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''Innerspace'' is a 1987 American
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
directed by
Joe Dante Joseph James Dante Jr. (; born November 28, 1946) is an American film director. His films—notably ''Gremlins'' (1984) alongside its sequel, ''Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990)—often mix the 1950s-style B movie genre with Counterculture of th ...
and produced by
Michael Finnell Michael Finnell is a film producer active from the 1970s in film, 1970s to the present. He has produced several horror film, horror-comedy films, particularly with the director Joe Dante. Finnell worked for the American producer Roger Corman befo ...
, inspired by the 1966 film ''
Fantastic Voyage ''Fantastic Voyage'' is a 1966 American science fiction adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Harry Kleiner, based on a story by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby. The film is about a submarine crew who is shrunk to microsco ...
''. The film stars
Dennis Quaid Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his starring roles in '' Breaking Away'' (1979), '' The Right Stuff'' (1983), '' The Big Easy'' (1986), '' Innerspace'' (1987), '' Great Balls of Fire!'' (1989), ' ...
,
Martin Short Martin Hayter Short (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian and American comedian, actor, and writer. Short is known as an energetic comedian who gained prominence for his roles in sketch comedy. He has also acted in numerous films and television ...
, Meg Ryan,
Robert Picardo Robert Alphonse Picardo (born October 27, 1953) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the Doctor on '' Star Trek: Voyager''. He also appeared as Richard Woolsey in the ''Stargate'' franchise, the Cowboy in '' Innerspace'', Coach ...
, and
Kevin McCarthy Kevin Owen McCarthy (born January 26, 1965) is an American politician who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 55th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from January until he was Remova ...
. ''Innerspace'' was released in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
by
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
The film received positive reviews from critics, grossed an estimated $95 million worldwide, and won an
Academy Award for Best Visual Effects The Academy Award for Best Visual Effects is presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the best achievement in visual effects. It has been handed to four members of the team directly responsible for creatin ...
, the only film directed by Dante to do so.


Plot

In
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, aviator Lt. Tuck Pendleton resigns his commission and volunteers for a secret miniaturization experiment. He is placed in a submersible pod and both are shrunk to microscopic size. They are transferred into a syringe to be injected into a rabbit, but the lab is attacked by a rival organization that plans to seize the experiment and steal the miniaturization technology. Experiment supervisor Ozzie Wexler escapes with the syringe, and a chase ensues. At a nearby shopping mall, one of the rivals' henchmen, Mr. Igoe, shoots Ozzie. To stop the experiment from falling into the rivals' hands, the wounded Ozzie injects Tuck and the pod into an unsuspecting passerby - Safeway grocery clerk Jack Putter. Unaware of what has happened, Tuck believes that he has been injected into the rabbit. After attempts to radio the lab are unsuccessful, he navigates to the
optic nerve In neuroanatomy, the optic nerve, also known as the second cranial nerve, cranial nerve II, or simply CN II, is a paired cranial nerve that transmits visual system, visual information from the retina to the brain. In humans, the optic nerve i ...
and implants a camera to see what the "host" sees. Realizing that he is inside a human, he makes contact by attaching another device to Jack's inner ear, enabling him to talk to Jack. Before the pod runs out of oxygen, Jack must help extract Tuck by going back to the lab. At the lab, the scientists explain to Tuck and Jack that the other group stole one of two computer chips that are vital to the process. Their mastermind is Victor Scrimshaw. Jack contacts Tuck's estranged girlfriend, Lydia Maxwell, a reporter who has had dealings with "the Cowboy," one of Scrimshaw's henchmen. They learn that he plans to buy the computer chip from Scrimshaw and stake out his hotel. After following him to a nightclub, Lydia seduces him. Jack follows Lydia and the Cowboy back to the hotel and knocks the latter unconscious. Tuck then uses the pod's equipment to control Jack's facial muscles, altering his features so he looks like the Cowboy. Lydia and Jack, posing as the Cowboy, meet with Scrimshaw to steal the chip from him. However, as they are about to take possession of it, Jack's nervousness overrides his transformation, exposing the scam. Igoe captures Lydia and him, and takes them to their laboratory. While imprisoned, Jack and Lydia kiss, which, unknown to them, transfers Tuck into Lydia's body through their saliva. Once taken to the laboratory, the criminals shrink Igoe and inject him into Jack to locate Tuck, kill him, and obtain the other chip that is attached to the pod. Jack and Lydia soon free themselves and order everyone in the laboratory, including Scrimshaw and scientist Dr. Margaret Canker, into the miniaturization device at gunpoint. Not knowing how to operate it, though, they accidentally and unknowingly shrink everyone to half their original size while trying to retrieve the chip. Tuck, now inside Lydia, finds a growing baby and realizes that she is pregnant with his child. By going to her eardrum and playing their song, he manages to alert them of what has happened. Jack and Lydia kiss again to transfer him back. They drive back to the lab to enlarge him, not realizing that the shrunken Scrimshaw and Canker have escaped and are hiding in the back seat. While they attempt to subdue Jack and Lydia, Igoe locates Tuck in Jack's
esophagus The esophagus (American English), oesophagus (British English), or œsophagus (Œ, archaic spelling) (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, see spelling difference) all ; : ((o)e)(œ)sophagi or ((o)e)(œ)sophaguses), c ...
and attacks him. Tuck disables Igoe's craft and the latter is killed when Tuck drops him into Jack's stomach after agitating Jack's anxiety to increase his stomach acid. At the lab, with only minutes of supplemental oxygen left in the pod, Jack follows Tuck's instructions to eject it from his lungs by making himself sneeze due to his hairspray allergy. Tuck and the pod are enlarged, and he is reunited with Lydia and finally gets to meet Jack in person. At Tuck and Lydia's wedding, held at
Wayfarers Chapel Wayfarers Chapel, or "The Glass Church" is a disassembled chapel designed by Lloyd Wright and originally located in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The chapel had unique organic architecture sited on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean. Affiliate ...
, Jack is Tuck's best man. Tuck wears the chips as cufflinks. When they climb into the limousine, the Cowboy is shown to be the driver, and the shrunken Scrimshaw and Canker are hiding inside a suitcase in the trunk. Jack informs his abusive manager that he quits and jumps into Tuck's car, pursuing the limousine to rescue the newlyweds.


