Becoming a pod is the right choice. Humans are the anti-heroes here. - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Discussion

[–] gallileo60 13 years ago

Well you can be a pod blob if ya want, me I like being Human..It is being Human that has driven us to explore, and discover..Without curiosity, there would be no more discovery..Sounds boring to me..Humans need War, and Love, and fear...Those are the very things that drive us to push onward..They do not seem very exciting to me, just because the traveled across the Universe does not make them better than us, as a matter of fact they seem very plant like, or virus like..They were just blown by Cosmic winds..

You Have a Hard Lip, Herbert..

Better Living Thru Chemistry

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[–] forever_mclaren 13 years ago

Funny how someone that's proud of the fact that we can "explore" is afraid of actually doing something daring and making the ultimate leap: exploring what it's like to live as a totally different life form, a totally different species.

Sounds to me like you pay lip service to bold intelligence, when in fact you are advocating bland submission... submission to sticking with good old-fashioned humanity when you have the once-in-an-evolutionary-history opportunity to leap into an entirely new mode of being.

Isn't that ironic? I think a more penetrating viewing of the film reveals this deep-seated irony at the heart of the whole story (did you miss it?). The irony is that in your efforts to avoid "submission", in your efforts to defend your humanity, you are defying the very thing that makes us human: the ability to make leaps of faith and bravely try new things.

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[–] gallileo60 13 years ago

Hey brother, go ahead, and submit if ya want..Hell a lot of people have submitted to dictators in the past..I will keep my bland life, but you feel free to be a happy pod person, oh wait sorry that would be an emotion...I am 100 percent afraid of becoming a pod person...I am a coward..Hows that....New mode of being huh??? Not for this White Boy...

You Have a Hard Lip, Herbert..

Better Living Thru Chemistry

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[–] imwithstupid_35 13 years ago

Humans don't need war at all, what propoganda.

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[–] gallileo60 13 years ago

Humans have been waring, and killing since the dawn of time, don't see that changing anytime soon..

You Have a Hard Lip, Herbert..

Better Living Thru Chemistry

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[–] imwithstupid_35 13 years ago

We are based on enviroment, that needs to change for us to change as a society.

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[–] ae7641 13 years ago

Yes and humans have been raping, murdering and dying from horrible illness since the dawn of time. Won't change very soon, but, like war, these things aren't needed.

I think that the argument someone made was that to be on a higher level without these things would be better for everyone.

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[–] gallileo60 13 years ago

ae, as long as you do not forget with all the bad you loose, that you also loose, Love, Compassion, Art, and a whole host of good things on the other side of the Coin...Also at one time we were a product of our environment, now our environment is largely a product of us...

You Have a Hard Lip, Herbert..

Better Living Thru Chemistry

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[–] ae7641 13 years ago

You make a valid point. The ending of the film stresses what you posted. Sutherland is mindless at the end, doesn't enjoy what he used to.

One scary thing about both films is that your friends and those you love immediately become your enemy (Just like in the McCarthy witch hunts)

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[–] ShakespearesSister 10 years ago

"One scary thing about both films is that your friends and those you love immediately become your enemy (Just like in the McCarthy witch hunts)"

A witch hunt means you're hunting for something that doesn't exist. McCarthy was hunting Communists in America and in Hollywood, and they most definitely existed.

In fact, there were "57 card-carrying members of the Communist Party in the defense department..." oops, different movie.

Small minds discuss people; average minds discuss events; great minds discuss movies.

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[–] ae7641 13 years ago

Just thought of something. The person who started this post can be a character in a remake. He gets people to become pods by using an argument. He talks them into becoming pods.

The pod people in the movie believe they are saving the brutish humans from themselves by replacing them with something better

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[–] batmanhatelover 13 years ago

This is an aspect of the movie that could and should have been explored. We should have had at least one character who becomes convinced being a pod is better than being human.

