The Andromeda Strain (2008 miniseries)

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The Andromeda Strain
Directed by	Mikael Salomon
Produced by	Ridley Scott Tony Scott David W. Zucker Tom Thayer Mikael Salomon
Written by	Novel: Michael Crichton Screenplay: Robert Schenkkan
Starring	Benjamin Bratt Eric McCormack Christa Miller Daniel Dae Kim Viola Davis Ricky Schroder Andre Braugher
Music by	Joel J. Richard
Cinematography	Jon Joffin
Editing by	Scott Vickrey
Distributed by	A&E Network
Release date(s)	April 20, 2008 (Aus) May 11, 2008 (UK) May 26, 2008 (USA)
Running time	~240 mins w/ commercials
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Andromeda Strain is a 2008 science-fiction miniseries, based on the novel published in 1969 by Michael Crichton about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly disease of extraterrestrial origin. In 2004 the Sci-Fi Channel announced that they would produce a miniseries of The Andromeda Strain. Since that time the project has shifted to the A&E Network.^[1] The miniseries originally aired as a four hour two part mini-series, with part one premiering in America on May 26th and part two on May 27th, 2008. The series had previously aired in the UK on May 11th.

The tagline of the series is: It's a bad day to be human.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Marketing 4 Filming 5 Reception 5.1 Ratings 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Plot

After a U.S. government satellite lands in the town of Piedmont, Utah, two teenagers find it and take it back to the town. They open it and release a deadly microorganism, which is later codenamed Andromeda by the United States Army. A team is sent from the Army's bio-defense department to retrieve the satellite, only to die from the disease after stumbling upon a town full of dead bodies. The video footage recorded by the retrieval team and their strange deaths capture the attention of General George Mancheck, the head of the bio-defense department, who activates "Wildfire," a team of five scientists who are called upon when high-level bioterror threats occur in the United States. The team, headed by its creator Dr. Jeremy Stone, manage to collect the satellite from Piedmont, where they also rescue a hysterical 60-year old man and a colicky baby who have survived the Andromeda outbreak.

In an isolated underground laboratory, the Wildfire team begins their examination of the Andromeda strain and the two survivors. The laboratory runs on a small water-cooled nuclear reactor, and in the event of a contamination breach, the lab is set to automatically initiate a 15-minute self-destruct sequence. The scientists recover a sample of Andromeda on the satellite. They initially discover that the microorganism is contained within a delivery system of black buckyballs, a technology more advanced than anything known at present. The team also theorizes that Andromeda must have an extraterrestrial origin, as it has no DNA or amino acids. Subsequent tests on Andromeda show that only dark conditions or exposure to infrared light slows the growth of the microorganism. The team discovers Andromeda is an airborne microorganism that kills its host by entering the bloodstream through the lungs and almost instantly coagulates all the blood in the body, causing death within 10 seconds via a blood clot in the brain. Those who manage to survive the blood clot become extremely violent and suicidal. It is revealed that the two survivors from Piedmont had not been affected by Andromeda because of their acidotic blood. However, all initial tests with antibiotics and chemical agents regularly used to kill other microorganisms show no effect on Andromeda. In an attempt to neutralize the problem, the fictional President of the United States, President Scott, authorizes a small tactical nuclear strike on the quarantine area in hopes of completely irradiating and destroying Andromeda. When the Wildfire team learns of this information, they quickly realize that they have not reviewed the test results for irradiating Andromeda, and find that the microorganism grows at an exponential rate when irradiated.

The Wildfire team quickly alerts the president of the information, and the air-strike is called off just before the pilot drops the nuclear missile. However, as the jet continues to fly over the quarantine area, the pilot immediately reports a malfunctioning in the jet's controls. Through video feed, the Wildfire team and President watch in shock and horror as all plastic components of the aircraft, including the pilot's visor, disintegrate into thin air. The nuclear missile is re-armed, the jet crashes and the missile detonates on the surface, irradiating the entire quarantine area. The team examine the footage of the crash, and realize that Andromeda had not attacked the pilot until after the missile launch sequence had been disabled, leading the team to believe that Andromeda has the ability to think. They also realize that Andromeda has mutated into several variations, as it was able to destroy the plastic resin of the pilot's visor, and that the microorganism continues to breach the quarantined area through host adaptations.

As Andromeda grows and mutates into more virulent forms, the Wildfire team continue their tests to find a way to stop Andromeda before it reaches Las Vegas, the closest city to the quarantine zone with an international airport. Further studies reveals Andromeda is actually a sulfur-based compound. A set of tests with phages reveals that a rare phage has the ability to kill Andromeda. However, repeated tests with this phage prove unsuccessful, causing the Wildfire team to theorize that Andromeda can communicate through an unconfirmed mechanism between its separate parts. A binary code encoded on buckyball casings with potassium and rubidium atoms is also discovered, which translates into a symbol with two triangles represented(numerically) by the 6-digit number “739528,” and the name of a bacterium called Bacillus infernus, found only at the thermal vents on the ocean floors. The appearance of the bacterium's name causes Stone to realize Andromeda must have a connection with Earth, and leads Stone to ask General Mancheck to reveal the truth about the satellite.

