User reviews

"Fantastic Voyage" follows a surgical team of three scientists: Dr Peter Duval, the top brain surgeon in the country (Arthur Kennedy); Cora Peterson, his technical assistant (Raquel Welch); Dr Michaels, chief of the medical mission (Donald Pleasance), plus the skipper of the ship (William Redfield) and Grant (Stephen Boyd) the security agent for security purposes...

The sealed vessel—The Proteus—is reduced down by a secret branch called CMDF (Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces) and injected into one artery of a defecting Russian scientist who has suffered brain injury and he's in a coma from an assassination attempt... The crew must navigate to the scientist's brain (within exactly 60 minutes) where Dr Duval will attempt to dissolve the coagulum with a laser beam… After that everything starts growing back to its original size…

"Fantastic Voyage" is a film of authentic wonder: An ocean of life, the corpuscles, the heart, the lungs of the human body through which the crew move are exquisitely designed in great detail with artistic quality...

The plot creates unceasing moments of suspense as the ship and its crew are continually threatened by the scientist's natural defenses: white corpuscles, reticular fibers, antibodies and other factors… Leonard Rosenman's futuristic score nicely complements the adventure on screen with the strange sound of the human blood rushing through arteries, veins, rhythmical muscular movements, and of course, the sabotage occurred on board…

With two Oscar Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Art Direction, 'Fatastic Voyage' is certainly the most unusual journey into the human body, where the 'medieval philosophers were right. Man is the center of the universe. We stand in the middle of infinity, between outer and inner space. And there's no limit to either.'

The premise of "Fantastic Voyage" seemed very unlikely in 1966, however in 2002 I'm not so sure.

The story concerns a top secret miniaturization program being developed by the Americans and concurrently by "the other side". A scientist from the other side has the secret of counteracting the situation where the miniaturization effects wear off after one hour. Unfortunately, the scientist receives a brain injury in an assassination attempt. This results in General Carter (Edmond O'Brien), the commanding officer of the project deciding to "send in" a team of experts miniaturized, to the injured man's brain to repair the damage.

The team consists of Drs. Duval (Arthur Kennedy) and Michaels (Donald Pleasance), Pilot Capt. Owens (William Redfield) and the romantic leads, Grant (Stephen Boyd) and the ever lovely Raquel Welch as Duval's assistant. Assisting O'Brien as a medical expert is Arthur O'Connell as Col. Reid. Of course, as in most film's of this type there is the inevitable fifth columnist aboard. The acting is good, particluarly the performances of veterans Kennedy, Pleasance, O'Brien and O'Connell.

The real star of the "Fantastic Voyage" are its amazing special effects. Filmed long before today's computerized digital effects, this film still makes believable, the illusion of a team of people being injected into a person's bloodstream. To fully appreciate the effects the viewer should see it in its widescreen format.

Watch for James Brolin in a small role as one of the lab technicians. And if you get bored, there's always (snort, pant, drool) Raquel in her form fitting diving suit.

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.

Fantastic Voyage boasted great special effects for its day. It also is a neat fantasy thriller being a race against the clock with a saboteur on board.

Agent Charles Grant (Stephen Boyd) has been bought in fo a secret mission. Jan Benes is a scientist who has been injured while escaping from Russia. He has a blood clot on the brain.

In order to save Benes life. American scientists will miniaturize a nuclear submarine, inject it into Benes' body and fix the clot. They have 60 minutes to do this before the submarine returns to its normal size.

Grant is warned that the surgeon Dr Duval might also be an assassin. Once they get inside the body, it is a bumpy ride and nothing seems to go according to plan.

Director Richard Fleischer manages to stay on the right side of camp. The film takes a while to get going but once inside the body, it is a nicely crafted and well paced movie with lots of suspense.

Raquel Welch is suitable eye candy. The special effects as the submarine goes through the bloodstream has a psychedelic touch. It is just a shame that the villain is a little too obvious.

