Fantastic Voyage
                                    
Director: Richard Fleischer
Year: 1966
Rating: 7.0
Some sixty years after this film was made, it holds up remarkably well. That is because they took it all seriously. Certainly, the concept of shrinking a submarine with people in it and inserting it into a human body could have lent itself to cheesy absurd moments, but it never does. It all feels based on science - except the shrinking part of course - but once you accept that, the voyage through the body is nearly educational. Sci-fi films were beginning to leave their B-roots behind by the mid-60s. This is a top production from Fox with great sets, lots of extras, nifty special effects, top actors and a fine director in Richard Fleischer (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Tora Tora Tora). This turn towards better financed grown-up sci-fi films could be seen in Japan with the Kaiju films, the George Pal films, the Hammer sci-fi movies and others. Within two years, in 1968 there was 2001, Barbarella and Planet of the Apes. Sci-fi was on its way to becoming big budget popular films.



Shrinking people has been discovered by both sides in the Cold War, but there is a limit of 60-minutes before the person or item begins to grow back. A scientist (Jean Del Val) has found a way to push it beyond that time limit and the Americans have him, but the Commies manage to attack him and damage his brain. Only an operation can save him. But it can only be done by miniaturizing people and sending them inside. That is the ridiculous premise of the film, but they do it so methodically and seriously that they sell it. Throw in the possibility of course that one of them is a traitor - wasn't there always in these Cold War films. The main doctor is Arthur Kennedy, the human body mapper is Donald Pleasence, the captain of the sub is William Redfield, security is Stephen Boyd and the doctor's assistant is newcomer Raquel Welch. Welch had just signed with Fox after a few small appearances in other films. Boyd with The Fall of the Roman Empire and Ben-Hur on his resume was the big name in the cast. Outside supervising is Edmond O'Brien and Arthur O'Connell.



The first 30-minutes is devoted to the process of miniaturizing them, all very meticulously done - sucked up into a needle and injected. They have 60-minutes to accomplish their mission. Once they start growing, anti-bodies will swarm them and kill them. Boyd flirts with Welch for a few minutes but from then on it is all business. She looks great in her white tight form-fitting suit and when the anti-bodies attack her, you can understand why. Later in this same year, she was to be in One Million Years BC and became a poster on the wall of every boy going through puberty. Lots of problems lay ahead - nearly run out of oxygen, have to go through the heart etc. The scariest part though was probably watching Pleasence sweating cows in an enclosed space, his eyes doing somersaults. Oh, you have claustrophobia. Perhaps, you should have mentioned that before. Good script that never takes a break once it gets going.