The best-selling novel by Michael Crichton was faithfully adapted for this taut 1971 thriller, about a team of scientists(Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson, Kate Reid and Paula Kelly) racing against time to destroy a deadly alien virus that threatens to wipe out life on Earth. As usual with any Crichton-based movie, the emphasis is on an exciting clash between nature and science, beginning when virologists discover the outer-space virus in a tiny town full of corpses. Projecting total contamination, the scientists isolate the deadly strain in a massive, high-tech underground lab facility, which is rigged for nuclear destruction if the virus is not successfully controlled. The movie spends a great deal of time covering the scientific procedures of the high-pressure investigation, and the rising tensions between scientists who have been forced to work in claustrophobic conditions. It’s all very fascinating if you’re interested in scientific method and technological advances but it’s more effective as a thriller in which tension is derived not only from the deadly threat of the virus, but from the escalating fear and anxiety among the small group of people who’ve been assigned to save the human race. The basic premise is still captivating; it’s easy to see how this became the foundation of Crichton’s science-thriller empire.
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anxiety free!
February 24th, 2012 at 6:02 pm
And here comes that ominous music again.
February 24th, 2012 at 6:10 pm
Terrific electronic sound track! This was (and is) quite rare for a mainstream Hollywood movie.
February 24th, 2012 at 6:39 pm
Interesting that the brains behind Project Wildfire assumed that, in a last-resort scenario, any alien microorganism could be destroyed by an atomic bomb. Did it never occur to them that a life-form from space might function the way Andromeda does, by converting energy directly into matter? Exploding a nuclear weapon would only FEED it ! Guess they weren’t “thinking outside the box.”
February 24th, 2012 at 7:35 pm
And also suffered from epilepsy, and kept it secret for the same reasons.
February 24th, 2012 at 7:47 pm
Ugly and cranky, what a woman…
February 24th, 2012 at 8:11 pm
Exactly. Her epilepsy basically caused her to forget the no growth result because it involved flashing lights. She seized and didn’t even remember having a seizure.
February 24th, 2012 at 9:02 pm
In the book Levitt is named Peter, in the movie it’s Ruth. So many other difference like Piedmont in the book was in Arizona, not New Mexico, and the population was 48 not 68.
February 24th, 2012 at 9:10 pm
‘Alternative directive 7-11 now in EFFECT?!’
I’d be ticked off too. A fine time for the President to be off having a Big Gulp.
February 24th, 2012 at 9:42 pm
Untreated Petit Mal Epilepsy. Damn shame she didn’t deal with it.
February 24th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
Whoah, issues MUCH?
In the original book the character was a male, it just got changed to a female for the movie. Feel free to comment on the “dumb wanker” and “man scientist” now, without making an ass of yourself.
February 24th, 2012 at 10:42 pm
Shes under big pressure, stress can make you see or think things you can´t even imagine…Tension wouldn´t allow you think and react according…
February 24th, 2012 at 11:02 pm
I should point out that the Dr. Levitt character was male in the book, and made the exact same mistakes.
February 24th, 2012 at 11:37 pm
She also missed the “no growth” results shown in part 10. Grrr….
February 25th, 2012 at 12:18 am
Dumb bitch almost blew the whole deal. “Women scientists..”
February 25th, 2012 at 12:37 am
This made me laugh.
February 25th, 2012 at 12:37 am
Poor “Burke” the guy next to the teletype machine. He was shipped off to the Aleutian Islands next week.