History Film / TheIncredibleShrinkingMan

!!The Movie provides examples of:

* IncredibleShrinkingMan: The trope namer of course

* HollywoodScience: Due to the SquareCubeLaw but may have been mildly averted; see below. Of course, as he gets smaller and smaller there are other issues not related to the Square/Cube law that would become very problematic and eventually kill him, but like most films of this nature these issues are ignored. As he gets extremely small he'd freeze to death because his body would lose heat faster than it produces it (this is why birds have feathers and small animals have fur), his lungs would not work properly when he is insect-sized (insects don't have lungs and rely on air pressure to force oxygen into their bodies through special openings), food would become impossible to find or digest, and once he shrinks small enough the air molecules would be too big for him to breathe.

* NarratingThePresent One interesting this is that Scott's voice remains the same pitch despite his getting smaller as the film progresses, unless we're reading his mind...

* AdaptationDistillation: In the novel, Scott had a daughter. A couple other admissions from the movie:

* HopeSpot: An antidote is found that stops his shrinking at three feet, and a friendship with a midget helps him realize that it's possible to live happily even at that size. [[spoiler:Then the antidote stops working.]]

Grant Williams stars as Scott Carey, an ordinary man who is exposed to some type of dust cloud (generally assumed to be radioactive) and subsequently begins to slowly shrink, soon growing so small that his wife Louise (Randy Stuart) is unable to see or hear him. Scott finds himself battling for his life against his pet cat and a spider, and confronting the possibility of eventually shrinking to nothing.

Grant Williams stars as Scott Carey, an ordinary man who is exposed to some type of dust cloud (generally assumed to be radioactive) and subsequently begins to slowly shrink, eventually growing so small that his wife Louise (Randy Stuart) is unable to see or hear him. Scott finds himself battling for his life against his pet cat and a spider, and confronting the possibility of eventually shrinking to nothing.

''The Incredible Shrinking Man'' is a 1957 sci-fi movie directed by Jack Arnold, based on the novel ''The Shrinking Man'' by Creator/RichardMatheson.

It is considered one of the better shrinking movies because the script is considered intelligent and the science is a little more believable.

[[quoteright:329:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a8f509fe11572f8cddfcac15f6682b89.jpg]]
''The Incredible Shrinking Man'' is a movie based on the book by Creator/RichardMatheson titled ''The Shrinking Man''. In the movie, a man named Scott Carey is exposed to some type of dust cloud (generally assumed to be radioactive) and the result is that he begins to slowly shrink. It is considered one of the better shrinking movies because the script is considered intelligent and the science is a little more believable.

* NarratingThePresent

!!!The Movie provides examples of:

* HollywoodScience: Due to the SquareCubeLaw but may have been mildly averted; see below.
** Of course, as he gets smaller and smaller there are other issues not related to the Square/Cube law that would become very problematic and eventually kill him, but like most films of this nature these issues are ignored. As he gets extremely small he'd freeze to death because his body would lose heat faster than it produces it (this is why birds have feathers and small animals have fur), his lungs would not work properly when he is insect-sized (insects don't have lungs and rely on air pressure to force oxygen into their bodies through special openings), food would become impossible to find or digest, and once he shrinks small enough the air molecules would be too big for him to breathe.

''The Incredible Shrinking Man'' is a movie based on the book by RichardMatheson titled ''The Shrinking Man''. In the movie, a man named Scott Carey is exposed to some type of dust cloud (generally assumed to be radioactive) and the result is that he begins to slowly shrink. It is considered one of the better shrinking movies because the script is considered intelligent and the science is a little more believable.

** Of course, as he gets smaller and smaller there are other issues not related to the Square/Cube law that would become very problematic and eventually kill him, but like most films of this nature these issue are ignored. As he gets extremely small he'd freeze to death because his body would lose heat faster than it produces it (this is why birds have feathers and small animals have fur), his lungs would not work properly when he is insect-sized (insects don't have lungs and rely on air pressure to force oxygen into their bodies through special openings), food would become impossible to find or digest, and once he shrinks small enough the air molecules would be too big for him to breathe.

* AdaptationDistillation: In the novel, Scott had a daughter.
** Also in the novel Scott has shrunken to about three feet tall when he encounters a group of boys. When they realize he's that "Shrinking Man" [[spoiler: they want to take his pants off to see if EVERY part of him had shrunk.]]

* DevelopmentHell: There is supposed to be a remake starring EddieMurphy. In fact, it was announced a few years ago, and it's STILL in preproduction.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Author Richard Matheson wrote a treatment for a sequel called ''The Fantastic Shrinking Girl'' in which Louise Carey also shrinks down and joyously reunites with her now-microscopic husband, and both eventually return to normal. It was never produced, but his script was published in an anthology, ''Unrealized Dreams.''

* HeyItsThatGuy: William Schallert, as Scott's physician, in one of his earlier roles.

** Also in the novel Scott has shrunken to about three feet tall when he encounters a group of boys. When they realize he's that "Shrinking Man" [[spoiler: they want to take his pants off to see if EVERY part of him had shrunk.]]

* BittersweetEnding[=/=]DownerEnding: Mileage will vary on which one this is. Scott's voice-over monologue at the end has him accepting the inevitable and reaffirming that no matter how small he is, he will still matter in this universe. That doesn't change the fact that he will eventually shrink to ''atomic size'' or worse, that his wife assumes that their cat had eaten him.
* DidNotDoTheResearch: Spiders that live in webs don't normally leave them to hunt.

* FreudWasRight : Scott is terrorized by a giant cat. And what's slang for a cat and female genitals? Could be seen as women threatening manhood, especially because this is post-WWII/Rosie the Riveter.