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| images courtesy of Arrow Video |
Joe Dante is one of those directors the millennial generation will always remember fondly, followed shortly thereafter by the inevitable question: "Whatever happened to that guy?" After a quick visit to Mr. Dante's IMDb page, it turns out that the man who brought us Gremlins, The Howling, The Burbs, and Explorers hasn't made a film in over a decade. Other than stints on episodic television, his last feature was the forgotten 2014 horror comedy titled Burying the Ex, and it's safe to say it will never be included among his list of classic efforts, but Innerspace absolutely should be. If you counted this as a remake of Richard Fleischer's Fantastic Voyage (it sort of is), Innerspace would rank with the best 80s remakes, sitting right next to Carpenter's The Thing, Cronenberg's The Fly, and Russell's The Blob.
Like those other amazing remakes, Innerspace takes advantage of the technological leaps made in the years after its predecessor hit theaters in 1966, brings the story into the present day, and makes the characters more relatable. Instead of stiff scientists on a journey of exploration through the unseen depths of the human body, we have Dennis Quaid as hotshot pilot Tuck Pendleton. Imagine Pete "Maverick" Mitchell if he couldn't lay off the sauce, and Meg Ryan was his girlfriend instead of Goose's wife. His qualifications for getting miniaturized inside a submersible pod and sent into the annals of anatomy? "He was the only one we could find who was crazy enough to do it." Seems legit.
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| images courtesy of Arrow Video |
Quaid has less than 20 minutes to let us know exactly who his character is, bare his flaws (and his ass), and gain our sympathies before the excrement hits the air conditioning. He nails it. The chemistry he has with Meg Ryan is off the charts, which is no surprise since the two eventually married in real life after meeting on the set of this film. The screenplay by Chip Proser and the prolific Jeffrey Boam (he also wrote Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) hits the ground running, and it isn't long before mercenary-style industrial sabotage turns a trial run for miniaturization tech into a field test with an unwilling guinea pig: None other than Martin Short as Jack Putter, a hypochondriac who should just buy his doctor a boat in lieu of forking over cash for his numerous office visits.
After fleeing from a half-cyborg assassin (just go with it), the doctor in charge of the experiment, played by Howling cinematographer John Hora, manages to dodge death just long enough to inject the miniaturized Quaid into Martin Short's buttocks. Quaid begins his journey by piloting through a sea of fat cells, and from here the movie belongs to Martin Short, whose gift for physical comedy is on full display. The moments when he first hears Quaid speaking to him are comedy gold. ("Somebody help me! I'm possessed!") He also has absolute banger chemistry with Meg Ryan. The two share a lot of screen time together, and one scene in particular that leads to the movie's most touching moment.
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| images courtesy of Arrow Video |
The typical Dante regulars such as Dick Miller, Kevin McCarthy, and Robert Picardo are along for the ride as well. Picardo has so much fun with his part, he manages to steal the movie from Short for a while. As a character known only as The Cowboy, Picardo couldn't fit the bill any less than he does, but that's exactly what makes him perfect: He plays the part looking and talking like a Mexican Jew whose dad forced him to watch A Fistful of Dollars in between the ass-kickings that peppered his formative years. Eventually he gets laughs just by showing up, and that's the kind of screen presence you can't learn in school. Picardo truly is a national treasure.
You'll notice that I'm spending most of my time discussing the characters and the comedy. Pretty incredible, considering this is a movie that won an Oscar for its Visual Effects (the only Dante film to date to win any). Thanks to this outstanding 4K transfer by Arrow Video, taken from the original negative and approved by the director, Innerspace has never looked this good. Supervised by the impeccable craftsman Dennis Muren, these effects do more than hold up: They still inspire genuine awe and wonder after 40 years. Quaid's journey takes him through two different bodies, flying his tiny pod through arteries, behind the optic nerve, and even survives a rather perilous battle inside Short's ulcer-ridden stomach.
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| images courtesy of Arrow Video |
All of that is truly wonderful stuff to behold. It's eye candy in the truest sense, but the effects work better because they're grounded by three terrific performances that keep our attention, keep us laughing, and generate sympathy from the audience. Quaid spends most of the movie in the pod, talking to Short only because the science team thought to equip him with tech that allows him to see and hear what his host experiences. So most of the time Quaid and Short are just talking to themselves on two different sets, likely on different days of shooting. The kinetic energy of the performances and editing make this all so convincing that it doesn't register just how great their acting is until you stop to think about it. Meg Ryan as Lydia plays a version of her usual lovable self. Casting her was a stroke of genius because we only have about ten minutes to fall for her before the movie has to sidetrack her for a while, but we never forget her, just like Tuck. Once she's in the thick of the action, she holds her own, and generates some of the movie's biggest laughs with that damn taser.
Speaking of action, that holds up, too. There's one particular scene involving Meg Ryan chasing after a refrigerated truck holding the captive Martin Short, who is forced to sit through Kevin McCarthy's version of a Bond villain monologue while freezing to death. After a pep talk from his tiny passenger, Short attempts to make a break for it, which results in one of the funniest and most exhilarating stunts of its kind I can remember from this decade of filmmaking; it's clearly Short up there for a lot of the (relatively safer) stunt work.
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| images courtesy of Arrow Video |
In case you couldn't tell, I could talk about this movie for hours, but luckily I don't have to: Arrow was kind enough to give us a limited edition full of extras. We get not one but two audio commentaries, including one with Joe Dante, producer Michael Finnell, Robert Picardo, Dennis Muren, and Kevin McCarthy. Add to that a bunch of behind the scenes footage and a brand new hour-long documentary called Shrinkage: The Making of Innerspace. By the time you're done watching the extras on this amazing disc, you'll probably know more about the movie than Joe Dante himself.
Innerspace used to be one of "those movies" that we all saw in pieces, usually with commercial breaks on cable networks like TBS. To be honest, I'm not sure I ever saw the opening scenes before I sat down to watch this release. This is how it was meant to be seen: Flawlessly transferred from a print that showcases its Oscar-winning effects, with both a brand new Dolby Atmos mix and a DTS track pulled from a 6-channel 70mm print. There are moments of inspired directionality from the soundtrack that had me grinning with appreciation. This is likely to be one of the best physical media releases of 2026, and it's all the more wonderful that it belongs to one of the best science fiction comedies of the 1980s. One that remembers character is what make visual effects truly special.
- Blake O. Kleiner