THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN
(1971; d. Rbt Wise, w. Nelson Gidding)

Scientist Jeremy Stone Daedalus-architect of 5-level (layers of consciousness) lab-yrinth/mind housing minotaur-spore (mutating; not yet stable/mature, as undifferentiated ½ man-½ bull) brought from deepest-space unconscious for biowarfare (toxic military sperm for childless middle-ager); Strain shares most basic qualities of life w/o energizing "chemistry," similar to strictly factual, by-the-books establishmentarian "Stone" (à la own installation) + similarly military-mechanical personnel who organize proceedings + built sterile "complex" (psychological + governmental; never-seen + only-accidentally-right Prez who endangers country by not ordering bombing [cf Nixon’s contemporary Vietnam/Cambodia-shelling + authoritarian Stone's admonitions against "protests"]), mythological Andromeda (as Nam troops) endangered by Nierads because of mother/govt's pride (no "Peace w/o Honor").

Out of dead, deserted town (still, sleeping mind) are found still-living old man + baby (subject: Generation Gap, as in one transition from dead hippiechick w/ peace symbol to old woman w/ cross; cf sim Cyborg 2087 opening + theme), surgeon Mark Hall (a similar "connecting device") racing to discover what they have in common that kept both alive: acids in blood (vs. dried-up victims'), or, protest spirit (lacking in Stone, young + old dead-wmn’s icons both suggesting passivity).

Hall youngest among crew of 4, roughly ½way btwn oldster + young’un; like Strain (cipher bridging all characters), a variable: single (cf Wise's similarly asexual Day the Earth Stood Still Klaatu + bisexual Haunting Theo; Hall shot down on discovering "luscious" voice of installation-womb's nervous system belongs to senior wmn vestigial mother-attachment) – unattached "odd man," as opposed to fellow (non-reproductive) crewmen grandpa Dutton, hubby Stone + lesbian Leavitt (who talks of relationship w/ nebulous significant other): Like Klaatu, Savior assigned cross-key (while overhead light casts halo) that shuts down nuke at installation center (man’s "core" violent nature) after receiving laser-stigmata spear wounds + who must negotiate/mediate dissonance (old guy holding baby in climax while nurse assists Hall's "rebirth" from protective suit/caul) + avert destruction.

1st, tho, elder Dutton must be quarantined + Leavitt KO’d (eliminating layers of consciousness in similarly layered lab/mind [shut off from outside world when teletype machine malfunctions, sanitization burning-off-outer-layer-of-skin shucking of body in dreams], color-coded from upper 3 primaries to ambiguous gray 4th + lowest, pure white [truth]: "light" - revelation in deepest unconscious).

Conking out aftwd leaving eternal-conscious (constantly reinforcing logic + rules) voice-of-God (directing Hall thru labyrinth, as Daedalus did Theseus via Ariadne’s thread) Stone alone unfazed + "surviving," drama taking place in his mind (installation "pressure cooker" à la Gidding-Wise Haunting nursery [core where Hall similarly reborn also housing young + old à la Haunting’s child-into-wmn sequence there], Hindenburg blimp, Sand Pebbles ship, Star Trek Enterprise, West Side Story city + I Want to Live gas- + Audrey Rose observation chambers).

Baby + randy old guy libidinous need-machines à la Strain + similar ’50s blobs: life at heart-of-Stone providing clue to surviving cold, datapaniked military civilization (Better Living Thru Libido/Rebellion), they sim also to vivacious Babs Graham in Live’s sim chamber (w/ sim gases released in Strain’s phallic core), Stone that film's similarly misguided inquisitor Montgomery (+ Haunting Markway, sim'y assembling crack research team in huge, cold structure to analyze destructive element [à la sabotage plot in Hindenburg], Hall Haunting’s Luke Sanderson, Leavitt sparring-partner Theo [sim outsider who wd've been "prejudiced against," in Stone’s term, by research establishment (which she predicts will "fall down go boom" [harbinger of source-novelist Michael Crichton’s later Westworld]) for her "epilepsy"], male + female auxiliary assistants caretakers the Dudleys).

Circular narratives in Live + Haunting suggest Eternal Return in Gidding/Wise’s thematics centered around nursery/gas-chamber/core unconscious housing serious gender issues; cf Wise’s own ambidextrous oeuvre encompassing hardboiled noir such as Born to Kill + blockbuster Sound of Musicals, w/ just about everything in btwn.

Based on Michael Crichton novel.