The Andromeda Strain (1971) - 10 Behind the Scenes Facts
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- Опубликовано: 13 окт 2018
- In this video about The Andromeda Strain (1971), here's 10 behind the scenes facts that you might not have known about this classic Sci-fi thriller from author Michael Crichton.
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Before Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton was known for The Andromeda Strain that he wrote when he was only 26 years old. Crichton was still in medical school when Universal approached him to buy the rights to the sci-fi thriller, and several talented filmmakers including the director for The Day the Earth Stood Still and the visual effects supervisor behind 2001: A Space Odyssey were brought on board to make the film. Enjoy the video!
Footage Credit: Universal Pictures
Image Credits: Wiki Commons
Thumbnail font: smartfonts.com/andromeda-stra...
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Love this movie along with Fantastic Voyage
huge fan of Asimov!
This movie scared the crap out of me when I was a kid....So Real!!
Agreed!
@@ChrisFBenning Watched it last night. Amazing how a movie with so much geek speak can be so tense and riveting.
I interviewed Canadian actor Kate Reid in 1976, and asked her about this film in particular. She said that, because of the scientific jargon, "It was like working in a different language. I knew English, but I had a dictionary off-camera [to look up the dialog]." She apparently was very nervous about many scenes, especially at the beginning, and got director Robert Wise to let her smoke during one of her first scenes. It became part of the dialog later on ("It's after meals you really miss 'em," she opines, in the cafeteria scene on Level 4). It was quite an experience for her.
where could we find this interview ?
@@NightBrEedzZ123 I regret that I never found a publication that wanted it. I have checked my remaining set of cassette tapes on which I have other interviews (Stephen King, Peter Straub, Rita Mae Brown, and others), and that particular tape is missing. My hope is that I transcribed it to MP3, and the file exists somewhere, but I can't be sure. Since I don't have the tape to confirm the comment, I'll remove it, if you wish.
@@tristanblackwolf2043 Its okay, I hope you find it soon, and you don’t need to remove the comment. Let’s hope you find it some day ❤️
RE: The Monkey.
The area that the monkey's box is dropped into was flooded with Carbon Dioxide, not Monoxide. The candle (not visible) was used to indicate when the atmosphere had become unbreathable. The monkey shows fairly typical exposure to excessive CO2, which is irritating at high concentrations. The second the monkey passed out a vet swooped in with an oxygen mask and the monkey came around almost instantly (still dangerous and very distressing for the monkey though!). In the film, you can just about see the shadows and reflections of the vet about to dive in as it 'dies'.
I'd also contend that they sedated the monkey that was taped down unless it was exceptionally well trained (unlikely). Monkeys hate being restrained.
An excellent film and an excellent dive into the behind-the-scenes; thank you!
Agree. Animals and people don't recover from carbon monoxide poisoning so easily.
@@stargazer7644 There is no way even that supposed non-cruel scenario would be allowed today...I hope!...I mean, how would a human being feel, about being nearly suffocated, and then brought back? So cruel!...But wait...oh yes, now we have something called "Water-boarding"...another form of torture. WE HUMANS REALLY SUCK!
@@curbozerboomer1773 You're just figuring this out now? We do much worse things to monkeys.
The smothering sensation is caused by excess CO2 in the blood. I've undergone a test procedure in which I breathed 100% oxygen with only a trace of CO2. No chance of smothering, far from it, but as the CO2 concentration rose, I became giddy and a bit panicked, and the test was discontinued because my uncontrollable giggling disturbed the instrumentation.
If I were shooting the scene today, I might flood the monkey's cage with pure nitrogen, normally about 70% in the atmosphere. As the nitrogen content rises, it flushes the oxygen and, crucially, the CO2 from your bloodstream--and you pass out, quietly and comfortably, because you cannot detect a lack of oxygen,. "Unfortunately", the monkey wouldn't panic, and the scene would be much less dramatic.
Another infamous "breathing" movie scene was in Cameron's The Abyss. We see a pet mouse submerged in a liquid charged with oxygen. The mouse panics, but continues to breath the liquid, although it's obviously struggling. This was an absolutely real thing; the fluid was indeed being considered for deep-diving applications, because filling the lungs with it would keep the pressure from collapsing them. I don't know the current status of this research.
Ed Harris, of course, did not actually breath the liquid that appeared to fill his diving helmet. Not even the notoriously demanding Cameron could get his star to do that.
The Andromeda Strain itself - the living extraterrestrial organism - was created by master special effects genius Douglas Trumbull. His imaginative use of photomicroscopy, colored gels, and rotoscope animation brought the imaginary organism to life.
He was a true genius. 2001, Brainstorm, Silent Running, all superb films thanks to Douglas Trumbull.
those effects are still excellent and very realistic today
The film gave me nightmares as a kid. Especially the scene climbing up the core.
