The fantastic journey
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The fantastic journey |
| Original title | Fantastic voyage |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 101 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Fleischer |
| script |
Harry Little , David Duncan |
| production | Saul David |
| music | Leonard Rosenman |
| camera | Ernest Laszlo |
| cut | William B. Murphy |
| occupation | |
| |
The Fantastic Journey is an American science fiction film from 1966. The film was released in German cinemas on December 23, 1966.
The film is about a group of people who, together with a submarine, shrink themselves and allow themselves to be injected into a Czech scientist who defected from the Eastern Bloc in order to be able to perform a complicated brain operation.
action
In 1965, the Czech scientist Dr. Beneš to the west. An attack was carried out on Beneš during the action. From the injured scientist, the deadly blood clot that has formed in his brain cannot be removed conventionally.
However, a new development that allows machines and even people to be downsized to the size of a microbe offers the possibility of removing the blood clot from the inside. A special submarine and its crew will be reduced in size so that it can be inserted into the patient's bloodstream with an injection needle . The two physicians Dr. Michaels and Dr. Duval, Duval's assistant Cora Peterson, Captain Bill Owens as pilot, and Agent Grant. This is to prevent the supposedly working for the opposite side from Duval carried out an attack on Beneš during the operation.
The operation must be carried out within 60 minutes and man and machine must be outside the body after the time has elapsed, since after one hour both the crew and the boat automatically enlarge again. This would attack and destroy them by Beneš's antibodies .
The crew experiences a fantastic journey through the inside of the human body. Some dangerous situations arise when driving through the bloodstream. A fistula in an artery impedes progress and forces a detour through the heart. The laser rifle used to remove the thrombus is damaged by a possible act of sabotage, but it can only be repaired in a makeshift manner. The boat is attacked by antibodies, and when one is finally in the inner ear, a pair of accidentally dropped scissors in the operating room acts like an earthquake for the miniaturized people . The boat loses oxygen through a leak. In order to create a balance, air is drawn from Beneš's lungs. In doing so, Grant, who was driven into his lungs due to his torn safety line, can only barely save himself on board.
Shortly before the 60 minutes were up, the crew finally arrived in Beneš's brain. It turns out that Dr. Michaels is the one who works for the other side and who apparently carried out the two acts of sabotage. Now he wants Dr. Do all possible to prevent Duval from performing the operation. However, this can successfully remove the thrombus. Dr. Michaels kidnaps the submarine and wants to inflict a fatal injury on Beneš's brain. In the process, Grant's submarine is severely damaged with the laser rifle. Meanwhile the time has run out. Antibodies start attacking the submarine and the crew. Trapped in the submarine, Dr. Michaels falls victim to them. The rest of the crew, however, can escape into the eye via the optic nerve, where they are rescued, swimming in a tear.
Reviews
“A science fiction film that is technically highly remarkable in terms of both content and the time it was made. Original, exciting entertainment. "
"As elaborate as the preparatory work, the buildings and the special effects were, the actual script and the actors' management would not have been more careful."
"Naive utopian adventure film, mediocre in design and rather boring than stimulating due to the spread of philosophically disguised platitudes."
Awards
- Oscar 1967 for special effects
- Oscar 1967 for production design
Nominations
- Oscar 1967 for Best Editing
- Oscar 1967 for Best Cinematography
various
- The film was based on a story by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby .
- Based on the script for the film, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov wrote a book that was released six months before the film. Many therefore believe that the film is based on a story by Asimov.
- When asked what happened to the submarine that was left behind, Frederik Pohl ( Science Fiction Studies in Film ) writes that the producers hoped the audience wasn't smart enough to ask this question. Isaac Asimov wrote in his memoir “In Joy Still Felt” (New York 1980): When the film was over, my daughter Robyn immediately turned to me and said: 'The ship shouldn't have to get bigger now and kill the man 'Daddy?' - 'Of course, Robyn,' I said, 'but you only realized that because you are smarter than the average Hollywood producer. After all, you're eleven already. ' (Quoted from Ronald M. Hahn; Volker Jansen: Lexikon des Science Fiction Films, Heyne, Munich 1983 (Heyne-Buch; 01/7236), ISBN 3-453-01901-6 , p. 394). In the book for the film (IA, Die phantastische Reise, Munich 1983), Asimov consequently changed the ending in which the submarine, which is attacked by the white blood cells, is also taken out of the body via the eye fluid. Shortly after the question of the abandoned submarine came up, the producers offered the explanation that the antibodies had finally completely destroyed the submarine - and thus the enlargement effect could no longer occur.
- In 1968, ABC produced an animated series based on the idea of the film.
- Alternative title: Microscopia and Strange Journey
- The creators of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center's animated film "A Window Into Life", which was awarded the 2008 Visualization Challenge by the science magazine Science , let themselves be seen in their pictures of dividing cells and proteins inspire the film The Fantastic Journey .
- The film was first broadcast on German television on December 11, 1970 from 10.45 p.m. on ZDF .
Remakes
The idea of letting shrink people wander through a human body was implemented even more often in the film. On the one hand in Die Reise ins Ich (1987) by Joe Dante and in On the Hunt for the Kidney Stone (1997) by Vibeke Idsøe . A remake was Antibody (2002). A 3D film adaptation of Die phantastische Reise is currently in preparation; James Cameron is said to be the producer.
The idea was also taken up by the makers of Doctor Who as part of the 4-part episode The Invisible Enemy broadcast in 1977 .
The episode The Fantastic Journey of the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants refers to the film, as does the Simpsons Halloween episode Four Beheadings and a Death and the Futurama episode In the Realm of Parasites .
Web links
- Fantastic Voyage in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Review on filmzentrale.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ The fantastic journey. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 11, 2016 .
- ↑ Jörg C. Kachel, in: Filmgenres: Science Fiction / Ed. By Thomas Koebner . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003 (Universal-Bibliothek; 18401), ISBN 3-15-018401-0 , p. 173.
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 32/1967
- ↑ Isaac Asimov: In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1954–1978 . Avon, New York 1980, ISBN 0-380-53025-2 .
- ↑ Video: "A Window Into Life" , Travis Vermilye, ( Shockwave required)
- ↑ "Visualization Challenge 2008: Winner and Placed" , Spiegel Online , September 26, 2008
- ^ Filmlexikon and Spiegel.de .
- ↑ "James Cameron is working on a 3D remake" ( Memento of the original from December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from December 11, 2009 on filmstarts.de
