History Film / InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1956

Usually interpreted as a UsefulNotes/ColdWar-era metaphor for [[DirtyCommunists Communist infiltration]], although some view it more as an indictment of [[RedScare McCarthyism]] and small-town insularity and conformity.

[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/body_snatchers_1956.jpg]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/body_snatchers_1956.jpg]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/invasion_of_the_body_snatchers_1956.jpg]]

* TechnologyMarchesOn: It's TheFifties, so Miles has to go through the operator to try to make long-distance calls....

A classic sci-fi/horror film directed by Creator/DonSiegel and released in 1956, the first of [[Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers several screen adaptations]] of Jack Finney's novel ''The Body Snatchers''.

* BolivianArmyEnding: the conclusion of the film, which ended with the doctor believing Bennell and calling the government to warn them. The pod people are still out there, but they're going to get a fight.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: [[spoiler:Bennell shouts at the camera, "You're next!"]]

* OnlySaneMan: By the end, Bennell, and no one left unaffected believes him. [[spoiler:Ultimately, the psychiatrist realizes Bennell was telling the truth after some medics report having to dig a man out from under a wrecked truck full of giant seed pods.]]

* PretendWereDead: Miles and Becky feign emotionlessness to walk through the pod-infested town safely. The other versions followed suit. [[spoiler: Thwarted in the 1978 version, where a messed up clone that has a busker's head upon the body of his dog frightens the female protagonist so badly she gives the game away, and in the original she screams on seeing a dog run over by a truck.]]

* DutchAngle: In the scene where Miles discovers the pods in the greenhouse.

** The movie was given one by executives who wanted a happier ending to the film. In the added prologue, Bennell is dragged into a hospital emergency ward by the authorities, where he recounts the film to the doctor assigned to him. In the epilogue, his story is confirmed by one of the pod truck drivers being rescued from a car crash; the hospital staff immediately call the FBI in an implied happy ending. Director Don Siegel said it almost ruined his intended movie. While a re-edited version of the film more in keeping with Siegel's original vision was supposedly made in 1979, all home video releases have used the theatrical cut with the framing story, as did a special screening held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2005 to honor Siegel.

--> '''Becky:''': I've been in Reno.
--> '''Miles:''': Reno?
--> '''Becky:''': Reno. Dad tells me you were there, too.
--> '''Miles:''': Five months ago.
--> '''Becky:''': Oh, I'm sorry.

* FramingDevice: The movie was given one by executives who wanted a happier ending to the film. In the added prologue, Bennell is dragged into a hospital emergency ward by the authorities, where he recounts the film to the doctor assigned to him. In the epilogue, his story is confirmed by one of the pod truck drivers being rescued from a car crash; the hospital staff immediately call the FBI in an implied happy ending. Director Don Siegel said it almost ruined his intended movie. While a re-edited version of the film more in keeping with Siegel's original vision was supposedly made in 1979, all home video releases have used the theatrical cut with the framing story, as did a special screening held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2005 to honor Siegel.

Usually interpreted as a ColdWar-era metaphor for [[DirtyCommunists Communist infiltration]], although some view it more as an indictment of [[RedScare McCarthyism]] and small-town insularity and conformity.

* CatScare: The original has one of these involving a cuckoo clock.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: For a film made in TheFifties, the original has a surprising amount of sexual innuendo between Miles and Becky.

However, Bennell soon discovers that the patients were right. The people of Santa Mira are being replaced by alien doppelgangers, identical duplicates grown in pods, which replaced them while they slept. Behind their perfect mimicry of humanity, including emotions, is a soulless void. The pod people have no culture of their own, only what they have copied from humanity, and they have no goal beyond survival. Can Bennell, Gates, and Bennell's recently-returned ex-girlfriend Becky (Dana Wynter) warn the authorities before it's too late?

Classic sci-fi/horror film from 1956, adapted from Jack Finney's novel ''The Body Snatchers'' and directed by Creator/DonSiegel.

This film has been [[Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers remade many times]].

Miles Bennell (Kevin [=McCarthy=]) is a doctor in the small California town of Santa Mira whose patients start accusing their family and friends of being impostors. They can't explain their suspicions -- there are no physical or behavioral changes -- but they are still convinced that the people they suspect are [[NotHimself no longer themselves]]. Bennell and his colleague, Dan Kaufman, initially assume this is merely mass hysteria, a diagnosis which seems to be confirmed when the patients start recanting their accusations.

However, Bennell soon discovers that the patients were right. The people of Santa Mira are being replaced by alien doppelgangers, identical duplicates grown in pods, which replaced them while they slept. Behind their perfect mimicry of humanity, including emotions, is a soulless void. The pod people have no culture of their own, only what they have copied from humanity, and they have no goal beyond survival.

Usually interpreted as a metaphor for [[DirtyCommunists Communist infiltration]], although some view it more as an indictment of [[RedScare McCarthyism]] and small-town insularity and conformity.

Usually interpreted as a metaphor for [[DirtyCommunists Communism]], although some view it more as an indictment of [[RedScare McCarthyism]] and small-town insularity and conformity.

-->-- '''Bennell'''[='s=] last words

[[quoteright:265:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1956.jpg]]

->''Look, you fools. You're in danger. Can't you see? They're after you. They're after all of us. Our wives, our children, everyone. They're here already. YOU'RE NEXT!''
-->-- '''Bennell''''s last words.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The TropeCodefier. Prior to this, people acting strangely were usually doing so to further an aim in their story. Here, it's an end unto itself, and pure ParanoiaFuel.

[[caption-width-right:265:''The seed is planted...terror grows...'']]

* BolivianArmyEnding: the conclusion of the [[spoiler: first]] film, which ended with the doctor believing Bennell and calling the government to warn them. The pod people are still out there, but they're going to get a fight.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: In the original film, [[spoiler:Bennell shouts at the camera, "You're next!"]]

* DutchAngle: The original also has this, in the scene where Miles discovers the pods in the greenhouse.
* FramingDevice: The 1956 version was given one by executives who wanted a happier ending to the film. In the added prologue, Bennell is dragged into a hospital emergency ward by the authorities, where he recounts the film to the doctor assigned to him. In the epilogue, his story is confirmed by one of the pod truck drivers being rescued from a car crash; the hospital staff immediately call the FBI in an implied happy ending. Director Don Siegel said it almost ruined his intended movie. While a re-edited version of the film more in keeping with Siegel's original vision was supposedly made in 1979, all home video releases have used the theatrical cut with the framing story, as did a special screening held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2005 to honor Siegel.

* HopeSpot: The music Miles and Becky hear while hiding in the cave in the 1956 version.
* ItWasHereISwear: In the original, Miles brings his psychiatrist friend to look at his and Becky's pod bodies, but they've naturally vanished.
* LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard: In the 1956 version, they lock Miles and Becky ''in Miles' own medical office'', and he uses his equipment to escape.
* OnlySaneMan: By the end of the original film, Bennell, and no one left unaffected believes him. [[spoiler:Ultimately, the psychiatrist realizes Bennell was telling the truth after some medics report having to dig a man out from under a wrecked truck full of giant seed pods.]]
* PretendWereDead: The 1956 version has Miles and Becky feign emotionlessness to walk through the pod-infested town safely. The other versions followed suit. [[spoiler: Thwarted in the 1978 version, where a messed up clone that has a busker's head upon the body of his dog frightens the female protagonist so badly she gives the game away, and in the original she screams on seeing a dog run over by a truck.]]

[[redirect:Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers]]