The Impossible Voyage
A satirical silent film about a journey to the Sun.
Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons
The Impossible Voyage (French: *Le Voyage à travers l'impossible*), also released as *An Impossible Voyage* and *Whirling the Worlds*, is a 1904 French silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès. The film takes its inspiration from Jules Verne and Adolphe d'Ennery's 1882 play *Journey Through the Impossible* and follows the style and structure of Méliès's earlier hit *A Trip to the Moon* (1902). It satirizes scientific exploration, following a group of geography-minded tourists who try to reach the Sun using a mix of transport methods. Upon release, the film was a major international success and has since been praised by film historians.
The Institute of Incoherent Geography, a society of geographical enthusiasts, aims to "surpass in conception and invention all previous expeditions undertaken by the learned world." At a meeting led by President Polehunter, with Secretary Rattlebrain, Archivist Mole, Vice-president Humbug, and members Easily-fooled, Daredevil, and Schemer, the elegantly dressed attendees reject Professor Daredevil’s outdated world tour plan. The eccentric engineer Crazyloff then proposes a new "impossible" voyage using "all the known means of locomotion—railroads, automobiles, dirigible balloons, submarine boats…" The plan is enthusiastically accepted, and preparations begin.
Once ready, the machines and travelers are loaded onto a train and sent to the Swiss Alps. They board a touring automobile, the Auto-Crazyloff, and drive through the mountains. Attempting to speed over the summit of the Rigi, they crash into a precipice. Rescued by mountaineers, they are taken to a Swiss hospital, where they recover gradually and chaotically.
After recovering, the travelers board a train with their other vehicles attached, aiming to cross the Jungfrau summit. With dirigible balloons tied to the train, they rise into space and are swallowed by the Sun, crashing onto its surface. Though alive, the heat is unbearable. Crazyloff directs them into the train's icebox, but they freeze solid. He finds straw, starts a fire on the Sun's surface to melt the ice, and the travelers thaw. They board the expedition's submarine, which Crazyloff launches off a Sun cliff. It plummets through space into an Earth ocean. After underwater sightseeing, a boiler problem causes the submarine to explode, throwing the travelers into the air. They land safely at a seaport ami
- Director
- Georges Méliès
- Year of Release
- 1904
- Country of Origin
- France
- Genre
- Silent trick film, science fiction satire
- Length
- 374 meters (about 20 minutes at silent-film projection speeds)
- Production Cost
- ₣37,500 (US$7,500)
- Star Film Company Catalog Numbers
- 641–659
Lore & Background
The film was made during the summer of 1904 and was Méliès's longest to date. In its staging and design, the film is symmetrical with A Trip to the Moon: while the astronomers' progress toward the Moon in that film is consistently depicted as left-to-right motion, the Institute of Incoherent Geography's progress toward the Sun in The Impossible Voyage is consistently right-to-left. While most of the film was shot inside Méliès's glass studio, the scene at the foot of the Jungfrau was filmed outdoors, in the garden of Méliès's property in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis. The factory set in the second scene recalls the Hall des Machines at the Paris Exposition of 1900. Techniques used for special effects include stage machinery (including scenery rolling horizontally and vertically), pyrotechnics, miniature effects, substitution splices, and dissolves.
Reader's Guide
The Impossible Voyage was one of the most popular films of the first few years of the twentieth century, rivaled only by similar Méliès films such as The Kingdom of the Fairies and the massively successful A Trip to the Moon. Film critic Lewis Jacobs praised the film, stating that it expressed all of Méliès's talents, including his feeling for caricature, painting, theatrical invention, and camera science. Film scholar Elizabeth Ezra highlights the film's sharp social satire, noting how the rich but inept members of the Institute wreak havoc wherever they go, disrupting the lives of bucolic mountain climbers, alpine villagers, factory workers, and sailors, and arguing that this conflict between upper classes and working classes is mirrored by other contrasts in the film (heat and ice, Sun and sea, and so on). The film's legacy includes its preservation in a hand-colored copy donated to Méliès's family by the Czech Film Archive.
Did You Know?
- The film's original French title comes from a stage spectacular written in 1882 by Jules Verne and Adolphe d'Ennery.
- The film cost about ₣37,500 (US$7,500) to make.
- A print of the film (though not the supplemental epilogue) was deposited for American copyright at the Library of Congress on October 12, 1904.
- Some prints were individually hand-colored and sold at a higher price; a surviving hand-colored copy was donated to Méliès's family by the Czech Film Archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Impossible Voyage?
It is a 1904 French silent trick-film directed by Georges Méliès that blends visual spectacle with science-fiction satire. Running roughly 20 minutes at standard silent-film projection speeds, it follows a group of geography-obsessed tourists who attempt to reach the Sun using an absurd string of transport methods. The film is also known by the alternative titles *An Impossible Voyage* and *Whirling the Worlds*.
What inspired The Impossible Voyage?
Méliès adapted the 1882 stage play *Journey Through the Impossible* by Jules Verne and Adolphe d'Ennery, translating its episodic structure into a series of trick-film sequences. He also mirrored the broad, set-piece format of his own 1902 hit *A Trip to the Moon*, using it as a structural template while shifting the tone toward sharper satire of scientific exploration.
What is the plot of The Impossible Voyage?
A troupe of geography-minded tourists sets out to travel to the Sun, hopping from one ridiculous vehicle to the next—trains, boats, balloons, and other contraptions—each segment escalating in visual absurdity. Rather than following a tight narrative arc, the film strings together gag after gag that mock the early-1900s frenzy around scientific progress and grand exploration.
What were the production details behind The Impossible Voyage?
The film was produced in France by Méliès's own studio and cost approximately 37,500 francs (roughly 7,500 US dollars at the time). Its 374 meters of film stock translate to about 20 minutes of screen time at the projection speeds typical for silent pictures of that era.
Why is The Impossible Voyage important to silent sci-fi fans?
Released just two years after *A Trip to the Moon*, it demonstrates Méliès refining the trick-film/sci-fi hybrid with a more pointed satirical voice. Its immediate international box-office success confirmed that audiences would continue to flock to fantastical silent spectacles, helping to sustain the genre through the early 1900s.
More in Silent science fiction films 1-20
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record