The fantastic Captain Nemo once again inspires the spirit of adventure in another Jules Verne classic. Captain Cyrus Harding (Michael Craig) leads three Union soldiers in a daring escape from a Confederate prison camp in a seized Confederate balloon. A raging storm forces the balloon over the ocean toward a Pacific island on which the group becomes marooned. Two shipwrecked women share in the dangerous encounters the castaways have with a host of gigantic beasts Their fight for survival is aided by the mysterious Captain Nemo (Herbert Lom) of the submarine Nautilus, who, in an attempt to increase the world's food supply, helped create the strange animals. When a volcano erupts and threatens to destroy everyone, can Nemo save them?

This fantasy adventure is based on the 1870 novel by Jules Verne. A small, motley group of soldiers and civilians flee the 1865 siege of Richmond via a hot air balloon, and end up on an isolated island crawling with over-sized crabs, birds, and bees. Even more astonishing, they discover three other humans inhabiting the island: two shipwrecked women and the illustrious, long-lost Captain Nemo. Ray Harryhausen's special effects, which include a battle with a giant crab and abduction by an enormous bird, still have the power to thrill and amaze.