A contagion from a spacecraft has killed an entire town in a short period of time, and a crack team of experts, buried in a secure, remote location in Arizona has to figure out what happened, and if this is a threat to the world.
After more than 50 years this movie is still worth watching. The technology, highly futuristic in 1971, is common today.
A bit weak on character development, and the acting seems a bit stiff at times. There's a definite sterile aspect to this movie that can extend to the characters. It's a techno-thriller that relies more on visuals than acting to tell a story.
The trip the characters take deep into the lab sets up the movie for a feeling of being completely insulated from the outside world, but at the same time a deadly pathogen waits to escape and kill the occupants of the lab. Surely something anyone who survived the Great Pandemic can relate to.
The technology used, once seeming futuristic and impossible, now seems either outdated, or common. Than in itself is an interesting effect from the aging of the movie.
