The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Arthur Hill: Dr. Jeremy Stone
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Quotes
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[finding a man dead by self-inflicted drowning in a bathtub]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : I wouldn't believe you could commit suicide that way.
Dr. Mark Hall : Most of them died instantly, but a few had time to go quietly nuts.
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Dr. Jeremy Stone : According to this, there'll be a super-colony of Andromeda over the entire southwest in...
Dr. Charles Dutton : [interrupting] Jeremy! These are biological warfare maps!
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Why, yes... so they are... uh... but... simulations, Charlie. Defensive... it's just a scenario.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : That's not the point, for God's sake! Wildfire was built for germ warfare! Wildfire AND Scoop! And you knew, Stone! YOU KNEW IT!
Dr. Jeremy Stone : That's not true, Ruth! I learned about Scoop the same time you did!
Dr. Charles Dutton : They already have Andromeda programmed! The purpose of Scoop was to find new biological weapons in outer space, and then use Wildfire to develop them!
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : It stinks, Stone!
Dr. Jeremy Stone : You're blowing your tops! We have no proof...
Dr. Charles Dutton : The map!
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Don't be an ass! That map only shows what Andromeda could do in the hands of an enemy!
Dr. Charles Dutton : Enemy? We did it to ourselves!
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Perhaps! But this is hardly the time to organize a protest!
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : [sarcastic] Another giant leap for mankind!
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[last lines]
Senator from Vermont : This cloud-seeding business, Stone... you absolutely sure it worked? You better be.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : All reports continue to indicate that the experiment was successful, Senator.
Senator from Vermont : Then we can feel confident your so-called "biological crisis" is over?
Dr. Jeremy Stone : As far as Andromeda is concerned, yes. We have the organism at Wildfire, and we continue to study it. We know now beyond a doubt that other forms of life exist in the universe.
Senator from Vermont : Thanks to Scoop?
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Yes.
[pause]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : However, with this new knowledge, there is no guarantee that another so-called "biological crisis" won't occur again.
Senator from Vermont : Hmm. What do we do about that?
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Precisely, Senator. What do we do?
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[Hall and Stone are sealed off in a section of the lab with an unfinished sub-station for locking out the self-destruct device, which has been activated and is counting down]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : The defense system is perfect, Mark. It'll even bury our mistakes!
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Dr. Jeremy Stone : Stick to established procedures.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : Establishment gonna fall down and go boom.
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Dr. Jeremy Stone : [handing out suppositories] Umm... stop by your rooms and insert these before taking the elevator.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : I have risked drowning in that foul bath! I have been par-boiled, irradiated and xenon-flashed, and now you suggest I...
[pushing suppository upward in the air]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : I HAVE to! We haven't done a thing about the G.I. tract yet. On level five we must be as nearly germ-free as possible.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : [eyeing suppository sheepishly] Anyone care to join me for a "smoke"?
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Dr. Mark Hall : [reading suicide note] "The day of judgment is at hand. Have mercy on my soul, and to hell with all the others. Amen."
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Senile...
Dr. Mark Hall : This took time. Regardless of what made her do it, it took time. There's a chance someone's still alive.
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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.
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Wildfire Computer Sgt. Burk : Dr. Stone, sir, I have one thing to do. Just one. Everything else is fully automatic, computerized and self-regulating. I, uh, I listen for a little bell, in here. Ding-a-ling! That means a message coming in is for the Wildfire team.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Precisely! An M.C.N. communication. I'm expecting one.
Wildfire Computer Sgt. Burk : Yes, sir. Top priority. Ding-a-ling! I push a button and all five level control centers are notified the same time you are. The bell hasn't rung, sir.
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Dr. Jeremy Stone : Hall? Take a look at this.
[gestures to dead man with peaceful facial expression but grabbing his own chest]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Are you sure that isn't coronary?
Dr. Mark Hall : No. A coronary's painful. They should grimace.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : If it was fast, they wouldn't have time.
Dr. Mark Hall : Fast? These people were cut down in mid-stride!
