Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956/1978)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers are a 1956 and a 1978 science fiction films based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney (originally serialized in Colliers Magazine in 1954).

The 1956 version starred Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, King Donovan, and Carolyn Jones. The screenplay was adapted from Finney's novel by Daniel Mainwaring, along with an uncredited Richard Collins, and was directed by Don Siegel. The film is the first and most critically acclaimed of the novel's four film adaptations to date.

In 1994, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten" — the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres — after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was acknowledged as the ninth best film in the science fiction genre. The film also placed number 47 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding films.

The 1978 remake starred Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy and Art Hindle. 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. The original music score is composed by Denny Zeitlin.

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-looking taxicab driver who drives Matthew and Elizabeth from the city.

Robert Duvall is also seen briefly as a silent priest on a swing set in the opening scene, 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.

• Both films are set in California.
• The 1956 film depicts Becky as the ex-girlfriend of Miles. The 1978 film portrays the relationship of Matthew and Elizabeth as nothing more than friends (and colleagues, since they both work at the health department) until love occurs in the latter part of the plot.
• 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 Bellicec and Dan Kaufman). 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 city 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 spa 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.
• 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 process 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.
• In the original, Miles remains himself long enough to warn humanity of the pod people and is still himself at the film's end. In the remake, Matthew is subsumed by the end of the film and has not warned humanity.

The 1978 film is 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.

In the original, the aliens are never seen in their pre-human-like 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 cunning survivors though they are formless 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.