Fantastic Voyage (1966)

I'd seen some scenes from this movie used in various TV shows but never knew where they came from until I watched this. And what a neat little film. The special effects took home the gold and the submarine was well-made. Tiny scientists inside the human body in their mission to neutralize a blood clot in the brain. And Donald Pleasence from The Great Escape and You Only Live Twice as one of the scientists. If I could pick a favorite film he's done, this would be it. I wonder if they did a lot of research in order to make this movie? A lot of the scenes really looked like they belonged in the human body. There may be some scenes where you have to suspend disbelief, but it's still a good little flick.

I first read the book by Asimov which was based on this script, then saw the movie. Since Asimov removes some plot holes from the movie, I was a bit disappointed by the movie itself.But in this story where a submarine with a team of scientists is miniaturized to remove a blood cloth from the brain of a dying man, there's still a lot to enjoy.As per usual, there's a traitor, a female and a hero. And side kicks. The female character doesn't have a lot of lines, and the actress, Welch, is abused in the scene when she's covered with white blood cells, where the actors can fondle her breast area gratuitously. Asimov does a better and more scientific job of explaining that scene. Even though he did like him some beautiful women ... (actually, that's what Heinlein says about Asimov, which might just be projection of Heinlein)... he doesn't use it to celebrate inappropriate fondling of Cora.Asimov also gives a more plausible explanation of how the Proteus is removed from Benes in the end, and the motives of Michaels.But by and large, he follows the script faithfully. I'm grateful for his plothole repair.There's some sort of irony here: Asimovs own books and stories, when they were made into movies, resulted in the most awful crap sci-fi movie ever: Nightfall. The same happened to Arthur Clarke and Heinlein. "Childhoods End" was really awful with seriously questionably morals and while Heinleins "The Puppet Masters" wasn't totally bad, it did have that movie of the week stench.

I saw this as a 12 year old when it came out. Even then I was a little skeptical about the science but I was certainly astounded by the movie.I ended up becoming a physician. When I watch this today I have to shake my head at some of the more preposterous portrayals, but I find other sections and effects that are marvelously accurate. The plot, characters, action and pacing are superb. It's hard for anyone who has even the slightest taste for sci-fi to not enjoy this thoroughly entertaining work. If you know some anatomy, it's even more engaging.It's still implausible to send a tiny, manned submarine into the human body and probably will remain so. But it's not implausible that we'll be inserting unmanned nano-bots into ourselves that might perform the tasks and missions with the same precision and outcomes shown here.

When I was a young lad, approximately 10 years of age, I was a tremendous big fan of a Sci-Fi comedy called "Innerspace", released in 1987 and starring Dennis Quaid and Martin Short. Little did I know back then that this movie was inspired and also - knowing the director Joe Dante – paying tribute to the 1966 groundbreaking adventure "Fantastic Voyage". You won't hear me state that this is a flawless masterpiece, or even that the special effects and visuals still look mesmerizing by today's standards, but it definitely still stands as one of the most imaginative and original Sci-Fi adventures ever made. The plot and futuristic world perspective of "Fantastic Voyage" are quite ambitious and grotesque, even for contemporary sixties standards, but that is probably what makes it so unique. I'm sure that, back in 1966, certain people honestly assumed that this type of scientific technology would be possible around the year 2000. The story actually is typical Sci- Fi fodder, only… completely different! Numerous movies of its kind revolve on an elite crew going on a dangerous expedition into the unfamiliar territories of outer space. Well, "Fantastic Voyage" revolves on an elite crew going on a dangerous expedition into the unfamiliar territories of INNER space! The titular fantastic voyage is, in fact, a journey inside the human body. When diplomat Jan Benes is nearly assassinated, a five-headed crew (2 doctors, a female assistant, a pilot and a safety guard) and their especially designed submarine are urgently miniaturized and injected into his comatose body in order to neutralize a lethal blood knot from inside his brains. They only have 60 minutes before the current miniaturization techniques abruptly stop working and they grow back to their normal size, so it's absolutely essential to succeed their mission because the patient is the only person who knows the secret to expand the miniaturization time! Okay, admittedly this last aspect of the plot is somewhat tacky, but don't allow it to ruin the fun! The biggest accomplishment of "Fantastic Voyage" is that Richard Fleischer, and of course his cast and crew, succeed in making our everyday human body equally mysterious and menacing as the outskirts of space … and even more so! The landscapes of the heart are more ominous than desolate planets, the cyclones in the lungs or tidal waves in the ear are heavy ordeals and our bodies' defense mechanisms are more aggressive than aliens. The story simultaneously also focuses on the search for a saboteur among the crew members, although it's fairly obvious from the beginning who this is (especially if you're a bit familiar with the oeuvres of the players). Raquel Welch's role is rather redundant, but she looks nice in her tight uniforms and her male colleagues were offered the unique occasion to fondle her boobs during one particular scene. Reading other reviews and posts on the message board around here, it seems that many people want this film to receive a remake. I, for one, don't agree. I would hate to see a fully computerized version of this film and will always prefer the charm and old-fashioned skills of classic Sci-Fi.