they're coming! - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

OH! YOU'RE NOT GEOFFREY!

THE SPOILERS! THEY’RE COMING!

*I’m going to try my best to leave some of this movie undiscussed because if you have not seen Invasion of the Body Snatchers yet I URGE YOU TO FIX THIS RIGHT NOW.

Also trigger warning for… animal… hybrid? IDK.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Directed by: Philip Kaufman

Based on: The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney (published in 1954)

Starring: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy, Art Hindle, Leila Goldoni, et al.

Running time: 115 minutes

Original release date: December 22, 1978

the plot, in brief

Laboratory scientist Elizabeth Driscoll brings home a small, strange pink flower from work. When she wakes up the next morning, her boyfriend Geoffrey seems to have undergone a drastic personality change overnight, acting strangely cold and distant. She relays her concerns to her colleague, Matthew Bennell, and fears that the Geoffrey in her house is an impostor.

What neither of them know is that something very sinister is already brewing - and it is connected to that very same flower.

but first

I apologize because that’s quite possibly the worst plot summary I’ve ever done, I’M NOT SAYING IT’S ALIENS BUT IT’S VERY MUCH FUCKING ALIENS .

and also, importantly

On a more serious note, this was sort of not what I had planned for this issue (indeed, that will come in the form of a double issue next week) but when the news broke on Thursday that the brilliant Donald Sutherland had sadly passed away, I felt like I had to do something. It’s not usually my style to do the whole tribute thing but for a man whose career had a rich vein in the genre we love so much (and who was also a fucking rockstar of a person), I was willing to make an exception.

And while I am definitely keeping Don’t Look Now in the hopper for a later issue, I feel like going with a movie that gave us one of the most iconic final minute twists AND an equally iconic final shot is definitely the way to go.

Look at that. Look at the composition of this shot. Even if you don’t know the context of this moment, it’s just utterly terrifying to look at. In one single image, Sutherland’s body holds a world of storytelling - one hour and fifty-four minutes of squishy, visceral and oppressively unstoppable horror distilled into one mouth opened square, one set of eyes bulging, one finger pointing. It’s magnificent and devastating and if you don’t fucking stop me I’ll make this entire issue about this one image BECAUSE I CAN.

ahem. on to business

If we look at Invasion of the Body Snatchers from a storytelling point of view, to me its strengths lie in its visual choices. The opening credits play over an eerie, beautiful scene of alien migration in which wispy, viscous pod ectoplasm floats through space, seeking escape from its barren planet. A practical effect which was achieved by way of $12 worth of viscous material from a craft store, a reversal of the film and a lot of hoping it looks good, it is mesmerizing to watch the spores float down to earth, ominously taking root in the water, in the plants, in the air.

On earth, we are immediately put on the back foot. Things are already off - we watch a number of strange, not-quite-real seeming flowers blossom, and are introduced to Elizabeth Driscoll (played by Brooke Adams, who between this and her role in Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven had quite the 1978) as she picks one of them to take home. She walks off and we watch a group of school children and their teacher, out in the park on a field trip. We hear the piercing, tell-tale sound of a swing set in need of oiling but as the camera takes us to the view of the swing set, we see a priest (an uncredited ROBERT DUVALL), swinging, his body strangely stiff. Briefly, we’re in his point of view, camera also swinging. Something is wrong.

Kaufman was intent on capturing the 1956 version’s film noir feel, working with his cinematographer Michael Chapman on playing with shadows and light, with telltale noir angles. The shot of Elizabeth crossing the road to her house is angular, disorienting, making the houses ahead of her seem huge.

All these elements of visual storytelling come together to immerse you into that dread (what does this Stack love more than anything, say it with me now: DREAD) from the off. It’s very effective in grabbing a viewer’s attention and not letting go.

the old Geoffrey can’t come to the phone right now… why? oh, because HE’S DEAD

Elizabeth comes home and we get to spend some time with her and her boyfriend Geoffrey - we establish that while Geoffrey (a dentist) is a bit of a lazy feck, they do love each other and they have a nice, if slightly exasperating relationship.

We cut to a random French restaurant up town - this is where we meet with Sutherland’s character, Matthew Bennell, an inspector for the Department of Health and Elizabeth’s colleague. Bennell, a sentient trench coat wearing a trench coat (/affectionate, and he does it well), calmly but effectively annihilates the career of Chef Henri, a man with a very lax approach towards basic food safety and it is positively riveting to watch.

Bennell gets his car window busted by way of wine bottle as thanks, something which he relays on the phone to Elizabeth. Their relationship, in any other movie (you know, one where there’s not a looming, constant threat of pod alien terror), is the stuff of friends to lovers romance fiction. They have an easy rapport, they’re clearly comfortable around each other and they both share perhaps a history of having wanted something more from life. Something … well, not working for the Department of Health for starters.

As Elizabeth and Geoffrey get into bed, a glass of water on the bedside table glows a strange, ominous blue. Cut to the next morning and as Elizabeth wakes up, Geoffrey is wide awake, fully dressed and, most importantly, moving and talking like he’s been replaced by a Sim. Elizabeth observes him carrying a bin out to a garbage truck (this will be a recurring theme), unnerved by the sudden and very tangible change in her partner.

A fantastic thing about this movie is that it almost definitely will have you want to rewatch immediately because there’s bound to be things that you haven’t picked up on first go around. The article Bennell is cutting out of the paper while he’s on the phone to Elizabeth? It’s about webs shrouding the Bay Area. The people in the corridors of the Department of Health? Watch them again. Notice the changes. This movie rewards you so richly and thoroughly and we’ve not even gotten to the meat and potatoes of it.

