Fantastic Voyage

Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces A medical and science crew board a submarine and are miniaturised and injected into an important foreign scientist's body. The mission is to remove a blood clot on his brain that was suffered during an assassination attempt. Once shrunk and in their new bodily world, the team must battle the body's defence systems as well as avoiding trouble with the major organs. Also on a clock of one hour before they return to normal size, they have to also contend with the fact there may be a saboteur on board. This be a fantastical voyage indeed... The crews voyage through the body's bloodstream and beyond is brought to life by the use of some splendidly inventive special effects, something which marks Fantastic Voyage out as one of the more visually appealing genre pictures of the time (winning Oscars for Best Colour Art Direction and for Best Visual Effects). It was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Sound Effects. It is in short a tip top tech credits production. Based on the novel written by Otto Klement and Jay Lewis Bixby, the story is both imaginative and totally fascinating from a biology viewpoint, which is something that helps offsets the somewhat staid performances from the cast. However, are we really watching this for thespian delights? No of course not. We want director Richard Fleischer to take us on a perilous journey through the human body, and maybe just give us some suspense into the bargain. That is achieved wholesale, and while the the ending is a little too rushed for comfort, this remains a silly but wonderful filmic experience. 7.5/10

I remember I really liked this movie when I was a teenager, along with the novel by Isaac Asimov that was based on the screenplay. (I never read the original story they based the screenplay on.) It was adventurous fun. I don’t recall if I was titillated by the presence on the cast of Raquel Welch, though they showed great restraint in having her covered up most of the time by the special submarine suit. I wasn’t as impressed or entertained watching it this time around. I thought there were a couple of plot holes and, needless to say, the special effects weren’t up to the standards we are used to after all these years. But I would still recommend it if you are interested in early science fiction films or if you are watching with children, for it is certainly suitable for all audiences.

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John Chard

Peter McGinn