History Film / InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers

* InformedAttribute: The supposedly emotionless pod people aren't always so emotionless.
** Forest Whitaker's co-workers are angry or giggling over how they can't be beat.

** In the final scene, Matthew sees a group of school children who are behaving just like regular school children.
*** That's because they *are* regular school children. Listen carefully and you'll hear them complain about having to take a nap. They're unknowingly about to be converted into pods.

** This is more explained in the novel than the movies. In the book, it's explained that there is a constantly changing energy field that holds different types of matter together. As at the most basic level, all matter is the same and it's the arrangement of subatomic particles that creates different matter, this field is explained to be the blueprint and glue that holds an item together. It's further explained that this field in living things is transferable and is the easiest to transfer when a subject is asleep. So basically when the subject falls asleep, the pods copy the memories and minds of the person and take the subjects personal energy field that makes them a unique living creature and without that field holding the original together, they just become a disconnected mass of atoms and molecules. While this explanation may ruin the mystique of the duplication process, it also makes it sound like the pods are [[YourSoulIsMine stealing your soul]] and placing it into an unfeeling shell.

** This is more explained in the novel than the movies. In the book, it's explained that there is a constantly changing energy field that holds different types of matter together. As at the most basic level, all matter is the same and it's the arrangement of subatomic particles that creates different matter, this field is explained to be the blueprint and glue that holds an item together. It's further explained that this field in living things is transferable and is the easiest to transfer when a subject is asleep. So basically when the subject falls asleep, the pods copy the memories and minds of the person and take the subjects personal energy field that makes them a unique living creature and without that field holding the original together, they just become a disconnected mass of atoms and molecules. While this explanation may ruin the mystique of the duplication process is also makes it sound like the pods are [[YourSoulIsMine stealing your soul]] and placing it into an unfeeling shell.

** This is more explained in the novel than the movies. Maybe they didn't explain it in the movies because [[NothingIsScarier a lack of explanation seemed more terrifying]] although the explanation in the book is in some ways [[FridgeHorror even worse.]] In the book, it's explained that there is a constantly changing energy field that holds different types of matter together. As at the most basic level, all matter is the same and it's the arrangement of subatomic particles that creates different matter, this field is explained to be the blueprint and glue that holds an item together. It's further explained that this field in living things is transferable and is the easiest to transfer when a subject is asleep. So basically when the subject falls asleep, the pods copy the memories and minds of the person and take the subjects personal energy field that makes them a unique living creature and without that field holding the original together, they just become a disconnected mass of atoms and molecules. While this explanation may ruin the mystique of the duplication process is also makes it sound like the pods are [[YourSoulIsMine stealing your soul]] and placing it into an unfeeling shell.

* AlienInvasion: [[CaptainObvious Sounds like it.]] But unlike others not seen...

* AlienInvasion: [[CaptainObvious Sounds like it.]]

[[quoteright:272:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ultimate_iobs.png]]
[[caption-width-right:272: 1978's version cover, which summarizes the supposed advantages of the new world.]]

* StepfordSuburbia: What happens to society as the pod people take over. There's no fighting, fuss, crime, or problems... but there's no laughter, smiling, or human warmth, either. The pod people, once in control, are like zombies of the old-school Voodoo style: fleshy automatons that just robotically do their tasks without any individual thought or drives.

* ''The Invasion'' (2007)

!!!All versions

!!!2007 version

''The Invasion'' (2007), another GenderFlip version with Creator/NicoleKidman. Amongst many other changes, they dropped the idea of alien replacements entirely, going for a simple [[spoiler:and reversible]] version of TheVirus. It also worked in TheWarOnTerror and, with it, questions regarding TheEvilsOfFreeWill.

* CoveredInGunge: The 2007 version.
* CreepyChild: [[spoiler:Two of Oliver's friends]] in the 2007 version. [[spoiler:Both were infected by the virus.]]
* RemakeCameo: Veronica Cartwright, who was in the 1978 film, has a small role in the 2007 film.
* PuppeteerParasite: The Pod People in the 2007 version are changed to this, being microbial organisms rather than the duplicating plant-things of earlier films.
* StockFootage: The film opens with the new space shuttle ''Patriot'' burning up on reentry. What follows is news footage of the ''Columbia'' disaster.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: America has already built a new advanced space shuttle, something that can't be said for real world America.
* TheVirus: The 2007 version. It still causes a pod people [[TransformationTrauma transformation]] when the victim sleeps, though.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The 1956]] version, along with the [[spoiler: 1993 and 2007 ones]]

* EvilTwin: Kinda. The pod people are exact physical and mental duplicates of the originals, but are coldly logical and driven to ensure their species survives by converted all of humanity.

* StepfordSuburbia: What happens to society as the pod people take over. There's no fighting, fuss, crime or problems... but there's no laughter, smiling, or human warmth, either. The pod people, once in control, are like zombies of the old-school Voodoo style: fleshy automatons that just robotically do their tasks without any individual thought or drives.
* VampiricDraining: While not explicit, it is implied that in order to copy a living being, the Pods take something fundamental and necessary from the original as after duplication, the original disintegrates into dust.
* WeAreEverywhere: How the films work; because the pods show up all over, by the time anyone has figured out what's going on, there are pod people in all sorts of positions, from lowly street people to police officers, phone operators, doctors, psychiatrists, everywhere. And of course the pods in authority can get even ''more'' people converted before they realise what's happening, so their numbers just keep growing, and growing...

One morning, you notice something odd about your spouse. You can't quite put your finger on it. They look the same, talk the same, even have the same birthmark on their left shoulder. But, something is wrong. Somehow, they are no longer your loved one. They're also going out a lot more, far more than you've known them to. You see them getting into strange cars, meeting random people, and trading odd packages between them, all without saying what they're doing or where they're going. Soon, everyone around you has changed. Whatever's happening is spreading, getting stronger by the minute. [[ParanoiaFuel And you're next.]]

One morning, you notice something odd about your spouse. You can't quite put your finger on it. They look the same, talk the same, even have the same birthmark on their left shoulder. But, something is wrong. Somehow, they are no longer your loved one. They're also going out a lot more, far more than you've known them to. You see them getting into strange cars, meeting random people, and trading odd packages between them, all without saying what they're doing or where they're going. Soon, everyone around you has changed. Whatever's happening is spreading, and spreading faster by the minute. [[ParanoiaFuel And you're next.]]

One morning, you notice something odd about your spouse. You can't quite put your finger on it. They look the same, talk the same, even have the same birthmark on their left shoulder. But, something is wrong. Somehow, they are no longer your loved one. They're also going out a lot more, far more than you've known them to. You see them getting into strange cars, meeting random people, and trading odd packages between them. Soon, everyone around you has changed. Whatever's happening is spreading, and spreading faster by the minute. [[ParanoiaFuel And you're next.]]

One morning, you notice something odd about your spouse. You can't quite put your finger on it. They look the same, talk the same, even have the same birthmark on their left shoulder. But, something is wrong. Somehow, they are no longer your loved one. You see them getting into strange cars, meeting random people, and trading packages between them. Soon, everyone around you has changed. Whatever's happening is spreading, and spreading faster by the minute. [[ParanoiaFuel And you're next.]]

There have been countless {{homage}}s and three remakes:

[[quoteright:265:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1956.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:265:''The seed is planted...terror grows...'']]

->''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.

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

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.

The film ends with Bennell, who has just had to flee from his love interest's doppelganger, screaming a warning to heedless motorists.

A relatively happy ending, in which it's implied that the {{FBI}} will stop the invasion, was added to the film by [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling executives]], but is now usually omitted. In the original book, the pods eventually give up, frustrated by human determination, but in the film the ending seems truly hopeless.

