Posted by Jonathan Klotz | Published
Watch enough science fiction, and you’ll find a few themes that every series ends up playing on, from And Then They Were Not killing a piece of the mysterious bottle in the evil twins or parallel universes. Among those topics is the recently-forgotten but once-popular idea of a tiny journey into the human body.
Long before Ms. Frizzle took the Magic School Bus and entered one of his students once Futurama the staff entered Fry’s bowels, A Wonderful Journey inspected the interior of the Soviet defector. The film won multiple awards, featured a star-studded cast, and, to this day, provided the visual language for every movie or television show you’ve seen that goes into the circulatory system.
Where No One Was Before
Released in 1966, A Wonderful Journey it is a technological marvel. The movie’s first trailer announced it as “a new kind of movie experience,” and for once, it wasn’t an exaggeration. It was true.
In order to save the life of a person who rebelled in the Soviet Union called Dr. Benes, who invented the science of miniaturization, a crew of five people board the submarine Proteus. The sub and its crew are then reduced to the size of a microbe (one-tenth the size of a human cell) and tasked with trying to remove an inaccessible blood clot.
The journey to their destination takes them to an unknown place inside the human body. It’s a place full of things never seen before, and they only have one hour to survive.
The diving team includes brain surgeon Dr. Peter Duval (Arthur Kennedy), his assistant, Cora (Raquel Welch in her first role), circulatory specialist Dr. Michaels (Donald Pleasance), Captain Owens (William Redfield), Proteus’ pilot, and finally, CIA Agent Charles Grant (Stephen Boyd). Grant was sent by the Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces (CMDF) of the United States to prevent another attempt to kill Dr. Benes. Which, of course, is what happens.
All you need to do is look at the characters, and you know exactly who the traitor is now, but this was one year before Donald Pleasance appeared as James Bond’s arch nemesis, Blofeld. At that time, it was a twist.
Trippy Visual Showcase
The traitor on board the Proteus adds to the tension as the acts of destruction begin to escalate, but the story could have been about saving lives without the Cold War subplot, and it would have been great. A Wonderful Journey it gets even better when the team examines the inside of Dr.’s body. Benes, it goes through the circulatory system of the heart, which must be stopped so that it can pass safely.
They go to the lungs to collect oxygen, enter the ear, and even the nervous system. Each new body part is another amazing playground for the characters to explore, and while yes, the special effects are minimal compared to the VFX shows of modern blockbusters, there is a kitschy appeal to the “immune” that are almost thick pieces. thrown by team members off-screen.
The backgrounds and visual effects of Proteus walking around the body were enough A Wonderful Journey to win an Oscar for Best Visual Effects and a second for Best Art Direction, now known as Best Production Design. It was a deserved win, and even with the special effects of the 60s, the scary white blood cells look like monsters from deep space instead of a necessary, functional part of the human body.
A Must-See Genre-Defining Movie
As groundbreaking and revolutionary as A Wonderful Journey it was visually, it’s story, finding conflict and danger in a simple act of exploration, that helped make it a genre-defining film. Isaac Asimov, one of the greatest sci-fi writers of all time, wrote the remake, which came out before the movie. That led the audience to believe A Wonderful Journey it was the adaptation where, in fact, the film was first invented.
Asimov was a little frustrated with the science of film. While honoring it in the novel, he went on to write a sequel, saying, Fantastic Voyage II: The Brain of Spacethat was more scientifically accurate.
Today, A Wonderful Journey stands out as a revolution in sci-fi movies by exploring a brand new setting that has never been done on this scale before. The issue focused on exploration and discovery, something that Hollywood films, even at the time, had replaced with aliens and monsters. A simple structure, but even if it was there no external conflict, the timer ticking only one hour to complete the campaign added enough tension to compel the whole way.
You can stream A Wonderful Journey today on Video on Demand via Amazon Prime, AppleTV, Google Play, and Fandango at Home. It’s worth the trip.
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