The Andromeda Strain

At the crash site of the Phantom F-4, the tail section of the crashed aircraft is that of an F-100.

When the scientists in Piedmont check the dead driver of the satellite recovery van, his eyes are glistening wet.

He had been dead for many hours, so they should have been dried out.

After the two scientists in hazard suits are dropped-off in Piedmont, there is a shot of the helicopter hovering overhead, yet the sound effect is that of a helicopter flying away.

Moments later the helicopter does fly away slowly.

A close-up of the crying baby found in the town by the recon scientists shows the face of a baby that is obviously not crying as the soundtrack portrays.

The lips of the dead man in the barber's chair in Piedmont can be seen moving in the close shot.

When the scientist moves to close the dead doctor's eyes in Piedmont, the man's eyes close before the scientist closes them.

According to the map shown after the Situation Room scene, Wildfire was located in southern Clark County, Nevada, 46 miles from downtown Las Vegas, 34 miles from the Hoover Dam, and only five miles from Searchlight, Nevada (the smaller black dot below Wildfire); notably closer than 112 miles from any ".

Inhabited area.

" as stated in the dialogue.

When they first subject the lab animals to the virus, on the right hand side of the screen in the reflection of the metal walls you can see the crew rushing towards the monkey cage to revive him right before they cut back to the shot of the scientists.

In the scene when the two scientists are first exploring the town, we see a shot of a priest lying dead on the steps of a church, eyes wide open.

Right before the scene cuts, the supposedly dead priest stops his dead-eyed stare and looks to the right, obviously moving both eyes.

The story shows the only Destruct Substations located in passageways.

Considering that individual labs seal off if they become contaminated, every single room should have had a Destruct Substation.

If Dr.

Hall had been stuck in the lab with Dr.

Dutton, the story would have ended on a tragic note.

The screen showing the distribution of elements in the samples goes by atomic number, but skips over neon (10) for some reason.

(It can't be because of lack of neon; other elements are indicated with a 0 or -.

) The book does the same, in fact leaving out further noble gases (except helium), as if they were exempt from analysis.

When Dutton, Stone and Hall walk towards the electrostatic decontaminator, they are shown full-body from the rear to be nude entering the chamber.

The next scene, tastefully blurred and solarized, still shows Dutton and Stone wearing athletic supporters, and Hall wearing bikini underwear.

When the scientists get to the doctor's office in Piedmont, they leave the driver's side door of the van open, almost farther than a standard van door is allowed to open.

When they return, it is open only that standard amount.

When Dr.

Hall is being scanned, you can see in the reflection on the screen that he is wearing an athletic supporter.

The oscilloscope in Scoop Mission Control shows the voices from the recovery team, but not the beeping of the tracker.

This can be seen clearly after the team dies and the trace flat lines.

When Hall first uses the Medcom program on the computer in Level 5, the word "analysis" is misspelled as "ANALYS".

James Olson goes under several decontamination procedures.

During one early procedure, he has a very thick amount of body hair that looks like it is fake and applied.

In a later procedure, the hair is much thinner and more natural.

There is no explanation for the changes in hair thickness or texture.

During the initial briefing on level 1, the overall display of the Wildfire complex shows the old man and the baby (2 yellow 'x's) as being on level 1.

Dutton then asks Stone if they're both still alive, and Stone switches the display to a live video feed of the patients descending in the central core.

On the wall behind the old man is a large "3", indicating he's passing level 3, but only 5 seconds have elapsed between the first shot and Dutton's question - not enough time for him to have gone from level 1 to level 3.

The airborne contamination kills almost everyone in the town, the laboratory animals, and the jet pilot in just seconds.

When the capsule recovery team and later the scientist first enters Piedmont there are live vultures flying over the town at night and later the next day eating the corpses of the towns people.

Stone is even concerned enough that the contamination is going to be spread they drop a double dose of gas canisters to kill the birds.

They don't check the wind direction or have any concern that someone might still be alive in the town before they leave the helicopter to recover the capsule and do their investigations, because the gas is only toxic to animals with an unusually fast metabolism such as birds and does not harm mammals.

Reflections of the camera team and some studio lights can be seen in the glass visor of the scientist's helmet, right after his initial encounter with the old man.

The characters state that the Andromeda Strain can only live within a narrow pH bandit affected those with a normal blood pH level, but not the old man and the baby who had abnormal blood pH levels.

They go on to state that the virus from Piedmont will end up in the ocean where it will be destroyed by the ocean's pH level.

This is plausiblehealthy human blood maintains a pH of 7.