But I still liked it. The concept was so intriguing.
I really thought they filmed the hallway scenes in some kind of government complex for a long time.
Used the same set, or portion thereof, and just repainted it 5 times. This explains a lot.
It was a great movie.
That really was a very chilling movie. Ahead if its time.
Great movie. Saw it in the movie theater in 1971!
Cool! Thanks for sharing Simon.
Simon5005 I envy you. Had I saw it then at age 12 I might have earned my science degree much earlier in life.
I'm too young to have seen it when it was released (I'm 37, born in 1983) but I got introduced to The Andromeda Strain when I was in High School as our Biology teacher had us all watch it in class...I became an IMMEDIATE fan once that week was done and borrowed my teacher's VHS copy to show to my parents at home! 😅
Later, for a book report I had to do for another class, I borrowed the book from the school library and was ONCE AGAIN drawn into the story!
I have since purchased RUclips's digital copy to stream anytime I'm in the mood for The Andromeda Strain and have rewatched it several times...Robert Wise showed a lot of care in his big screen adaptation of Michael Crichton's most timeless of novels. It's a level of care seldom seen from Hollywood these days. He realized just how important it was to stay as true as possible to the book, only making minor changes to either condense the story or add dramatic tension. I even applaud how he handled being urged by Universal Studios to recast Dr. Levitt as a woman by having the character played by an older woman who wasn't traditionally attractive, thus keeping the focus where it BELONGS which is on the STORY while also keeping everything believable. The character of Dr. Ruth Leavitt manages to continue to sell the idea that these are research PROFESSIONALS not supermodels...people who are valued for their intelligence, not their looks. This may be fiction but Michael Crichton intended his story to be taken seriously which Robert Wise understood and kept within his movie...
My hat's off to the wonderful team who brought this story to the big screen...they have earned way more accolades than any of them have received!
💖💖💖💖😁😁😁😁
Another fact... The flashing red lights above the lab-door, had to be adjusted to a frequency that wouldn't be likely to trigger photo-sensitivety epilepsy in the movie-audience.
I used the three scenes of Dr. Leavitt responding to blinking red lights as an assignment on photosensitive epilepsy for Optometry School...The professor loved it (he was unaware of this condition being used in popular media) and I think that I turned many of my classmates onto this classic film.
Good info...I had wondered about that when I watched the movie! There is another mystery of sorts, concerning the male lead in the movie--the actor James Olson!...Very scant info on him...He seemed bound for mega-stardom a few years earlier than when this film was made. Somehow, he (40yo in this film) never made the A-list of actors...was it his slowly receding hairline? He never tried to cover that up. And his personal life is very murky too. Apparently he never married/or had kids...Was he perhaps gay? He dropped out of making movies and TV appearances around age 60, but lived to be 90 years old...He sort of pulled a "Howard Hughes" vanishing act for the last 30 years of his life! Very odd...When he was working, he worked a lot, but was seldom featured as a lead actor...he seemed content to be a "guest star" on various TV shows.
One of my all time favourite films - brilliant concept and outstanding direction - few films as good as this. thanks for the insights
One of my favourite films.
All good actors.
I recently managed to get hold of the original movie poster and just let it framed.
It’s hanging now in my office.
I'll take Andromeda over Jurassic any day.
Me too.
Oh, I'll second That ... For Sure!!
There were three bonafide "Genius level" people involved with this great movie...Trumbull, Wise, and Crichton!...No wonder it is such a work of SCI-FI art! And Robert Wise made other movies, of differing types, that were all considered excellent!
It IS a Terrific Movie.... And Terrifying as well!!...
That monkey - rat test scene Always gets me, during the movie and the effects of movie production. As a science teacher, I found it "fascinating" how they raised the filter membrane to a higher and higher aperture, to see how Big the organism was. 🐒 🐁🏁
Having 'Ruth' as the other Scientist was Also a Great Plus (+) in the movie as well......🧑🔬
My all-time favorite sci-fi movie. It was believable, fascinating and scary at the same time. I thought about it for many years later. The only other movie that had that effect on me was "Jaws."
I watched this master piece back in 2003 and always wondered how they filmed the dying monkey. I knew it couldn't have been CGI and genuinely thought they either really killed the animal or drugged it.
But Now I can see the shadow of the vet rushing in to resuscitate the monkey.
I still maintain that what they put that monkey through was cruel!...I had thought that they had just drugged it a little...And yeah...I KNOW that we wonderful humans do sacrifice animals, in the name of scientific research...I hate that too...but I do understand, for better or worse, we need to help our own species.
Nelson Gidding told me all the "technical" jargon coming through the loudspeakers was written in one afternoon. Robert Wise wanted the station to have a "live" feeling. Without the "station status" ongoing in the background the story and characters seemed to be in a vacuum.
