Category: Disease

28 DAYS LATER

    It would be easy for zombie- movie fans to take this film lightly.   To call it a combined rip-off of the Night of the Living Dead/Dawn of the Dead/Day of the Dead series, the under-appreciated early 70’s movie The Crazies, Stephen King’s The Stand, and lots more you will probably remember.  Technically it isn’t even about zombies, but people infected with a virus.

    But writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle have taken some familiar elements and given them a freshness, an originality, even a vision, that is uniquely their own. They have come up with a plot that is simple but tight, and well-drawn characters. They also give you several subtle reminders as to how precious our stressed-out, early 21^st century life can be, as aggravating as it feels day-to-day.

    This movie could have taken a paranoid viewpoint, with mega-corporations uniting to enslave the world with disease. Instead you see a series of careless errors that come together to set off bigger and bigger explosions. First, scientists create a virus called Rage. Then they test it on chimpanzees which are locked in cruel confinement (tiny glass tanks). The Rage virus turns the chimpanzees into killing machines ready to go off at any time.

    Then, animal rights activists liberate them.

    The activists really want to do the right thing. Given the amount of abuse done to apes in the name of science, these activists refuse to believe a researcher who tells them they are making a terrible mistake. They react to this man like he is “the boy who cried wolf.” Only this time it’s no bullshit. With their idealistic
animals-rights agenda, they are literally letting a plague loose
on the world. Not only do the infected chimps attack the first human they get their hands on, but in a matter of seconds you can see that she has been infected too, just from the look in her eyes.

    Ignorance, coupled with foolishly dangerous, misguided science has resulted in a situation far worse than a conspiracy-theory believer could dream up.

    The movie’s hero, Jim, had been hospitalized for injuries from a traffic accident. He awakes to silence that feels deafening . Silence so thick you could cut it with a knife. Outside the hospital,  he can see the usual pigeons and gulls but otherwise the city is lifeless; all is still, unmoving. No people to be seen anywhere. Familiar sights, the Tower of London, the Houses of Parliament, but everywhere the same deathly silence.

A bizarre dream–London without people

Jim is not normally a man of action. For a long time he wanders, not sure how to react. Ironically, the first living human he sees is a complete lunatic, a minister in his own church, a place you might
well expect to serve as some sort of sanctuary. Jim pulls out of his apathy long enough to bash the minister with a bag full of metal cans. This allows him to stay alive.

    After more wandering, a group of maniacs spot him. Jim runs but you wonder how much further he can get. At that moment he meets the first normal people he has seen, Selena and Mark. They rescue Jim by setting the maniacs on fire.

Jim–One mistake can be fatal

Jim can see that neither Selena nor Mark has been a soldier or police officer, but they have quickly learned how to survive in this new world. Selena quickly tells Jim there has been a plague, but not to ask too many questions;   “Staying alive is as good as
it gets.” The rules she and Mark follow are simple: never go anywhere alone, and never go out at night, unless absolutely necessary. You soon learn one more valuable rule—if anyone you know catches the disease, you kill them with no hesitation.

    Selena and Mark go with Jim for a last visit to his house. Because it’s too late to walk back to a safe place before dark, they sleep there till the next day. While Jim watches videos of his dead mother and father, a man enters through a window. Clearly infected. Mark and Jim are soon covered with blood while they subdue him. Suddenly Selena kills Mark. She tells Jim she knew right away that Mark was infected, by the expression on his face. She is quick to add, “ I’d do the same to you.”

One bite is all it takes

Eventually, Jim and Selena find two more survivors living in a high-rise building, Frank and his daughter Hannah. Holed up in this apartment, they hear a radio message promising help and safety, at a location near the city of Manchester. After some hesitating,
they decide to drive there.

Exposed and vulnerable

Even though each attack by an Infected (as Selena calls them) is gruesome and thick with spattered blood, you are shown one reminder after another of how life was, how precious. A life you probably take for granted, waking up each day and telling yourself something to the effect of—Same shit, different day.

    Only after this holocaust can people see the small touches of happiness they once had. Jim’s family in the video, his mum’s book of recipes. The goldfish in Frank’s apartment, trying to survive in just a few inches of water. Some beautifully shot scenes of horses running wild in the countryside outside Manchester.   Jim
feeling the breeze through the car windows. Selena and Hannah playing cards in the back seat.

    They find the city of Manchester burning, but. also find the people who had been broadcasting salvation.   These people are
army personnel and at first they seem decent enough. Major
West, the officer in charge, appears to have the trust of his
soldiers. He shows his practical side (keeping an Infected man chained, to see how long he will take to starve to death). Also a touch of the philosopher: People were killing people before the
plague hit, he says, and basically nothing has changed.

    But Major West is nowhere as sincere as he seems. His radio message promised “salvation” but he is far from any cure for the virus. He tries to justify the lie by saying he had no choice, that his men were on the brink of despair and suicide. “I promised them women,” he explains. “Women mean a future.”

    But for the soldiers, a future starting a new extended family is not a goal. What they want are sex slaves, pure and simple. They are ready to kill anyone standing in the way, whether it’s another soldier or Jim.

    For the first time, everything depends on Jim. (Frank was accidentally infected, and shot dead by two of the soldiers.) To save Selena and Hannah, he must outwit more than a half-dozen armed soldiers, none of them exactly filled with compassion. Without spoiling the ending, I will say this: The next time Selena sees Jim, she is shocked to find (almost too late) that he is not one of the Infected.

    I enjoyed this movie the first time I saw it and it appears to get better each time I see it again. Selena and Jim’s parts are both written well and acted well. (Naomie Harris is Selena; Cillian Murphy is Jim, both real good.) Selena’s changes at many crucial moments from pure survival instinct back to a yearning to get close to people is touching. Watch her face just after the wild horses have passed. She says to Jim, “I was wrong about saying: ‘staying alive is as good as it gets.’”

    You see the gradual changes in Jim. At first he seems almost clueless, hoping he can avoid taking action, not knowing how to take action. You see a huge change in Jim when he realizes what
the situation at the army camp really is. Christopher Eccleston who has had plenty of experience playing men in pain (Jude, A Price above Rubies, Let Him Have It) is all too believable as Major West .

Those in positions of authority turn out to be as desperate (probably more desperate) than those people who came to them for salvation. The Major appears to be saying to Jim: giving these women to my soldiers is the best I can do, under the circumstances.

    I could go on and on about a number of other characters and actors, but I’ll leave it at this: No one strikes a false note in this movie.

The screenwriting and the directing are also excellent, though there are so many tilted shots you feel at times like you’re back watching the Batman TV show of the 60’s. The digital photography which worked so effectively in Saving Private Ryan works well here too.
And as horrible as the scenes with Infected attacking are, so
many moments are just as effective in their still beauty. Not many movies are able to make you jump out of your seat at one moment, then silence you with stillness at another.

September 17, 2025
THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN

What do The Andromeda Strain, Deliverance and Cape Fear have in common?

This question is not for film-freaks only; It’s not “The art directors of these movies all worked in Billy Idol videos later in their careers.”

The real answer: Whatever category you want to put these movies into (“Horror” might not be your first choice), they’re way too good to leave off this list.

The Andromeda Strain’s concept is scary enough, right off. A new disease appears on Earth, its origin somewhere in the vast reaches of space. No drug to stop it, no way to vaccinate against It. Possibly…no way to contain it. A small team of scientists and MD’s are assembled quickly and taken to a state-of-the-art facility. But the facility has problems of its own. Scary enough for me.

Keep this in mind, though. Andromeda’s screenwriter, Nelson Gidding, and its director, Robert Wise were not interested in cheap shocks. They wanted their movie to frighten you
through understatement. The deaths they showed, the micro-organism growing and reproducing, the music, none of these were aimed at slamming its audience over the head.

The late Michael Crichton’s novels, such as Andromeda Strain, were filled with ideas. I think Gidding and Wise wanted to underline these ideas, not to overshadow them. The filmmakers seemed to sense that all they could give was two hours of good plot, good characters, and the best possible special effects.

And, they needed a balance. For example they didn’t want a “US military conspiracy” subplot, any individual characters, or the biology of the micro-organism, to overwhelm the other elements. The interviews with Wise on the DVD clearly show someone without a big ego. Instead, Wise was determined to draw the best from his whole team, not neglect anyone.

Andromeda Strain begins with a quietly terrifying situation. A tiny but otherwise typical town in New Mexico. Absolutely nothing moving.

The next day. A plane flies over the town. Below, bodies scattered on the ground, motionless.

An emergency team is assembled, real fast. Unannounced, soldiers show up at their homes. The first two, Dr. Stone and Dr. Dutton, clearly have been prepared to participate in a disaster like
this. With great composure, they leave their families, saying little. Stone’s wife, a senator’s daughter, someone clearly having political clout, immediately calls her father. Her call to him is abruptly terminated.

The third member, Dr. Leavitt, a biological researcher, is much more her own person, able to speak her mind. She’s in the middle of an experiment, angry at having to walk away. Definitely not an ass-kisser.

The fourth, Dr. Hall, is a brilliant surgeon, but knows as little about these emergencies as Dr.Leavitt. Hall is played with great strength by the under-rated, generally low-key actor James Olson (Rachel Rachel, Ragtime). Here, you see a different side of Olson, one he rarely got to show. Again and again, Hall brings down- to- earth emotions into their workplace, so technologically advanced, but frighteningly isolated from human feelings. Like Leavitt, Hall is not eager to mold himself into a new role. He cares about leaving his patients. They are much more than research rats to him.

First things first. Stone and Hall must go into the ravaged town to get a closer look; fully suited, they hope, against the unknown disease. Again, you sense the balance that Wise and his team aimed for; let the reality create its own tension.

And reality does speak…loud and clear. The vultures throughout the town eating the dead—all are gassed to death immediately. Absolutely necessary; each bird has the capability to spread the disease to the world outside… possibly destroying all life on the planet.

No apparent signs of life

The way the bodies lie sprawled; dead suddenly, several children among them. The small-town doctor seated, mouth wide open.

In the midst of the carnage, Dr. Hall’s mind remains firing on all cylinders. He thinks to check the dead doctor’s buttocks for blood—the butt’s color should be the reddest part of the body.

The dark color is not there. They cut the man’s wrist and get not a drop of blood. It has all turned to powder. Yet over the chopper noise–sounds of human life. Two alive somehow: an infant crying
loudly, nonstop, and an old man, rather quiet, seemingly insane, maybe piss drunk. As the two researchers talk to him, your reaction may be like mine—What if this guy tries to rip open their sterile suits…for Christ’s sakes, don’t get too close to him. Stone and Hall bring the two survivors back in the helicopter.

The military contacts the president for permission to nuke the town…no time to fool around. About this time, Dutton and Leavitt meet an important character. Not a human being but the site at
which they will investigate, hopefully fight this disease. In the middle of empty desert, an ordinary-looking agricultural research station.

But this is only a mask for the most advanced disease-control center ever built. An elevator takes them directly into the bowels of the facility…absolutely astounding for the early ‘70’s. You’re privileged to see it through the eyes of Dr. Leavitt. She’s a brilliant, perceptive scientist, yet someone with everyday human
reactions to the technology surrounding them. She can still joke about it; her continual ironic comments keep you grounded as the facility rushes at you.

Much of the time, Leavitt and Hall feel as though they’re on an alien planet. What gets them through the stress is a combination of determination, intelligence, and intense caring for life. Getting to know them, watching them interact with people, the disease, and the facility is never boring. Both know the desperate need to ‘hit the ground running.’ The facility is designed for maximum efficiency and protection against human error, or a disease that’s stronger than anyone guessed. But that doesn’t mean Leavitt and Hall can get used to working there.

Dr. Leavitt–feeling isolated and insignificant in the facility

Dr. Hall–glad for signs of compassion in the facility–the
nurse cares for the baby he helped find

I’ll talk more about Andromeda’s lack of action later, but I have to say this: if you want an action flick, this movie is not for you. Wise and his team wanted to show you a battle to the death, but show you the thinking needed. The way a scientific mind goes to war.

The scenes where Leavitt and Stone unearth the first of Andromeda Strain’s secrets are key ones. (The scientists give this name to the deadly organism.)

Arguably, they are some of the scariest in movie history, yet understated to the point that some viewers may feel cheated. This understatement is a reason (possibly the main reason) that
Andromeda didn’t make much money. What should have been scarier, wasn’t scary enough. The two scientists struggle to project a microscopic image of one area of the scoop grille. Stone believes they have only found a grain of sand.

Then they notice green specks; not sand. Their reactions radically different. Stone takes it methodically, little emotion, step by step. (Unless, as you might argue, he and the military are in on this already.) Leavitt—more emotional, more imaginative, sifting through possible implications:

Nasty implications: All bets are off. They likely are experiencing the first-ever contact with an alien lifeform. And probably a lifeform with no wish to communicate with them. Only infect them. No desire to reveal its secrets; they must do that work for
themselves. Or die, real soon.

Lab monkey–about to be exposed to Andromeda

Later, Leavitt and Stone watch Andromeda reproduce. Again, many high school kids today have learned to consider this question: How might an alien lifeform reproduce itself without DNA and RNA? But use your imagination and try to picture yourself seeing this in 1971.

They stare at a fragment of Andromeda. It looks more like a crystal than any cell they’ve ever seen Suddenly Leavitt gets a flash of insight as to how Andromeda can grow without amino acids. Any source of energy serves its growth.

Back to that same devastating question. How do you stop a lifeform that does not function like any Earth lifeform? Where do you even start? You ask yourself; is all the science I’ve ever learned, suddenly out the window?

It’s not hopeless. They have found the most common elements in Earth lifeforms: Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen, in Andromeda. But it’s like graduating law school, then suddenly being dropped into Mongolia to try a murder case, only you don’t speak a word of Mongolian.

A strange insight into the visual point of view in these scenes. Compare them to a very different style of films, the giant bug movies of the’50’s: Them, Tarantula, The Deadly Mantis, Mothra, for example.

Many had one scene in common. The monster walks quietly up to a house, the heroine inside. It approaches a large window. She looks outside, sees the monster up close and screams in terror.

Here, there’s no window– they are deep underground. But you see the crystal pieces of Andromeda reproducing and mutating on a large screen behind Leavitt and Stone. Wise had been a master of subtlety for years, back to his days with Val Lewton in
the ‘40’s. The last thing he wanted to show was Andromeda
smashing through a barrier, and ripping someone’s head off. He probably had no interest in directing Alien, where the creature tearing its way out of a man’s chest gives you another sudden introduction to an otherworld lifeform.

But ironically, those big bug movies, Alien, and Andromeda Strain have at least one thing in common. All start with a similar idea: people messing around in areas best left alone. And the research all focuses on possible weapons. In the big bug movies, scientists test atomic weapons, used to protect their nation in case of war.
In Alien, the alien itself is a potential weapon (listen to Dr. Ash’s gushing description of the creature—a superb killing machine).
The Andromeda Strain raises the question; did the U.S. military actually search outer space for better germ-warfare?

The more serious question: the disease strains that the U.S. military (and plenty of other countries; don’t single out the USA) already have available. The average person prefers not to think about this too much, and switches to Dancing with the Stars, American Idol or maybe William Hung covering She Bangs.

Forget for a minute how the movie ends. Reality is much scarier. Not to give too much away: the answer to stopping Andromeda relates closely to an environmental problem that has endangered life on Earth for years now. Another brilliant idea from Crichton. Not that moviegoers today are too ignorant to follow Andromeda’s story. Far from it.
But many would choose to see dumber movies, without the intensity of the ideas and the science. They’d rather have entertainment to relax their brain, than something to stimulate it. And Hollywood, like a manufacturer of junk food for the mind, sits there happy, saying, “You want more entertainment? Well, we’ve got it for you…in 80 exciting new flavors.”

An unexpected blessing: maybe we will appreciate movies…which make us think, that much more. Movies without obvious good guys and bad guys… you don’t sit there knowing how you want the story to turn out.

Maybe we need to be more thankful for people who give
us those movies.

June 12, 2025

Category: Disease

28 DAYS LATER

THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN