Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1978 science fiction film based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney. It is a remake of the 1956 film of the same name. The original music score was composed by Danny Zeitlin.

This remake starred Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy and Jerry Walter. It was adapted by W. D. Richter and directed by Philip Kaufman. Unlike many remakes, it met a generally favorable critical response and performed very well at the box office, earning nearly $25 million in the United States, well over its budget of $3.5 million; The New Yorkers Pauline Kael, who said "it may be the best film of its kind ever made," was a particular fan.^[1]

Plot

The plot centers on Dr. Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), a San Francisco health inspector who, with his collegue Elizabeth Driscoll (played by Brooke Adams), discovers that people are being replaced by simulations grown from plantlike pods, which produce perfect duplicates with the same memories and thoughts, but without love or affection, whose only instinct is to survive. The pods are able to duplicate humans only when they are asleep, not awake. The human bodies disintegrate after the duplicate is fully formed. At first, Elizabeth's boyfriend, Geoffrey (Art Hindle), suddenly becomes distant and she knows something is wrong. Matthew suggests that she see his friend Dr. David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy); but they meet people all over the city stating that loved ones are no longer their loved ones.

The pod people work together (as in the original) to secretly spread more pods ? which grew from "seeds drifting through space for years" ? in order to replace the entire human race. After discovering a nearly-complete duplicate at the home of Jack Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum), Matthew heads to Elizabeth's and finds another nearly complete double; however, both bodies disappear when he returns with the police. Matthew realizes that what is happening is extra-terrestrial. With an increasing sense of paranoia, Matthew and his friends try to save themselves and warn of impending doom. But the clock is running out for the group and they discover that not everyone, and soon almost no one, is to be trusted. Matthew calls several state and federal agencies, but they all tell him not to worry. That night, Matthew and his friends are nearly duplicated by the pods. The pod people try to raid Matthew's house, but the humans are able to slip away. During this, they discover that the pod people emit piercing shrill screams once they learn someone is still human.

Jack and his wife Nancy (Veronica Cartwright) sacrifice themselves to a crowd of pursuing pod people as a distraction, to give their friends enough time to escape. Matthew and Elizabeth are chased across San Francisco, until they are eventually found by the doubles of Jack and Dr. Kibner at the Health Department. They are both injected with a sedative to help them sleep. However, the couple is able to overpower them and escape the building. They run into Nancy in the stairwell, who has discovered a way to evade the pod people: hide all emotions. Outside, Matthew and Elizabeth are quickly exposed as human and flee, leading them to discover a giant warehouse at the docks where the pods are grown. After Matthew and Elizabeth profess their love for each other, they hear "Amazing Grace" being played nearby. Matthew goes out to investigate, only to discover a cargo ship being loaded with hundreds of pods.

Matthew returns to find that Elizabeth has fallen asleep. While trying to wake her in his arms, her body crumbles to dust and Elizabeth's double arises behind him, asking him to be replaced as well. With no one left, Matthew attempts to destroy the pod-growing facility by cutting the overhead lights. He is pointed out by Elizabeth's double and hides under a pier while the pod people frantically search for him. However, his efforts are in vain and the invasion continues. The next day, Matthew watches dozens of children being led into a dark theater to be replaced. At the health department, Elizabeth and all their co-workers now stand silently, listening for their instructions to spread the invasion across the West Coast. While walking towards city hall, he is spotted by Nancy, who survived the previous night. Thinking he is human, she walks towards him. Matthew responds by pointing to her and emitting the piercing pod scream. Nancy is now alone and helpless.

Cast

• Al Nalbandian - Rodent man (as Albert Nalbandian)
• Al Perez - PG&E Man (uncredited)
• Art Hindle - Dr. Geoffrey Howell
• Brooke Adams - Elizabeth Driscoll
• Chris & Jason Begley - Twins on the class field trip (uncredited)
• David Fisher - Mr. Gianni
• Don Siegel - Taxi driver
• Donald Sutherland - Matthew Bennell
• Garry Goodrow - Dr. Alan Boccardo
• Jeff Goldblum - Jack Bellicec
• Jerry Walter - Restaurant owner
• Joe Bellan - Harry the Beggar
• Kevin McCarthy - Running man
• Lelia Goldoni - Katherine Hendley
• Lee McVeigh - Police Officer #2
• Lee Mines - Schoolteacher
• Leonard Nimoy - Dr. David Kibner
• Maurice Argent - Chef
• Misty - Begger's Boxer Dog
• Philip Kaufman - City official (voice, uncredited)
• R. Wong - Mrs. Tong
• Robert Duvall - Priest on swing (uncredited)
• Rose Kaufman - Outraged woman
• Sam Conti - Street barker
• Sam Hiona - Police Officer #1
• Stan Ritchie - Stan
• Tom Dahlgren - Detective
• Tom Luddy - Ted Hendley
• Veronica Cartwright - Nancy Bellicec
• Wood Moy - Mr. Tong