This film was originally introduced to me at about 8 or 9 years of age on a Saturday afternoon and it quickly became a favorite of mine. This film tells the story of a brilliant scientist who is injured on his way to offer the U.S. military some much needed info for miniaturizing people and objects and allowing them to stay in the miniature state beyond the now 60 minute time limit the military is faced with. With a top-notch cast that includes; Stephen Boyd, Edmond O'Brien, Donald Pleasence and Raquel Welch as the medical Dr.'s and scientists that are miniaturized and injected into the scientists body in an effort to repair a wound that can't be fixed through the usual means. The effects in this film are truly amazing and make for a lot of fun as the sub/crew journey through the body and face problems along the way, especially as they are attacked as foreign bodies by the scientist's own natural defense system. If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing this little gem, by all means find it and rent it and if it's been a while, why not revisit this film, I'm amazed at how well it stands up, even after almost 40 years since it's release.

Richard Fleischer's film is uncommonly good fun and might have been even more enjoyable had the leads not been played by Stephen Boyd and Raquel Welch. (In this movie they are supposed to be brainy medical scientist-type people; Boyd is a top security bod and Boyd is an actor who doesn't look comfortable in a suit). It's pretty hard to take the supporting cast as brainy scientist-types either, (that will be Edmond O'Brien, Donald Pleasence, Arthur Kennedy and Arthur O'Connell), but the plot is ingenious.

A scientist is brain-damaged before he can reveal his secret. The only way to save his life is to operate, wait for it, from inside the brain and the only way to do that is to, wait for it, miniaturize a submarine with said scientists on board and inject it into an artery where it will travel to the source of the problem and remove the clot with a laser beam and all within sixty minutes or said sub and its crew will start to grow again. OK, so it's deliriously silly but that's why it's so enjoyable. The whole cast act with the straightest of faces; as far as they are concerned this could be Shakespeare, (let's be grateful it isn't, although O'Brien was once a commanding Casca).

Never having been inside a human body, (and stop snickering at the back), I can't say if the 'set design' is accurate or not but it certainly looks the part and the designers and the special effects guys did pick up Academy Awards for their efforts. Excitement is provided largely by having a saboteur on board and from some very nasty antibodies that see the submarine as a threat and leap to the body's defense. (Oh, and it prompted one of my all-time favorite reviews in Time Magazine that went, 'When a body meets an antibody coming through the eye ...')

An important diplomat is dying, Scientists hatch a plan to miniaturise a submarine team, and send them inside to attempt to carry out a life saving procedure.

I had all but forgotten about this film, and haven't seen it for years, as I watch it, it's almost sixty years old, it truly was original, ambitious, and way ahead of so many films at the time, and many more that followed.

There is plenty of wonderful, incomprehensible gobbledegook throughout, all of it is said with absolute sincerity, equally crazy and zany are the wonderfully trippy special effects.

It's still an impressive looking film, and I don't just mean the special effects, but the sets and costumes are all quite elaborate, credit to the production team for being so bold and creative.

Fans of Raquel Welch will enjoy seeing her here I'm sure, I came here because of Donald Pleasance, one of those actors I could watch in anything.

Definitely worth a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

8/10.

This sci-fi adventure is unlike all that came before it. A great visual movie takes your mind off of the script. The special effects will keep you more than interested. A vanilla coke and large popcorn doesn't last long during this adventure. A precision medical team is reduced to microscopic size to journey through a dying man's blood stream to repair brain damage.

The special effects take top billing, but some pretty fine stars are featured: Donald Pleasence, Arthur O'Connell, Edmond O'Brien, Arthur Kennedy, Stephen Boyd and a vivacious Raquel Welch, with the obligatory strip down to wet suit scene. Look for a small role played by James Brolin.

