Cinema
Voyage to the End of the Universe
Ikarie XB 1
Jindřich Polák · 1963
Synopsis
In 2163, the spacecraft Ikarie XB 1 sets out for the Alpha Centauri system, where life is hoped to be found on a white planet; fifteen years will pass on Earth before the return of its international crew of around forty. On the way, they must get used to life on board, pass the wreck of a twentieth-century ship laden with nuclear weapons and cross the radiation of a dark star.
Context
The screenplay, written with Pavel Juráček, is freely inspired by Stanisław Lem's novel Obłok Magellana; the two writers visited Lem during preparation. The music is by Zdeněk Liška. In 1964, American International Pictures released in the United States a dubbed version, cut by nearly ten minutes, with anglicised credit names and a renamed destination; the Czech version was scarcely seen in the West before a 2005 DVD.
Who it is for
About eighty-six minutes, in black and white. The American version, re-edited and dubbed, changes the ending: better to see the restored Czech version.
Prizes and reception
Grand Prize, the Golden Spaceship, at the Trieste Science Fiction Film Festival in 1963; one of the major films of Czech science fiction.