Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301744164
Format: Color
ISBN: 6301744160
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: 1997-02-11
Running Time: 100
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 1966-08-24

2001: A Space Odyssey took the world on a mind-bending trip to outer space, but Fantastic Voyage is the original psychedelic inner-space adventure. When a brilliant scientist falls into a coma with an inoperable blood clot in the brain, a surgical team embarks on a top-secret journey to the center of the mind in a high-tech military submarine shrunk to microbial dimensions. Stephen Boyd stars as a colorless commander sent to keep an eye on things (though his eyes stay mostly on shapely medical assistant Raquel Welch), while Donald Pleasance is suitably twitchy as the claustrophobic medical consultant. The science is shaky at best, but the imaginative spectacle is marvelous: scuba-diving surgeons battle white blood cells, tap the lungs to replenish the oxygen supply, and shoot the aorta like daredevil surfers. The film took home a well-deserved Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Director Richard Fleischer, who turned Disney's 1954 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea into one of the most riveting submarine adventures of all time, creates a picture so taut with cold-war tensions and cloak-and-dagger secrecy that niggling scientific contradictions (such as, how do miniaturized humans breathe full-sized air molecules?) seem moot. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Rating:
Summary: The real inner-space
Comment: I think this film has aged well considering that it is a special effects driven movie from the 60s it still manages to work and captivate today. An important scientist with knowledge the US army needs has had an accident and suffered brain damage. A group of five are shrunk down inside a submersible ship to travel through the scientist's body so they can fix the damage. One of them may be an assassin. There is lots of interesting places that they visit in the body and set designs are enormous. Fantastic voyage keeps your attention throughout and is good fun through and through especially the last six minutes that should keep you on the edge of your seat. Memorable and worth watching again and again.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The third great science fiction film of the 1960's
Comment: Sci-fi fans will, more than likely, consider two films from 1968 as being the best of the genre: "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Planet of the Apes. To that duo, however, I would like to add "Fantastic Voyage," from two years earlier and also from Twentieth Century Fox, the studio that released "Planet" and its sequels.

As fans and film buffs know, "Voyage" tells the tale of a special team miniaturized in order the save a dying scientist from a life-threatening blood clot, the result of an assassination attempt on his life. The film boasts then-state-of-the art special effects, an Oscar-worthy score from Leonard Rosenman, and the anatomical assets - appropriately for a film about biology - of Raquel Welch. So impressive are the sets that they were reused many times for Irwin Allen TV shows.

In addition to Ms. Welch, the cast is rounded out by film veterans Stephen Boyd, Donald Pleasance, Arthur O'Connell, and Arthur Kennedy. William Redfield fills out the rest of the crew as the ship's navigator.

In honor of the fortieth anniversary of the film, the special edition has two great commentary tracks, providing not just information about the production about the film but insight into science fiction television and movies of the era.

Inasmuch as Ms. Welch is the only surviving member of the cast - with the exception of James Brolin who has a bit part as a technician - it would've been most appreciated if she had been featured with her commentary about the making of the film. However, this disc receives a five-star rating, even with the omission of Welch's viewpoints.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A classic not to be missed
Comment: If you have ever visited EPCOT Center at Disney World in Florida, you might have visited the pavilion where one of the favorite rides allows visitors to take a trip, not to outer space but to the inner space of the human body.

This movie provides a rare view to the circulatory and respiratory systems of our anatomy. The plot starts with a scientist arriving in the USA to deliver the secret formula for a weapon that would give us the edge in the race for technological power.

The enemy tries to murder him and he falls into a coma because a blood clot is lodged in the brain and may kill him. Our scientists set out to save his life and through miniaturization they are injected into the blood stream to travel towards the blood clot.

You will enjoy a very young Raquel Welch playing the part of the medical assistant to the doctor in charge of the operation. Donald Pleasance delivers an excellent performance as the claustrophobic brilliant scientist who constantly provides insight as to the wonders of the human body.

The process is simply brilliant and we get to see surgeons that scuba dive through human blood, oxygen from the lungs used to replenish the ship's supply, travel through the heart, and an escape through the tear duct.

We simply loved this film and hope you take the time to watch it. For a movie created in 1966, this was definitely ahead of its time!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Voyage - A fantastic memory of the 60's
Comment: Fantastic Voyage was a good (four star) sci-fi film made smack dab in the middle of the 60's. The story line was authored by Isaac Asimov and made a good transfer to film. I couldn't think of a much more representative sci-fi film of the cold war years and this film had all the trappings.

I won't describe the story line except to say that it predicted a very improbable form of what we today call "nano-technology". It was, nevertheless, very entertaining and featured good actors of the day and very decent special effects which just managed to pull off the plot visually.

The plot involved some impossible technology to shrink an entire medical team and submarine designed for a crew compliment of about six, in order to perform brain surgery with a medical laser. This was an inside job and required suspending disbelief to the point of severe strain as the crew and sub were reduced to the size of a blood cell and injected into the patient.

I am out of my depth but this must have violated several of the classical laws of nature like conservation (of matter, energy, reactants and products, direction of entropy change) as well as some of newer ones in particle physics. However, it was all in the name of entertainment and it is true that an atom is mostly "empty" space.

This film came at a time of relative calm and stability in my life during which I was going through engineering school. One Saturday night, while studying for some tests, my parents asked me if I would like to go out with them for dinner and possibly see a film.

A night out with my parents to see a sci-fi film is something I would remember since my father (who was a diesel engine mechanic and pretty hard headed) had never taken me to the movies except for this particular film! This was about as unexpected a pleasure as I could imagine as going out with my parents did not cause me any problems even when I was a young man.

The movie appeared to be a hit with everyone including my hard headed father. My mom, of course, could always be counted on to appreciate a good flick as we had made a habit of going to the movies together since forever.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: excellent old sci-fi
Comment: This is an excellent 60"s sci-fi film. It was done with intelligent thinking and the special effects are great for that time.

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