SYNOPSIS...

A scientist is shot, and develops an inoperable brain clot. A government security man and a medical team are shrunk down and injected into the scientist's blood stream.

The mini-team cruises through the blood stream. Along the way, the surgical laser gets damaged, they run low on oxygen, and they race through the scientist's temporarily stopped heart.

Running out of time, and about to return to their normal size, the mini-team zaps the scientist's brain clot with the lazerbeam, then exit via his tear ducts.

REVIEW...

With FANTASTIC VOYAGE, Director, Richard Fleischer, working from a Screenplay by Harry Kleiner, (Adaptation by David Duncan, based on a Story by Otto Klement and Jay Lewis Bixby), created a gripping, Sci-Fi tale that has held up surprisingly well over the years.

Enroute to a secret U.S. location, a scientist, under the watchful eye of government security man, Stephen Boyd ("The Caper of the Golden Bulls") is shot. Soon, inside the secret facility, a military guy, Edmond O'Brien ("The Wild Bunch") explains to G-Man Boyd what the C. M. D. F., printed on the wall, stands for: "Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces." "We can reduce anything down to any size we want: people, ships, tanks, planes. We can shrink an army, with all its equipment, put it into a bottle cap."

The scientist, who was shot, is in a coma, with a blood clot in his brain, which can not be operated on by conventional means. Therefore, O'Brien intends to shrink down a surgical team, and a special submarine, and inject them into the ill scientist's bloodstream. O'Brien asks for Boyd's help. Boyd doesn't understand how he can help. As he puts it, "Me, I can't even put a bandaid on my finger." Boy, this guy is useless.

Boyd's job is to provide security during the upcoming mission, since a traitor may be aboard the shrunk sub. It's unfortunate that Donald Pleasence ("Escape From New York") as the head of the medical mission, is so twitchy and panicky in his performance. It's too easy to figure out who the traitor is on the mission, thereby undercutting some of the film's suspense.

The submarine is a gleaming white affair, with a small plexiglass dome on top. The white sub has an impressive, futuristic design.

Raquel Welch, ("The Three Musketeers"), as an assistant to a laser scientist, looks great in a wet suit. Her performance here added considerably to her "body" of work.

The scene, involving the submarine, with our heroes inside, being shrunk down to super-miniature size, is very effective. Special Photographic Effects guys, L.B. Abbott, Art Cruickshank, and Emil Kosa, Jr., are the responsible parties. This is my favorite scene in the film.

Director of Photography, Ernest Laszlo, aided by the imaginative Art Direction, of Jack Martin Smith and Dale Hennesy, and creative Set Decorations, of Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reise, delivers consistently eye pleasing imagery, both in the miniaturization lab as well as in the human body itself. The Music, by Leonard Rosenman, is appropriately dramatic.

FANTASTIC VOYAGE should be highly watchable for most Sci-Fi fans. All these years later, a journey into inner space is still an interesting trip to take. Bring your wet suit!