The movie begins with the splendid credit titles , when an important scientist rescued from behind Iron Curtain is on the verge of the death and a medical and engineering team (Stephen Boyd , Raquel Welch , Donald Pleasence , William Redfield , Arthur Kennedy) attempt to save him . The group is miniaturized by the scientific team (Edmond O'Brien , Arthur O'Connell and an almost extra James Brolin as a technician) and injected into his body by means of a submarine named Proteus to locate and eliminate a blood clot . In order to complete its mission , the bunch has to navigate through cavernous bodily organs as well as overcoming an attempt at sabotage by one of the crew . Throughout travel inside his body they find themselves threatened by the wounded's natural defenses .

This big budget film packs action , suspense , thriller and lots of excellent award-winning special effects by L.B Abbott . Magnificent sets reflecting inside the human body with circulatory system , lymphatic system , white globules , anti-bodies , lungs , ears , all supervised by a medic team . The picture contains spectacular music score fitting to action by Leonard Rosenman and colorful cinematography by Ernest Laszlo . The motion picture was correctly directed by Richard Fleischer . He's a veteran director , recently deceased , filming adventure classics (Vikings , 20.000 leagues under sea) and noir cinema (Narrow margin , Clay pigeons , Trapped). The eighties comedy , ¨Innerspace¨ by Joe Dante , has a likeness premise , both of them are set inside the human body , uniting similar settings in space and beneath the sea , it involves a Navy test pilot being accidentally injected into the body of geeky store Clerk . Rating : Good film , better than average and well worth seeing.

Fantastic Voyage, Quickie Review Out of this set of Quickshots, this is arguably the most "classic" film. It's well known, it was creative, it was all fancy-schmancy, it's in color… It was about this guy that's super important and requires an emergency operation—one that can only be accomplished by taking a team of specialists, shrinking them down inside an equally shrunk "submarine" and injecting it into him so they can make a farciful, er, fantastic voyage to the problem in his brain. Wherein they're going to use a snazzy laser to blast away the problem (which is a clot or tumor or something). Well, the film is largely done in "real-time" and follows the crew as they have an hour of misadventure and endless difficulty in finding their way to the brain. Why an hour? Well, after that, they re-big-ulize inside the comatose dude.

Well, I'm sure that for the time, the special effects here were just awesome. But now, by god, they're pretty awful. What we have is a collection of "acid trip" cinematography somewhere cross between 2001: A Space Odyssey and a lava lamp. For whatever reason, the inside of the human body is awash with the color blue. And rather than specific terms, an awful lot of stuff is referred to as "corpuscles." Occasionally, the imagery is pretty neat, but a lot of it doesn't make much sense. Apparently, the inside of the human body is filled with some sort of atmosphere somewhere between liquid and gas as our heroes spend a lot of time "swimming" through open areas. Also laughable is the technology on hand. Who knew something as complex as shrinking a bunch of people down to travel inside the human body could be done without a drop of actual technology? Instead of futuristic TV/Computer screens, we have mirrored reflectors a la an overhead projector in a high school. The best we have is "extremely futuristic" black and white images which make up the maps of the human body with a little light in the background showing, apparently, the position of the craft. Needless to say, time has not been kind to this film. The writing is occasionally nerve-rackingly inane and the atmosphere is painfully light. To top it all off, the film kind of drags and it occasionally pretty dull. To add insult to injury, Raquel Welch never really wears anything revealing or body-hugging! For SF purists or film buffs only.

Nostalgia Score: 7/10, Modern Score: 2/10, Overall: 4/10 (www.ResidentHazard.com)

To enjoy this movie one must turn off their brain as soon as the theme tune of 20th Century Fox starts . The whole set up is very hard to swallow - A scientist who know the secret of miniaturization is injured by commie assassins and now lies in a coma due to a blood clot on the brain and only by miniaturizing a submarine type capsule and sending both it and its crew through an artery can both the scientist and free world be saved . It's never actually explained as to why miniaturizing is such a radical development for espionage or warfare . Think about it does this mean you can infiltrate the Kremlin by sending an envelope containing a miniaturized army ? Seeing as the enemy are aware of the process they can easily protect themselves against this - By running a rolling pin over all incoming mail . And wouldn't shrinking someone to the size of something little bigger than an element kill them anyway due to the changes in mass ? Wouldn't air pressure alone kill any miniaturized person ? And wouldn't it have been a good idea to vet the crew to find out if any of them were claustrophobic before sending them on their mission ?

