United States

Directed with clinical precision by Robert Wise (The Day The Earth Stood Still), this record of the earth's first biological crisis is perhaps the most painstakingly authentic science-fiction thriller ever made. When a satellite falls to earth near a remote New Mexico village, the recovery team finds everyone in the area dead except an infant and an old derelict. The survivors are brought to a five-story underground lab - one of the most elaborate and intricate sets ever assembled in Hollywood - where scientists attempt to determine the nature of the deadly microbe before it starts a world-wide epidemic. A trailblazer in the realm of science-fact. The Andromeda Strain is based on the Michael Crichton's best-selling novel that created national paranoia for its topical relevance to the first moon landing.