Trivia for
The Andromeda Strain (1971) More at IMDbPro »

• The germ from space cost $250,000 to create in special effects.
  
  
• The Wildfire scientific lab sets cost more than $300,000 to build, and were described at the time as "one of the most elaborately detailed interiors ever built."
  
  
• The Central Core set required the digging of a 70 ft deep by 30 ft wide hole in a soundstage.
  
  
• In the novel, the character of Leavitt is a man, but is a woman (played by Kate Reid) in the film.
  
  
• Michael Crichton wrote the rough draft for the novel from which this film is adapted while he was still a medical student. He was inspired after a conversation with one of his teachers about the concept of crystal-based life-forms.
  
  
• Leavitt in a protest against inserting something to clean out the GI tract makes the statement about "risked drowning in that foul bath". The book, but not the movie, had the Wildfire Team submerge completely in an antibiotic solution. The scene may have been cut, but Leavitt still makes reference to it in the movie.
  
  
• Dr Stone says, "The SDS has arrived, no doubt." when his wife says someone is at the door to see him. The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a college protest group active in the late 1960s to whom Dr Stone alludes.
  
  
• The monkey was "killed" by being placed in a large set filled with carbon dioxide. When the monkey's cage, containing oxygen was opened, it was rendered unconscious by the CO2. An Assistant director was off camera and brought a breathing apparatus to the monkey who recovered immediately.
  
  
• At the plane crash site, the actor that was supposed to call out, "Major Mancheck," fell out of his trailer and broke his leg. He was replaced on the spot with actor Robert 'Bob' Olen, who did the lines but was never credited for it.
  
  
• The computer error "601" occurred because of a system overload while trying simulate Andromeda's growth and mutation. The error number is a reference to the computer overload error of "1202" (exactly double) which occurred on the LEM during the first lunar descent.
  
  
• In Sept. 1972, Universal was exhibiting this on a double bill with Airport (1970) with the tag line "Together On One Great Family Program".
  
  
• Michael Crichton was invited to take a tour of Universal Studios during the production of this film. His guide was none other than Steven Spielberg, who go on to adapt his most successful novel, Jurassic Park (1993).
  
  

Related Links