Ackland Film Forum: Fantastic Voyage (1966)

Directed by Richard Fleischer (Soylent Green, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) and featuring Raquel Welch in her breakout role, Fantastic Voyage is a Jules Verne-style science fiction adventure film adapted for the Cold War era. Instead of dreaming of trips to the moon or the ocean depths, scientists are seeking to perfect the miniaturization of the atom. When the story begins, scientists can miniaturize atoms, but the effect lasts for just one hour. A Soviet scientist has devised the solution to permanent miniaturization and escapes to the United States with this knowledge. Before he is able to make it to the lab, he is shot and develops a brain clot that is inoperable. A team of pilots, surgeons, and scientists, including Welch, volunteer to be miniaturized, along with their ship, aptly named the Proteus, and go into the scientist’s body to operate on the clot. Like much of mid-century science fiction, Fantastic Voyage provides a mix of fabulous set designs, retrograde gender politics, and a heady optimism for the future.

Take a journey into the brain, and the Soviet-crazed world of 60s sci-fi with Fantastic Voyage (1966).