Elizabeth shares her worries regarding Geoffrey with Bennell, and he suggests getting advice from his friend, pop-psychiatrist Dr. David Kibner (played by THEE LEONARD NIMOY). They attend the launch of his new book, but on the way there are unnerved when a man hysterically accosts their car, screaming THEY’RE COMING (he’s played by Kevin McCarthy - who played Dr. Miles Bennell in the original). The man runs from what looks like an emotionless mob, moving eerily in synch, before being hit by a car. Bennell and Elizabeth, unnerved, drive on.

At the book launch, we meet aspiring writer and living embodiment of “why explain it in once sentence when seventeen will do” Jack Bellicec (baby Jeff Goldblum, oh my god), whose main character trait is that he fucking hates Dr. Kibner and thinks him a HACK. Elizabeth is further unnerved when she overhears a conversation between Kibner and one of his patients, Katherine Hendley (Leila Goldoni), who is attending the book launch. Katherine is trying desperately to explain that her husband is also not her husband anymore, and while Kibner brushes this off, Elizabeth gives Katherine her phone number and asks her to call.

Bellicec - who we learn co-runs a mud spa with his wife Nancy (Veronica Cartwright, here on the verge of her breakout role as Lambert in Alien, which came out about five months later) - returns home and tries to calm down. Which proves pretty impossible when Nancy stumbles on a bizarre embryonic body which looks a lot like her husband. Bennell is promptly called to investigate and when he in turn goes to warn Elizabeth, he finds a similar, semi-formed duplicate of her on the terrace near the bedroom. Bennell manages to rescue Elizabeth and calls the police but by the time they arrive, both duplicates have disappeared.

banjo dog doodah band

From there, it becomes a matter of survival as Bennell, Elizabeth, Jack and Nancy try to figure out what the hell is going on while at the same time trying to not fall prey to it. The scene where Bennell accidentally falls asleep on the roof, causing tendrils of the pod creatures to latch on to him before… well, birth is given to a number of duplicates is one of the most haunting. The tragic, gruesome poetry of this twisted nature is filmed in a way that makes it almost beautiful despite it being objectively very squicky. I was practically yelling at my TV, begging Bennell to wake up (Sutherland’s fluttering eyes, where you just see the whites, is a sublime bit of facial acting).

The third act is a race against time that has already run out - the four get split up and Bennell and Elizabeth escape to the health department (where they both take a ludicrous amount of speed to keep awake). Kibner and Jack’s duplicates (RIP Jack Bellicec, I’m very sad we never got to hear your poetry) ambush them and Kibner 2 essentially lays out the pod aliens’ plan to replace humanity (complex, compassionate, humanistic) with serene, emotionless duplicates (Geoffrey 2 mentions that it’s not so bad as you get the same clothes and live in the same house because these duplicates have no understanding of those complexities that make a human being). Bennell manages to kill Jack’s duplicate and lock Kibner 2 in a freezer (just have to quickly shout out Leonard Nimoy, he is DELICIOUSLY evil in this film) before escaping with Elizabeth.

After finding Nancy, who has managed to survive by hiding her emotions and mimicking the pod people, the three try to blend into the crowd, which works right up until something that seemed like a throwaway moment some time earlier comes to spectacularly bite them in the arse - a few scenes previously, Bennell and Elizabeth are seen running into the body of a man seen early in the film playing the banjo in a park. Both him and his dog have fallen victim to a pod, and Bennell - in reflex - kicks the pod before running off.

I will give you one guess as to what that managed to achieve and if you’ve never seen the movie before, I can fucking guarantee you there is no way on earth you’ll be able to guess.

Are you ready?

You sure?

Absolutely sure?

Well, it’s THIS THING.

Yes, Bennell innocently kicking the pod accidentally caused the dog and banjo man’s duplicates to meld into one deeply fucked up man/dog/banjo hybrid. Elizabeth screams because WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULDN’T, I CERTAINLY FUCKING DID.

Bennell and Elizabeth get separated from Nancy again and end up hiding near Pier 70, where the pod people are processing trucks full of plants. Bennell manages to declare his love for Elizabeth before she succumbs to sleep and disintegrates in his arms. A duplicate of Elizabeth calls out for him, and an enraged Matthew sets out to fuck shit up, setting the dock warehouse on fire.

oh y’all wanted a twist, ey!

An undisclosed time later (possibly the next day). Matthew watches, as busses of school children are ominously led into a venue to “take a nap”. He walks around the health department building, not noticed by the podded duplicates of the people he use to work with.

On the street, we hear a voice call his name. Nancy has survived the night, and approaches Matthew, thinking to catch him up on what’s going on. But in a final, gut-wrenching moment, Matthew raises finger to point at Nancy, his unreal scream horrifying Nancy, letting her know that he too has fallen victim to the pod people (Ben Burtt, sound editor and veteran of the Star Wars franchise, helped create the film’s audio landscape, including that very same scream which was a mix of several unheimlich noises).

Talk about a gut punch of an ending. Talk about a capital M moment. It is impossible to distill a career as storied as Sutherland’s to just the one moment but I think this final, breathtaking, earth shattering moment would be a contender.

For more on this spectacular movie, I encourage you to read this great 2018 deep dive from The Hollywood Reporter, which goes a bit more in depth into its themes.