Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1978 American science-fiction psychological horror film directed by Philip Kaufman, written by W. D. Richter, and starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy. It is the second film adaptation of Jack Finney's 1954 novel The Body Snatchers, following the 1956 film.
The plot involves a San Francisco health inspector (Sutherland) and his colleague (Adams) who over the course of a few days discover that humans are being replaced by alien duplicates; each is a perfect biological clone of the person replaced, but devoid of empathy and humanity.
Released in the United States by United Artists on December 22, 1978, Invasion of the Body Snatchers grossed nearly $25 million (equivalent to $ million in ) at the American box office. It initially received varied reviews from critics, though its critical reception has significantly improved in subsequent years, receiving a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and also being hailed as one of the greatest remakes ever, as well as one of the best science fiction horror films of all time.
Plot An amorphous parasitic alien race abandons its dying planet and travels across space, eventually coming to Earth. Upon settling, the spores take the form of small pods with fragrant pink flowers.
Elizabeth Driscoll, a laboratory scientist at the San Francisco Health Department, brings one of the flowers home, and shows it to her boyfriend, Geoffrey. She awakens the next morning to find him being cold and distant while putting shards of glass that once held the flower pod into a garbage truck, itself filled with fuzzy and dry grey material.
Elizabeth confides to her colleague and friend Matthew Bennell about the unsettling changes in Geoffrey, and that she fears he is an impostor. Elizabeth mentions following him and seeing him secretly meeting with people she does not know. Matthew advises Elizabeth to talk to his psychiatrist friend David Kibner, to which she reluctantly agrees.
On the way to Kibner, a hysterical man warns Elizabeth and Matthew of danger as a mob pursues him. The couple follows the mob, only to find his dead body surrounded by emotionless onlookers. At Kibner's book promotion event, Matthew finds his friend Jack Bellicec, an aspiring writer, while Elizabeth meets Kibner, who reassures a woman who claims that her husband has changed. Kibner brushes off both women's concerns, insisting the behavior is just a case of non-commitment. Elizabeth is convinced to return home to Geoffrey.
Jack returns to the mud bath spa he runs with his wife Nancy. The two find a mysterious embryonic adult-body resembling Jack, and call Matthew to investigate. At the disturbing discovery, Matthew goes to warn Elizabeth, and discovers a semi-formed duplicate of her near her bedroom. Matthew rescues Elizabeth and alerts the police and Kibner about the events, but when they arrive, Jack and Elizabeth's duplicates have disappeared.
Elizabeth suspects the flowers are involved, but is unable to examine one at the health department offices. In the meantime Matthew tries in vain to alert the authorities. After encountering several doppelgangers, Matthew, Elizabeth, Jack, and Nancy hide out in Matthew's apartment. They call Kibner, who promises to help, but in fact is another duplicate. As the group fall asleep, big flower pods emerge from the garden and start birthing their replacements. They wake up, and Matthew destroys his own replacement.
The pod people (the fully formed alien replacements) pursue Matthew's group. Jack and Nancy create a distraction, sacrificing themselves, while Matthew and Elizabeth take refuge at the health department. They take speed to remain awake. Jack and Kibner's duplicates ambush and inject them with a sedative, needing them to fall asleep to be replaced. Kibner's duplicate explains the aliens' plan to replace humanity with emotionless duplicates whose only goal is survival. Matthew kills Jack's double and locks Kibner's in a freezer, then escapes with Elizabeth.
Matthew and Elizabeth find Nancy, who tricked the pod people by hiding her emotions. The three blend in among the duplicates. Elizabeth sees a dog-human hybrid – a byproduct of a damaged pod – and screams, alerting the pod people who emit high-pitched screams. In the commotion, Matthew and Elizabeth are separated from Nancy. Boarding a truck delivering plants to Pier 70, they find pods grown and processed in a warehouse.
Noticing a nearby ship, Matthew leaves Elizabeth (whose ankle is sprained) to investigate, only to find it being loaded with pods. Matthew returns to Elizabeth, finding her unresponsive. She disintegrates while her duplicate emerges from the grass. Matthew flees the duplicate, breaks into the dock warehouse, and burns down the building, destroying several plants and killing many pod people. He hides underneath the pier as pursuers search for him. A flashlight shines in his direction.
Later, Matthew resumes work in the health department, acting emotionless among the duplicated employees. While outside, Nancy calls out to him. To her horror, he points at her and emits the duplicates' high-pitched scream.