One of many great old sci fi movies. Saw Andromeda when it came out. Fantastic Voyage was excellent too. One of the best was Forbidden Planet...that one was way before my time but the actual effects were believable...for the time of course. Love the classics.
If you read the book from the beginning, the phone number to "declare a fire" was a complicated mathematical formula, while the movie made dialing that number to a VERY short sequence.
7 is inncorrect, Michael crichton made an appearance in Jurassic Park as the guy with that black and white dog in Costa rica
I loved this movie as a high school senior when it first came out in 1971. Terrifying and brilliant. And I bought and adored the soundtrack album with Gil Melle's unusual electronic score. The album wasn't kept in a traditional LP "sleeve" but was hidden behind 6 metallic paper flaps which unfolded to reveal production photos and the record itself... a 6-sided hexagon of vinyl with the 8 tracks of score contained within the hexagon. It was stunning to me, and I loved listening to it. I especially liked the red warning sticker on the album that said "WARNING - Due to the unusual shape of this record, only use manual control on record player, or needle damage will result." No s**t, Sherlock! 😅 I never saw a "shaped" record album before or after that gem. So cool...
THAT PROJECTION was made by no other than Douglas Trumbull and is often SLATED TO BE the first computer-generated scene ever filmed, however, whoever provided this video thinks otherwise.
The colouring may have been done how the maker of this vid says, but the actual floor level 3D model im pretty sure was done by Robert Abel & Associates.
In the source documentary they explain there were no computers used and how they did it. This CC is restating points from the dvd documentary.
First movie with a score that used all electronic music (by Gil Melle). Very 1971.
I might offer the "Electronic Tonalities" of the film "Forbidden Planet," 15 years earlier. However, I truly love Meleé's soundtrack! :)
@@tristanblackwolf2043 Yup...there was some eccentric couple, that made a good living doing those types of sound tracks, back in the day...and I remember the woman involved, was very hot!
A lot to say about this movie. Perfect casting. I love Arthur Hill in about everything. But David Wayne's simple, elegant humanity carries the movie. Kate Reid is the perfect foil for James Olson; but ultimately have respect for each other by the end of the movie. A most underrated movie.
Agreed. I can still see David Wayne in the scene toward the end where they isolate him. Very affecting. He is wonderful. So natural.
Great video! I especially appreciate knowing how they did the monkey scene because I close my eyes every time the film reaches that point because it's too stressful. Such an excellent film! I hope this video gets more people watching it. It also has an environmental message!
Ive been listening to the audiobook of this story , narrated by David Morse.
Its just incredible, i think ill track this original adaptation down, the 2008 version is a bit "ordinary".
Have any of you read the book sequel that came out a few years ago? I act like the concept and how the story changes the initial idea of the book and film. It really adds to the larger story and I love it.
Great book, great movie. It has really stood the test of time!
I stayed up late and watched it with my Mom in 1973, "NBC Saturday Night at the Movies," one of the few that went until midnight. My mom cried about the Monkey: "Oh no, not the poor monkey!"
Yes, that scene was hard to watch.
yep thats when i saw it
Fortunately we learned in this video that the monkey was revived and saved. Phew!!
i never watched the movie, but i ended up here because i reed andromeda strain many times and it is still my most favorite of all time, i hope the movie will be good
No worries!
Excellent movie.
Such a great film. Hard science. Poor monkey!
2:43 that's totally amazing. I would have never guessed that they didn't use a computer to make that image.
Seen the movie 20 times and read the book almost as man.y times. I was 11 years old when the movie came out. It was the first “adult novel” I ever read.
Nice!
Great movie
great book, great movie.
Any info on the The Day After? '83 TV movie with Jason Robards.
If you love this film as much as I do, check out the other underrated 70s sci-fi classic PHASE IV
Will do. Thanks
And the book..its just as strange as the movie.
I saw this in 2002 when I was 28. I swore they killed that monkey. Clicked on this just for that.
MC may have made to the biologist however he did not make up the science and technology used in the movie. This is why scientifically literature people appreciate the book and movie. Yes the movie for it right too. The nature of the virus being the sci-fi element was the only part that required suspension of disbelief.
There is a gigantic plot hole in this story but I will not reveal it here. Even though I know it this is still one of my favorite movies of all time.
Watched this for the first time tonight. Have to say it was really excellent, I enjoyed it a LOT.
I was genuinely shocked by the rats / monkey "death" scenes, however. I don't imagine filmmakers would get away with something so risky these days. Even with a vet on standby. It made for an effective scene, but I reckon they'd have to do workarounds in a different way in 2021.
how did Michael Chriton know enough about anything at age 27 to write that book?
Imagine if ILM got on this. Or did the special effects people here got into ILM?
Does anyone know what the names of the alarms were near the end? Like I know the first one could just be called a "ringing bell" alarm but what kind is that low-pitched?
