare it to Outbreak! Outbreak is one of my favorite movies. It's got an amazing cast, a thrilling and suspenseful story, it's got action, shooting, helicopters, bombs, bleeding from the eyes, shouting, swearing, Morgan Freeman, and pathogen carrying death monkeys...What's not to love!? Here's the thing though: The Andromeda Strain is not supposed to be anything like Outbreak. The Andromeda Strain is crafted specifically to make the audience tear their hair out from the suspense! It's supposed to make you feel uneasy the whole time. You're not supposed to be scared, or entertained really about anything that's going on, but simply on the edge of your seat, worrying your ass off about what's gonna happen. This movie does it's job very effectively.
The basic plot is that a satellite has crashed in a little town called Piedmont, and when the government sends people in to retrieve it...all of a sudden, they just up and lose contact with the people they sent in, and they don't know why! So, before sending more people in, they at least go grab a couple of science-y people and put them in like space suit things...and then put they sent them in there. What they find is rather unsettling. Everyone is dead. They're just dead. And these people aren't all bloody, or curled over in pain or anything like that. They're just dead...like they up and died doing whatever the hell they were doing. They just dropped! It's really creepy actually how calm everyone looks...like the whole town has a nap-time. So anyway, the science-y people in the suits find the satellite thing, and come to the conclusion that the town doctor ( most likely the only guy in town who can read) pried the thing open, and in doing so, inadvertently air-murdered the whole town. Nice going Doc! Also, apparently only two people hadn't been affected by the satellite: an old crazy drunk, and a baby. So, the dudes in the suits (carefully) haul the satellite and the two survivors back with them to their super secret multi-level underground pathogenic research facility to try and figure this shit out. Before they go down there though, they tell the Pentagon or whatever to nuke the entire area, or else we could all be doomed!...but they don't. *dramatic music*
I'm not gonna tell you much more about the movie, because I actually want people to watch it, and your interest should be peaked by now! And even though you've never heard of anyone in this movie ever, it's from the guy that brought you Jurassic Park! Plus there's blinking red lights, seizures, lasers, countdowns, decontamination, crying, more decontamination, burning, even more decontamination, rubber suits, nukes, suppositories that decontaminate your colon (what?), testing, growth cultures, getting shot in the face, and even a monkey! Oh yeah, and if I haven't mentioned this yet, a shit-ton of suspense! So check it out...if you like older movies. If not, there's a 2008 remake that I haven't watched yet, but it's probably a similar story with a lot more modern things like sex and explosions in it or something...ya know, I'm guessing.
...seriously though, it wasn't really all that exciting, but for the time it did exactly what it set out to do and that's why the star rating is as high as it is. It's a classic! Not the way Jaws is a classic, but I digress...
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