Based on his own novel The Shrinking Man (1956), Matheson's first screenplay, The Incredible Shrinking Man, was filmed by Universal in 1957. Directed by Jack Arnold, the film earned the Hugo Award for the best motion picture of 1958. Usually categorized as science fiction, the tale develops the plight of a man (Grant Williams) whose body shrinks an inch a week after his accidental exposure to radioactivity. As he diminishes, the world becomes an increasingly terrifying place. When he reaches only six inches in height, his own cat becomes a menace, and eventually he must defend himself against a spider. As Williams becomes too small to be seen, his voice can still be heard delivering the metaphysical report: "So close--the infinitesimal and the infinite. But suddenly I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet--like the closing of a gigantic circle." The last philosophical line, though somewhat equivocal in the context of the movie, bespeaks Matheson's interest in the questions of man's place in the universe and man's fate after death: "All this vast majesty of creation--it had to mean something too! Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something too.
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