Ikarie XB 1 (1963)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Jindrich Polák

Writers:

Pavel Jurácek (screenplay)
Jindrich Polák (screenplay)

Release Date:

25 November 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot:

The year is 2163. Starship Ikaria XB 1 embarks on a long journey across the Universe, to search for life on the planets of Alpha Centauri.

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Digit In Title | Spacecraft | Beautiful Woman | Number In Title

Cast

Zdenek Stepánek	...	Captain Vladimir Abajev
Radovan Lukavský	...	Commander MacDonald
Dana Medrická	...	Nina Kirova - sociologist
Miroslav Machácek	...	Marcel Bernard
Frantisek Smolík	...	Anthony Hopkins - mathematician
Jirí Vrstála	...	Erik Svenson - pilot
Svatava Hubenaková	...	Rena, MacDonald's wife
Otto Lackovic	...	Michal - coordinator
Jaroslav Mares	...	Milek Wertbowsky
Marcela Martínková	...	Steffa - Wertbowsky's wife
Martin Tapák	...	Petr Kubes - biologist
Rudolf Deyl	...	Ervin Herold - pilot (as Rudolf Deyl ml.)
Irena Kacírková	...	Brigitta
Jozef Adamovic	...	Zdenek Lorenc - coordinator
Ruzena Urbanova	...	Eva - historian

Also Known As:

Voyage to the End of the Universe (USA)

Runtime:

USA:81 min

Country:

Czechoslovakia

Language:

Czech

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Filmové Studio Barrandov

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Spaceflight IC-1: An Adventure in Space (1965)

Cult movie from Lem's Magellan Cloud novel

In my opinion this movie is a basic sci-fi cult. The history of IKARIA is based on the novel "Magellan Cloud" of Stanislav Lem. The distance between the novel and the movie is similar to H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds" and Cruise-Spielberg movie or Lem's and Tarkovskij's "Solaris". According to reminiscence of Lem, this novel was not from his favorites. But at that time (1962) and I think nowadays also it is a remarkable novel and movie also. In interpretation of Soderbergh's and Clooney's Solaris they was finding the heaven or paradise to live there (and at the end Rheya and Kelvin have found it). Interpretation of Ikaria was full of agreements with "new" socialist ideas against capitalist ideas (dead casino in space, criticism of red nail polish, etc.) but in one time "between lines" there is the criticism of socialist reality during fifties and sixties (predestined madness and "no future" impasse: deadly illness from radioactive accident at the end of the Magellan Cloud novel). Mainly I agree with other comments. I hope sometime they will make and we will get the color DVD!