The Andromeda Strain Analysis

Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain follows the emergence of an alien space germ that reaches Earth via the crash of a top secret U.S. satellite near a small Arizona town, told over a five day period. Government agency “Wildfire”, specially designated for such biological threats, arrives to find everyone but an old man and a baby dead, also retrieving the satellite. After realizing the the satellite supposedly sent to “harmlessly” research dusts and microorganisms was truly based upon biological warfare, the Wildfire scientists bring the trio to Dr. Stone’s secret underground containment lab in Nevada. As the story unfolds over the next three days, major developments occur, including catastrophe. The scientists learn more of the extraterrestrial microbe, dubbed
This sets off the emergency defense measures of the entire building, run by an intelligent super computer, including the timed nuclear destruction of the base. Dr. Hall, the only one with the key to stop the bomb, barely evades the deadly super computer and stops the explosive threat with only seconds to spare. Although being revealed as no major threat to humanity in the end, the alien virus Andromeda directly undermines the effort of Wildfire through successfully escaping into the upper-most atmosphere. Throughout Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain , the idea is present that although mankind’s technological innovations may appear to be beneficial and highly developed, they can turn into counter-productive disasters. From the beginning of the novel this idea is fully explored through the crash of the top secret U.S. “Scoop” satellite in Arizona . The satellite was first publicly claimed to aid the scientific field through advanced space research, which turned out to be a complete lie by the government. The advanced satellite was actually based upon developing a biological weapon, which would in no way benefit humanity, only destroy it. Most importantly, the satellite back fired