Cast
Don Siegel and Kevin McCarthy, respectively the director and star of the 1956 film, both make cameo appearances. Siegel plays an assimilated taxi driver, and McCarthy plays a running man shouting "You're next" (a reference to the ending of the original film).
Philip Kaufman's wife Rose Kaufman played Outraged Woman, who argues with Jack at the book party, while Robert Duvall appeared as an uncredited priest on a swing, and Kaufman himself has two uncredited cameos, one as the man who bothers Bennell in a phone booth, and another as the voice of one of the officials whom Bennell contacts.
Production Considered a "low-budget" Allied Artist film, the movie was made on a budget of $350,000. The film was originally being developed by Warner Bros. in 1977, though the project was dropped after the box office failure of Exorcist II: The Heretic where it was then picked by United Artists. Producer Robert H. Solo stated he lobbied for the rights to the book as early as 1976, noting: "It was a long and very hairy process." Principal photography began on February 19, 1978 and closed on April 29, 1978.
Director Philip Kaufman had been a fan of the 1956 film, which he likened to "great radio", although he had not read the novel until after he agreed to direct the film. "I thought, 'Well this doesn't have to be a remake as such. It can be a new envisioning that was a variation on a theme'," he said on the film's 40th anniversary. The first change he anticipated was filming in color; the second was changing the location to San Francisco. "Could it happen in the city I love the most? The city with the most advanced, progressive therapies, politics and so forth? What would happen in a place like that if the pods landed there and that element of 'poddiness' was spread?"
Cinematographer Michael Chapman worked with Kaufman to try to capture the film noir feel of the original in color, reviewing some classics of that genre before production. Some of the elements they borrowed were shots with light giving way to shadow and shooting from evocative angles. They used certain color tinges to indicate that some characters were now pod people. "When they're running along the Embarcadero and the huge shadows appear first, those are sort of classic film noir images", the director said.
Sound editor Ben Burtt, who had helped create many of the signature sounds from Star Wars the year before, also added to the film's ambience. Natural sounds that mix with the city's more industrial noises give way to just the latter as the film progresses. Among them are the grinding noises of garbage trucks, a common urban sound that slowly becomes horrific as it becomes clear that most of what they are processing is the discarded husks that remain of pre-pod human bodies. Burtt also designed the shriek when pod people see a surviving human, a sound Kaufman said was composed of many elements, including a pig's squeal.
Screenwriter W. D. Richter stated that at the start of the film's production, the crew looked for alternative ways to update the design of the pods from the 1956 version. "We don't want them to look like comical giant green pea pods. We're trying to rethink all the graphic horror." All the special effects were created live for the camera. The scene at the beginning where the pods travel through space from their dead homeworld to San Francisco was one of the simplest. "I found some viscous material in an art store, I think we paid $12 for a big vat of it, and then [we dropped it] into solutions and reversed the film", Kaufman recalled. The dog wearing a mask of the banjo player's face included a hole in the mask through which the creature appeared to lick itself.
The film features a number of cameo appearances. Kevin McCarthy, who played Dr. Miles Bennell in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, makes a brief appearance as an old man frantically screaming "They're coming!" to passing cars on the street. Though not playing the same character, Kaufman meant McCarthy's cameo as a nod to the original movie, as if he had been "metaphorically" running around the country since the original film shouting out his warnings. While they were filming the scene, in the Tenderloin, Kaufman recalls that a naked man lying on the street awoke and recognized McCarthy. After learning that they were filming the remake of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, he told McCarthy that that film was better. "We were in the middle of shooting the film and we got our first review!"
The original film's director, Don Siegel, appears as a taxi driver who alerts the police to Matthew and Elizabeth's attempt to flee the city. Robert Duvall is also seen briefly as a silent priest sitting on a swing set in the opening scene. 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, has a small role at the book party as the woman who argues with Jeff Goldblum's character. Chapman appears twice as a janitor in the health department.
McCarthy and Siegel played a role in shaping the film's ending. Before filming, Kaufman had sought out Siegel for advice, and while the two were talking in the latter's office, McCarthy happened to come in. The topic eventually came around to the original film's ending, which they regarded as "pat". After coming up with the ending he used, he kept it a secret from everyone involved in the filming except screenwriter W. D. Richter and producer Robert Solo. Sutherland was only informed of the scene the night before shooting; Kaufman is not sure Cartwright even knew until Sutherland turned around to point and shriek at her. The studio executives only learned of it when a cut was screened for them at George Lucas's house.
The film score by Denny Zeitlin was released on United Artists Records; it is the only film score Zeitlin composed. Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead recorded the banjo parts.