They are directing the growth to go where they think will do the most good. Important people, people in convenient situations etc. all so the invasion would take place effectively and efficiently. This plan was so successful that it required a production type dynamic of which we witness in the movie
The director has strongly hinted that the priest is one of the first pod conversions. This is reiterated by the strange point-of-view camera angle we see as the priest looks at the others in the scene, as he swings.
The manager says it's a caper; Matthew proves it's a rat turd. In other words, something that outwardly looks normal, on further examination, proves to be something toxic. It's an early introduction of the film's theme.
When San Francisco Public Health employee, Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams), complains to fellow employee, field inspector Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), that her boyfriend, dentist Geoffrey Howell (Art Hindle), has somehow changed overnight, becoming emotionally void, Matthew's first suggestion is that Elizabeth speak with his renown psychiatrist friend Dr David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy). However, when more people begin showing up with the same complaint—that friends and spouses are somehow emotionally "different"—and another friend, Jack Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum) and his wife Nancy (Veronica Cartwright), find a partly-formed corpse that strongly resembles Jack, they realize that people are being replicated by alien plant pods that duplicate them while they sleep. But, when Matthew tries to alert the mayor and other authorities, he's advised to simply "get more sleep," and it's getting harder and harder to stay awake.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), which was based on a 1955 novel by American science fiction writer Jack Finney. The novel was originally serialized in Colliers Magazine in 1954 and was adapted for this movie by American screenwriter W.D. Richter. Subsequent to this movie, there are two more remakes: Body Snatchers (1993) and The Invasion (2007).
When Elizabeth wakes up late and heads for work, there is an old man in a suit running behind her and being chased. He presumably has been identified by the pod people or caught on to their existence, as a shriek can be faintly heard in the background. According to the director's commentary, that shot was to help develop the audience's sense of unease.
Yes. Kevin McCarthy, who plays Dr. Miles Bennell in the 1956 movie, was asked to appear in that one scene, which was similar to one of his final scenes in the original movie. It should be noted though that the scene is simply a fun nod to the 1956 film and McCarthy is not playing the same character. He is simply listed as "Running man" in the end credits of this film.
Scenes during the opening credits make it obvious that the plants originated in outer space and then landed on earth where, according to an article in the San Francisco Dispatch (Matthew can be seen cutting it out), they looked like spider webs dropping out of the sky. Dr Kibner corroborates their alien origin later in the movie when he explains that they came from a dying world, drifting through the universe from planet to planet, pushed on by the solar winds. This jibes with the explanation given in the 1956 version of the movie where it was explained that seeds drifting through space for years took root in a farmer's field. From the seeds came pods that have the power to reproduce themselves in the exact likeness of any form of life. The nature of the pod flower is further expanded when Elizabeth notes that they are growing like parasites on other flowers, and she thinks that it may be a grex, which she explains as "two different species cross-pollinate and produce a uniquely different third," suggesting that the alien plant has cross-pollinated with one or more earth plants and produced a new species of plant. Apparently, this is also the case when the alien plants begin to cross-pollinate with humans as well. This has led some viewers to wonder whether the pods are plants in the first place. They take that form on Earth, but it's possible that is just the form they adopted here because the raw form, the webs, mostly landed on plants. In other words, they may have two distinct phases of duplication. First, the webs land on trees and bushes copy the plant DNA, grexing into plants. Then they start Phase II, which is the duplication of the planet's dominant life form. All they may really consist of is simple genetic programming built in to them at the basic web level, race memory, and the survival instinct. The rest comes from the copied host. This is a tolerable theory because, in the novel, the pods first copy completely silly stuff like a can of peaches and a broken axe handle before they finally figure to move on to humans.
The book is Worlds in Collision by Immanuel Velikovsky. The book was published in 1950 and spent 11 years on the New York Times bestseller list. However, the book was highly controversial and was met with overwhelming rejection of its thesis by the scientific community. It's likely that it was included in the movie because Matthew Bennell, like Velikovsky, is largely ignored and dismissed by his peers. More significantly, Velikovsky's thesis involved a (scientifically rejected) process of collisions and interactions between planets, including the seeding of Earth with organic material from space, that influenced the history of the Earth; thus it parallels in some ways the plot of the movie. You can read more here.
They point and shriek in an unwordly sound whenever they detect a human who hasn't yet been converted, which is used apparently to call out to other pod clones in close proximity to detain that person.
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- How long is Invasion of the Body Snatchers?1 hour and 55 minutes
- When was Invasion of the Body Snatchers released?December 22, 1978
- What is the IMDb rating of Invasion of the Body Snatchers?7.4 out of 10
- Who stars in Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
- Who wrote Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
- Who directed Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
- Who was the composer for Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
- Who was the producer of Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
- Who was the cinematographer for Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
- Who was the editor of Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
- Who are the characters in Invasion of the Body Snatchers?Matthew Bennell, Becky Driscoll, Jack Bellicec, Nancy Bellicec, Dr. David Kibner, Dr. Miles J. Bennell, Taxi Driver, Ted Hendley, Stan, Mr. Gianni, and others
- What is the plot of Invasion of the Body Snatchers?When strange seeds drift to earth from space, mysterious pods begin to grow and invade San Francisco, replicating the city's residents one body at a time.
- What was the budget for Invasion of the Body Snatchers?$3.5 million
- How much did Invasion of the Body Snatchers earn at the worldwide box office?$24.9 million
- How much did Invasion of the Body Snatchers earn at the US box office?$24.9 million
- What is Invasion of the Body Snatchers rated?TV-MA
- What genre is Invasion of the Body Snatchers?Horror and Sci-Fi
- How many awards has Invasion of the Body Snatchers won?3 awards
- How many awards has Invasion of the Body Snatchers been nominated for?13 nominations
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By what name was Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) officially released in India in Hindi?
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