I personally dont think it would be better to be a pod. Humans gain motivation through feelings, and so we are given a rollercoaster of a life because of it.

Now pods dont have the ability to feel. Think about that for a second. Your fellow pod is killed in some way, and you feel nothing about it. you wake up in the morning and you see a beautiful view outside your house, the sun is shining and birds are chirping, and you feel nothing about it. Even when your own pod-race is thriving by taking over other races and planets you wouldnt feel any sense of triumph because pod people dont work that way. You might aswell be dead. which makes having feelings an actual definition of what it means to be alive.

Which leads me to another point. What if the pod people lies about your mind being transported to your new bodies? They might aswell lie as a last resort, in order to tempt you to agree to have your body replaced. You would believe you'll be born into a new world, but actually youre just killed and copied.

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[–] creatorof2002 13 years ago

Julius Androide I TOTALLY AGREE. If another remake is done I would love to have one of the captured humans "drink the coolaid" so to speak and while being held prisoner and told how much better being a pod would be actually AGREE and COOPERATE. There could be a scene where he is putting on his pajamas and asking one of the pod people to play his favorite music to help him sleep and showing the pod people cooperating to make him nice and comfy. One stupid human drinking the coolaid and WILLINGLY participating would be INTERESTING.

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[–] dvd7 13 years ago

I was thinking the same thing Julius. What would the point of transferring the hosts mind and memories? It seems like that could only be detrimental. The pods just need a host body, which they have in their clone. If they wanted or were willing for the host to retain some semblance of themselves they would just take over the original body and forget about making copies.

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[–] Frankc_ca 13 years ago

They retain the memories because it makes it easier for the pod person to survive in its new environment. That's all. It's easier to live if you know your surrounds and fool humans.

And you don't become a pod. You become dust. The pod kills you, sucks up the water and proteins in your body, and creates and alien that LOOKS like you. It's not you. So saying you would like to be a pod means that you'd rather be dead so an alien could trick your friends and family and eventually kill them too.

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[–] creatorof2002 13 years ago

Frankc ca as far as I am concerned that is an IMPROVEMENT. Some people think that the person does not actually die but that their consciousness gets transferred into the pod body. Well life without emotion would be WORSE than death as far as I am concerned, so just dying is LESS scary.

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[–] ryuheikitamura 13 years ago

Are you kidding? Bennell is right, if you were taken over you would be dead because you as a person would no longer exist. The aliens are essentially active parasite organisms that kill off the host and reproduce through their body. I'm sure this is a troll post in order to get some people upset but if you truly believe the propaganda that the aliens spew in the movie then by all means you're dumb enough not to survive.

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[–] creatorof2002 13 years ago

in the next remake of body snatchers there should be ONE stupid easily brainwashed human prisoner of the pods who actually BELIEVES the speech that is designed to make the people easier to control and COOPERATES and gladly goes to sleep expecting a better life, the same mentality as cult members who "drink the cool aid". that would be FUNNY

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[–] ae7641 13 years ago

Actually in both the original and remake the pod people give speeches about how much better it is to be a pod person.
Once you are a pod person, you don't like your old human ways and humans seem like a wild pack of dogs. "He was right," the woman tells Sutherland once she becomes a pod person.

The best way for the pod people to take over is to have one of their people get the Southern vote and then become President

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[–] kg2006 12 years ago

In the original Kevin McCarthy says something about people becoming pods just by being apathetic and indifferent--that they were already people like that in society (sociopaths etc).

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[–] Druff 12 years ago

I assume someone else already pointed this out-

You don't "become a pod". You die and the pod replaces you. Maybe everything that you were, all of your memories and experiences are transferred to the pod and it carries on as everything you were minus emotions, but *you* yourself come to end. It's death.

