The Invasion (2007)

As a Washington, D.C. psychiatrist unearths the origin of an alien epidemic, she also discovers her son might be the only way it can be stopped.

Directors:

Oliver Hirschbiegel, James McTeigue (uncredited)

Writers:

David Kajganich (screenplay), Jack Finney (novel)

Stars:

Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nicole Kidman	...	Carol Bennell
Daniel Craig	...	Ben Driscoll
Jeremy Northam	...	Tucker Kaufman
Jackson Bond	...	Oliver
Jeffrey Wright	...	Dr. Stephen Galeano
Veronica Cartwright	...	Wendy Lenk
Josef Sommer	...	Dr. Henryk Belicec
Celia Weston	...	Ludmilla Belicec
Roger Rees	...	Yorish
Eric Benjamin	...	Gene
Susan Floyd	...	Pam
Stephanie Berry	...	Carly
Alexis Raben	...	Belicec's Aide
Adam LeFevre	...	Richard Lenk
Joanna Merlin	...	Joan Kaufman

Storyline

While returning to Earth, the space shuttle explodes and the fragments bring an alien virus that recodes the human DNA. In Washington, the psychiatrist Carol Bennell observes the modification of the behavior of one of her clients first, then in her former husband and finally in the population in general. Together with her friend Dr. Ben Driscoll the researcher Dr. Stephen Galeano, they discover that the extraterrestrial epidemic affects human beings while sleeping and that her son Ollie, who had chickenpox when he was a baby, is immune to the disease and may save mankind from the outbreak.

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Plot Keywords:

psychiatrist | emotionlessness | alien invasion | alien | alien organism | 

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Taglines:

Don't Sleep. Don't Go Home. I'll Find You. - Mom

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Genres:

Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and terror

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros. [United States]

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

17 August 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Filming Locations:

Union Station/Columbus Circle, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$80,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,951,409, 19 August 2007, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$15,071,514, 7 October 2007

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Silver Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Cinematographer Rainer Klausmann said in an interview that the original budget was $ 64 million dollars. But this doesn't include the additional millions spent on re-shoots, where he and director Oliver Hirschbiegel were no longer involved [Nov. 2017].

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Goofs

When Carol receives a call in Ben's Jaguar after escaping the pharmacy, we see the cellphone in the foot well; it's Carol's Nokia 'candy bar' shaped phone. However, she says "that's Ben's phone". Next, we see her talking into Ben's flip phone. For the rest of the scene, she's using her own Nokia phone.

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Quotes

[first lines]
News Announcer: [off-screen] Tragic news tonight as the space shuttle "Patriot" explodes during an unscheduled landing attempt.

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Connections

Featured in We've Been Snatched Before (2008)

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Soundtracks

Boogie
Written by Tommy Armstrong and Deyon Davis
Performed by Drop Tha Bomb
Courtesy of Cinematic Tunes Inc.

User Reviews

Blame it on the Hollywood suits

I honestly don't think the movie is worth an 8, not in its released form. But since the cuts and additions from the suits are so painfully obvious, I'm willing to give a higher rating to the movie that could have been... and for now, only the original director Oliver something has seen.

So the original movie (which is still discernible somehow) was supposed to be a dark, slow take on isolation, pill overuse and boring modern life. With a twist: a mom so desperate to protect her child, she would silently watch other people being killed as long as she can find her kid. That's actually moving and seldom seen in a macho-dominated Hollywood. I won't say that ice cold Kidman is the right choice to depict a desperate mom, but given that her role is to often look emotionless (so she can pass as another "pod people") she doesn't do too badly.

Now, the suits didn't like that and called those soft-brained Wachowski bros to make it -supposedly- more mainstream. And what they did was to add car chases, crashes, helicopters, fires and senseless violence in general. Inserted into the original movie at close intervals to keep people amused (or so they thought). Now, there are a few good directors who can pull out a combination of slow burn and crazy action. But a patchwork movie made of two different directors' bits, guys with widely opposed instincts and goals, no wonder the result is a flop.

If anything is to be learned from this, it's how little do Hollywood executives know about what makes a good movie. Granted, a non-stop mishmash of violence and fifth-drink bar philosophy like The Matrix can earn the big bucks, but you can't expect Matrix-like bits to improve what was intended to be a slow paced, moody film. Which was probably condemned to be a box office failure, but also could have been pretty good.