Main Cast: Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, Meg Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Fiona Lewis
Release Year: 1987
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Director Joe Dante infuses this science fiction comedy with the visual razzle-dazzle and manic, goofball performances typical of his cartoon-inspired sensibilities. Navy test pilot Lt. Tuck Pendleton (Dennis Quaid) has volunteered for a highly dangerous medical experiment. A submersible craft, with Tuck at the controls, is to be shrunk down to molecular size and inserted into the body of a living rabbit. If successful, the test could result in radical breakthroughs in surgical techniques, but some high-tech thieves attempt to steal Tuck and his ship while both are in miniature form. Enter Jack Putter (Martin Short), a mild-mannered, hypochondriac retail store clerk, a nerd who suddenly finds himself injected with Tuck and his tiny ship. Now poor Jack's got to rise above his mundane existence to help an American hero get back to safety, while also trying to reunite Tuck with his beautiful estranged girlfriend Lydia (Meg Ryan). Innerspace (1987) won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
Essentially a visually sophisticated update of Robert Fleischer's Fantastic Voyage (1966), Innerspace is a wacky sci-fi treat that looks like oodles of fun for both the performers and the Oscar-winning special effects department. There's something inherently watchable about the "oops, we're headed straight for the gall bladder!" emergencies of this story matter, and it gives Martin Short a license to be physically scattershot -- something the audience doesn't always grant him so willingly. Dennis Quaid's hotshot pilot is key to setting Joe Dante's grinning tone; his wisecracks under duress keep the movie humming along at the level of screwball comedy, in which nothing really bad can happen. The giddy "reality on hold" mindset of Innerspace is a logical offshoot from Dante's Gremlins, though the director is migrating from comic fantasy to fantastic comedy. That he helped direct the episodic parody Amazon Women on the Moon the same year suggests his increasing fondness for the ridiculous. The shrunken production design and weightless sensibilities of Innerspace likely helped inspire Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, which would turn size altering into a franchise two years later. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Henry Gibson - Mr. Wormwood; Vernon Wells - Mr. Igoe; Robert Picardo - The Cowboy; Wendy Schaal - Wendy; Harold Sylvester - Peter Blanchard; William Schallert - Dr. Greenbush; John Hora - Ozzie Wexler; Mark L. Taylor - Dr. Niles; Orson Bean - Lydia's Editor; Kevin Hooks - Duane; Kathleen Freeman - Dream Lady; Archie Hahn III - Messenger; Kenneth Tobey - Man in Restroom; Charles Aidman - Speaker at Banquet; Christine Avila - Lab Technician; Alan Blumenfeld - Man with Camera; Joe Flaherty - Waiting Room Patient; Jenny Gago - Lab Technician; Robert Gray - Lab Assault Henchman; Grainger Hines - Rusty; Rance Howard - Supermarket Customer; Andrea Martin - Waiting Room Patient; Richard McGonagle - Cop; Terry McGovern - Travel Agent; Dick Miller - Cab Driver; Frank Miller - Scrimshaw's Henchman; John Miranda - Man in Elevator; Laura Waterbury - Supermarket Customer; Jeffrey Boam - Lydia's Interview; Chuck Jones - Supermarket Customer; Neil Ross - Pod Computer; Herb Mitchell - Camera Store Clerk; Jason Laskay - Scrimshaw's Henchman
Credit
William Matthews - Art Director, Judy Taylor - Casting, Mike Fenton - Casting, Jane Feinberg - Casting, Charles "Chip" Proser - Co-producer, Rosanna Norton - Costume Designer, Pat Kehoe - First Assistant Director, Joe Dante - Director, Kent Beyda - Editor, Peter Guber - Executive Producer, Kathleen Kennedy - Executive Producer, Frank Marshall - Executive Producer, Jon Peters - Executive Producer, Steven Spielberg - Executive Producer, Jerry Goldsmith - Composer (Music Score), Rob Bottin - Makeup Special Effects, James Spencer - Production Designer, Andrew Laszlo - Cinematographer, Michael Finnell - Producer, Kathleen Kennedy - Producer, Frank Marshall - Producer, Judy Cammer - Set Designer, Richard C. Goddard - Set Designer, Gene Nollman - Set Designer, Rob Bottin - Special Effects, Dennis Muren - Special Effects, Ken King - Sound/Sound Designer, Steve Maslow - Sound/Sound Designer, Warren Hamilton - Sound Editor, Dennis Muren - Special Effects Supervisor, Charles "Chip" Proser - Screen Story, Jeffrey Boam - Screenwriter, Charles "Chip" Proser - Screenwriter, David Worth - Second Unit Director Of Photography, Kenneth Smith - Visual Effects, William George - Visual Effects, Betty Moos - Assistant to the Director
Down-on-his-luck Naval aviator Tuck Pendleton (Dennis Quaid) is selected as a guinea pig to participate in an experimental project which will place him in a submersible pod, to be shrunk to microscopic size and injected into the body of a rabbit. Immediately after being miniaturized, the experiment takes a bad turn when the lab is attacked. The experiment supervisor Ozzie Wexler (John Hora) escapes with the miniaturized Tuck in a syringe. After sustaining a fatal gunshot wound, he injects Tuck and the pod into hypochondriac Safeway clerk Jack Putter (Martin Short).
After establishing contact with his new host, Tuck must figure out how to get out of Jack's "Innerspace" before he runs out of oxygen. With Tuck's guidance, Jack enrolls the assistance of Tuck's recently estranged girlfriend, Lydia (Meg Ryan).
After making contact with the lab, Tuck and Jack are informed that there is another group of scientists and capitalists attempting to accomplish the same goal of miniaturization for use in their scheme to sell the technology for use in espionage. They are led by the mysterious Mr. Scrimshaw, a suave white-dressed villain (played by Kevin McCarthy of Invasion of the Body Snatchers fame).
The raid on the lab was to steal a chip vital to the process. While at a restaurant with Tuck's girlfriend, Jack is kidnapped by Mr. Igoe (Vernon Wells) and carried over the shoulder to a meat truck and taken to the lab.
Now that they have the chip, they miniaturize Mr. Igoe, and send him into the body of Jack, to extract a second chip required for re-enlargement.
Igoe's craft eventually finds Tuck's pod, but is disabled after Tuck jams one of the pod's arms into a thrust port. Mr. Igoe abandons his craft using an ejection system, and attempts to crack the pod windows using a drill on his exosuit. Igoe is killed, however, when Jack's stomach ulcer acts up, digesting him.
With little time left to spare, Tuck's pod is removed from Jack and is enlarged. He later marries his girlfriend, with Jack as his best man. The film ends with an open finale when Jack notices the "Cowboy" sliding into Tuck's limo disguised as a driver, having just hidden the miniaturized Mr. Scrimshaw and his assistant in the car's trunk. Now confident and in control of his life, Jack jumps into Tuck's Mustang to rescue the newlyweds.
