‘Fantastic Voyage’ or — The Little Things Give Pleasure?
It had been so long since I’d last watched ‘Fantastic Voyage’ (1966) that I’d forgotten one rather striking aspect about it: it plays out, pretty much, in real time. That gives them only an hour to be miniaturised, injected into, float about in, have adventures in and then escape from a human body. I thought it would take at least an hour to get to his elbow but, then again, I’m not a fully qualified miniaturized doctor… yet!
It’s got a fun premise: miniaturisation is possible but only for the duration of an hour. An Eastern Bloc scientist has perfected a way to make the process indefinite, releasing untold military possibilities. Yet when an assassination attempt is made on the scientist’s life after he defects to the West (rival powers would kill to stop such a secret falling into American hands) the man is left in a coma, a blood clot lodged in his brain.
Surgery is impossible leaving the only sensible and reasonable alternative as a course of action — miniaturise Raquel Welch then inject her into the scientist’s body where she can shoot out the blood clot in his brain with a laser beam then escape through his eyeballs before she busts (I know!) out his body by re-larging out of him from the inside.
Along the way there’s all manner of biological and anatomical delights and dangers the crew of the Proteus (the tiny submarine) have to navigate along the way meaning ‘Fantastic Voyage’ acts as a sort of medical lecture and adventure story combined. Oh, and there’s a saboteur aboard too but I won’t spoil who it might be although Donald Pleasence stars in this film so that might be a clue.
‘Fantastic Voyage’ was exactly as I remembered as a kid as science and adventure come to life through enchanting special effects, a colourful 60’s futuristic design and anatomical waffling. It might sound like a back-handed compliment but the entire film is delightfully quaint.
But the big surprise, though, was that one hour time limit. I had no idea this movie was so urgent! Sure, there’s a lot of floating about and they sure drag out the miniaturisation process (it’s in several stages) but the pacing of incident is rather brisk, even of the actual action itself can tend towards the sluggish. I guess it’s hard to appear urgent when you’re dangling about fistula.
The other surprise was Rachel Welch. Of course, I distinctly
remember her hanging about fighting antibodies in a state of pensile agitation but what I had totally forgotten is that’s pretty much all she does. I’m sitting here the following afternoon wracking my brains trying to recall anything else she gets up to in the film or contributes to the story and I’m coming up empty. Does she even speak in this movie? I’m struggling to remember even a single line of dialogue she might’ve had, if any. Most of the yakking comes from the Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces’ command centre who seem constantly on the verge of turning into Lloyd Bridges from ‘Airplane!’ (1980).
‘Fantastic Voyage’ is fun, bright and colourful and while it isn’t exactly edge of your seat stuff it flows along with enough appeal. It manages to balance being both scientifically credible and utterly ludicrous (always the best sort of combination) and it all drips with that Sixties sci-fi aesthetic; and the Proteus itself will always be a sexy looking vehicle. The score by Leonard Rosenman is nicely atonal and atmospheric while director Richard Fleischer keeps everything moving along just about fast enough to hold the attention, although the dialogue is often as dry as unbuttered toast. There’s also some forgettable nonsense about Capitalism vs. Godless Communism that dates the film more than any of the effects work but, overall, this is worth revisiting for more than just the nostalgia factor.
Oh, and I didn’t realise that the film ‘Innerspace’ (1987) took its name explicitly from a line of dialogue in ‘Fantastic Voyage’. Nice to know the homage is so blatantly acknowledged.
