Dr. Mark Hall: Most of them died instantly, but a few had time to go quietly nuts.
Dr. Rudolph Karp: Fools! They refuse to believe life exists in meteorites. I showed them at the astrophysics conference what I just showed you. But no! Even with a microscope they are blind! But what do I have to do? Hit them over the head?
Dr. Charles Dutton: Experiment with your own lives, damn it.
Dr. Jeremy Stone: Where have you been?
Dr. Mark Hall: Leavitt had a seizure.
Dr. Jeremy Stone: What?
Dr. Mark Hall: Epilepsy. The red light flashing at three-per-second brought on a fit. Why the hell didn't she tell us about it?
Dr. Jeremy Stone: Probably no top lab would have her if they knew. Insurance, prejudice, all that crap.
Dr. Mark Hall: From the Middle Ages.
Dr. Jeremy Stone: Stick to established procedures.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt: Establishment gonna fall down and go boom.
Mic-T: A.A. analysis results are ready, Dr. Dutton.
Dr. Charles Dutton: Something's wrong. It's not registering.
Mic-T: Yes, it is, sir. It's just registering double-zero, double-zero.
Dr. Mark Hall: Air doesn't matter! Blood does. That's the answer.
Answer: The satellite containing the Andromeda strain was recovered quickly, helping contain the contagion. Also, Piedmont was an isolated town, further limiting the spread. Dead birds and other animals were shown, but most would be happening off-camera. The scientists also learned later that Andromeda quickly mutated into a non-lethal form but one that caused certain synthetic materials to dissolve, creating further havoc. To eradicate the strain, clouds were seeded to produce rain, which swept Andromeda out to sea where the alkaline ocean water rendered it inert. Would add that movies at this time and before had stricter standard codes and did not show excessive blood and gore like they do today.
raywest ★