MovieChat Forums > Fantastic Voyage (1966) Discussion > The Proteus?[Possible spoilers]

The Proteus?[Possible spoilers]

posted 20 years ago by rudeboy8080
12 replies | jump to latest

Possible spoilers:

Is it just me or was the ending to 'Fantastic Voyage' abrupt? Isn't the Proteus still stuck in that guy's brain at the end of the film? There's also the issue of the Proteus returning to its normal size after 59 minutes or so. I think there was a parody of 'Fantastic Voyage' on 'Eek! The Cat': In Eek's timeline, Ross Perot managed to become President of the United States and he gets a raisin jammed in his brain! Eek and his friends are put in a small vessel and reduced to microscopic size to remove the raisin. After removing it, Eek and his friends make it back to the macroworld, but the sub is still inside Perot's head. A giant lump that resembles the sub bulges out his head.
I wonder if the makers of 'Fantastic Voyage' thought about this before they subjected us to the abrupt ending?

[–] larryman 20 years ago

When last we seen the Proteus the antibodies were disolving it (and the sabateur doctor inside it). We would have to assume 'dissolved' equals non-resizable.

[–] NukeyShay 20 years ago

That is correct. The screenplay revisits the old bean the next morning...and the only thing he complains about is a slight pain in one eye ;)

[–] seashellz 20 years ago

I believe in the novel, the crew coaxes the antibodies full of the wreckage to follow them to the eye for removal while still small-and they are taken out to re-grow-wreckage and all-

Even if the antibody had digested the sub to jelly-after 60 minutes the pile of jelly would have grown back and exploded inside of Benes' brain and killed him- as a massive pile of ooze the size of the former sub.

[–] NukeyShay 20 years ago

Oops...you are correct. The novel (written off of the screenplay) does say that all of the wreckage reverted back to original size on the pad.

[–] nsdd_spike 19 years ago

There's also the 5 to 10 gallons of water. The sub was miniaturized to the size of a pea, then placed in a giant syringe. The syringe at the time held 5 to 10 gallons of water. Then the syringe (containing the water and the sub) was miniaturized until the sub was the size of a cell. Then, the 5 to 10 gallons of water plus a sub and crew were injected into the patient. By my logic, after the hour was up, even if the sub and crew were removed in time, ewww.

[–] FilmBuffFromNYC 19 years ago

Maybe this is why they never say whether Benes survived the procedure? Am I the only one who was bothered by THAT little oversight? (I know it's said in the book and screenplay, but I'm talking about the film as it's viewed, not read on the internet)

[–] dodgercodger 19 years ago

As noted in the trivia section, Issac Asimov had several problems with plot holes -- just two examples (another being, just what was the external light source while they were in the body?)

Also, in the book, when the crew has to resupply their oxygen, they must miniaturize it before pumping it into the sub's tanks. There was a miniature miniaturizer on board (some foresight, eh?)

[–] kinetica 18 years ago

There are just too many inconsistencies, BUT that does not keep the effort from being enjoyable, JUST keeps it from being emulated.

Ticks Ticks thousands of ticks, and not one blessed TOCK among them!

[–] flyer333555 17 years ago

Not the water. That would have been expelled as pee. All comatose patients are put on a foley catheter, which is a pipe up/down? your urethra and connected to a bag. Although all of a sudden all that water expanding may have caused that bag to explode.

You do not mention that there is a possible chemical imbalance as the water expands. That could also kill the patient. Although in an operation of that kind the docs may have been able to deal with that possibility...

[–] racroen 16 years ago

nsdd_spike: "There's also the 5 to 10 gallons of water...."

In the book, Asimov explained that too. The team in the operating room used their tracking apparatus to track the position of the sub in the syringe, and slowly squeezed out the water until the sub was in the needle, just inside the tip. Then they injected the sub with that high-precision manipulator waldo, getting as little of the stuff into Benes' bloodstream as they could manage.

Asimov thought of everything. His explanations weren't always believable (a miniaturizer on board the Proteus? dragging a white blood cell toward a tear duct?) but at least he addressed the plot holes.

[–] scotbpens 15 years ago

It was a white blood cell (or macrophage), not antibodies. Two completely different things.

All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?

[–] Yorick_Brown 17 years ago

The white blood cells ate every bit of the ship.

"Just scratching around for something to believe in. Something to believe in..."

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