The Cold War inspired
a genre of technology-race movies.
Fantastic Voyage was novel in that it was about reduction technology. Then
add to that the concept of seeing the human body from the inside on a cellular
level—fantastic is the word. Audiences came to see how ingenious Hollywood
could be in depicting the human anatomy with all its functions. This movie often
played on television when I was growing up. What little kid wouldn’t be excited
about seeing a submarine journeying through veins? The Proteus was rather cool-looking
for the day. I loved the cool glass dome on the roof and the big fins. I wasn’t
concerned about the Cold War aspects of the film. For me it was all about the cool-looking
stuff, the giant cells, what they did, and the lasers. There have been a lot of
other reduction sci-fi films over the years—some of them pretty good, like Inner Space. But nothing beats Fantastic Voyage as a classic that
influenced pop culture. I wanted this strip to reflect my childlike excitement
for Fantastic Voyage.
Winner of two Academy
Awards.