A second problem is the antibodies. We just studied the immune system in my classes, so the kids would probably pick up on that error - antibodies don't just spontaneously appear to attack a new pathogen. There's a substantial lag time between exposure and the production of antibodies. On top of that, the antibodies are seen almost as mindful agents seeking out the intruder - which simply isn't the case. Lastly, the wetsuits worn by the scientists are all the same material, so how is it that the antibodies only attack Raquel Welch and not the others? Of course it's a great excuse to have four men clawing at her breasts to remove the antibodies before she suffocates.
Then there's the problem of the cytoskeleton. At the size they have been reduced to, antibodies are clearly visible, about the size of a hand. At such a scale, the cytoskeleton, not to mention other blood proteins, would be a bit of an obstacle. As it is, the cells are portrayed as a thin, fragile, almost gelatinous film with little more than water inside. So many other little details that don't work from a scientific point of view, it might be fun to watch it just to let the kids point them out in class.
On a positive note, there is an interesting trip through the heart, the lungs, the inner ear, a look at lymph vessels, and the depiction of blood vessels as a tunnel of cells, which is pretty cool.
As the title of the post implies, however, there's the other more sinister aspect of the film, the classic cold-war anti-communist propaganda element. Part of it is overt - the Soviets and Americans are in a race to master the whole miniaturization technology for military purposes (see silliness article again). The patient in the movie has the information on how to overcome the time limit (60 minutes, to the second apparently) and he's coming to the US with the secret. Of course he is then the target of an assassination attempt by Soviet operatives that leaves him with a brain injury, leading to the "fantastic voyage" to save him with a laser surgical procedure to remove a blood clot.
More understated (for it's time), is how the villain is depicted and contrasted with the good doctor who will do the actual operation. Our villain, obvious from the beginning with his bald head and British accent, is the paragon of the rational scientist. He has little time for waxing poetic about the human body and offers instead Darwinian explanations (the horror!) for the wonders of the human body. The good doctor has other ideas, and the other hero of the movie, sent along for security purposes and suspecting a saboteur on the mission, forms a bond with the doctor as they quote together passages from literature extolling the virtues of the almighty creator and his creation. Although his sympathies are suspect in the beginning of the movie, we know when he starts spouting this crap (the human mind is finite, incapable of comprehending the infinite), that he can't be a commie. He's on our side. It's the atheist who is easily corrupted without an absolute moral compass to guide him. Appropriate, then, that he is in fact the ship's navigator. The ship goes off course almost from the beginning and his plans for proceeding are at several critical junctures overridden by the rest of the crew. Communist atheism was also part of the revulsion Americans felt toward the Soviet Union and much of the rabid anti-communism from the right grew out of this fact. Then it's a short walk from Darwin to Stalin among the religious right and their intellectual co-dependents.
So I'll try to find a way to skip all the garbage and show some of the interesting bits.
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