he Seaview is a modern-day Nautilus, an atomic submarine with a glass nose and all the accoutrements a sailor could ask for. The sub was created by Admiral Harriman Nelson (Pidgeon), hailed by many as the Einstein of his time. Although he believes that the Seaview is the epitome of scientific achievement, the rest of the world isn't so sure. The press has dubbed the Seaview "Nelson's Folly," and Congress is interested in finding out just what the lauded craft is supposed to do.
On its maiden voyage, the Seaview makes a three-day research dive under the North Pole, putting it out of communication with the rest of the world for the duration. When it surfaces (driven out of the water by falling ice), the crew steps out on deck to burning skies and temperatures of 135 degrees. The Seaview quickly makes contact with the rest of the world, and Nelson learns that a meteor shower has set the Earth's Van Allen belt on fire. Nelson is immediately summoned to New York for an emergency meeting of the world's top scientific minds.
Arriving at the United Nations building, Nelson finds himself in opposition to the rest of the world scientific community. Most of the scientists feel that the Van Allen fire will burn itself out in a few weeks, but Nelson thinks that the fire will only get worse. He concludes that an atomic missile has to be fired into the belt in order to literally blow the fire out of Earth's atmosphere and into space. The downside to his plan is that the blast will intensify the fire first, something the rest of the world thinks is too risky to try. Without waiting for presidential approval, Nelson flees New York in the Seaview, determined to make a narrow launch window in order to carry out his scheme.
As the world burns
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a classic Irwin Allen disaster film: It has a thin plot, cardboard characters, science so implausible as to be ridiculous, and production values that seem cheaper than they actually are. Yet, somehow, Voyage manages to be an entertaining film. Pidgeon (who fans will remember as Professor Morbius from Forbidden Planet) plays Nelson as a contemporary Captain Nemo, a man who drives himself and his crew to the limits of endurance in the name of science, eschewing human emotions such as compassion. This makes him both the hero and the villain of the story, a dichotomy that drives the plot and makes for some compelling moments on screen.
And it has to be said, there is definitely something for everyone in this movie. In fact, the Seaview manages to have more adventures in just three weeks than the starship Enterprise had in its five-year mission. There's the arctic dive, the scientist/evangelist survivor found afloat in the North Pole (with his dog), the Van Allen fire, the chase out of the U.N. building by enraged scientists, the attack by the giant squid, the attack by the giant octopus, the mine field, the attack by an enemy submarine, the two attempts at sabotage, at least one attempt at murder, the attempt by a visiting psychologist to portray Nelson as delusional, the mutiny, and many others. This kitchen-sink approach to filmmaking ensures that every viewer will find at least one thing to like in Voyage (it was also probably one of the reasons that Voyage spawned a TV series).
In the end Voyage isn't a good movie, but it is a "good bad" movie, a film that, while it's bad, is so bad that it's good (and in fact could have been much worse). And, of course, it has not one but two giant mollusks, a fact that goes a long way in making up for the film's many shortcomings.