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. There have been countless {{homage}}s and three remakes:
* ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' (1978) starred Creator/DonaldSutherland as Bennell (now named Matthew instead of Miles) and transferred the setting to TheCity (UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco), working in an effective theme of urban alienation which, in some respects, actually reverses the theme of the original. At one point, a character expresses her paranoia that she keeps witnessing people ''recognizing'' each other, isolation being such a feature of city life that excessive human contact itself is suspicious. This version also focused on the "malaise" of TheSeventies and cranked up the BodyHorror; appropriately, three of the film's stars (Brooke Adams, Art Hindle and Creator/JeffGoldblum) all went on to do films with Creator/DavidCronenberg. Thanks to its critical acclaim and high performance at the box office, it is considered one of the best horror remakes ever made, with many people ranking it up there with -- if not ahead of -- the 1956 original.
* ''Body Snatchers'' (1993) was a {{gender flip}}ped (and teenage) version set on an Army base and starring a young [[Series/BurnNotice Gabrielle Anwar]]. More personally focused than the earlier versions -- significantly, the heroine's step-mother is one of the first to be duplicated, and the family dynamic plays a big part in the movie. The film also got some mileage from its military setting and the fact that the protagonist herself was already somewhat detached from the community.
* ''The Invasion'' (2007), another GenderFlip version with Creator/NicoleKidman, is regarded by most as being the worst of the lot. Amongst many other changes, they dropped the idea of alien replacements entirely, going for a simple [[spoiler:and reversible]] version of TheVirus. It also worked in TheWarOnTerror and, with it, questions regarding TheEvilsOfFreeWill.

!!!1956 version

* 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!"]]
* CatScare: The original has one of these involving a cuckoo clock.
* DivorceInReno: In 1956, divorce wasn't a topic for polite conversation, whether it be a quickie divorce in Reno or any other kind. Cue the following euphemisms:
--> '''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.
* DutchAngle: The original also has this, in the scene where Miles discovers the pods in the greenhouse.
* EvilTwin: Kinda. The pod people are exact physical and mental duplicates of the originals, but are coldly logical and driven to ensure their species survives by converted all of humanity.
* 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.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: For a film made in TheFifties, the original has a surprising amount of sexual innuendo between Miles and Becky.
* 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.]]
* YouHaveToBelieveMe: Miles resorts to banging on cars, screaming like a lunatic. One of the pod people lampshades it, saying to let him go because no one will believe him anyway.

