The Andromeda Strain

The Andromeda Strain is both the title of a 1969 science-fiction novel by Michael Crichton and a 1971 film based on the book, directed by Robert Wise. The film follows the book closely, down to most names, events, and even dialog, although it is necessarily an abridged version.

A mysterious government project scrambles a team of scientists to investigate the cause of a spaceborne disease that kills nearly everyone in a small desert town. They find an extraterrestrial form of life that causes rapid, fatal clotting of the blood, and make some disturbing discoveries about the project as well.

The book

• On the cover of the file was stenciled WILDFIRE, and underneath, an ominous note:

  THIS FILE IS CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET.

  Examination by unauthorized access is a criminal offense punishable by fines and imprisonment up to 20 years and $20,000.

  When Leavitt gave him the file, Hall had read the note and whistled.

  "Don't you believe it," Leavitt said.

  "Just a scare?"

  "Scare, hell," Leavitt said. "If the wrong man reads this file, he just disappears."

  • Day 2: Piedmont; Chapter 9: Flatrock

• For years it was stated that men had forty-eight chromosomes in their cells; there were pictures to prove it, and any number of careful studies. In 1953, a group of American researchers announced to the world that the human chromosome number was forty-six. Once more, there were pictures to prove it, and studies to confirm it. But these researchers also went back to reexamine the old pictures, and the old studies — and found only forty-six chromosomes, not forty-eight.
  Leavitt's Rule of 48 said simply, "All Scientists Are Blind."
  • Day 3: Wildfire; Chapter 12: The Conference

• [Chapter 12: Recorded dialog between NASA Houston and Scoop Control about the apparently malfunctioning Scoop VII satellite.]

Houston: Scoop, Houston Projection Group has confirmed orbital instability and decay ratios are now being passed by the data trunk to your station.

Scoop: How do they look, Houston?

Houston: Bad.

Scoop: Not understood. Please repeat.

Houston: Bad: B as in broken, A as in awful, D as in dropping.

• Day 3: Wildfire; Chapter 12: The Conference

• He [Stone] often argued that human intelligence was more trouble than it was worth. It was more destructive than creative, more confusing than revealing, more discouraging than satisfying, more spiteful than charitable.
  • Day 3: Wildfire; Chapter 20: Routine

• The biologist R. A. Janek has said that "increasing vision is increasingly expensive." He meant by this that any machine to enable men to see finer or fainter details increased in cost faster than it increased in resolving power.
  • Day 4: Spread; Chapter 22: The Analysis

The film

• Government Agent: It was the fastest thing we could arrange, sir. (Stone looks at inside of completely unoccupied plane, says nothing, sits down. Telephone rings, agent hands phone to Stone.) It's for you, sir.

Stone: I feel like Onassis.

• Stone (to Pilot): Drop us here, then rise to 1,000 feet. If we don't return...

Helicopter Pilot: I know, proceed to Wildfire and (draws hand across throat, makes noise)

Stone (to Burton): If something happens to us, the pilot and aircraft will have to be sterilized.

Helicopter Pilot: Uh, that's not what they told me. Just incinerated.

• Leavitt: You're lost. Nobody's used this road for years.

Burton: It's supposed to look that way. We spent over $50,000 to make the road like this.

Leavitt (incredulously): Putting in the potholes?

Burton: A hell of a lot of heavy equipment went over this road. Wouldn't want someone to wonder why.

• Burton:I'm going to try a 2 micron filter.

Male Technician: This one's big, I'll have to get me a fly swatter.

• (Leavitt looks away from flashing red light on construction equipment)

Burton: Are you okay, Ruth?

Leavitt: I never liked red lights. Reminds me of my days in a bordello.

• (Leavitt sees flashing red light in corridor, collapses with epileptic fit)

Female Technician: She's got the germ! (runs off)

• Karen: (baby wailing in background) Dr. Hall, may I please feed the baby now, he's been crying steadily!

Hall: (to monitor) No! Keep him crying! And run another blood analysis! (to Burton) If I'm right, Jackson and the baby should have similar Ph levels. (to monitor) Karen, where's that analysis?

Karen: (Irritated) It's coming up on your console, now.

Peter Jackson: (turns to face CCTV camera) Hell of a way to run a hospital!

• Burton: Jeremy, these are Bio-Warfare maps!

Stone: So they are! Defensive, Charile. Simulations.

Leavitt: That's not the point! Wildfire was designed for Germ Warfare. Wildfire and Scoop.

Burton: They'd use Scoop to find biological weapons and use Wildfire to develop them!

Leavitt: It stinks, Stone!

Stone: Don't be an alarmist, Ruth. We don't have evidence for any of this.

Burton: Evidence? Look at the map!

Stone: Don't be an ass! The map only shows what could be done, in the hands of an enemy.

Burton: Enemy?! We did it to ourselves.

• (Video monitor): GASKET INTEGRITY ZERO. LEVEL V CONTAMINATED.

Stone: Mark, come on, we've got to get out of here! There's no substation in this sector! (both of them run into corridor, turn left and see corridor connector closing, turn and run the other direction in time to see that connector closing)

Public Address System: Five minutes to self destruct.

Stone: When the bomb goes off there'll be a thousand mutations, Andromeda will spread everywhere, we'll never be rid of it! (pointing at uncompleted bomb cutoff substation) The defense system is perfect, Mark. It'll even bury our mistakes.