You understand what I'm saying don't you ? The ideas and plot devices presented are entirely laughable because of their nature , that's why I told you to stop thinking about it . If you manage this you've got a pretty enjoyable escapist fantasy once it gets started . You realise that if the capsule crew go on an uneventful journey we wouldn't have much of a movie so we find obstacles at every corner involving detours , anti-bodies and a traitor within and if none of this gets you excited how about Raquel Welch in a really tight costume ? What do you mean she hasn't been given any decent lines ?

Every time "Fantastic Voyage" comes on TV, I turn it on expecting it to be better. Better than what? The standard sci-fis 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 ****

This movie holds up after nearly 35 years. The TV version is often chopped up for commercials and the print muddy, but if you can get a good video or see it on a premium movie channel, Fantastic Voyage will still produce a sense of wonder as you navigate "inside" an injured man's body with a team of intrepid explorers to find and repair microscopic damage. Some of the Cold War aspects of the film might jar, as well as a 35-year-old vision of "high tech", but the spec effects of the journey of the PROTEUS through the human vascular system was years ahead of its time.

At the time of release, I was crazy about FANTASTIC VOYAGE. Seeing it again, years later, there are lots of reservations but it still deserves a huge amount of credit for the overall originality of the plot wherein a group of scientists are turned into microscopic size in order to be injected into the body of a Czech scientist whose brain must be saved from a blood clot.

It's an inside look at the lungs, ears and other assorted arteries of the upper body as the scientists attempt their mission in a one hour span because after that they revert to normal size. Needless to say, what they thought might be a ten minute salvage operation turns out to be much more perilous and time consuming. Once inside the body, the story evolves in real time, so the suspense is heightened.

Some nifty players do their best to make it all seem convincing and, on the whole, they do a creditable job. That includes RAQUEL WELCH, ARTHUR KENNEDY, DONALD PLEASANCE and STEPHEN BOYD. Unfortunately, the story moves a little too slowly, a factor which modern audiences will probably find detrimental to this kind of tale.

Summing up: May not be quite as satisfying for today's audiences who have seen everything in the way of science fiction, but in its time it was considered quite original and won Oscars for art decoration and special effects.

To answer everyone's question about how did Issac Asimov resolve the Proteus issue at the end of the movie; in his novelization of the film (which is a very good sci-fi book on its own), the sub comes out with everyone else in the teardrop along with "a very surprised white blood cell." The scene with Donald Pleasance gave me chills when I saw it as a child and having recently seen it again, it still is creepy. I think this is due to Pleasance's performance more than anything else. I do have to say that seeing Stephen Boyd being driven around the LA Sports Center (subbing for the top secret research center; they had to have everything removed by 5:30 in the afternoon the week they filmed there because sporting events were going on at night) in a golf cart seemed a bit silly but I guess that showed how important he was. With these kinds of films, one has to ignore all certain types of questions about how come this did or didn't happen when the scientists did this and just relax and enjoy it.

I found this very interesting in parts and very boring in others....and that was awhile ago. With today's faster-paced movies, I would probably find this too much on the boring side today. The same holds true for the special effects: great in its day, nothing that much today.

This movie features a well-known cast but feels like a 'B' science-fiction film. A couple of decades later, they made another version of this called "Inner Space," and that was more interesting. I think another re-make would be appropriate about now in the mid 2000s. With today's technology, it would look spectacular. That's the problem with movies that rely heavily on special effects: they get dated quickly.