!!!1978 version

* AdaptationDistillation: The 1978 version shows the invasion taking place in a colder, more impersonal "I'm OK, you're OK, everyone's OK" national culture that often openly questioned whether its best years as a country were behind it. In such an environment, [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding the invasion succeeds]]]].
* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: The [[spoiler:1978]] version.
* BeastWithAHumanFace: In the 1978 film, a homeless man and his dog are huddled together for warmth and a pod encloses them ''both'', producing a chimerical creature.
* BodyHorror: The 1970s remake answers the question of what happened to the people whom the pods replaced. [[spoiler:They dessicate and then implode whilst crumbling into ash.]] It also shows us some of the "foetal" duplicates, which are partially formed, slimy, blood-and-snot hued variants covered in hairy filaments.
* BrickJoke: In the 1978 film, Matthew first appears giving an inspection on a French restaurant, where he finds a rat turd in some soup and plans to throw the book at the owner (but not before they throw a bottle of wine at his car). It's later revealed that Dr. Kibner wasn't too pleased.
-->'''Dr. Kibner:''' Matthew! You closed my favorite restaurant, Henri's! Where are we gonna find a decent place to eat?
* TheCameo: Quite a few in the 1978 film.
** Robert Duvall plays a priest on a child's swing set near the beginning of the film.
** [[Music/TheGratefulDead Jerry Garcia]] can be heard on the soundtrack playing the banjo.
** The original film's director, Don Siegel, plays a cab driver [[spoiler:who's turned]].
* CreatorCameo: Director Philip Kaufman is the impatient man who knocks on the phone box Matthew is using, along with the voice of one of the officials Matthew calls.
* DownerEnding: In the 1978 version only. It sure does pack a punch. [[spoiler: Basically, the alien invasion ''wins'', something made clear when Nancy, the only survivor, tries to meet up with Matthew, only for him to pull a horrific Nightmare Face and let out the distinctive scream of a pod-person.]]
* DutchAngle: The 1978 remake features many bizarre camera angles to emphasize disorientation and isolation.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Early in the 1978 remake, a man is shown running through crowds by the Health Department and a pod scream can be faintly heard.
* GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger: In the 1978 version, the pod people do this whilst opening their mouths wide and screaming horrifically to point out unconverted humans.
* HeroicSacrifice: In the 1978 remake, when the group are being chased by the Pod people, [[spoiler:Jack and Nancy]] sacrifice themselves to the pod people [[WeNeedADistraction as a distraction]] to allow their friends to escape. [[spoiler:Nancy is able to evade capture, but Jack isn't.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Jack:''']] Here I am, you pod bastards! Hey, pods! Come and get me, you scum!
* INeverToldYouMyName: In the 1978 version, Matthew is [[OhCrap surprised that police knew who was calling them, along with the phone operator intercepting his call to Washington.]]
* HopeSpot: The "[[SoundtrackDissonance Amazing Grace]]" scene, in the 1978 version.
* ItWasHereISwear: Also in the 1978 remake. Kibner arrives to Nancy and Jake's bathhouse to find no trace of the failed Jake-clone. Matthew returns to Elizabeth's bedroom with the police, and finds flowerpots in a vaguely human shape where the body was.
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: The 1978 version does this frequently.
** When Matthew is speaking in the hallway of the Health Department, the camera swings around and briefly reveals that someone is staring at them through the glass panel of a door, with his face pressed creepily close.
** While Elizabeth is walking down the street, several people sprint by, as if chasing or running away from someone.
** You'll often see garbage men in the background, and as the movie progresses they're throwing away more and more of the black end-result of pod transformation.
* OrphanedSetup: In the 1978 version, Matthew is telling a joke to Elizabeth, but she cuts him off before the punchline. Director Philip Kaufman explained the joke on the DVD commentary:
-->"The English Camel Corp are trapped in the Sahara Desert. They've been surrounded by Rommel for forty days and have run out of food. The Captain makes an announcement to the men: 'Men, I have some good news for you and some bad news for you. The bad news is, we have nothing left to eat but camel poop. The good news is, there's plenty of it.'"
* RemakeCameo: Kevin [=McCarthy=] (Miles Bennell in the original film) appears as a man banging on cars and yelling about the pod people, [[DeathByCameo and is then immediately hit by a car]].
* SilentCredits: At the end of the 1978 version.

!!!1993 version

* AmbiguousEnding: The [[spoiler:1993]] version. [[spoiler:The surviving characters are about to land at another military base, after bombing the pod convoy and knocking out the original base, but the "Where you gonna go" line is repeated for the audience--suggesting the pod people have already taken that base over. Marti's narration also notes how a person can only stay awake for so long--possibly suggesting she and her companion are resigned to being replaced.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: In the 1993 version, a group of aliens corner the already crazed [[spoiler:Major Collins]] in his office and try to talk him into accepting them. He ultimately shoots himself in the head.
* HopeSpot: At the end of the 1993 version, Marti's reunion with [[spoiler:her brother, Andy]].
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler:In the '93 version, Marti and her Love Interest escape in a helicopter, which they later use to bomb a truck convoy carrying pods. Marti's narration makes it clear she's acting out of hate over what happened to her family.]]
* YouAreTooLate: invoked by one of the first pod people in the 1993 version:
-->"Where you gonna go, where you gonna run, where you gonna hide? Nowhere... 'cause there's no one like you left."

* AdaptationDistillation: The 1978 version shows the invasion taking place in a colder, more impersonal "I'm OK, you're OK, everyone's OK" national culture that often openly questioned whether its best years as a country were behind it. In such an environment, [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding the invasion succeeds]]]].

* AmbiguousEnding: The [[spoiler:1993]] version. [[spoiler:The surviving characters are about to land at another military base, after bombing the pod convoy and knocking out the original base, but the "Where you gonna go" line is repeated for the audience--suggesting the pod people have already taken that base over. Marti's narration also notes how a person can only stay awake for so long--possibly suggesting she and her companion are resigned to being replaced.]]

* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: The [[spoiler:1978]] version.
* BeastWithAHumanFace: In the 1978 film, a homeless man and his dog are huddled together for warmth and a pod encloses them ''both'', producing a chimerical creature.