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[arriving at the virus site via helicopter]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : If anything happens to us, you have your orders.
Dempsey : Yes sir. Proceed directly to Wildfire, and then, uh...
[makes slashing motion across neck]
Dempsey : ...zzZZTT!
Dr. Jeremy Stone : [to Hall] If we're eliminated, the aircraft and pilot'll have to be sterilized.
Dempsey : Uh, wait a minute. That's not what they told me... just "incinerated."
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Dr. Jeremy Stone : Where's the next substation, Hall?
Dr. Mark Hall : Left of elevator on Level 2.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Right. Across the corridor from Body Analysis, our next port of call.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : Not for my alabaster body! I mean it, Stone, you can take your Body Analyzer and you can st...
[door closes]
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Dr. Mark Hall : [Removing the pants of a dead doctor] Have a look at his buttocks.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : That's not funny.
Dr. Mark Hall : Not meant to be. Normally, blood in a dead person goes to the lowest points. There should be marks of lividity, right? Do you see any purplish marks on his butt?
Dr. Jeremy Stone : No.
[Dr. Hall takes a scalpel]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Careful you don't puncture your suit.
[Dr. Hall cuts the wrist of the corpse; red "sand" pours out]
Dr. Mark Hall : Clotted blood! Powdered!
Dr. Jeremy Stone : I'll be... damned.
Dr. Mark Hall : No wonder they didn't bleed. It's clotted throughout the entire system - five quarts of blood turned to powder!
Dr. Jeremy Stone : In theory, I suppose a single organism could do it.
Dr. Mark Hall : But, in fact, there isn't an organism on Earth...
Dr. Jeremy Stone : You mean there didn't used to be.
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Dr. Mark Hall : Why did you pick me?
Dr. Jeremy Stone : You're an MD, a talented surgeon who knows blood chemistries... and you're single. The Odd Man Hypothesis.
Dr. Mark Hall : What the hell is that?
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Didn't you read the Wildfire material I've been sending you?
Dr. Mark Hall : [smirks] Very little. I never went in much for science fiction.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : [glares at Hall] Nor do I.
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Dr. Robertson : You can relax now, we've just left the President. He agreed to drop the bomb...
Dr. Jeremy Stone : NO NO! You've got to stop 7-12 from being carried out!
Grimes : Now wait a minute! We're not playing ping pong! We just got through telling the President that you...
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : For God's sake, go back! It grows when exposed to x-rays. or any source of energy.
Dr. Charles Dutton : Tell him NO nuclear device mush be detonated anywhere near it.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : We just found out Andromeda functions like a little reactor. Converts matter to energy, energy to matter, directly
Dr. Robertson : [Whistles] Then the bomb would just provide a fantastically rich growth medium.
[to Grimes]
Dr. Robertson : Understand?
Grimes : No, but I'll pass along the recommendation.
[smugly]
Grimes : The boss'll be pleased to know that HE made the right decision on 7-12 in the first place.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : [harsh with sarcasm] Congratulate him on his scientific insight.
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Dr. Mark Hall : [referring to Dr. Dutton] Poor devil! Look at how he's breathing. He's scared to death.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : We'll increase his oxygen. It'll slow down his breathing.
Dr. Mark Hall : [beat] No, we want him to breathe fast! In Piedmont the old man survived drinking Sterno... Sterno, acidosis! Acidosis, rapid breathing!
[begins working a control panel]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : What the hell are you doing?
Dr. Mark Hall : I'm turning off the oxygen.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : But the baby! He's normal!
Dr. Mark Hall : He's crying. He's not leaving it in his lungs long enough to do anything.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : [incredulous] Rapid breathing? It just can't be that simple!
Dr. Mark Hall : It isn't.
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[finding the Scoop satellite in a doctor's office, crudely pried open]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : There it is...
[pause]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : why the damn fool opened it!
Dr. Mark Hall : [sarcastically] Yeah, every country doctor should run his office like the Lunar Lab.
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Dr. Charles Dutton : No excretions. No waste of any kind.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : You'd expect that, Andromeda's perfect for existence in outer space. Consumes everything, wastes nothing...
[Leavitt, Stone, and Dutton exchange anxious glances]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Good lord!
Dr. Mark Hall : What?
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Stone to Delta-Five. Put me through to Dr. Robertson Immediately!
Dr. Mark Hall : WHAT?
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : God, I hope we're not too late.
Dr. Mark Hall : Tell me!
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : It functions like an atomic reactor!
Dr. Jeremy Stone : An atomic blast could provide it with enough energy to grow into a gigantic supercolony.
Dr. Charles Dutton : In one day!
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Dr. Jeremy Stone : Get moving. Duck! Keep going. Duck! Keep going. Duck!
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Dr. Jeremy Stone : When the bomb goes off, there'll be a thousand mutations! Andromeda will spread everywhere! They'll never be rid of it!
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Dr. Mark Hall : That body analyzer! I'd like to be there when the AMA gets wind of it.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : So far it's only been used to treat astronauts in space.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : You doctors better start making house calls again.
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[Leavitt has added a second scanner to view the Scoop capsule]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : No, Ruth. Use only one microscanner.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : You being paid by the hour? We could cover the capsule in one-half the time!
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : There's less chance of missing something when we both concentrate on the screen
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : Let's go directly to the inside. We can assume they put the scoop on the thing to scoop something into it. Brother, they sure got what they were looking for.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : We're not here to make accusations. We have a job to do, purely as scientists
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : Maybe not so pure.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : [coldly] Continue the scan, Ruth. On the outside.
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Dr. Jeremy Stone : We wouldn't want to contaminate a possible organism.
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Dr. Charles Dutton : [Viewing x-ray crystallography scan of Andromeda] How does something so simple use energy for growth?
Dr. Jeremy Stone : No way of telling from the structure.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : Oh yes there is.
[uploading information]
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : With this new data we can get a computer simulation of how Andromeda operates.
[Contrast-enhanced computer stimulation begins on display]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : They're not uniform.. could be mutation...
[simulation speeds up and eventually crashes. Computer displays '601']
Dr. Charles Dutton : What the devil...?
Dr. Jeremy Stone : 601? The computer's overloaded! Too much data coming in too fast.
Dr. Charles Dutton : Dividing and mutating at the same time?
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : And *nothing* to stop it. Normal Earth checks and balances don't exist for it.
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[Leavitt and Stone examine a micro-meteoroid embedded in the Scoop collection medium at 60x magnification]
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : Jeremy, do you think maybe...
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Maybe it's just a grain of sand. Go to 80.
[at 80x, specs of green become visible]
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : What about the bits of green?
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Paint!
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : For God's sake!
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Pistachio ice cream! There's no basis to assume it's anything yet.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : You're too good a scientist to not be thinking the same thing I am. If this really is something now, some brand-new form of life...
Dr. Jeremy Stone : The best hope of cracking it is to be grindingly thorough, with the help of computer number one!
[taps Leavitt on side of head]
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Okay? now let's get on with it!
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Allison Stone : May I see you, Jeremy?
Dr. Jeremy Stone : The SDS has arrived, no doubt.
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Dr. Jeremy Stone : You two know each other, don't you?
Dr. Mark Hall : By reputation only.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : Ah, yes, up to now we've had to worship from a far.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Be good, Ruth.
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Dr. Jeremy Stone : We face quite a problem: how to disinfect the human body, one of the dirtiest things in the known universe.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : That is without killing the human being at the same time.
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Dr. Ruth Leavitt : [offering a glass of something to drink] Hemlock! All for you, Hippocrates.
Dr. Mark Hall : Not your own venom? Tastes like orange juice.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Nutrient 42-5. Developed for the astronauts. Eight ounces satisfy all daily nutritional requirements.
Dr. Mark Hall : Except coffee.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt : And lipid soluble vitamins.
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Dr. Charles Dutton : The disease could spread into a worldwide epidemic.
Grimes : It's because of rash statements like that the president doesn't trust scientists.
Dr. Jeremy Stone : Warn the president it may already be too late.