Andromeda Strain

A team of scientists investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin that causes rapid, fatal blood clotting. With breathtaking design and Special Effects from Silent Running director Douglas Trumball, The Andromeda Strain is a film about humanity and its sense of self when faced with the unknowable. The scientists here are far from the usual sci-fi clichés, rounded characters, who slowly become aware hyst how completely reliant on their inadequate technology they have become in the face of a natural threat. Unconsciously mimicking computer processes in their approach to human problem solving they race to defeat the terminal virus. The Andromeda Strain is a sci-fi disaster film par-excellance, but it also chillingly recounts our anxieties over biological threat. The body is a key indicator providing us with a sense of self. So when something as mysterious as the Andromeda Strain eats away at us from within, we are faced with a powerful metaphor for our own hubris and sense of invincibility.