Homages

Director Kaufman weaved several tips of the hat to the original 1956 film into his remake. The most obvious are the appearances of Kevin McCarthy and Don Siegel from the first film detailed in the "Cameos" section. But there are others. Among them:

• Both films are set in California.
• Both films depict Jack Bellicec being duplicated early on with the partially-formed duplicate being discovered by the Bellicecs. The line, "It has no details, no character ... it's unformed" delivered by Jack in the remake is similar to the line spoken by Dr. Miles Bennell in the original. In both movies it is pointed out that the developing pod replacement has no fingerprints.
• Both films have the police department playing a prominent role in spreading the invasion and preventing humans from escaping.
• In the 1978 version, Elizabeth Driscoll is startled by the mantel clock chiming in her apartment as she watches the pod duplicate of her boyfriend Geoffrey taking a trash can filled with the decayed remains of his original body out to the trash truck. In the 1956 original, Becky Driscoll is startled by the cuckoo clock in the Bellicec's house as she watches her boyfriend Miles examining the developing pod duplicate of Jack Bellicec on Jack's pool table.
• In the first and second films a duplicated Jack and the duplicated psychiatrist corner the couple in the office. The 1956 version has Dan Kaufman speaking the line, "It would have been so much easier if you'd gone to sleep last night." In the remake the line is given to Jack who says, "It would have been so much easier if we'd just gone to sleep last night." In the original Miles uses syringes filled with poison to kill the treacherous duo (Jack and David Kibner). In the 1978 film hypodermics were also used in the office setting, only this time the syringes are filled with a mild sedative and administered to Matthew and Elizabeth by the psychiatrist. In this version, Jack's double is killed when Matthew jabs a dart into the base of his skull and Kibner is locked in the lab's freezer. In each film Jack and the psychiatrist are dispatched and the couple flees.
• In the first film the leading man, Miles Bennell, is a small town doctor. In the second, Matthew Bennell is a big town health inspector.
• In the original film, Jack Bellicec is a moderately successful writer who lives with his wife, Teddy, in a fashionable bungalow. The 1978 film depicts Bellicec as a frustrated, hapless writer who owns a mud bath emporium with his wife, Nancy.
• In the original, all four of the remaining human characters watch in horror as their four duplicates are developing from "hatching" pods in Miles' greenhouse. In the remake, Matthew sees Elizabeth's double taking shape in Geoffrey's greenhouse garden. The setting of the four duplicates developing simultaneously from hatching pods (more graphic in the 1978 version) is changed to Matthew's rooftop garden. In the first movie Miles destroys his duplicate with a pitchfork to the chest. In the second, Matthew destroys his with a garden hoe to the head.
• In the original, the underscoring features a very sharp and prominent brass section. In the remake, the opening theme music and some of the underscoring also features a prominent brass section.
• In the original, Miles leaves Becky behind in an abandoned mine to investigate the source of music coming from over the hills. Both hope the music emanates from genuine humans. Miles discovers a huge greenhouse complex growing thousands of pods instead. The music had come from a radio, which is switched off. He returns and discovers that Becky has fallen asleep and been transformed into a pod duplicate. In the 1978 film, Matthew and Elizabeth discover a huge pod-growing facility together. After fleeing the factory, Matthew leaves Elizabeth behind in a field to investigate a seaship piping out a bagpipe version of Amazing Grace over its loudspeaker, which is also turned off shortly thereafter. To his dismay, large pallets of pods are being loaded into the ship's hold. Matthew returns, alarmed to see that Elizabeth has fallen asleep. He embraces her but she disintegrates in his embrace. Elizabeth's soulless double rises (naked, which is actually logical) and betrays Matthew as does the duplicated Becky to Miles in the original film.
• In the original movie the psychiatrist's name is Danny Kaufman. In the remake it's David Kibner. Same initials.
• The 1956 movie has Miles and Becky taking refuge in Miles' doctor's office. The 1978 version has Matthew and Elizabeth taking refuge in the Health Department office where both work. In both films a night watchman enters the office shining a flashlight and leaves without discovering the couple. Both films also have the couple taking pills to keep them awake. Miles and Becky in the original, as well as Matthew and Elizabeth in the remake, share a kiss as they're hiding out. In both movies, the couples look out the office window to discover a large crowd of duplicates carrying unhatched pods bound for surrounding towns and cities in order to spread the invasion.
• The first film has Becky alerting the pods to hers and Miles' humanity when she screams in reaction to a dog almost being hit by a truck. In the second, Elizabeth similarly alerts the pod people when she screams in reaction to seeing a pod duplicate with a dog's body and a human's face. This "creature" was formed from a combination of the banjo playing hobo and his dog, when Matthew kicks the pod growing next to them and obviously damages the duplication method to accidentally duplicate both the dog and the man into one creature.
• The scene in which Matthew, Elizabeth, Jack, and Nancy are fleeing a mob of pod people down several flights of stairs is reminiscent of the scene in the first movie in which Miles and Becky are fleeing a similar mob up a long outdoor stairway.

