10 Sci-Fi Movies That Got The Science Right

Michael Crichton was an incredibly talented and knowledgeable writer. While there are underlying premises in his books/films that are outside the realm of possibility (sorry, fans of Jurassic Park), the overall application of scientific theory and the use of medicine is pretty much straight out of a textbook.

Andromeda Strain is about an extraterrestrial virus brought to the surface of the Earth on a satellite designed to "scoop" microbes from space for study. The satellite crashed, and the resulting infection required a medical team's deployment to try and contain the spread. At the same time, they worked to study and understand the infection.

Before he became a world-famous author, Michael Crichton studied at Harvard Medical School, so he had a solid understanding of how pathogens spread, helping to make his book accurate. For example, a scene showing how the size of the virus is determined was kind of slow, but that's only because it was exactly what would take place in a lab.

There are several scenes like that in the movie, which makes for a great representation of the science and medicine used to study a new virus. The accuracy helps make The Andromeda Strain a great film and an exceptional educational movie all epidemiologists should watch.