Mancheck reveals “Project Scoop,” the name of the confidential mission that had used the satellite to examine a wormhole that had appeared near Earth. The satellite had suddenly malfunctioned during its mission, shortly after which the wormhole closed. With this information, the Wildfire team infer that Andromeda could have been sent from Earth's future, possibly as a warning or message about Bacillus infernus, because society in the future could not destroy Andromeda because of a lack of a natural resource. The Wildfire team realize the resource must be Bacillus infernus, and that the strip vent mining occurring in the present must have destroyed the bacterium's natural environment in the future.

After Major Bill Keane recalls having worked with Bacillus infernus during his previous research work, the Wildfire team obtains the remaining samples of the bacterium from his old lab. Tests of the effects of Bacillus infernus on Andromeda reveals that Andromeda appears to be a natural prey of the bacterium, and it easily consumes and destroys Andromeda because of its sulfur structure. The Wildfire team begins to grow large amounts of the bacterium in culture vats, intending to release the cultures over the quarantined area once a sufficient quantity is grown. The team also begins to destroy the remaining samples of Andromeda in the lab in an attempt to prevent Andromeda to communicate with its other parts about the testing with Bacillus infernus. Eventually, enough bacteria are grown, and it is released over the quarantined area.

A government conspiracy to save a sample of Andromeda for possible later warfare use is revealed, and Dr. Barton is blackmailed by an unknown man to keep a sample. The sample mutates and disintegrates the sample casing, setting off the the lab's contamination breach sensor and initiating the self-destruct sequence. As established in an earlier scene, Major Keane had been designated by the fictional Odd-Man Hypothesis as the only person able to deactivate the self-destruct sequence using his pass key and right thumbprint. The self-destruct sequence also causes the flashing emergency lights to turn on, triggering Chou's photosensitive epilepsy, who inadvertently destroys the self-destruct control panel.

With the elevators deactivated due to the self-destruct sequence, Keane decides to climb to the control panel on the level above through the lab's main exhaust vent. However, the plastic pipes in the vent have already begun to deteriorate due to the mutation in the Andromeda sample, and Keane falls to his death into the radioactive water of the nuclear reactor at the base of the vent. Before his fall, Keane manages to throw his pass key to Stone. Realizing Keane's right thumb is also required to shutdown the self-destruct sequence, Chou sacrifices his life in the radioactive water to cut off Keane's thumb for Stone. With Keane's thumb and pass key, Stone manages to reach the control panel and deactivates the sequences with seven seconds left.

After the remaining Wildfire team attends the funerals of their fallen colleagues, General Mancheck and his second-in-command, Colonel Ferrus, are secretly assassinated. In the final scene, the saved sample of the Andromeda is inserted into a containment compartment, with the strange triangular symbol shown earlier on the decrypted casing. Chuck Beeter, the fictional Director of the NSA, watches over the saving of the sample on his computer, implying that he had led the conspiracy to save Andromeda for future use. The sample is locked away with an access code identical to the number previously deciphered from the buckyballs. The camera then zooms out, revealing Andromeda has been stored within a space station orbiting Earth.

[edit] Cast

Character	Portrayed by
Dr. Jeremy Stone	Benjamin Bratt
General George Mancheck	Andre Braugher
Dr. Charlene Barton	Viola Davis
Major Bill Keane, M.D.	Rick Schroder
Dr. Tsi Chou	Daniel Dae Kim
Jack Nash	Eric McCormack
Dr. Angela Noyce	Christa Miller
President Scott	Ted Whittall

[edit] Marketing

A&E created an alternate reality game^[2] that is set around a fictional blog, titled "What Happened in Piedmont?". The blog accompanies the miniseries and features references to trouble in the town in which the miniseries is set.^[3] The "author" is a journalism student at the University of California, Berkeley, and the blog discusses his attempts to contact people from his home town of Piedmont after receiving a "bizarre voicemail" from his sister that left him with "a horrible feeling inside".^[4] Since the first post in April 2008, the blog has revealed further insight into the plot of the miniseries, with cross links to other fictional sites where players of the game can enter passwords to obtain more information.

[edit] Filming

On August 16, 2007, cast and crew filmed at the Surrey, BC campus of Simon Fraser University.^[5]

[edit] Reception

Reviews of The Andromeda Strain were average. The Hartford Courant called The Andromeda Strain an "entertaining piece of high-velocity intrigue."^[6]The Boston Globe found it unoriginal, although "sometimes engaging".^[7]The Los Angeles Times calls it "overwrought and dull" and criticizes its divergence from the original story. ^[8] Entertainment Weekly complained about the slow pace and stated that "the cluttered remake mires itself in lab work, inane backstories, and bureaucracy." ^[9]The New York Times stated that "it never grows quite suspenseful enough".^[10]

[edit] Ratings

Part one of The Andromeda Strain averaged 4.8 million total viewers, making it the second most-watched A&E program ever, behind Flight 93. ^[11] Part Two averaged 5 million total viewers. ^[12]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site at A&E
• The Andromeda Strain at the Internet Movie Database
• Official alternate reality game website