Cast

In addition, the film's director, Joe Dante, has an uncredited cameo as a Vectorscope employee, while Short's '' SCTV'' cast mates
Joe Flaherty Joseph Flaherty (born Joseph O'Flaherty, June 21, 1941 – April 1, 2024) was an American actor, writer, and comedian. He is best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy '' SCTV'' from 1976 to 1984 (on which he also served as a write ...
and Andrea Martin have cameos as waiting-room patients.
Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, painter, voice actor and filmmaker, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He ...
and Rance Howard appear briefly as grocery shoppers in one scene.


Production

The film began as an original script by Chip Proser, who called it "basically a rip off of ''Fantastic Voyage''. My idea was that the big guy was up and moving around and could react to what was going on inside." The script was optioned by Peter Guber at Warner Bros. in 1984. Guber offered the script to Joe Dante, who turned it down. Guber then had the script rewritten by Jeffrey Boam as a comedy. Boam says, "The idea was kind of ridiculous, which was a person miniaturized and put into someone else's body. That's all I kept from the original script. They originally thought it might be
Michael J. Fox Michael Andrew Fox (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian and American actor and activist. Beginning his career as a child actor in the 1970s, he rose to prominence portraying Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom ...
inside
Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder, known for his roles in high-profile action films. Governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger, ...
's body. I actually kept turning it down, and they were persistent and kept coming back to me." According to Dante, Boam "approached it ... from the concept of what would happen if we shrank
Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, and comedian. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of ...
down and injected him inside
Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian, with a career spanning seven decades in film, stage, television and radio. Famously nicknamed as "Th ...
." Dante says that Steven Spielberg had become involved on the project as an executive producer and he may have been responsible for the comedy. "It was such a goofy idea that there were no limits to it," said Boam. "I felt I could do anything, and so the script I wrote was very loony and far out there but everybody loved it. Dick Donner, Joe Dante, John Carpenter and even Steven Spielberg wanted to do it. So when Steven wanted to do it, Warners thought I was a God and any amount of money it would take to do the movie they would spend. Steve ultimately decided he only wanted to produce so Joe came along and really latched on to the idea." Quaid's role was originally envisioned to be played by an older actor, but then they decided to make the character younger. Dante recalled during filming scenes where Quaid and Short's characters interacted, "Dennis would be on the set in a booth, so the interaction was really happening. Dennis would hew to the script a little more than Marty. After you got a scene in the can, he'd beg for more takes, in the voice of
Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress whose Katharine Hepburn on screen and stage, career as a Golden Age of Hollywood, Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong ...
, which was hard to resist." Dante says Spielberg would "protect you from the studio and sometimes from the other producers. It was a very filmmaker-friendly atmosphere over there t Amblin You got all the best equipment and all the best people and all the toys you wanted to play with. Plus, you had somebody on your side who was also a filmmaker and they knew exactly what you were talking about when you had a problem or you had a question." "It's a dumb, stupid comedy, which is exactly what people need in the summertime," said Quaid. "It's very idiotic and I love it. We encounter every dumb, stupid cliché in the book. Leave your brain at home and you'll have a good time." Meg Ryan met Quaid on set and they later married.