* 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.
* BodyHorror: The 1970s remake answers the question of what happened to the people whom the pods replaced. [[spoiler:They dessicate and then implode whilst crumbling into ash.]]
** It also shows us some of the "foetal" duplicates, which are partially formed, slimy, blood-and-snot hued variants covered in hairy filaments.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: In the original film, [[spoiler:Bennell shouts at the camera, "You're next!"]]
* BrickJoke: In the 1978 film, Matthew first appears giving an inspection on a French restaurant, where he finds a rat turd in some soup and plans to throw the book at the owner (but not before they throw a bottle of wine at his car). It's later revealed that Dr. Kibner wasn't too pleased.
-->'''Dr. Kibner:''' Matthew! You closed my favorite restaurant, Henri's! Where are we gonna find a decent place to eat?
* TheCameo: Quite a few in the 1978 film.
** Robert Duvall plays a priest on a child's swing set near the beginning of the film.
** [[Music/TheGratefulDead Jerry Garcia]] can be heard on the soundtrack playing the banjo.
** RemakeCameo: Kevin [=McCarthy=] (Miles Bennell in the original film) appears as a man banging on cars and yelling about the pod people, [[DeathByCameo and is then immediately hit by a car]].
** The original film's director, Don Siegel, plays a cab driver [[spoiler:who's turned]].
** CreatorCameo: Director Philip Kaufman is the impatient man who knocks on the phone box Matthew is using, along with the voice of one of the officials Matthew calls.

* CleanupCrew: The garbage men in the 1978 movie are implied to be this for when the duplicates fail to develop. Garbage trucks are also glimpsed in the '93 version.
* CoveredInGunge: The 2007 version.
* CreepyChild: [[spoiler:Two of Oliver's friends]] in the 2007 version. [[spoiler:Both were infected by the virus.]]

* DownerEnding:
** In the 1978 version only. It sure does pack a punch. [[spoiler: Basically, the alien invasion ''wins'', something made clear when Nancy, the only survivor, tries to meet up with Matthew, only for him to pull a horrific Nightmare Face and let out the distinctive scream of a pod-person.]]
** The original was supposed to have one of these until ExecutiveMeddling intervened; see FramingDevice below.
* DrivenToSuicide: In the 1993 version, a group of aliens corner the already crazed [[spoiler:Major Collins]] in his office and try to talk him into accepting them. He ultimately shoots himself in the head.
* DutchAngle:
** The 1978 remake features many bizarre camera angles to emphasize disorientation and isolation.
** The original also has this, in the scene where Miles discovers the pods in the greenhouse.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Early in the 1978 remake, a man is shown running through crowds by the Health Department and a pod scream can be faintly heard.
* 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.

* GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger: In the 1978 version, the pod people do this whilst opening their mouths wide and screaming horrifically to point out unconverted humans.
* HeroicSacrifice: In the 1978 remake, when the group are being chased by the Pod people, [[spoiler:Jack and Nancy]] sacrifice themselves to the pod people [[WeNeedADistraction as a distraction]] to allow their friends to escape. [[spoiler:Nancy is able to evade capture, but Jack isn't.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Jack:''']] Here I am, you pod bastards! Hey, pods! Come and get me, you scum!
* HopeSpot:
** The music Miles and Becky hear while hiding in the cave in the 1956 version.
** The "[[SoundtrackDissonance Amazing Grace]]" scene, in the 1978 version.
** At the end of the 1993 version, Marti's reunion with [[spoiler:her brother, Andy]].
* INeverToldYouMyName: In the 1978 version, Matthew is [[OhCrap surprised that police knew who was calling them, along with the phone operator intercepting his call to Washington.]]
* InfantImmortality: Averted multiple times in different versions, as children are either shown having already been replaced or about to be. One notable example comes from [[spoiler:the '93 version with Marti's younger brother]].
* InformedAttribute: The supposedly emotionless pod people aren't always so emotionless.
** In the final scene, Matthew sees a group of school children who are behaving just like regular school children.
** Forest Whitaker's co-workers are angry or giggling over how they can't be beat.
* InvisibleAliens: The pod people, technically. Their original alien forms are protoplasmic -- they're sapient germs in the 2007 version -- and they take over people by absorbing their memories, forming perfect replicas of the bodies, and destroying the originals, so they seamlessly step into the original's life.
* ItWasHereISwear:
** In the original, Miles brings his psychiatrist friend to look at his and Becky's pod bodies, but they've naturally vanished.
** Also in the 1978 remake. Kibner arrives to Nancy and Jake's bathhouse to find no trace of the failed Jake-clone. Matthew returns to Elizabeth's bedroom with the police, and finds flowerpots in a vaguely human shape where the body was.
* KillAllHumans: And replace them with lookalikes.

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: The 1978 version does this frequently.
** When Matthew is speaking in the hallway of the Health Department, the camera swings around and briefly reveals that someone is staring at them through the glass panel of a door, with his face pressed creepily close.
** While Elizabeth is walking down the street, several people sprint by, as if chasing or running away from someone.
** You'll often see garbage men in the background, and as the movie progresses they're throwing away more and more of the black end-result of pod transformation.
* MythologyGag / RemakeCameo:
** The 1978 remake had Kevin [=McCarthy=] reprise his performance from the ending of the original, banging on the protagonists' windshield and screaming, "You're next!". [[spoiler: Shortly before being fatally hit by a car, likely driven by a pod person.]] Later on in the film, Don Siegel (director of the original) appears as an overly-suspicious cab driver.
** And Veronica Cartwright, who was in the 1978 film, has a small role in the 2007 film.
* NeverSleepAgain: The Pod People can only replace you when you sleep.

* OrphanedSetup: In the 1978 version, Matthew is telling a joke to Elizabeth, but she cuts him off before the punchline. Director Philip Kaufman explained the joke on the DVD commentary:
-->"The English Camel Corp are trapped in the Sahara Desert. They've been surrounded by Rommel for forty days and have run out of food. The Captain makes an announcement to the men: 'Men, I have some good news for you and some bad news for you. The bad news is, we have nothing left to eat but camel poop. The good news is, there's plenty of it.'"

* PuppeteerParasite: The Pod People in the 2007 version are changed to this, being microbial organisms rather than the duplicating plant-things of earlier films.
* ReplicantSnatching: The entire premise of the series.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler:In the '93 version, Marti and her Love Interest escape in a helicopter, which they later use to bomb a truck convoy carrying pods. Marti's narration makes it clear she's acting out of hate over what happened to her family.]]
* SilentCredits: At the end of the 1978 version.
* StepfordSuburbia: What happens to society as the pod people take over. There's no fighting, fuss, crime or problems... but there's no laughter, smiling, or human warmth, either. The pod people, once in control, are like zombies of the old-school Voodoo style: fleshy automatons that just robotically do their tasks without any individual thought or drives.
* TwistEnding: The 1978 ([[spoiler:[[AndThenJohnWasAZombie Matthew was transformed]]]]) and 2007 ([[spoiler:the alien virus is curable]]) remakes.
* TheVirus: The 2007 version. It still causes a pod people [[TransformationTrauma transformation]] when the victim sleeps, though.
* VampiricDraining: While not explicit, it is implied that in order to copy a living being, the Pods take something fundamental and necessary from the original as after duplication, the original disintegrates into dust.
* WeAreEverywhere: How the films work; because the pods show up all over, by the time anyone has figured out what's going on, there are pod people in all sorts of positions, from lowly street people to police officers, phone operators, doctors, psychiatrists, everywhere. And of course the pods in authority can get even ''more'' people converted before they realise what's happening, so their numbers just keep growing, and growing...
* YouAreTooLate: invoked by one of the first pod people in the 1993 version:
-->"Where you gonna go, where you gonna run, where you gonna hide? Nowhere... 'cause there's no one like you left."

* DyingWorld: In the 1978 version, this is where the pods originate from. About midway through the movie, one of the pod clones explains this to Matthew to try and convince him that there is nothing wrong or evil in allowing the pods to replace humanity.

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

* ZombieApocalypse: While the pod people aren't zombies in the usual sense, the films have some of the elements of the genre.

* 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.]]