This movie might have been "fantastic" in the mid '60s, but not now.

Back in 1966, long, long before the world was turned upside down and inside out on Sept. 11, the world was a very different place. The movies were quite different and science fiction pictures depended more on good writing and less on special effects. Partly because the phrase "computer generated" was years away. In 1966, 20th Century Fox released a very clever, well-written and innovative movie called, "Fantastic Voyage". The on-screen foreword informed the viewers that they were going to be taken to a place that no one had been before, and see things that had been, until that point in time, never been seen by human beings. I'm sure that this film had its fair share of technical advisors putting in a lot more than their 2 cents worth to make sure that the film accurately depicted human anatomy. The plot... A scientist, Jan Benes, has defected from behind the Iron Curtain, has, with the help of Grant, one of our top CIA operatives. Benes has decided to give his expertise with Miniaturization to the US. The "other side" has no choice but to try to kill him before he can breathe a word of it. The assassination attempt is made, but Benes barely survives, falling into a coma. After the movie's credits finish rolling, Grant is brought to a secret, gov't location. There, he meets Gen. Carter, who is in charge of the CMDF - Combined Miniature Deterent Forces. They can shrink anything; cars, planes, tanks, people way down in size, thus enabling them to become unseen military weapons. The problem: both sides have this capability. Another problem is... there is a time limit. They can only stay miniaturized for 60 minutes. After that the object or person automatically starts to grow. Benes had the answer to this problem, but he will need special medical treatment to regain consciousness. That's where Grant and a special team of doctors, technicians and such will have to go into action. After Grant meets the rest of the team, the surgeons in charge, Dr. Duvall and Dr. Michaels go over their plan to remove the blood clot in Benes' brain. They will board a special Navy submarine, called The Proteus, be miniaturized and injected into Benes' body by hypodermic needle. Naturally, the crew runs into Murphy's Law and a job that was expected to take 10 to 15 minutes takes much, much longer. The ending in the movie differs quite a bit from the book written by Isaac Azimov (I know because I read it... twice), and there are a number sub-plot twists that made me shake my head, but seeing Ms. Welch in that wet suit made it more than worth while. I consider this movie to be one of my very favorite sci-fi/fantasy flicks from the '60s. If you haven't seen it yet, for whatever reason, I can suggest you spend the 100 minutes with some very fine actors, some of whom are no longer with us, such as Stephen Boyd (Grant), Edmund O'Brien (Gen. Carter) and Arthur O'Connell who was in charge of the medical team, and others like Arthur Kennedy (Dr. Duvall), Donald Pleasence (Dr. Michaels) and last but not least, the ever-beautiful, Raquel Welch as Cora Peterson, Dr. Duval's technical assistant. One last thought.... if this movie was remade with present-day technology, i.e. computer generated imaging and the like, there's no telling how it would dazzle the viewers' eye.

I saw this movie as a child and loved it. It's nearly 20 years ago and it has always stayed in my mind. It captivated my eyes. It has developped my imagination. - After seeing this movie I 've always been thinking that there could be a whole new universe inside the things we are seeing. - I recommend it if you like original sciences-fiction movies. - - Vincent

This is an good movie to show as an anatomy lesson. They made a few gaffes, but by and large, stuff is accurate. And I will admit that for the 60s, the special effects are phenomenal. But the plot drags (especially the beginning--how long can you watch something shrink?) and has holes, and the acting is horrible. Raquel Welch's character Cora has three basic tasks: to stand around looking pretty, to occasionally hand something to her boss, and to every once in a while do something that requires her to scream "Help! Somebody please help!" Still, I suppose that's more tasks than the other characters. Grant just stares at the camera in a grim and determind way, Dr. Duval recites inspirational quotes like he's reading them off a calendar positioned outside the window, and Dr. Michaels sits around being bald and muttering darkly in an accent.