45, completely outside the ocean's 7.

4 range.

The scene showing technicians troubleshooting a Teletype and missing a sliver of paper wedged between the machine's bell and clapper is unlikely.

The bell in the type of machine depicted is located where such debris could not possibly fall onto it.

The captain who picks up Dr.

Stone at his home wears no ribbons on his uniform.

For this time period (the early 1970's), he should be wearing, as a minimum, the ribbon for the National Defense Service Medal, plus the Air Force Longevity Service ribbon.

While Dr.

Stone and Dr.

Hall are in Piedmont investigating the Andromeda disaster, they hear a baby crying far away, even though they are both wearing sealed helmets.

The Air Force technical sergeant in Wildfire's communications room is wearing black or dark brown rank chevrons on his tan 1505 uniform shirt.

In fact, the stripes should be silver-gray on a dark blue background.

In the scene where Major Manchek is at the jet's crash site, his uniform is incorrect.

First, he is wearing a blue flight cap with his fatigue uniform instead of an olive green fatigue cap.

Second, he wears no aircrew wings on his field jacket, even though he is wearing wings on his shirt earlier in the movie.

When Stone is "slicing" off samples to view with the Electron Microscope, Hall states that the slices are just "a few molecules in depth".

No pair of tongs, like those shown, could possibly pick up anything that thin.

- PLOTAt the beginning of the movie, vultures are shown circling over the town of Piedmont.

Later, when the two scientists approach the town in a helicopter, the vultures are on the ground eating the flesh of the dead.

The military even brought gas to kill off the vultures so they wouldn't fly off and spread the disease.

What's interesting, is that no one gives a second thought as to why the vultures weren't dead.

Even after they kill off a rat and monkey in the lab to test the disease no one wonders how it was that the vultures weren't affected.

(at around 49 mins) Dr.

Charles Dutton walks in and lands on a camera mark under the counsel.

Position of the monkey in its cage and its size in relation to the cage.

When the scientists are choosing filters to determine the size of the organism, the 1 and 2 micron filters are labeled "1M" and "2M".

The scientific abbreviation for micron is "u" or the Greek letter "mu".

The helicopter that flies Stone and Hall from Vandenburg to Piedmont then back to Wildfire would have to fly over 1000 miles.

The helicopter shown doesn't have nearly that range, not to mention remaining over Piedmont while Stone and Hall investigate.

At the jet fighter crash site, a helicopter lands and one of its passengers vigorously slams two of its doors shut.

This would never happen with experienced passengers.

A helicopter's doors are light, fragile, and expensive.

Thus one of the first rules of helicopter travel is to never slam the doors.

Boom mic reflection on level 1 red wall in conference room behind self destruct mechanism key insert.

A minute later, boom shadow on wall behind actors as they discuss the odd man out theory.

(:45 minutes in).

...but the birds all looked like they'd transform into Dracula at any time.

Part sci-fi, part mystery and all good, this thriller is mesmerizing from start to finish with a compelling plot line, interesting characters and magnificent special effects, surrounded by an amazing technical team that presented its audience with a real nail biter. An entire town is wiped out by some mysterious force, and it's up to the military, who is gone in there to claim a nuclear warhead try to figure out what it is.

I actually found, in a furniture store where it was being used as just another prop on a bookshelf, a original printing, hard cover version of Crichton's Andromeda Strain novel in perfect condition several years ago. I took it to the front desk, and they said "keep it".

"ANDROMEDA STRAIN" (1971, Wise) is a science fiction masterpiece. Completely serious in tone this is a gripping story that is directed with some serious style.

... was so bad I switched it off after half an hour.

I was born in 1971, so by rights this should seem pretty dated to me. It doesn't!

It seems many of the reviewers for this movie have never seen a made-for-TV mini-series before. This movie may not have the huge explosions (there are minor explosions), the exceptional computer generated graphics (a little bit dodgy) and the first-rate acting (not bad - and you can play "which Sitcom is the actor from?

Adapting literature classics can't be easy, more so when they are decades older, more so when they have been adapted for cinema before. But this "Andromeda Strain" does a good job at telling an attractive, efficient story for modern-day viewers.

Robert Wise directed this engrossing thriller based on a novel from Michael Crichton, about a team of four scientists(played by James Olsen, Arthur Hill, David Wayne, and Kate Reid) who try to isolate an extraterrestrial virus brought back to Earth by a satellite that crashed in Piedmont New Mexico, killing most of the residents, except an old(alcoholic) man, and a baby. The team try to find out the connection between such two entirely different people, in hopes it will lead them to a cure.