1978 Changes

Kaufman moved the setting from small-town California to the city of San Francisco, evoking a style of paranoia reflective of the mistrust and malaise pervasive in post-Vietnam, post-Watergate American films. In one scene, Bennell calls Washington for help, only to find his calls are being intercepted and his name is known to the person on the other line before he gives it. This scene summons up the sort of anti-government fears that were also manifested in conspiracy theories.

The film is also seen as a satire on the "Me Decade", with the psychiatrist, Dr. David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy), a character who is a popular self-help guru who dismisses the other characters' fears until he is uncovered as a duplicate himself.

The 1978 remake also corrects an error in the original film. Although the premise of the film is that the bodies of the pods' victims are destroyed upon the awakening of their alien duplicates, the original film depicts the replacement of Becky Driscoll, Bennell's love interest, as though she falls asleep human, but awakes as an alien. In the 1978 remake, Elizabeth Driscoll's body crumbles poignantly in Bennell's arms as her duplicate becomes conscious and arises behind him.

In the original, the aliens are never seen in their pre-duplicate form. We only see the emotionless human doubles. In the opening scene of the remake we see the aliens in their pre-invasion form struggling to survive on their dying home planet. They appear to be intelligent, gelatinous creatures who can escape the gravity of their doomed homeworld at will to drift along to a more habitable environment.

The first film never shows us what happens to the original human bodies after duplication. In the second, there are several scenes in which we see greyish debris dangling from the back ends of trash trucks which kicks up grey dust when compacted.

The 1978 remake not only reflects the zeitgeist of the 70's with its moody paranoia, but also contrasts itself with its 50's counterpart by its more graphic portrayal of Jack Bellicec's partly developed double, as well as its portrayal of the hatching pods in Matthew's rooftop garden. Feminist sensibilities are also in evidence in the second film. In the original, Becky Driscoll did not appear to have a job or career. In the remake, Elizabeth Driscoll is a nine-to-five lab worker at the San Francisco Department of Health. In a similar vein, Jack's wife Teddy was a housewife in the first film. In the second, Jack's wife Nancy is a co-owner of their mud bath emporium and works with the clients.

In the original, any pod duplicate who sensed the presence of a non-duplicated human would alert its fellow pods by simply pointing toward the humans and then running after them with seemingly emotionless facial expression. However, in the remake, they are portrayed with more of an other-worldly sense in this regard; whenever a pod sensed a human being's presence, it would alert other pods by opening its mouth and emitting a piercing, alien-like, shrill scream, which resonates for great distances and can warn pods from hundreds of yards away that there is a human presence.

As Siegel originally intended with the first film , Kaufman's version seems to preclude any optimistic or hopeful ending by the twist ending in the film's final seconds.

Cameos

There are a number of cameo appearances in the film; the star of the original film, Kevin McCarthy, appears briefly as a man on the street frantically screaming about aliens ("They're here!"), in a shot reminiscent of one of the final shots of the original. The original's director, Don Siegel, appears as a devious cab driver. Robert Duvall is also seen briefly, and Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia plays banjo on the soundtrack. Director Philip Kaufman appears in dual roles both as a man wearing a hat who bothers Sutherland's character in a phone booth, and the voice of one of the officials Sutherland's character speaks to on the phone. His wife, Rose Kaufman, is credited as the woman who argues with Jeff Goldblum's character at the book party; several of the people at the party were writer friends of Kaufman. Cinematographer Michael Chapman appears twice as a janitor in the health department; he appears when Elizabeth breaks down in Matthew's arms, ominously waxing the floor, and later leaning against the wall when the couple sneaks back into the building.

Veronica Cartwright made a cameo appearance as a doomed patient in the 2007 film The Invasion.

References

External links

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