Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Story

A police car arrives at the City Emergency Hospital. Dr. Hill (Whit Bissell) is greeted by Dr. Bassett (Richard Deacon), who shows him a raving man, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy). Grabbing Dr. Bassell, Bennell rants, “I’m not faking. Make them listen to me before it’s too late!” Talking to Dr. Hill, he more calmly states, “Doctor, you must understand. I am a doctor too! I’m not insane.” He calmly sits and tells Dr. Hill it started last Thursday as the screen blurs.

His nurse, Sally Withers (Jean Willes), calls Miles home from a medical convention. Even though everything looks the same, it isn’t. “Something evil had taken possession of the town!" Local boy, Jimmy Grimaldi, running frantically, cuts in front of the car, his grandmother (Beatrice Maude) in hot pursuit. Arriving at his office, Miles faces cancelled appointments, and his nurse cannot understand why.

Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter), Miles’ old beau, has recently returned to Santa Mira. She says something’s the matter with Wilma (Virginia Christine), her cousin. She is suffering from a delusion, thinking her Uncle Ira (Tom Fadden) is not Uncle Ira. She wants Miles to check in on them. Both Becky and Miles have recently returned from Reno, where they were divorced from their respective spouses.

One day, Grandmother Grimaldi brings in the terrified Jimmy. He runs from her to Nurse Sally, crying. Jimmy is fearful that his mother is not his mother ... “Don’t let her get me!” Miles suggests Jimmy spend a night at his grandmother’s house.

Wilma tells Bennell the problem with Ira. “He looks, sounds, acts, and remembers just like Uncle Ira, but he’s not Uncle Ira. There’s no emotion, none, just the pretense of it!” Miles suggests she see a psychiatrist. Dr. Dan Kauffman (Larry Gates) says mass hysteria has hit Santa Mira.

Jack Belicec (King Donovan) and his wife, Teddy (Carolyn Jones), interrupt Miles’ and Becky’s dinner date, telling them to come on over. Entering the Belicec game room, Miles sees a half-formed body of a man lying on the pool table. It has, as Miles says, “...all the features, no detail, no character, no lines.” Its fingerprints are blank. But Miles suggests the newly formed body is beginning to resemble Jack. Miles and Becky soon leave.

Meanwhile, in Jack and Teddy’s game room, the body is more fully formed and opens its eyes. Teddy examines the body while Jack dozes at the bar. The body contains the bleeding cut hand that Jack sustained earlier that night, and Teddy screams. Teddy yells, “It’s you!" And they flee the bar. Arriving at the Bennell house, Teddy hysterically describes the corpse. Miles leaves to telephone Danny Kauffman, who is groggy from sleep, and Danny agrees to come over. Miles worries about Becky and has the instinct that she is in danger, and drives over to her house. Instead of knocking on the door, he breaks a cellar window to gain entrance. Searching around the basement for a while, he finds a partially formed imitation of Becky and rushes upstairs. Coming upon Becky’s bedroom, he tries to awaken her, and when he fails, he carries her out of her room to his car.

Returning to Jack’s house with Danny present, Jack’s duplicate is missing, with only a small swatch of blood remaining. Kauffman tries to explain everything rationally, but Jack and Miles state their case and insist they travel next to Becky’s house. There, Becky’s duplicate body is again gone.

The next morning, eating breakfast at Becky’s, rustling occurs in the basement; this time, it is Charlie, the gas man (Sam Peckinpah). Charlie says he will not be bothering them anymore and will install a gas meter outside on the patio.

Wilma Lentz runs into Miles and says, “Forget about that psychiatrist appointment we arranged.” When she awoke today, everything was okay. Miles tells her to inform Becky, as she was worried. Miles reports to his office to find Jimmy Grimaldi and his grandmother waiting there, very calm and complacent.

Jack is outside in his greenhouse preparing a cookout. Miles, entering the greenhouse, sees four giant seed pods splitting open and forming bodies inside. Miles suspects that once the duplicate human is created, the original is destroyed. Teddy remembers that it happens while the individual is sleeping. Becky’s father, it is believed, was hiding a seed pod in their cellar for Becky last night, as was Charlie. Miles concludes it’s too late to get help from Danny and that he needs to call for help outside Santa Mira. When Miles tries to contact the FBI in Los Angeles and the governor in Sacramento, the operators say they do not answer. Miles realizes the alien threat has taken over the phone lines, so he has Jack and Teddy get into their car and drive away from Santa Mira to return later. He and Becky will stay behind to figure out the conspiracy.