Awards

*1988
Academy Award for Best Visual Effects The Academy Award for Best Visual Effects is presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the best achievement in visual effects. It has been handed to four members of the team directly responsible for creatin ...
, Won ( Bill George,
Dennis Muren Dennis Muren, A.S.C (born November 1, 1946) is an American film visual effects artist and supervisor. He has worked on the films of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron, among others, and has won nine Oscars in total: eight for Bes ...
, Harley Jessup and
Kenneth F. Smith Kenneth F. Smith is a special effects artist. He works at ILM as well. He also won 2 Academy awards. Oscars Both films were in the category of Best Visual Effects * 55th Academy Awards-'' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''. Award shared with Carlo ...
) *1988 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films: Best Director, Best Science Fiction Film, Best Special Effects, nominated


Reception


Box office

The film grossed $25.9 million in the United States and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
, generating $14 million in
theatrical rental A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is frequ ...
s. Internationally, it grossed $32.7 million in its first 37 days and was expected to gross $75 million ($30 million in rentals). It eventually returned $28 million in rentals, for a worldwide total rentals of $42 million and a worldwide gross in the region of $95 million against a budget of $27 million.


Critical response

The film had a positive reception from critics.
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'' gave the film 3 stars out of 4, stating "Here is an absurd, unwieldy, overplotted movie that nevertheless is entertaining - and some of the fun comes from the way the plot keeps laying it on". Proser later said, "I never actually have been able to sit through it all at once. They don't pay me to watch this crap. Like H. L. Hughgly, I wear a mask to cash the check."Interview with Chip Proser (Adopt a Writer)
, by Paul William Tenny; at MediaPundit.net; published February 18, 2008; retrieved March 26, 2024
Joe Dante later said the film "was a hit on video. It was one of the first big videos, and it was discovered on video, basically. Although audiences liked it in theaters—when I went, they were in stitches—the ad campaign was so terrible for that movie. It was just a giant thumb with a little tiny pod on it. You couldn't tell that it was a comedy—you couldn't tell anything—and it had a terrible title, because we could never figure out a better one. And the studio botched the selling of it. I mean, they liked the movie, and they tried to reissue it, even, with a different campaign, and it still bombed." "It's been looked back on as if it was some great success whereas, in fact, it was pretty much a disappointment in its day," he said. Dante later called the film "probably the movie that I had made up to then that was the closest to my intention. As a result, I was very happy with it. When I look at it today I still think it's a tremendous amount of fun."


Notes


See also

* List of films featuring miniature people


References


External links

*
Interview with Dennis Quaid from the ''Innerspace'' press junket
at
Texas Archive of the Moving Image The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) is an independent 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2002 by film archivist and University of Texas at Austin professor Caroline Frick, PhD. TAMI's mission is to preserve, study, and exhibit Texas film ...
{{Academy Award Best Visual Effects 1987 films 1987 comedy films 1987 science fiction films 1980s American films 1980s English-language films 1980s science fiction comedy films Amblin Entertainment films American science fiction comedy films English-language science fiction comedy films Films about size change Films directed by Joe Dante Films scored by Jerry Goldsmith Films set in San Francisco Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area Films that won the Best Visual Effects Academy Award Films with screenplays by Jeffrey Boam Human body in popular culture Warner Bros. films