The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Deep inside Fairchild Air Force Base, Project Eternal Vigilance has continued to watch and wait for the Andromeda Strain to reappear.

The only survivors are a baby and an old man. Some of them have committed suicide while others choked to death and some had their blood solidify in their veins. Aided by innovative visual effects by Douglas Trumbull (2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running) and an unforgettable avant-garde electronic music score by Gil Melle (The Sentinel), Wise's suspense classic still haunts to this day, and is presented here in a stunning, exclusive new restoration from the original negative. Fifty years after The Andromeda Strain made Michael Crichton a household name and spawned a new genre, the technothriller the threat returns. The Andromeda Strain starts off in a small town where everyone but two people has died from a mysterious cause. Realizing that the satellite brought back a lethal organism from another world, a team of government scientists race against the clock to understand the extraterrestrial virus - codenamed 'Andromeda' - before it can wipe out all life on the planet. The satellite and the two survivors are sent to Wildfire, a top-secret underground laboratory equipped with a nuclear self-destruct mechanism to prevent the spread of infection in case of an outbreak. A government satellite crashes outside a small town in New Mexico - and within minutes, every inhabitant of the town is dead, except for a crying baby and an elderly derelict.

Two years after the novel's publication, Robert Wise (The Haunting) directed the film adaptation, a nail-biting blend of clinically-realised docudrama and astonishing sci-fi visuals that ushered in a new subgenre: the 'killer virus' biological thriller. The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton, is a science fiction novel about the struggle of mankinds intelligence, and the dangers it may pose. Before he created Westworld and Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton first blurred the line between science fiction and science fact with his breakout success The Andromeda Strain.

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton