PEARSON: A new strain of thriller

By Mike Pearson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 23, 2008 at 3 p.m.
Updated May 23, 2008 at 5:53 p.m.

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Photo by © A&E

Rick Schroder, left, Christa Miller and Benjamin Bratt star in The Andromeda Strain.

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The Andromeda Strain

* Grade: B+

* When and where: 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, A&E Network

Need a good dose of paranoia?

Look no further than A&E's two-night miniseries The Andromeda Strain, which explores what could happen if an alien virus were to land on Earth with the power to kill whatever human it encounters in 10 seconds.

The virus is intelligent and can mutate. Try to bomb it and it shifts gears, jumping from humans to birds or infecting the water supply.

How might the U.S. government react to such an unorthodox terrorist attack? That's the conceit of this eerie science fiction thriller, adapted from Michael Crichton's 1969 novel and updated from the 1971 movie.

Here are two essential things to know: It's four hours long and it's executive-produced by Ridley and Tony Scott, directing brothers who have helmed some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters (Alien, Gladiator, Top Gun).

The film opens with a contaminated satellite crashing to Earth and two Utah teenagers retrieving it from the remote field where they've been making out. No sooner do they take the craft back to town than people start dying. This being cable, the deaths are more vivid than standard network fare. One man takes a chain saw and decapitates himself. Another goes the self-immolation route.

The Army sends a team to investigate - the investigators die.

This being the 21st century, every Army vehicle has a video camera, which means the powers that be can get a visual perspective on something they can't understand on a physical level. They also find a survivor. What makes him immune to the alien pathology?

The general in charge (Andre Braugher) orders an elite group of civilian scientists to stand by for just such an emergency. Next thing you know, they are ripped from their families and ensconced in a high-security underground bunker to find a way to defeat this biological threat, which seems to respond to every move to stop it by redoubling its efforts.

Generally, movies of this ilk don't emphasize top-notch acting, but director Mikael Salomon has assembled an impressive cast. Dr. Jeremy Stone (Benjamin Bratt) heads the team, which includes Christa Miller, Viola Davis, Rick Schroder and Daniel Dae Kim, the latter playing a Chinese defector who specializes in biological weapons.

The scientists are in a race again time. Their underground bunker is so secure that if a hint of the virus gets loose, it triggers an atomic self-destruct sequence. What do you wager that happens before the show is over?

The tension is created not just by the virus in action (lots of scenes of birds and squirrels skittering around in an infected daze), but by the antics of a crusading TV journalist (Eric McCormack), who stumbles upon the story and is immediately taken into custody by the Army. As intrepid journalists are wont to do, he manages to escape before he can be murdered into silence.

The president (Ted Whittall), meanwhile, is in his war room monitoring the situation, even as eco-terrorists take an ocean drilling platform hostage. And a black-ops unit of the military has its own agenda. It wants the virus destroyed, except for a small sample it might use for its own nefarious purposes.

At four hours, The Andromeda Strain can be a bit windy. The first hour of the second night drags, but things pick up by the final 60 minutes, when it's crunch time for the scientists and the world. And if the science is a bit inexact (how did an alien virus get on a U.S. satellite?), the skulduggery of a government trying to save the country and itself is palpable.

Plus, special effects are a lot better than they were in 1971. Watching the virus spread across the landscape, turning fertile fields brown, is chilling.

The Scott brothers understand that the key to effective entertainment is to make the jeopardy feel real. Crichton's plot may seem implausible, but that makes it no less compelling.

pearsonm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2592

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Nearly all of Michael Crichton's books have been adapted for the large and small screen, including:

* The Andromeda Strain (1969)

* Terminal Man (1972)

* Westworld (1973)

* Coma (1978)

* Jurassic Park (1990)

* Rising Sun (1992)

* The Lost World (1995)

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