ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

So I just watched FV for the umpteenth time, and enjoyed it as I always do.

Couple of things occurred to me on this latest viewing that I hadn't pondered before.

In the scene where the crew are in the ear, there's a loud noise from the operating room which causes severe reverberations inside the ear to the crew, three of whom are outside the Proteus at the time.

Cora (Raquel Welsh) is sent spiraling into some stuff & becomes trapped.

She has to get out of there before the antibodies arrive and attack her as an invading foreign organism.

Our hero, Stephen Boyd, swims down and rescues her and they both make a mad paddle back to the Proteus.

Boyd opens the ship's bottom hatch but just then the antibodies show up and envelop Cora.

But only Cora.

Boyd is right next to her but they ignore him totally.

Wouldn't antibodies attack him just as well?

In the rousing finale we see Donald Pleasance trapped in the pilot seat of the Proteus as antibodies descend upon the plastic bubble located just over the pilot's seat.

Boyd enters the ship & attempts to rescue him but is too late.

The antibodies envelop Pleasance.

Boyd and the Proteus pilot then quickly exit the vessel.

Except the antibody must have dissolved the plastic bubble to eat Pleasance. So if that bubble is gone the entire Proteus would be flooded immediately.

Yet, we see Boyd & the pilot head for the exit hatch in a basically dry ship after the death of Don.

Still and all, a terrific SF movie.

I'm astonished that this came out in 1966 and no studio has produced a sequel. With today's phenomenal visual effects available a reboot is long overdue.

[Bud Brewster]

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Interesting comments, Mike! It really got me thinking about that movie.

[Pow]

Interesting explanations, Bruce.

I did not recall that dialogue regarding the explanation about Cora being marked & targeted. Makes sense.

However, I would submit that Boyd's untangling of Cora from that material would have marked him too. He's reaching right into it in order to extract Cora, he must have been marked, at least to some degree.

I suppose the corpuscle could have so filled the Proteus dome when it came through it so as to not let any human body fluid to seep inside.

It's just that I always though that corpuscles were somewhat porous so that fluid would still seep through in this case.

Perhaps not as a flood all at once, but something would be entering the ship.

[johnnybear]

What was Asimov's explanation for the ship not killing Benes in the book?
JB

[Krel]

[Pow]

Was there any medical explanation given as to exactly why the CMDF could not inject the Proteus & crew directly into the head of Benes?

Or at least closer to the brain where they had to operate, rather than starting off being injected into the neck?

Of course if they had done that, then we'd end up with a film where the interior body scenes would have lasted five minutes.

[Krel]

Remember, the Doctor that picked their point of entry and course was an enemy agent. He picked an entry site he knew had the crossed veins, where he hoped the Proteus would be destroyed. Failing destruction there, the longer course gave him time to plot an alternate plan.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

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Hey, I never realized that. Thanks!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

So was there ever an explanation as to what exactly happened to the microscopic nuclear fuel that powered the Proteus?

Our intrepid voyagers escaped via the tear duct as they were beginning to return to their normal size. We saw the Proteus was being eaten by the antibodies on screen.

But would the nuclear fuel, as tiny as it was, be able to be digested by the bodies defenses? If not, then what would be the repercussions to the scientist Benes?

[scotpens]

[Bud Brewster]

[johnnybear]

I might be wrong but what if it was only human tissue that expanded after that time and not the Proteus? Maybe the ship — not being organic — could be shrunk or grown larger only when the ray struck it? I've probably forgotten some of the dialogue, but it's possible I guess...
JB

[Bud Brewster]

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Interesting idea, JB!

However, if the non-organic matter remained miniaturized at the end of the movie, the characters would have expanded . . . while still wearing their microscopic wetsuits, crushing them before they even became visible!

Or (on a more optimistic note), the suits would rip apart, and they'd all be standing there stark naked! Now THAT would be a climax!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

What gets me is the incredibly small atomic fuel chamber. The Proteus is not a large submarine, but to be fueled by something about the size of a Coke can is quite remarkable.

David.

[scotpens]