The Andromeda Strain

"The picture runs 130 minutes... The story covers 96 of the most critical hours in man's history... The suspense will last through your lifetime!"

1971 2h 11m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

🍅

68%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.2

IMDB

★7.0TMDB · 853🍅68%Rotten Tomatoes●60Metacritic★7.2IMDB · 43,020

Science FictionThrillerDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. A group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone scrambles to a secure laboratory and tries first to isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont - an old alcoholic and a six-month-old baby - survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form, unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device designed to prevent the escape of dangerous biological agents.

“The picture runs 130 minutes... The story covers 96 of the most critical hours in man's history... The suspense will last through your lifetime!”

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Cast

Arthur Hill
Dr. Jeremy Stone
David Wayne
Dr. Charles Dutton
James Olson
Dr. Mark Hall
Kate Reid
Dr. Ruth Leavitt
Paula Kelly
Karen Anson
George Mitchell
Jackson
Ramon Bieri
Major Manchek
Peter Hobbs
General Sparks

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Robert Wise
Writers: Nelson Gidding
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

55 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Robert Wise, shot by Richard H. Kline. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Gil Mellé. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor John W. Holmes shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Arthur Hill and David Wayne and James Olson carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

RUNTIME

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The picture runs 130 minutes... The story covers 96 of the most critical hours in man's history... The suspense will last through your lifetime!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0066769 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Robert Wise directs. Richard H. Kline behind the camera. Gil Mellé scores. John W. Holmes cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

155 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Directed by Robert Wise, shot by Richard H. Kline. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Gil Mellé. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor John W. Holmes shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Arthur Hill and David Wayne and James Olson carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "The picture runs 130 minutes... The story covers 96 of the most critical hours in man's history... The suspense will last through your lifetime!".
7IMDB entry: tt0066769 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 22 themes, including "biological weapon", "based on novel or book", "biology", "new mexico".
9Released under 10 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Richard H. Kline
Original score: Gil Mellé
Editing: John W. Holmes
Production design: Boris Leven
Costume design: Helen Colvig
Makeup / hair: Bud Westmore
Runtime: 131 min · 2h 11m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $6,500,000
Box office: $12,376,563
Return: 190% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): G
IMDB: The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Rotten Tomatoes: 68% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 60/100
IMDB rating: 7.2/10 · 43,020 votes
MPAA: G

Awards

Nominated for 2 Oscars. 4 nominations total

Also by

Robert Wise

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2018-12-29
★ 8/10
Frighteningly absorbing piece of fiction that's fused with fact. A satellite from the SCOOP project has crashed into the desert town of Piedmont, the SCOOP project basically entails that the satellite scoops outer space for any alien micro-organisms. After the crash all the residents of Piedmont are killed with the exception of a baby and an old gentleman booze hound. Mankind is on the verge of being destroyed by a leaked alien virus, so a crack team of scientists are gathered in the hope of containing and understanding the virus before the world gets devoid of human life! Taken from the novel by Michael Crichton, this film is a wonderful lesson in tension building as we follow the scientists through a carefully structured sci-fi plot that will eventually become a race against time thriller. What makes The Andromeda Strain stand out against other genre pieces is the astute and believable approach to the subject matter, we are (in the main) in the presence of proper scientists. There's no super hero tricks forthcoming from these people, these are sensible honest intelligent folk using their combined knowledge to hopefully save the planet? A masterstroke from the makers is that they used largely unknown actors for the film, this gives the story an added grounded believable factor, thus a very useful way of drawing the audience into the drama unfolding. The direction from Robert Wise is very clued in for serio narrative drive, the set design for the underground research facility is top notch, and the actors all give stoic and intelligent performances. However, it's not without a niggle, for after the excellence of the films first two thirds, it's disappointing to find that the final act reverts to type, which somehow seems misplaced given what the viewer has just been through. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine sequence of events that fuels the dramatic slant, but it comes off as just a bit too glossy in light of the preceding structure. Still, The Andromeda Strain is an intelligent, smart, mature, and knowing film that is standing the test of time for being a great piece of science fiction cinema. 8/10
CinemaSerf2026-03-22
★ 7/10
When most of the population of a New Mexico town are found dead, scientists are quickly on the scene and discover that there appears to be some sort of lethal pathogen on the loose. Is it natural? A virus? From here or from outer space after a satellite recently crashed nearby? Well fortunately, Uncle Sam has a state of the art facility buried deep underground with five levels of sanitized security where “Stone” (Arthur Hill) and his team can get on the case. What is puzzling them is that two people did survive. An elderly itinerant gent and a newborn baby. Were they just luckily uninfected in the first place or are they immune? More by a process of elimination, they begin to piece together a picture of a living organism, but one that defies many of the conventions of earth-bound physics and as they become more exhausted and frustrated, they also appreciate that the usually reliable security protocols they are using might prove less effective against a substance that can evolve and mutate to adapt to it’s surroundings with alarming speed. Is it the end of mankind or can the “Andromeda” be rendered benign or even destroyed using more unconventional methods? The acting here isn’t very much to write home about, and the production is more sterile than Robert Wise could even have made his laboratory, but there is much more interesting substance to the underlying science from Michael Crichton’s original novel and as the story unfolds it asks some fairly fundamental questions about the existence of “life” elsewhere in the universe that may not conform to our carbon/water-based raw materials. Most of our scientific principles are applied based on earth-bound experience and theories, but what of places where conditions are entirely different - might they augment or replace any matrix they find? The ending is a little rushed and perhaps shies too predictably away from what it could have augured, but this is still a provocative piece of sci-fi that is worth a watch.