Invention for Destruction (Czech: Vynález zkázy) is a 1958 Czechoslovak black-and-white science fiction adventure film, directed by Karel Zeman, produced by Zdeněk Novák, and starring Lubor Tokoš, Arnošt Navrátil, and Miloslav Holub.

[10] Zeman likely saw Méliès's work at the Czech National Film Archive in Prague, where hand-colored prints were available of The Impossible Voyage (1904), The Witch (1906), and The Diabolic Tenant (1909).

Zeman freely used details from Méliès's style as inspiration; for example, Vynález zkázy's piston-powered steam engine and submarine are creatively adapted variants of those in The Impossible Voyage.

[7] The film has long been noted for its unique visual style, which faithfully recreates that of the Victorian line engravings (by Édouard Riou, Léon Benett, and others) featured in the original editions of Verne's novels.

[12] Karel Zeman, in explaining his process, elaborated on the same point: The magic of Verne's novels lies in what we would call the world of the romantically fantastic adventure spirit; a world directly associated with the totally specific which the original illustrators knew how to evoke in the mind of the reader … I came to the conclusion that my Verne film must come not only from the spirit of the literary work, but also from the characteristic style of the original illustrations and must maintain at least the impression of engravings.

[14] Even stock footage clips of birds, sea waves, and other details were adapted for the effect by printing the film with lined filters and matted-in sky backgrounds.

[8] To match the visuals, Zeman directed his actors to move in a decorously stylized fashion, commenting: "My heroes were not allowed even to sneeze or scratch their heads; they had to adapt themselves completely to their unreal surroundings".

The love theme, apparently based on the song "Tit-willow" from the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera The Mikado, is likewise played by woodwinds and a muted harpsichord.

[16] Liška's score also includes various shorter cues, such as a short pathos-filled theme for the sinking of the ship Amelie, keyboard strikes matching the attacks on the giant octopus, and a serene finale for string orchestra.

[8] In an interview, Ludmila Zeman summed up the film's themes, saying that Verne "always warned that even if the future is technologically perfect with all these mod cons, it needs love, it needs poetry, it needs magic.

[22] For this release, many of the cast and crew were billed with anglicized names: Lubor Tokoš, Arnošt Navrátil, and Miloslav Holub were credited as Louis Tock, Ernest Navara, and Milo Holl, respectively.

[8] In 2010, a commentator for Experimental Conversations said that the film "must stand alongside [The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari] as one of the great visual and stylistic triumphs of the cinematic medium" and that Zeman's process "really does need to be seen to be believed".

[14] In 2011, the science fiction writer John C. Wright identified Vynález zkázy as the first steampunk work and Zeman as the inventor of that genre, commenting that if the film "is not the steam-powered Holy Grail of Steampunkishness, it surely ought to be".

In The Village Voice, Alan Scherstuhl commented that "The handmade dazzlements still dazzle today ... Could it be that old special effects, dependent upon camera tricks and theatrical invention, stir something sympathetic in us that glossy pixels do not, inviting us not just to dream along with the fantasy but also the painstaking creation thereof"?

[30] In 2014, the Karel Zeman Museum in Prague announced that they, in collaboration with České bijáky and Czech TV, had begun a complete digital restoration of the film, planned to be premiered in Italy at Expo 2015.