The Andromeda Strain

Special effects to create the germ from space cost $250,000.

At the beginning of the movie, vultures are shown circling over the town of Piedmont. Later, when the two scientists approach the town in a helicopter, the vultures are on the ground eating the flesh of the dead. The military even brought gas to kill off the vultures so they wouldn't fly off and spread the disease. What's interesting, is that no one gives a second thought as to why the vultures weren't dead. Even after they kill off a rat and monkey in the lab to test the disease no one wonders how it was that the vultures weren't affected. It is not unusual, in fact rather typical, for pathogens or chemicals to affect some species and not others, or at least affect them more slowly.

The opening credits read: "ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This film concerns the four-day history of a major American scientific crisis. We received the generous help of many people attached to Project Scoop at Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Wildfire Laboratory in Flatrock, Nevada. They encouraged us to tell the story accurately and in detail." "The documents presented here are soon to be made public. They do not in any way jeopardize the national security."

Italian version is 10 minutes shorter than original version (released at 130 min.) and omits many scenes from a subplot about a fallen fighter plane.

Edited into The Six Million Dollar Man: Population: Zero (1974)