Wonkette Movie Night: Fantastic Voyage
'Yet all the suns that light the corridors of the universe shine dim before the blazing of a single thought...'
The 1960s was a great decade for fans of science fiction.
Movieweb ranks Fantastic Voyage at number six on their top 13 list of best sci-fi from the decade that also brought psychedelics, great rock & roll, and civil upheaval. Science fiction is often reflective of the times as the ‘50s saw quite a number of foreign invasions from interplanetary beings, mirroring the red scare and fear of nuclear war the nation found itself gripped in.
The ‘60s themes continued with that fear of nuclear war but also a sense of exploration and imaginings of where science could take us, with a healthy dose of fear about science gone too far. Fantastic Voyage headed in the opposite direction of outer space and into the human body. It tapped into the fears of the Cold War and a need for science to solve problems as well as deal with the problems that science had created.
Many of these films were male-centric with a pretty woman thrown in the mix as eye candy, someone to be rescued and for the men to fight over for her affections. Fantastic Voyage is no different in that aspect. It showcases the amazing Raquel Welch in a tight scuba suit, shrinking her with a group of men who must help the United States beat the Russians in a scientific race.
This was Raquel’s first movie role and helped propel her to stardom.
Our heroes are shrunken to the size of a microbe inside a mini submarine (Proteus) and injected into the body of a man to heal him. A man whose mind holds the secret to that very shrinking process. The Russians have gotten the process to last an hour, but the man who has figured out how to make it last indefinitely is in a coma after an assassination attempt. Now a miniaturized sub is inside him looking for a blood clot.
This is where we discover there’s some scary monsters living inside our bodies, monsters that protect us from the inside. As the team in the mini sub battles the body’s defenses and possibly a saboteur in their midst, the clock clicks down until they have only an hour before they return to normal size. That would be messy, to say the least. Which provides for a suspenseful and thrilling story, with surprisingly good special effects for 1966.
A movie entirely based on the world within ourselves, the highways of arteries and veins on which the Proteus travels. It explores a hidden world of the brilliance of our bodies to maintain life.
It’s also a great song!
Fantastic Voyage is available for free with ads on Daily Motion. $3.99 in the usual places.
Fantastic Voyage stars Raquel Welch, Stephen Boyd, Donald Pleasance, Edmund O’Brien, Arthur Kennedy, William Redfield, Arthur O’Connell, and Jean Del Val. Directed by Richard Fleischer.
To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules go to WonkMovie.
The animated short is Powers of Ten. Written and directed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1977. Thanks to Phried Ω for the recommendation.
Our next Movie Night selection is The Imitation Game, available with subscription on Hulu. Free with ads on Daily Motion. $3.99 in the usual places.
𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐔𝐒 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐀:
When filming the scene where the other crew members remove attacking antibodies from Raquel Welch for the first time, director Richard Fleischer allowed the actors to grab what they pleased. Gentlemen all, they specifically avoided removing them from Welch's breasts, with an end result that Fleischer described as a "Las Vegas showgirl" effect. He pointed this out to the cast members - and on the second try, the actors all reached for her breasts. Finally, Fleischer realized that he would have to choreograph who removed what from where, and the result is seen in the final cut.
I got myself an infused joint (Jelly Rancher Moon Walker, I mean the name alone...) for extra enjoyment of this flick. I have eaten my popcorn and enjoyed a shot or 2 of vanilla vodka.