Fantastic Voyage (1966)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Richard Fleischer

Writers:

Harry Kleiner (screenplay)
David Duncan (adaptation)

Release Date:

24 August 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The screen's most fantastic voyage

Plot:

A diplomat is nearly assassinated. In order to save him, a submarine is shrunken to microscopic size and injected into his blood stream with a small crew. Problems arise almost as soon as they enter the bloodstream.

Plot Keywords:

Blood | Submarine | Tympanic Membrane | Coffee | Military

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Stephen Boyd	...	Grant
Raquel Welch	...	Cora
Edmond O'Brien	...	General Carter
Donald Pleasence	...	Dr. Michaels
Arthur O'Connell	...	Col. Donald Reid
William Redfield	...	Capt. Bill Owens
Arthur Kennedy	...	Dr. Duval
Jean Del Val	...	Jan Benes
Barry Coe	...	Communications Aide
Ken Scott	...	Secret Service
Shelby Grant	...	Nurse
James Brolin	...	Technician
Brendan Fitzgerald	...	Wireless Operator

Also Known As:

Microscopia
Strange Journey
Die phantastische Reise (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
Le voyage fantastique (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Viagem Fantástica (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
Den fantastiska resan (Sweden) [sv]
Den fantastiske rejse (Denmark) [da]
El viaje fantástico (Venezuela) [es]
En fantastisk resa (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
Fantastiko taxeidi (Greece) [el]
Fantastinen matka (Finland) [fi]
Fantastyczna podróz (Poland) [pl]
Fantasztikus utazás (Hungary) [hu]
Viaggio allucinante (Italy) [it]
Viaje alucinante (Spain) [es]

MPAA:

Rated PG for mild violence and language.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System) | Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #20942) (original rating) | Canada:G (video rating) | Portugal:M/6 | Australia:G | Finland:K-12 | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | UK:U | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

As a college student, director Richard Fleischer was a pre-med student for a time.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The patient's red blood cells, shown in the various scenes of the miniaturized submarine traveling through blood vessels, are nucleated, which is incorrect. Mammalian, and therefore human, red blood cells have no nuclei; nucleated red blood cells are found in most other animals, however, such as birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, etc.

Quotes:

Grant: Wait a minute! They can't shrink me.
General Carter: Our miniaturizer can shrink anything.
Grant: But I don't want to be miniaturized!
General Carter: It's just for an hour.
Grant: Not even for a minute!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Superbad (2007)

Blue Screen effects, straight ahead!

Every time "Fantastic Voyage" comes on TV, I turn it on expecting it to be better. Better than what? The standard sci-fi's of the day, the Irwin Allen TV shows. It's about on that par. There's the usual grueling technical preliminaries, the discussion over whether or not to take A GIRL along (never mind that she's a scientist), the setting up of the cardboard characters--with a madman among them (this is among the hoariest of clichés, going back to Hitchcock's "Lifeboat"--why do we need a psycho aboard ship? Isn't the premise about microscopic scientists venturing forth into a human body enough?). I did love the special effects, although the constant use of back-projection is hokey now (some professional critics said it was hokey then!) and I have no idea why the actors are all so stiff and unappealing. I guess with a $5-million-or-more budget on the line, 20th Century-Fox couldn't ante up the extra cash for frivolity. **1/2 from ****