The Andromeda Strain1971
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Although its urgent subject matter warrants less a deliberate pace, The Andromeda Strain brings Michael Crichton's techno-thriller to the big screen with striking intelligence and an engrossing sense of paranoia.
The Andromeda Strain Videos
The Andromeda Strain Photos
Movie Info
Watch it now
Cast
as Dr. Jeremy Stone
as Dr. Mark Hall
as Dr. Charles Dutton
as Dr. Ruth Leavitt
as Nurse
as Old Man
as Major
as Dr. Robertson
as Grimes
as Senator from Vermont
as General Sparks
as Corpse in water (uncredited)
as First Airman
News & Interviews for The Andromeda Strain
Critic Reviews for The Andromeda Strain
All Critics (39) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (26) | Rotten (13) | DVD (2)
It is, in fact, quite a proficient example of the science fiction genre, though I can't help thinking that 130 minutes is too long for anything non-Kubrick.
A real spellbinder.
It all goes a bit sci-fi bonkers towards the end, with a high-tension countdown and green lasers blasting scientists who attempt to override a doomsday button. But, well, it is a movie after all. And an underrated classic.
the story is a fiction, but a fiction told with one eye on a realistic style of filmmaking (let's call it 'pathogen procedural'), and the other eye on the contemporary realities of both space travel and the Cold War...
Despite its trappings, the plot employs nothing but the conventional weaponry of the grade-B thriller.
Robert Wise brings his Academy Award-winning sobriety and meticulousness to a pulp tale that cries out for the slapdash vigor of a Roger Corman.
Audience Reviews for The Andromeda Strain
The first alien invasion could be of a virus. Could be. That's writer Michael Crichton's conjectural basis for this interesting foray into sci-fi. Luckily we here in the good ol' U.S. of A. probably have a super secret underground facility somewhere out in the desert ready to tackle just such a eventuality. Not only is it super secret, it's underground. And in the desert. It's probably run by a super secret computer, too. One that talks. And they can do just about anything there. Betcha. It's this kid-in-the-backyard-gee-whiz kind of wonder that starts this baby up, but too much of a good thing cuts into plot development, don't it ... maybe they can remake it.
Super Reviewer
Wise and Gidding (director and screenwriter) succesfully repeat the formula applied when adapting the psychological horror classic "The Haunting". A concise emphasis in human drama and scientific verosimilitud over a seemingly far-fetched subject. Tense and paranoid atmosphere that grows in its final stages, despite the overload of dialogue. An adrenaline-pounding thriller.
Super Reviewer
A very serious sci-fi thriller about an alien virus on Earth. Somewhat boring in places, but overall a really good movie.
Super Reviewer
The Andromeda Strain Quotes
There are no approved quotes yet for this movie.