Trivia / Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

• Completely Different Title:
  • Released as Terrore dallo spazio profondo ("Terror from Deep Space") in Italy.
  • As Die Körperfresser kommen ("The Body Snatchers are coming") in Germany.
• Creator's Oddball: This is the only film to be scored by Denny Zeitlin, a renowned jazz composer and pianist.
• Deleted Scenes: The screenplay contains a few scenes that ended up cut from the film.
  • After treating Elizabeth to some homemade wok, Matthew accompanies her home. She notes that everything is exactly as she left it. When Matthew leaves, a woman ominously watches him from across the street.
  • Matthew discusses the results of the lab test with Boccardo before realizing that Elizabeth hasn't shown up for work.
  • After fleeing the pods, Matthew and Elizabeth see a car from out-of-state, and, in an echo of Kevin McCarthy's earlier cameo, try to get help by banging on the car until its occupants drive away.
• Edited for Syndication: The scene of naked Elizabeth in the burning pod factory was also shot with her wearing clothes for TV broadcast.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • When Matthew and Elizabeth try taking a cab to the airport, they look terrified as the cab pulls away. This wasn't entirely acting: the cab driver was played by Don Siegel, who was actually driving the cab and had terrible night vision without his glasses, which he was too vain to wear on camera. Add in neither Donald Sutherland nor Brooke Adams being able to wear seat belts, and their look of terror takes on a new light.
  • According to the DVD Commentary, the director did not tell Veronica Cartwright about the Twist Ending so her shriek of terror when Matthew points at her and begins to make the pod-scream is genuine.
• Executive Meddling: The original cut of the film was played more for horror-comedy, but the studio felt that laughter after the screams was inappropriate.
• Fake American: Bennell and Geoffrey are played by Canadians Donald Sutherland and Art Hindle. In addition, Veronica Cartwright is English.
• Foiler Footage: To protect the planned ending, the shooting script ends with this simple note. No, really.
  AND A FEW MINUTES LATER IT'S ALL OVER, AN ENDING SO UNSETTLING, SO SHOCKING THAT WE FEEL COMPELLED TO WITHHOLD THE FIENDISH DETAILS
• No Stunt Double: Donald Sutherland insisted on doing his own stunts during the film's climax, climbing fifty feet into the air and dodging very real explosions. In fact, one of the explosions barely missed him, but caught an extra who missed his cue and was injured. That shot was kept in the film.
• On-Set Injury: Donald Sutherland was struck by a car while filming a scene of him running.
• Playing with Character Type: We're all used to seeing Leonard Nimoy without emotions, but it isn't normally this creepy. Director Philip Kaufman specifically mentioned that this was an attempt to break Nimoy out of being typecast as Spock.
• Real-Life Relative: Philip Kaufman's wife Rose appears as the woman who argues with Jack at the bookstore.
• Those Two Actors:
  • The first of two pairings of Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams as co-stars. The next one would be in the 1979 Caper comedy A Man, a Woman and a Bank.
  • It's also the first of two films that paired Sutherland with Jeff Goldblum; the other is 1981's gentle, realistic sci-fi film Threshold. Interestingly, where Invasion was where Goldblum discovered and developed his "fumfering" Verbal Tic, Threshold would mark his first Gibbering Genius role.
• Throw It In!:
  • Director Philip Kaufman asked his actors to do odd facial expressions during bits in which they weren't speaking. Brooke Adams's ability to "do the thing with her eyes" was one of those moments added to the film.
  • The leather half-glove that Dr. Kibner wears was added by Nimoy to make him more distinctive, getting the idea from a friend who wore one to cover a burn.
• What Could Have Been:
  • One production still features Elizabeth showing the freshly picked pod to Matthew, who doesn't know what to make of it. This suggests that Matthew was supposed to be introduced earlier.
  • At one point, Matthew was scripted to be an avocational jazz player.
  • In the script, Matthew sets fire to the pod greenhouse before Elizabeth is converted into a pod.

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