It's a siren, more specifically a yelp. The more common slower version is called a wail.
Did they had to build that Piedmont Town from scratch?...Or was that a ghost town they used?
COVID-19 (2020) brought me here.
What is it with the chimes? No Smoking or Fasten Seatbelts??
His best novel is Congo it's fantastic super exciting fast paced thrilling better than the movie.
Liked the book the film was OK as well, the book was very hard to find in the UK for a while I think that's when I started wearing my tinfoil cap as I thought it was banned
Abel and his team created some of the most advanced and impressive computer-animated works of their time, including full ray-traced renders and fluid character animation at a time when such things were largely unknown. A variety of high-profile television advertisements, graphics sequences for motion pictures (including The Andromeda Strain and Tron[1]),
Hm, wasn't Crichton 26? #Octoberbirthdays Does that buy me a video?
Yes, nice catch. He was still 26.
What G, PG, or PG-13 movie would like you to learn about next?
The Artist video was wonderful. If you ever have time in your lineup, Tully is another great one. Maybe you can find out if it had anything to do with the fable Melusine.
Thanks for the suggestion, but Tully won’t be possible because I limit my content to G, PG, and PG-13 movies.
@@FunFactFilms That's right, I didn't realize its rating. I'm so sorry, I got swept up in Charlize Theron's prowess.
Don't forget Rated M or Rated GP or Rated X, like Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange!
Miracle Mile ?
I think the Carrey Prescription was the first Crichton adaptation, not Andromeda. It starred James Coburn. This, Pursuit (Binary) and Terminal Man are the 3 best movies made from his books. Westworld the best original followed by a made for TV religious film he did ( altho an atheist!) Jurassic Park the movie was just plain silly and inept.
Understand about monkey and what about rats, the same? poor animals (((
I would love to see what you can dig up on “Fantastic Voyage “
usually and historically girls in the sci fi films were stunners.
I saw the movie as a little kid and remember how funny and smart Kate Reid's character was, she was a great choice.
@@crimesofthecentury2714 Agreed...and she isn't pretty at all! Just shows how a good, strong performance from an actor can male their character engaging WITHOUT having drop-dead gorgeous looks...Kate Reid's character, Dr. Ruth Leavitt, is hands-down the MOST memorable of all of the characters with her sardonic wit and strongly anti-authoritarian views...you're watching her to see what wisecrack she'll come up with next and that's what you remember about her, not what she looks like.
It's really skillful how she's introduced as well...her very first line is an anti-authoritarian wisecrack about how she burned her draft card and doesn't want to abandon her long-running research project. She's a well-celebrated microbiologist and proudly wraps herself into her work and doesn't care what anyone else thinks of her and this is sold to us within SECONDS of her first appearance on screen...immediately, you become focused on her because of these traits...
Robert Wise knew what he was doing...perhaps our modern-day directors and producers could take some lessons from this film...😅
That's what I like about this film. They all looked like professionals, not models.
Paper was cheap so he gave it a try
HUH????
To write the script with a woman character I suppose
They initially mocked up Kate Reid in papier-mâché.
poor monkey. asphyxiation sucks.
Old news. Really. SMFH.
Haha! Crichton's bibliography in The Andromeda Strain is fake! That's hilarious. When I read that book as a kid I thought the details gave it an authenticity that made the story scarier. Now I see that the book is just a slick rewrite of The Blob with added techno jargon.
That carbon monoxide story is bull$hit. One carbon monoxide binds to your blood cells it stays bound. Once you pass out you’re screwed. They’d have to give the monkey a blood transfusion.
The carbon monoxide error has been perpetuated from the DVD documentary. I'm sure he meant carbon dioxide.
I first saw it on TV on NBC in 71: And I know the real reason why Prof. Levett was turned into a female--its a an obscure Hollywood tradition of putting at lease one female or 2, in a film like The A-Strain so that audiences wouldn't think the rest of the male cast was gay
Even in a G-rated film? Not that such a rating was appropriate lol
I hate most CGI films now days. CGI was well done in the movie Passengers but is WAY overused in 99% of the rest of the movies.
A huge disappointment. Everything else was OK to good, but half of the acting is OK to good, while the other half is absolutely painful to watch. Arthur Hill and David Wayne are fine, but James Olson is terrible, and Kate Reid is so awful she just about negates the good parts of the movie single-handedly.
Although the actual papers cited in Crichton's bibliography may be false, at least one of the cited studies has a real counterpart. Mention is made of how the human chromosome number was originally miscounted. This actually happened. Papers were published with photos showing that humans had 48 chromosomes. Decades later, two researchers, Levan and Tjio, did a recount, and found the correct number was 46. Reviewing the old papers, they found that, indeed, even the original research showed 46 chromosomes. As one of Crichton's characters notes, the lesson is that "all scientists are blind."