Fantastic Voyage

Fantastic Voyage is the spectacular 1966 science fiction film about a team of scientists who are miniaturized to microscopic size and injected (inside an experimental submarine) into a wounded scientist in order to repair a blood clot in his brain—from the inside. Starring Stephen Boyd, Arthur Kennedy, Raquel Welch and Donald Pleasance, the movie is an Oscar-winning landmark in art direction and special visual effects.

Fantastic Voyage is the spectacular 1966 science fiction film about a team of scientists who are miniaturized to microscopic size and injected (inside an experimental submarine) into a wounded scientist in order to repair a blood clot in his brain—from the inside. Starring Stephen Boyd, Arthur Kennedy, Raquel Welch and Donald Pleasance, the movie is an Oscar-winning landmark in art direction and special visual effects.

Leonard Rosenman's score is equally groundbreaking: an avant garde effort which stands as one of the composer's most distinctive and powerful compositions. Rosenman took the unique approach of leaving the first five reels of the film completely unscored, beginning his music at the exact moment when the adventurers witness the sights inside the human body for the first time.

From that point on, the score is a riot of impressionistic, dissonant colors and an eerie, plaintive central theme that brilliantly characterizes this journey into a world never before seen. Rosenman was able to create distinctive grinding double bass effects for the interior of the heart; raging, chaotic music for attacks by antibodies and white corpuscles; crystalline, mysterious passages for the interior of the human brain; and a stunning, suspenseful climax as the adventurers confront a saboteur in their midst. The final few minutes are a tonal resolution which may remind listeners of the conclusion of Star Trek IV; some of Rosenman's other film credits are East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause (starring his former piano student, James Dean), Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and Lord of the Rings.

Never previously available in any form, the original Fantastic Voyage score has been completely remixed in stereo from the original 35mm magnetic film elements, and the album opens with the distinctive suite of sound effects from the 20th Century Fox library which serves as the movie's main title.

The 16-page color booklet includes an introduction by Leonard Rosenman, rare photos from the 20th Century Fox archives, and production notes and track-by-track descriptions by Jeff Bond.

Line: Silver Age
CD Release: September 1998
Catalog #: Vol. 1, No. 3

About the Composer

Leonard Rosenman (1924-2008) was an accomplished 20th century American composer with a major career in film and television. He was an up-and-coming New York concert composer when his friendship with James Dean lead to his groundbreaking 1955 scores for East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause; his score for The Cobweb that same year is acknowledged as the first to be based on twelve-tone music. His other film projects include Fantastic Voyage, the 1978 Lord of the Rings, Cross Creek and Star Trek IV; his television work includes Combat, Marcus Welby, M.D. and Sybil. Rosenman made no apologies for his modernist style and was outspoken about using his film projects as testing grounds for concert works. IMDB