☆ ☆ ☆
Fantastic Voyage (1966) – R. Fleischer
High concept science fiction that sees
intrepid travellers suit up and head not for outer space but instead for “inner
space”: after a scientist is nearly assassinated, a team is miniaturised (yes!)
and sent into his bloodstream in a special submarine to destroy a blood clot in
his brain. Donald Pleasance is the
doctor on board in charge of the mission (run by military command personnel,
Edmond O’Brien and Arthur O’Connell back in the lab) which also includes
neurosurgeon Arthur Kennedy and assistant Raquel Welch, submarine captain
William Redfield, and the hero, communications officer Stephen Boyd (who is
also charged with determining whether there is an enemy agent hidden on the
team). Of course, the main attractions
here are the special effects – can it really be true that this film was shown
to medical students because of its accurate depiction of the body (specifically
the circulatory system)? It seems a rather
quaint set of analogue camera tricks and set design now (in line with the “futuristic”
computers and technology). It probably
comes as no surprise that all of the various dangers in the body due make an
appearance: a trip through the pulsing
heart and the windy lungs, attack by antibodies and later the dreaded white
corpuscles, the booming inner ear. I
found the film a bit slow (it is in real time – the team will only remain
miniaturised for 60 minutes and the clock is ticking) but Amon (aged 7) had a
lot of questions and seemed absorbed by the onscreen action.
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