Miles needs somebody to trust, and his nurse fits the bill. He calls to see if she’s home. The gas station attendants act awfully weird when they stop for gas, opening Miles’ car trunk. Driving a few blocks away, Miles pulls up a dark side street. Opening the trunk, he finds two seed pods and dumps them on the street. Using a flair, he burns both of them. Miles doubts there’s anyone he can trust, but he drives to Sally’s anyway. He pulls up to her house and sees several cars parked. Miles goes out investigating alone. He looks through a window and sees Stanley Driscoll holding a seed pod amid a group of people, as a policeman confronts Miles, invites him inside, and soon the crowd chases him after he flees.

A broadcast over the police airwaves requests that officers locate and arrest Becky and Miles. Miles heads for his office. Sirens can be heard as the couple enters the office through the back entrance. A guard immediately checks the office, while the young couple hides in a closet. Miles gives Becky and him a pill to stay awake. Miles says,” In my practice, I’ve seen how people have allowed their humanity to drain away. But it happens more slowly than all at once. All of us ... a little bit. We harden our hearts, grow callous. We have to fight to remain human.”

Miles’ phone rings several times, but he ignores it, waiting for Jack to arrive and help. Miles looks at the busy town square, filled with outsiders who are quickly arrested. Then it seems all citizens gather at the square as farmers’ trucks pull up. People are assigned to a single truck, which delivers pods to a nearby city. “It’s a malignant disease spreading through the whole country.” The doorknob turns, and Jack, Danny, and several others arrive with seed pods, Jack saying he was wrong to fight it. “You will be reborn into an untroubled world,” Danny explains. “Desire, ambition, faith ... without them, life is so simple, believe me.” As Danny states matter-of-factly, love is unnecessary, and besides, it never lasts. Miles loads several syringes with sedatives, which he skillfully administers to their three captors, with Becky’s help. Miles and Becky sneak out of the office and head toward the highway.

Leaving by the front entrance, Miles tells Becky to keep her eyes wide and expressionless. Both of them pull off the pod people routine quite well until a little dog gets caught in the middle of the street with a truck approaching, and Becky screams in concern. A police officer notices, and soon the entire town pursues them.

Miles and Becky flee to the outskirts of town, a brush-covered area with hills and bridges. Becky collapses from exhaustion, and Miles carries her into a cave. They hide beneath the loose slats, which cover a hole beneath. The mob passes over them. Becky and Miles splash water on their faces. The two hear a heavenly choir, and Miles decides to explore. There might still be more actual humans left. Near total exhaustion, Becky splashes more water on her face. Miles spots the greenhouse where men load seed pods, with the truck radio playing sweet music. Miles then returns to the cave.

Finding Becky nearly asleep, he carries her. Miles collapses into the mud and kisses Becky, noticing her eyes are open, black, and emotionless, realizing she has fallen asleep and is now one of them. Becky yells to reveal Miles's location, and he runs.

Miles runs to the busy highway, the mob saying, "Let him go; they’ll never believe him." Miles yells for help and tries to stop cars. Acting like a total idiot, Miles raves that we are in danger, and there are no human beings left in Santa Mira. He tries to stop a truck and soon finds out it is filled with pods. “They're here already, you’re next! You’re next!” The screen blurs away once again.

Miles is once again ranting to Dr. Hill and Dr. Bassett, saying, “You don’t believe a word of this, do you?” Miles gives up on them as sirens sound in the background. Leaving Bennell behind, Dr. Hill is more likely to believe him, while Bassett calls him as mad as a March hare. At this moment, an accident victim is brought in, with broken bones from being buried under giant seed pods. And the truck was coming from Santa Mira. As Miles stays huddled against the wall, Bissell sends out a message to stop all traffic leaving Santa Mira and to contact the FBI. We end the film with a fearful Miles Bennell.

Critique

The initial film, the 1956 version of Jack Finney’s novel, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, is regarded as a science fiction classic and a powerful metaphor for its time: communism. The alien threat is no longer humanoid but consists of seeds drifting through space that land on Earth, settle in a farmer’s field, and grow into large seed pods. These pods develop into perfect copies of humans, including brain function, memories, and skills. Once the duplicate finishes replicating the original, the original is destroyed, and the duplicate is identical, except for a hive mentality to the alien masters and the lack of all human emotions. In other words, these pod people reject individualism and live entirely for the collective group consciousness.

