invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-jeff-goldblum-leonard-nimoyImage via United Artists/courtesy Everett Collection
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Ryan O'Rourke
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Ryan O'Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided's CubbiesCrib. Whether it's taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what's going on. Outside of entertainment, he's a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor's in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.
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The names Jeff Goldblum and Leonard Nimoy typically bring to mind two of the biggest and most enduring sci-fi franchises of all time — Jurassic Park and Star Trek. However, in 1978, both actors would appear on the big screen together for the first and only time in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the second feature adaptation of Jack Finney's 1954 sci-fi novel, The Body Snatchers. Directed by Philip Kaufman and also starring the late Donald Sutherland, it's often viewed as one of the greatest remakes ever put to film, an impressive feat considering it followed in the footsteps of the already widely hailed 1956 feature. And now, the good pod people of Tubi are set to add the star-studded feature to its free streaming catalog on December 1.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers changes much from Don Siegel's original, including trading the small town of Santa Mira for the busy streets of San Francisco. Instead of the Cold War commentary of the original, it drew more from Watergate-era malaise and feelings of social isolation and conformity living in a modern city to create its horror. At the center of the remake are colleagues and friends Matthew Bennell (Sutherland) and Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams). When Elizabeth notices her boyfriend acting strangely, Matthew initially writes it off and recommends her to a psychiatrist friend of his, Dr. Kibner (Nimoy), to talk it over. However, they all find themselves stuck in a nightmare when more stories of odd behavior crop up, and another couple, played by Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright, discover mutated doubles being created in their images. With humanity quickly being replaced by emotionless beings, they scramble to find any way of countering this silent invasion.
Kaufman's version of the classic story succeeded with critics and audiences alike through being a masterclass in paranoia with an all-time great, bleak ending. A relatively bloodless horror film that largely avoided showing the replacement of its characters, it instead relied on the ever-looming fear that anyone at any time could be a duplicate. Such a talented cast also helped, capped off by appearances from the original Invasion's director Siegel and star Kevin McCarthy. The film grossed a solid $24.9 million at the U.S. box office and holds a Certified Fresh 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with high praise for how it explored the story's themes much deeper than what came before.
'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' Has No Shortage of Adaptations
Although the original and the 1978 version are held in the highest regard in sci-fi horror, they aren't the only versions of Invasions of the Body Snatchers. Director Abel Ferrara helmed a 1993 adaptation simply titled Body Snatchers that starred Gabrielle Anwar, Billy Wirth, Terry Kinney, Meg Tilly, Christine Elise, and Reilly Murphy, and proved more divisive overall. The most recent film adaptation, however, debuted in 2007 under the title The Invasion and featured two big names at the top in Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, fresh off his James Bond debut in Casino Royale. That film was widely panned as the worst of the four adaptations, despite the star power and the attempt to adapt its themes to the modern day. One more remake was in the works in 2017 from The Conjuring 2 scribe David Leslie Johnson, but nothing ever came of it, leaving Kaufman's version as the widely-viewed best iteration to hit screens.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers arrives on Tubi on December 1. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on all the biggest titles coming to and leaving streaming throughout the year.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Like Follow Followed PG Science Fiction Horror Release Date December 22, 1978 Runtime 116 minutes Director Philip Kaufman Writers W.D. Richter, Jack Finney Producers Robert H. SoloCast
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Donald Sutherland
Matthew Bennell
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Brooke Adams
Elizabeth Driscoll
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers
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