The most groundbreaking sci-fi journey of the 60s is still worth streaming
Pa Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Watch enough science fiction and you’ll come across a few themes that every series eventually touches on, from And then they were not there episode of the mysterious murder bottle to the evil twins or parallel universes. Among these topics is the recently somewhat forgotten but once popular idea of ​​a miniature journey into the human body.
Long before Mrs. Frizzle boarded the magical school bus at one of her students’ and Futurama the crew went into the bowels of Fry, A fantastic journey explored the inside of a Soviet defector. The film won numerous awards, has an all-star cast, and to this day provides the visual language for every movie or TV show you’ve seen that takes place in the circulatory system.
Where no one has gone before
Released in 1966. A fantastic journey it is a technical marvel. The film’s original trailer announced it as “a new kind of moviegoing,” and this time it wasn’t hyperbole. It was a fact.
In order to save the life of Soviet defector Dr. Benes, who invented the science of miniaturization, a crew of five board the submarine Proteus. The sub and its crew are then reduced to the size of a microbe (one-tenth the size of a human cell) and tasked with trying to remove an inaccessible blood clot.
The journey to the destination is through the unknown universe in the human body. It’s a place filled with things never seen before, and they only have one hour to survive.
The crew performing the dive consists of brain surgeon Dr. Peter Duvall (Arthur Kennedy), his assistant Cora (Raquel Welch in her debut role), circulatory specialist Dr. Michaels (Donald Pleasants), Captain Owens (William Redfield), Proteus pilot and, finally, CIA agent Charles Grant (Stephen Boyd). The grant was sent by the United States Combined Miniature Deterrence Force (CMDF) to prevent another attempt on the life of Dr. Benes. Which of course is exactly what happens.
All you have to do is look at the cast and you know exactly who the traitor is now, but this was a year before Donald Pleasance made his debut as James Bond’s nemesis, Blofeld. It was a turn on at the time.
Trippy’s visual showcase
A traitor aboard the Proteus adds to the tension as diversions begin to emerge, but the story could have been about saving lives without the Cold War subplot and would have been just as good. A fantastic journey at its best, the crew explores the inside of Dr. Benes’ body, traveling through the circulatory system through the heart, which must be stopped to allow them to pass safely.
They travel to the lungs to collect oxygen, to the ear and even through the nervous system. Each new body part is another amazing visual platform for the cast, and while yes, the special effects are incredibly rudimentary compared to the VFX showcases of today’s blockbusters, there’s a kitschy appeal to the ‘antibodies’, which are clearly thick blobs of thread that are thrown by members of the film crew from off-screen.
The backgrounds and visual effects of Proteus moving around the body were enough A fantastic journey winning an Oscar for Best Visual Effects and a runner-up for Best Art Direction, which is now known as Best Production Design. It was a deserved win, and even with the 60s special effects, the creepy leukocytes look like monsters from outer space rather than a necessary functional part of the human body.
A must see genre film
As innovative and revolutionary as A fantastic journey was visual, it’s the story that reveals conflict and danger in the simple act of exploration that helped it become a genre-defining film. Isaac Asimov, one of the the greatest writers of science fiction of all time wrote a novelization of a film that came out before the film. It made the audience believe A fantastic journey was an adaptation when, in truth, the film was developed first.
Asimov was a bit disappointed by some of the science behind the film. While he honored this in the novel, he continued to write a sequel, Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brainwhich was more scientifically accurate.
today, A fantastic journey stands out as the turning point of the science fiction films, exploring an entirely new setting that had never been done on such a scale before. History focused on exploration and discovery than Hollywood movies were replacing even back then aliens and monsters. A simple plot, but at least it was no external conflict, the timer tracking just one hour to complete the mission added enough tension to make it compelling all the way through.
You can stream A fantastic journey today via Video on Demand via Amazon Prime, AppleTV, Google Playand Fandango is at home. It’s worth the trip.
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