Written by Harry Kleiner, based on story by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby, Fantastic Voyage is about a submarine crew who is shrunk to microscopic size and venture into the body of an injured scientist to repairthe damage to his brain.
The movie receded Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which would revolutionized the sci-fi genre, by two years.
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Theatrical release poster
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Kleiner decided to keep only the concept of miniaturization and to add a Cold War element.
Bantam Books obtained rights for paperback novelization based on the screenplay and approached Isaac Asimov to write it. Since the novelization was released 6 months before the movie, people mistakenly believed the film was based on Asimov’s book.
Its imaginative production design received five Oscar nominations, winning for Best Visual Effects and Best Art Direction in Color.
Intertextuality:
The movie used the concept of miniaturization in science fiction along with The Incredible Shrinking Man, and inspired an animated TV series of the same name.
Premise:
The U.S. and the Soviet Union have developed technology that can miniaturize matter by shrinking individual atoms, but only for one hour.
The scientist Dr. Jan Benes, working behind the Iron Curtain, has figured out how to make the process work indefinitely.
With the help of U.S. intelligence agents, including agent Charles Grant, he escapes to the West and arrives in NY, but an attempted assassination leaves him comatose with a blood clot in his brain that no surgery can remove from the outside.
To save his life, Grant, Navy pilot Captain Bill Owens, medical chief and circulatory specialist Dr. Michaels, surgeon Dr. Peter Duval, and assistant Cora Peterson are placed aboard a Navy ichthyology submarine at the Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces (CMDF) facilities.
The submarine, which is named “Proteus,” is then miniaturized to “about the size of a microbe,” and injected into Benes’ body. The team has 60 minutes to get to and remove the clot; after this, Proteus and crew will revert to normal size, become vulnerable to Benes’s immune system, and kill Benes.
The crew faces many obstacles, such as undetected arteriovenous fistula that forces them to detour through the heart, where cardiac arrest must be induced to reduce turbulence that would be strong enough to destroy Proteus.
The crew faces loss of oxygen and must replenish their supply in the lungs. They notice “rocks” that are actually carbon particles from smoke.
Grant finds the surgical laser needed to destroy the clot was damaged from the turbulence in the heart, as it was not fastened down as it had been before: this and his safety line snapping loose while the crew was refilling their air supply lead Grant to suspect a saboteur is on the mission. The crew must cannibalize their wireless radio to repair the laser, cutting off all communication and guidance from the outside, although because the submarine is nuclear-powered, surgeons and technicians outside Benes’s body are still able to track their movements via a radioactive tracer, allowing General Alan Carter and Colonel Donald Reid, the officers in charge of CMDF, to figure out the crew’s strategies as they make their way through the body.
The sub enters the lymphatic system, but the reticular fibres started to interfere. The crew is then forced to pass through the inner ear, requiring all outside personnel to make no noise to prevent destructive shocks, but while the crew is removing reticular fibers clogging the submarine’s vents and making the engines overheat, a fallen surgical tool causes the crew to be thrown about and Peterson is nearly killed by antibodies, but they are able to reboard the submarine in time. By the time they finally reach the clot, the crew has only six minutes remaining to operate and then exit the body.
Before the mission, Grant had been briefed that Duval was the prime suspect as potential surgical assassin, but as the mission progresses, he begins to suspect Michaels.
During the surgery, Dr. Michaels knocks out Owens and takes control of Proteus while the rest of the crew is outside for the operation. As Duval finishes removing the clot with the laser, Michaels tries to crash the submarine into the same area of Benes’ brain to kill him. Grant fires the laser at the ship, causing it to veer away and crash, and Michaels to get trapped in the wreckage with the controls pinning him to the seat, which attracts white blood cells.
While Grant saves Owens from the Proteus, Michaels is killed when white blood cell consumes the ship.
Spoiler Alert
The remaining crew swim to one of Benes’ eyes and escape through tear duct seconds before returning to normal siz
The cast includes wonderful character actors, such as Edmond O’Brien, Donald Pleasance, Arthur O’Connell and Arthur Kennedy.
The movie was extremely popular at the box-office.
My Oscar Book:
Oscar Nominations: 5
Art Direction-Set Decoration (color): Jack Martin Smith and Dale Hennesy; Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss
Cinematography (color): Ernest Laszlo
Film Editing: William B. Murphy
Special Visual Effects Art Cruickshank
Sound Effects: Walter Rossi
Oscar Awards: 2
Art Direction-Set Decoration
Special Sound Effects
Oscar Context
The Cinematography Oscar went (undeservedly) to Ted Moore for A Man for All Seasons, which swept most of the Oscars in 1966, including Best Picture and Best Director to Fred Zinnemann.
The Editing and Sound Effects Awards went to the adventure The Grand Prix.
Fleischer remains one of few major Hollywood filmmakers, who had never won a legit Best Director Oscar
Credits:
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Screenplay by Harry Kleiner; Story by Jerome Bixby Otto Klement; Adaptation: David Duncan
Produced by Saul David
Cinematography Ernest Laszlo
Edited by William B. Murphy
Music by Leonard Rosenman
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date: August 16, 1966 (LA)
Running time: 100 minutes
Budget $5.1 million
Box office $12 million
Cast
Stephen Boyd as Charles Grant, CIA Agent enlisted to protect Benes
Raquel Welch as Cora Peterson, technical assistant for Dr. Duval
Edmond O’Brien as General Alan Carter, officer in charge of Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces
Donald Pleasence as Dr. Michaels, CMDF’s medical chief and specialist later revealed to be the mission’s saboteur
Arthur O’Connell as Colonel Donald Reid, operational commander for CMDF
William Redfield as Captain Bill Owens, U.S. Navy officer, who designed the Proteus
Arthur Kennedy as Dr. Peter Duval, a top-class brain surgeon enlisted to perform the surgery on Benes
Jean Del Val as Dr. Jan Benes, the comatose scientist who perfected the formula for unlimited miniaturization
Barry Coe as communications aide
Ken Scott as a Secret Service agent
Shelby Grant as nurse
James Brolin as technician