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[–] carrthedemonhunter 12 years ago

You aren't becoming a pod. A pod is becoming you. It's true that you don't feel emotions after it, which might be a plus, but only because you are dead . Both literally and figuratively. Figuratively, the individual known as you does not exist any longer, although the memories remain as a quasi-shadow of yourself. Literally, your body wastes away to ash and another organism takes your place. The only thing you've become is a willing victim for a snatcher rather than an unwilling one and in the end, it doesn't make a difference anyway.

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[–] sfwmson 12 years ago

I wholeheartedly disagree with the OP. Yes, it'd easier to just become a clone rather than try to keep up the fight. Of course. That is the easy way out. Bytr given the information we have of the clones (they travel from planet to planet blown on the solar winds" and while the sheech by Spock seems like it's a great thing to be replaced with en emotionless clone I like for the OP to imagine the San Francisco, after the takeover, plus 50 years.

There would be no reason to exist. Why bother if all you do is help grow pods and disperse them. What to do after all that is done and 100% of all humans are clones?

Why clean the streets? no one has emotions to care about it. Why eat? Why go to work? money has no value, you don't need to have a better car than the next guy.

Seems to me there is no reason to be clone. It's kind of a self defeating prospect. There is eventually no reason fto even be a CLONE. You get nothing out of being one.

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] tecnogaming 10 years ago

The question is interesting, to say the least.

That's the same question the characters do at the end too.

Why I would say NO and prefer to jump off a bridge?. My answer is simple, it was NEVER a choice.

They forced this life onto humans, they didn't asked and they were more than prepared to force it onto you or kill you, that's the concept of a parasitic lifeform, they INVADE.

If you like the concept of being invaded, be my guess and accept this new life, for me, nothing that is forced I will agree on, NEVER, EVER. I earned this life as a human, either by my traits, my past actions, my present, believe what you will, but this was earned for me, nobody forced me to be human... to me, it is a priviledge I earn, so, why would I just resign this life without my consent?.

This is the same argument that was used over the years to justify fascist regimes, why opose them?... they dont give you a choice, that's the main idea, that's where the problem lies. Nothing that is forced is a choice and by that same principle, it is not worth living.

Be a spore or a clone if you want, if I was a character in this movie, I am sure as hell I will jump from a bridge if I know that it was not posible to defeat them, they had tons of time to do this, they decided to fight them instead of saving what little humanity they had left.

Alex Vojacek

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[–] BobbyDupea 9 years ago

Seems to me there is no reason to be clone. It's kind of a self defeating prospect. There is eventually no reason fto even be a CLONE. You get nothing out of being one.

I don't agree with the original poster, and I think it unwise to believe that it would be better to just give in to the aliens and become one. However, your argument (above) is applicable to humans as well as the alien clones. You could ask of human existence the same question: why bother? You end up dead anyway after what is a very short lifespan. Human life is "self-defeating" in the same way you describe the alien clones' lives - you get nothing out of human life, either, in the end, other than to try to perpetuate your own species.

Of course, you can try as a human during your lifetime to leave the world a better place, thus giving your life some lasting purpose beyond perpetuating your DNA, but an alien clone could do that also, by the standards of the aliens.

My real name is Jeff

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[–] sfwmson 9 years ago

"However, your argument (above) is applicable to humans as well as the alien clones. You could ask of human existence the same question: why bother? You end up dead anyway after what is a very short lifespan. Human life is "self-defeating" in the same way you describe the alien clones' lives - you get nothing out of human life, either, in the end, other than to try to perpetuate your own species. "

Ah, but you are wrong. You get art. and beauty. and sex! and food and smells of food and feelings of all sorts---good and bad...it's all that which makes us who we are.

The pod people have NONE of that, as far as the movie shows us. It's true we exist to procreate and continue our species, but all that great stuff goes along with it. Not a bad distraction while we wait to die, eh?

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[–] KongHalvdan1983 9 years ago

Well, I think you're missing the point. By submitting you're not 'becoming a pod person' but rather, you'll die and be replaced by a 'copy'.
So, in the end, it's a question about survival, really.

Wanna live or die? I'll personally choose the first option.