They realize that the strain would not only survive a nuclear blast, it would thrive, creating a super-colony that might destroy all life on Earth. Hall resuscitates Leavitt from an epileptic seizure triggered by the flashing red lights. A five-minute countdown to nuclear destruction begins. But the organism mutates into a non-lethal form that dissolves synthetic plastics, so it escapes the seals in the containment room. It seems the strain can only survive in a narrow range of blood pH. The alcoholic survived because his blood was extremely acidic from drinking Sterno, and the baby’s blood was extremely alkaline from crying. Leavitt has epilepsy, which might impair her functioning. The researchers argue over the lab being used for biological warfare research. They want to know why the old man and the baby survived.Ī jet crashes near Piedmont when the pilot radios that his plastic oxygen mask is dissolving. It kills animal life almost instantly with clots in the brain. It is green, it throbs, and they call it the Andromeda Strain. Cameras reveal the microscopic alien organism on the satellite. The only one entrusted with the key to shut it off is Doctor Hall, as the only unmarried male. There is an automatic nuclear self-destruct protocol to incinerate everything if needed. After going through five levels of decontamination, they get to work. The team retrieves the satellite and finds two survivors: a 69-year-old alcoholic named Peter Jackson (George Mitchell) and a bawling six-month old child.Īlso on the team are Doctor Charles Dutton (David Wayne) and Doctor Ruth Leavitt (Kate Reid) who are summoned to the top-secret underground facility called Wildfire, in Nevada. The same has happened to everyone in town, except that two people went insane and committed suicide. They find that the town doctor had opened the satellite in his office and that all of his blood is crystallized into powder. In hazmat suits, Doctor Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) and Surgeon Mark Hall (James Olson) are dropped in by helicopter. The military recovery team believes the cause is an alien organism.
satellite crashes near Piedmont, New Mexico, most of the town dies from a mysterious ailment.
Andromeda strain movie youtube for free#
The Andromeda Strain streaming for free right now on Tubi in the U.S.When a U.S. The film uses many concepts and narrative elements that we’ve seen before in plenty of other sci-fi films, but it combines them in a genuinely unique way that makes it well-worth seeking out. That’s a shame, considering just how interesting and singular of an experience it is. The Andromeda Strain isn’t talked about a lot these days, and it’s beginning to feel like a bit of a forgotten gem. And the film’s final, ominous moments only drive those themes home.
As we emerge from 2020, The Andromeda Strain’s warnings about society’s struggle with handling dangerous biological developments on a mass scale remain as relevant and compelling as ever. The film isn’t an empty exercise in tension and paranoia. As a result, the film feels more akin to some of Wise’s darker outings as a director - especially the 1963 horror classic The Haunting. While Wise remains highly capable of communicating scale throughout the film, it’s his ability to create tension and atmosphere that’s most notable in The Andromeda Strain. Alex Garland’s Annihilation achieved a similar effect, and that thematic richness is a large part of what makes The Andromeda Strain so effective.ĭirector Robert Wise may be most well-known for directing sweeping Hollywood musicals like The Sound of Music and West Side Story, but he’s tapping into a different kind of skillset in The Andromeda Strain. Watching The Andromeda Strain, you begin to feel like the film’s characters are fighting an uphill battle, not against alien invaders but against nature itself. While it doesn’t ever depict any of the kind of giant Lovecraftian enemies typically associated with cosmic horror, it does tap into the feeling of helplessness that’s integral to that genre. In that sense, The Andromeda Strain sometimes feels more like a cosmic horror film than it does an alien invasion thriller. That feeling of claustrophobia also helps to heighten the film’s unshakable sense of dread, which escalates as its central team of scientists learn about the alien organism. The film takes place primarily within the confines of a sealed-off underground facility - one designed to be destroyed the moment it looks like the alien pathogen might escape.īy keeping its locations limited, The Andromeda Strain achieves a claustrophobic effect that only grows more effective as the film continues. Based on a 1969 novel of the same name by sci-fi icon Michael Crichton, The Andromeda Strain focuses on efforts by a group of scientists to contain and understand a dangerous extraterrestrial organism that’s made its way to Earth.