Last week I wrote about my favorite Donald Sutherland film, the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I thought it might be fun to highlight some quotes from this terrifying story.
Health Department worker Matthew Bennell (Sutherland) on the phone to the police: “Officer, I’d like to report four bodies in my backyard.” (Not the sort of call the police receive every day.)
Dr. David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy) after he becomes one of the pod people: “We came here from a dying world. We drift through the universe, from planet to planet, pushed on by the solar winds. We adapt and we survive. The function of life is survival.”
Matthew’s co-worker (and love interest) Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams): “I have seen these flowers all over. They are growing like parasites on other plants. All of a sudden. Where are they coming from?”
Matthew and Elzabeth are not having a fun time running from the pod people.
Kibner asks Elizabeth what she thinks is going on. She replies, “People are being duplicated. And once it happens to you, you’re part of this…thing. It almost happened to me!” (Too bad Kibner has already been turned.)
Jack Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum) tries to divert a pursuing mob away from Matthew and Elizabeth: “Here I am, you pod bastards! Hey pods! Come and get me, you scum!”
Elizabeth and Matthew are captured by pod people and given a sedative by Kibner. Matthew says, “We’re not the last humans left. There are people who will fight you. They will find out what you’re doing here.” Elizabeth adds, “They’ll stop you.” Kibner replies, “In an hour, you won’t want them to. In an hour, you’ll be one of us.”
Matthew and Elizabeth have been running for a long time, and it is taking its toll: “Oh Matthew, I can’t go on! I wanna go to sleep. I can’t stay awake anymore.” Matthew: “You have to. You have to stay awake.”
Alas, the real Elizabeth’s body disintegrates in Matthew’s arms, and the pod duplicate pops up, saying, “There’s nothing to be afraid of. They were right. It’s painless. It’s good. Come. Sleep. Matthew.”
I have seen Invasion of the Body Snatchers a gazillion times since its release nearly five decades ago, and it still gives me the willies. That is called staying power.