Product Description

The adventure of a lifetime occurs not in the outer reaches of space, but inside the human body. An elite team of medical and scientific specialists race to save a top government scientist who is suffering from a blood clot on the brain. Their mission: be reduced along with their submarine-like craft to microscopic size, enter the bloodstream of the ailing scientist, and journey to the brain to perform an emergency procedure. With only sixty minutes to complete their mission, the scientist find themselves fighting off an attack by white corpuscles, caught in a tornado-like storm in the lungs, and struggling to survive sabotage from one of their own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11248 in DVD
• Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
• Released on: 2007-06-05
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Color, Dubbed, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 100 minutes

Features

• Scientist Jan Benes, who knows the secret to keeping soldiers shrunken for an indefinite period, escapes from behind the Iron Curtain with the help of CIA agent Grant. While being transferred, their motorcade is attacked. Benes strikes his head, causing a blood clot to form in his brain. Grant is ordered to accompany a group of scientists as they are miniaturized. The crew has one hour to get in B

Amazon.com
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 Reviews

Terrific reissue from Fox of sci-fi Cold War gem
Fans of 60's science fiction will appreciation the deluxe terrific reissue of "Fantastic Voyage" put out by Fox. While very much a product of the mid-60's, "Fantastic Voyage" holds up surprisingly well in just about every area. I doubt that fans need a recap of the plot but I have one at the end of this review if you're interested.

First up we get a brand new marvelous looking transfer for the film. It isn't perfect but it couldn't be because of the source material. Some shots appear soft and a bit blurry due to the process photography/visual effects added to shots but that's unavoidable and fairly typical of films from this time before digital video. Colors are bold and as bright as I remember them.

Unlike the previous release we get some really good extras as well. The featurette on visual effects has Richard Edlund ("Close Encounters", "Blade Runner") discussing the difficulty of shooting a visual effects film like "Fantastic Voyage" in 1965 (it was releasedin 1966). Like "Forbidden Planet", "Fantastic Voyage" pushed the barrier of visual effects for its times something NOT appreciated by a lot of viewers. Edlund points out that building the Proetus both in full size and miniature allowed director Richard Flesicher opportunities that most directors wouldn't have in being flexible in his shooting. Also, the Proetus full scale exterior had an interior set mimicing the set for the inside of the ship which allowed them to shoot through the windows and not worry about having to do mattes as often creating a convincing environment.

We also get an isolated music score with a commentary track as well featuring Nick Redman, Jon Burlingame and Jeff Bond discussing Leonard Rosenman's marvelous music score. They are quiet about 40 minutes in when Rosenman's score kicks in but the first 40 minutes these music/film historians focus on everything from the casting, to bits of trivia about the shooting of the film. We also get storyboard to film comparison of the whirlpool scene as well as a deleted scene from the script with storyboard illustrations. The electronic press booklet includes the original press booklet. My only complaint is its a bit too small to read at times even on a big screen TV but otherwise looks quite good. We also get some of the movie-tie-in's including a mention of Isaac Asimov's novel adapted from the script (where he fixed some of the holes in the script and science gaffs). We get lobby cards, posters, radio and TV ads as well as the original theatrical trailer. The interactive portion of the gallery also allows us a 360 view of the 5 foot model of the Proetus as well as its smaller (just a couple of inches)version used for long shots and designed for visual effects mattes.

Fox has done a very nice job on this 40th Anniversary Edition (even if it is a year late)of this classic Science Fiction film. Sure, the dialogue is occasionally awkward but it's a film very much of its time and holds up remarkably well with strong performances by Stephen Boyd, Donald Pleasance (in one of his first roles as a villain), Arthur Kennedy, Raquel Welch and others.

***
Plot: Set during the Cold War, Grant (Stephen Boyd) is called in to escort Jan Benes (Jean Del Val) a man with information vital to the safety and security of the United States. When their motorcade is attacked, Benes is injured and goes into a coma. Grant is again recruited this time to accompany a team of a surgeon (Arthur Kennedy), government doctor (Donald Pleasance), nurse (Raquel Welch) and Navy pilot (William Redfield) on a journey of tiny proportions. They are going to be miniaturized be injected into Benes and travel in a state-of-the-art sub called the Proteus to destroy the blood clot threatening Benes life. Complications arise, however, when it appears they may have a saboteur in their midst.

Great for the time period-phooey!Great, period!
After all these years, it's sad to see what science fiction has become. There was a time when sci-fi movies had a modicum of "sci" in them, not to mention intelligent storylines and suspenseful situations that rose directly out of the premise.The science in FV is sound--the makers of the film did their sophomore biology homework, as well as their basic physics homework.I show this to my grade-school students, as an example of 'good science fiction', and as an entertaining part of learning about various body systems.The visual effects are breathtaking and still convincing, even in this era of CGI.Lots of fun!

Often-overlooked classic finally gets its due on DVD
FANTASTIC VOYAGE has always puzzled me a bit. Well, not the movie itself, but the seeming lack of critical or popular accolades it has been given. Growing up in the seventies, I recall it was a staple of "All Nite Movies" on the only channel we received that stayed on all night. And the film was just a marvel to my young eyes: A team of scientists, including the incomparable Raquel Welch, is miniaturized and injected into the bloodstream of a comatose patient. What follows is a colorful and thrill-packed journey inside the human body. The crew of the Proteus encounters the body's natural defense systems, nearly gets smashed by the awesome force of the beating heart, and has to repair damaged blood vessels in the brain.

Doesn't that sound great?

It is, but like I said, for some reason the film is rarely talked about, even among hardcore classic science fiction fans. Be that as it may, 20th Century Fox is finally giving this often-overlooked film the deluxe treatment. Previously availabe in a double-feature disc with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - Global Warming Edition--which is also getting a bonus-filled overhaul to coincide with this release--Fantastic Voyage can now be enjoyed and appreciated with a wealth of supplemental materials.

Except for the theatrical trailer, all the extras included on this disc were created especially for this release. There's a documentary on the film's production, audio commentary track, isolated music track, and a cool feature (comprised of both video and still picture segments) on the film's props.

Whether, like me, you're revisiting some great childhood memories, or just discovering this intelligent and exciting film for the first time, this is one VOYAGE worth taking.