Being a metaphor for communism is mostly accurate. (Today, the metaphor might symbolize Corporate America taking over the country, where only the rich matter). But there’s a difference between Lenin’s theoretical vision and reality. In Lenin’s ideas, everyone is equal, owning everything together and sharing wealth. However, in practice, a wealthy ruling class still dominates a large inferior population that has no say and dares not oppose the government. Invasion of the Body Snatchers leans more toward communist theory than actual reality.

If love, ambition, goal-focused living, personal growth, striving to improve, and caring for others do not matter to you, then being a pod person is a good choice because it simplifies life. But if you prefer a competitive society where individuals and feelings are important, then being a pod person is a bad idea. Being a pod person is an easier, less stressful way to live, but it offers much less satisfaction. Similar to living as a plant, which originated with the plant-based seed pods.

But let us discuss the framing story at the beginning and end of the movie. This is where a raving Dr. Miles Bennell is trying to explain to Doctors Hill and Bassett the fact that Santa Mira has been entirely taken over by aliens. The producers probably didn't want to end the movie with Miles yelling in the middle of the highway, "You're next!" Running into a truck loaded with seed pods headed to other cities only means the alien takeover is spreading across the country. Rather than end the movie on this bleak, pessimistic note, the ending frame offers a sense of optimism: Bennell is finally believed, all traffic is being blocked from Santa Mira, and the FBI is contacted. There is some hope that the alien threat can be defeated. The studio insisted that the film end on such an optimistic note.

And let's discuss that final kiss that produces an overpowering power keg of horror. Miles, returning to the cave, falls with Becky, and Miles tenderly kisses her. A simple kiss, which represents the essence of human love, passion, being a protector, feeling cherished, and caring for each other. In a flash, these emotions disappear. They are replaced in a dark cavern, falling in the mud and muck, by a cold stare centered on blank, deadened eyes, with a stark look, not of love, but of emptiness. Becky is no longer Becky.

“I’ve been afraid a lot of times in my life, but I didn’t know the real meaning of fear until I kissed Becky. A moment’s sleep, and the girl I loved was an inhuman enemy bent on my destruction. That moment of sleep was death to Becky’s soul just as it had been to Jack, Teddy, and Dan Kauffman and all the rest. Their bodies were now hosts harboring an alien form of life. A. cosmic form in order to survive must take over every human being. So I ran and ran ...”

Miles delivers this speech immediately after kissing Becky and realizing she has been taken over. He then flees out of fear. The death of the soul and all humanity represents the worst possible outcome. Imagine: you remain the same physically, but your core of humanness has been stolen and replaced by an essence that no longer cares for the individual, only for the well-being of the alien hive. Your former true love now lives to see you destroyed and is more than willing to reveal you to the enemy. Eyes that once radiated love and friendship are now blank orbs, shining with indifference and a lack of emotion. The human soul is gone!

And this invasion is subtle. As Danny says, we won’t hurt you; you just fall asleep, and the change happens. A change that seems like nothing has changed, but a person’s humanity has been completely taken away. The person may look the same, but what’s happening inside might be worse than death. Becky even says she wouldn’t want to be alive in such a world.

During the 1950s, alien invasions involved spaceships arriving on Earth from outer space, creatures created by radiation, and monsters arising from within the Earth, but nothing matches the horrific creepiness of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This type of invasion happens quickly and quietly, involving relatives and friends who have changed, but you aren’t quite sure how. And before the secret is uncovered, you also have changed, becoming another victim.

The invasion operates more like an inhuman cult where you're invited to join and persuaded by its initially appealing ideas. As Danny presents a world, a life free of stress or problems, we suddenly realize that stress and problems form the basis of our existence, providing moments of joy, happiness, and love as temporary happy moments. As Danny states, love never lasts, but sometimes it does, turning our lives into an oasis amid a desert of chaos. Being a pod person might make life simpler, but it lacks depth.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers has been so successful over the decades that many remakes have been attempted, some good, some not so good. It introduced the term “pod person” into everyday language. It created a new type of Earth invasion from outer space, unique in that it involved the replacement of personality and soul by something darker. It was both an attack on society (such as a small city) and on the individual. The horror of losing one’s humanity is perhaps the greatest horror. That’s why Invasion of the Body Snatchers has remained a cinematic classic since 1956. It still resonates today and raises the question: What does it mean to be human?

DR. MILES BENNELL (KEVIN McCARTHY) IS ABOUT TO TORCH ONE OF THE ALIEN SEED PODS.

JACK BELICEC (KING DONOVAN), DR MILES BENNELL, AND BECKY DRISCOLL (DANA WYNTER) EXAMINE THE PARTIALLY FORMED BODY ON THE POOL TABLE.