Robert Wise’s 1971 adaptation of The Andromeda Strain is a methodical, cerebral, and chilling piece of science fiction that trades spectacle for authenticity—and in doing so, delivers one of the most grounded and unsettling depictions of a biological catastrophe in cinematic history. Based on Michael Crichton’s best-selling novel, the film was ahead of its time in both concept and execution, and today it stands as a quietly influential work whose impact still resonates, particularly in our increasingly bio-aware world. The film opens with an eerie and understated sequence: a U.S. military satellite crashes near a small town in New Mexico, and shortly afterward, nearly all the town’s inhabitants are found dead—apparently killed instantaneously by an invisible force. The government rapidly assembles a team of elite scientists and brings them to a secret underground lab called "Wildfire" to study the satellite and determine the cause of death. The culprit is a mysterious extra...