Line #4 Headscratchers/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers


1	* In the 1956 film, how does the conversion process work? The doppelgangers are grown in pods, siphoning their target's memories until the mark falls asleep. Something unspecified happens to the true person's body, then the Pod Person takes their place. However, around the end of the film Original Becky falls asleep for the tiniest moment, then wakes up as Pod Person Becky, no pods or switcheroo required!
2	** Typical 1950s B-Movie science fiction logic. It's the same reason why [[Film/{{Them}} ants can grow to be 50-100 feet long]] (Despite that being biologically and physically impossible), aliens are able to survive on earth (even though there's a good chance our atmosphere, gravity, and whatnot would be fatal to many alien lifeforms), and whatnot. Plus, "suspense overshadows logic". In other words, in order to build tension, movies have a habit of throwing aside established "rules" of the film.
3	* In the 1978 film, what is that leather thing that Kibner wears on his hand? It doesn't seem to serve any purpose.
4	** A support for carpal tunnel syndrome. He apparently wrote his books by hand.
5	* What I wanna know is why exactly does the person the pod people imitate crumble into dust. I understand that destroying the body is necessary, but how exactly did they do that?
6	* In the 1978 remake, how long does it take to create a replica? First, it seems to take all night, or at least enough time for Bennell to drive across town to save Elizabeth and plenty of time for Jack and Nancy to look at an unfinished pod-person. At the end, however, Elizabeth gets replaced in the time it took for Bennell to go look at a boat and come back.
7	** You're right, it is variable. I'm assuming the pod that got her in the end was a better pod - having been freshly grown at the warehouse, thus worked better.
8	** Agreed, this is quite noticeable. I think there are multiple possibilities. Perhaps the pods "remember" the last assimilation attempt. Or maybe Bennell was away from Elizabeth for longer than it appeared. They're both sleep-deprived and dosed on speed. They could easily be altered in normal human terms, hallucinating. Note that when Bennell finds Elizabeth asleep, he doesn't try hard to wake her up. He holds and tries to comfort her, which makes no sense. He should have been slapping her hard in the face to wake her at any costs.
9	* In the 1978 version, what the hell is [[spoiler: the dog thing? Why does it even exist? Why would a pod invade an animal, and why would that animal gain human features? It's almost this movie's {{Giant Space Flea From Nowhere}}.]]
10	** During a scene with Matthew is running, with I believe Elizabeth, and [[spoiler: they hit the pod that is assimilating the banjo player and it begins to bleed. My guess was that the pod accidentally confused both the banjo player and his dog, creating the monstrosity that we saw.]]
11	* It's heavily implied that this has been done before, but how exactly can the pods infect completely different biological organisms without sufficiently habituating with them to figure out a way to assimilate them. All the movies show the process being seemingly instantaneous the moment the pods arrive on Earth.
12	** Well, this all is quite speculative. First, we don't know exactly how long the pods have been here. The 78 version does show enough landmarks of San Francisco when the pods arrive that we can assume it's relatively recent. But beyond that, there are theories that even transmitted information could be a contagion. Memes, basically. Considering they copy minds, it's reasonable to believe there's a lot of unexplained detail under the surface.
13	* How is it that Dr. Hill is able to get through to the FBI at the end of the '56 movie? It's shown that the Pod People have taken the local telephone exchange, and every attempt by Miles to get through to anyone who could help was cut off by the operator.

Context Headscratchers / InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers