Pod people (also known as body snatchers ) is the colloquial term for a species of plant-like aliens featured in the 1954 novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney , the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers , the 1978 remake of the same name , and the 1993 film Body Snatchers . Although sharing themes, they are not in the 2007 film Invasion of the Pod People .
41-495: Pod People may refer to: Pod People ( Invasion of the Body Snatchers ) , a fictional alien species in a novel by Jack Finney and three film adaptations Extra Terrestrial Visitors , an unrelated 1983 French-Spanish science fiction film renamed The Pod People for the U.S. market Pod People (band) , an Australian doom metal band See also [ edit ] Invasion of
82-413: A deep sleep". Similar to previous incarnations, the virus can kill its human host. Carol takes a photograph of a human after conversion, but the conflicting memories give the replica a heart attack. During Carol and Gene's exchange on the commuter train: Carol: Where are your parents Gene? Gene: They didn't survive. Your family is my family now. The scholar Andrew Howe argued that the 1956 film presented
123-420: A lot of people, that it's somewhat outside of the ‘pod-requisites’ for the advancing of that kind of horrific civilization. I feel that poddiness has taken over a lot of our discourse. I don't want to make this a political diatribe on what's disturbing me in today's world, but it certainly is there." The success of the 1956 and 1978 film versions caused the term pod people to enter the popular American lexicon with
164-654: A meta-analysis found that when these errors were corrected and accounted for, there was still no significant effect of ESP. Many of the studies only appeared to have significant occurrence of ESP, when in fact, this result was due to the many methodological errors in the research. In the early 20th century, Joaquin María Argamasilla , known as the "Spaniard with X-ray Eyes", claimed to be able to read handwriting or numbers on dice through closed metal boxes. Argamasilla managed to fool Gustav Geley and Charles Richet into believing he had genuine psychic powers. In 1924, he
205-425: A pan-in of the galaxy during the opening credits, and a statement by the replica general they traveled "light-years"). The bodies of these pod people also shrivel and disintegrate after they are killed, similar to the originals. Similar to the 1978 remake, this third version seems to preclude any hopeful conclusion by the ambiguous ending in which the two leads land after seemingly destroying the pod people, only to find
246-455: A playing card ESP experiment. Cox concluded "There is no evidence of extrasensory perception either in the 'average man' or of the group investigated or in any particular individual of that group. The discrepancy between these results and those obtained by Rhine is due either to uncontrollable factors in experimental procedure or to the difference in the subjects." Four other psychological departments failed to replicate Rhine's results. In 1938,
287-679: A pod person being slang for "a soulless conformist; someone who acts strangely, almost mechanically". Extrasensory perception Extrasensory perception ( ESP ), also known as a sixth sense , or cryptaesthesia , is a claimed paranormal ability pertaining to reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses , but sensed with the mind. The term was adopted by Duke University botanist J. B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities such as intuition , telepathy , psychometry , clairvoyance , clairaudience , clairsentience , empathy and their trans-temporal operation as precognition or retrocognition . Second sight
328-405: A sense doing good. It happens to leave you in a very dull world, but that, by the way is the world most of us live in. It's the same as people who welcome going into the army or prison. There's regimentment, a lack of having to make up your mind, face decisions...People are becoming vegetables. I don't know what the answer is except an awareness of it. That's what makes a picture like The Invasion of
369-403: A single target cannot be evaluated using statistical tests that assume independence of responses. This increases the likelihood of card counting and, in turn, increases the chances for the subject to guess correctly without using ESP. Another methodological flaw involves cues through sensory leakage, for example, when the subject receives a visual cue. This could be the reflection of a Zener card in
410-403: Is an alleged form of extrasensory perception, whereby a person perceives information, in the form of a vision , about future events before they happen ( precognition ), or about things or events at remote locations ( remote viewing ). There is no evidence that second sight exists. Reports of second sight are known only from anecdotes. Second sight and ESP are classified as pseudosciences . In
451-459: Is apparently used to alert other pod people of humans in their midst. They also seem to exhibit a kind of extrasensory perception . As one character stabs his almost-formed pod replacement, a replica immediately emits the alien scream. This version does not end with the same hope as the novel and previous movie, but ends with the pod people taking over almost everyone on Earth. The movie shows several ships with pods to be sent out into other parts of
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#1732863342403492-495: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Pod People (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) Pod people are a race of nomadic extraterrestrial parasites from a dying planet . Realizing their planet's resources are nearing depletion, the pods evolved the ability to defy gravity and leave their planet's atmosphere in the search of planets to colonize. For millennia,
533-424: Is no viable theory to explain the mechanism behind ESP, and that there are historical cases in which flaws have been discovered in the experimental design of parapsychological studies. There are many criticisms pertaining to experiments involving extrasensory perception, particularly surrounding methodological flaws. These flaws are not unique to a single experimental design, and are effective in discrediting much of
574-402: The ganzfeld experiments (a mild sensory deprivation procedure). Second sight may have originally been so called because normal vision was regarded as coming first, while supernormal vision is a secondary thing, confined to certain individuals. An dà shealladh or "the two sights", meaning "the sight of the seer", is the way Gaels refer to "second sight", the involuntary ability of seeing
615-433: The "growth" of Communism as well as the idea that revolutions are made by planting seeds. There is a scene where the pod people are assembled in the town square, where a loud speaker reads out the day's orders; it is the quintessential fifties image of socialism. And, of course, the simile that without freedom of thought people are...vegetables is a central theme of the narrative". American director Don Siegel , who directed
656-457: The 1930s, at Duke University in North Carolina, J. B. Rhine and his wife Louisa E. Rhine conducted an investigation into extrasensory perception. While Louisa Rhine concentrated on collecting accounts of spontaneous cases, J. B. Rhine worked largely in the laboratory, carefully defining terms such as ESP and psi and designing experiments to test them. A simple set of black and white cards
697-520: The 1950s of life in Communist nations. The way that the pod people insist that their triumph is both necessary and inevitable is a parody of Marxism with its insistence that class conflict will inevitably end with the destruction of capitalism and the triumph of socialism in the form of "governing decisions by the proletariat". The manner in which the pod people outwardly resemble the people they have replaced, but are completely empty and soulless, reflected
738-478: The 1956 version, stated he saw the film as a parable about the eroding sense of individualism in American life, stating: "Many of my associates are certainly pods. They have no feelings. They exist, breathe, sleep. To be a pod means that you have no passion, no anger, the spark has left you...Of course, there's a very strong case for being a pod. These pods, who get rid of pain, ill health, and mental disturbances, are in
779-482: The Body Snatchers important". In 2012, American critic Dennis Lim wrote: "the pod people...have risen to the status of a modern American myth. In the movies at least, pod-dom has proved to be an eternally durable trope and an infinitely flexible metaphor". Lim argued the 1956 film can be understood as a metaphor for Communism or McCarthyism or both. Lim wrote that the pod people "...with their dead-eyed stares and moblike behavior, they could also be seen as embodying
820-641: The Moon. The Pods' sole purpose is survival with no attention to the civilizations they conquer or the resources they squander. The duplicates have lifespans of five earth years, and cannot sexually reproduce. Their invasion of Earth was short; unable to overcome resistance to their actions, the pods abandoned Earth, leaving behind their duplicates, but those died quickly. One of the pod people hints at their extraterrestrial origin and purpose without explaining. Physician Miles Bennell, played by Kevin McCarthy , gets away from
861-616: The Pod People , a 2007 film, also unrelated to the above Conformity , a major theme of the Body Snatchers franchise Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Pod People . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pod_People&oldid=1186646979 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
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#1732863342403902-421: The back of the auditorium and everybody turns, you get that scary 'poddy' feeling. There's a kind of contagion that's going on here." In the same interview, Kaufman stated: " Some of the best Republicans I know have moved away from being Republicans because there is a kind of a pod conformity and hysteria and looking down at more complex, compassionate, humanistic people. San Francisco is still viewed in that way by
943-490: The camera. The origin of the pod people clones in the 1978 film remains the same as in the first film adaptation. In this film, the aliens are in their preinvasion form. They appear as gelatinous creatures abandoning their ravaged planet somewhere in deep space. After landing on Earth, they assimilate leaves and become pink flowers; the aliens eventually grow the larger 6-foot-long (1.8 m) pods. This time, those subverted can scream in an eerie high-pitched alien voice, which
984-483: The existence of any psychic phenomena after more than a century of research. The scientific community rejects ESP due to the absence of an evidence base, the lack of a theory which would explain ESP and the lack of positive experimental results; it considers ESP to be pseudoscience . The scientific consensus does not view extrasensory perception as a scientific phenomenon . Skeptics have pointed out that there
1025-469: The future or distant events. There are many Gaelic words for the various aspects of second sight, but an dà shealladh is the one mostly recognized by non-Gaelic speakers, even though, strictly speaking, it does not really mean second sight, but rather "two sights". Parapsychology is the study of paranormal psychic phenomena, including ESP. Parapsychology has been criticized for continuing investigation despite being unable to provide convincing evidence for
1066-414: The holder's glasses. In this case, the subject is able to guess the card correctly because they can see it in the reflection, not because of ESP. Finally, poor randomization of target stimuli could be happening. Poor shuffling methods can make the orders of the cards easier to predict, or the cards could have been marked and manipulated, again, making it easier to predict which cards come next. The results of
1107-469: The most sinister tendencies of the Eisenhower-McCarthy era." American director Philip Kaufman , who directed the 1978 version, has suggested that the pod people can be understood as a political metaphor, saying in 2018: "It's as valid now as it was then, maybe more so...[Donald Sutherland’s pod shriek] at the end of the film could be a very Trumpian scream. The way Trump points to the press in
1148-432: The order of the cards is determined after the guesses are made. Later he used dice to test for psychokinesis . The parapsychology experiments at Duke evoked criticism from academics and others who challenged the concepts and evidence of ESP. A number of psychological departments attempted, unsuccessfully, to repeat Rhine's experiments. W. S. Cox (1936) from Princeton University with 132 subjects produced 25,064 trials in
1189-482: The original, to the extent, except for "leader" replicas such as Dr Kibner, they do not appear to be able to fake emotional states and reactions. Also unclear is whether the replicas can eat, although one is seen drinking water in Elizabeth Driscoll's apartment. Similar to the 1978 film, these pod people emit the high-pitched scream to indicate nonconverts. Their extraterrestrial origin is hinted (suggested through
1230-404: The pilot is apparently one of the aliens, reflecting back to the eerie warning: "There's no one like you left." In The Invasion , the aliens are a virus. After the person falls asleep, the virus rewrites human DNA . Then, these genetically modified post-humans vomit a gelatinous substance to continue the invasion. As their invasion snowballs, the pod people transform humans by injecting them with
1271-450: The planet. In the closing scene, Veronica Cartwright 's character is happy to see the hero, played by Donald Sutherland , only to hear him emit the alien scream... A difference in the pods is seen between the original film and the remake. In the original, the pods burst to duplicate Miles and his friends while they are awake. In the remake, the pods and flowers stay dormant until the humans are asleep. The replicas are less emotional than
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1312-477: The pod people as a metaphor for Communism, as the pod people appear to have a sort of collective mind whose precise workings are not explained in the film. In the 1950s, Americans tended to associate Communism with collectivism and their own nation with individualism. The pod people have absolutely no sense of individualism, instead being the soulless duplicates of people who once existed with no personalities and emotions, which reflected popular American stereotypes in
1353-484: The pod people, which served as a metaphor for how many Americans felt threatened by Communism, whose triumph was widely feared to be marking the end of the "real" America. The critic Danny Pearl explained the metaphor of the pod people as: "The pod people represent a completely regimented society. Metaphorically, they are so alike as "two peas in a pod" because they have been sapped of their emotional individuality. The vegetarian metaphor literizes Red Scare rhetoric of
1394-433: The pods floated in space like spores, propelled by the solar winds , some occasionally landing on inhabited planets. Upon landing, they replace the dominant species by spawning emotionless replicas; the original bodies disintegrate into dust after the duplication process. After consuming all the resources, the pods leave in search of other planets. Such a consumption was apparently the fate of civilizations inhabiting Mars and
1435-513: The positive research surrounding ESP. Many of the flaws seen in the Zener cards experiment are present in the Ganzfeld experiment as well. First is the stacking effect, an error that occurs in ESP research. Trial-by-trial feedback given in studies using a "closed" ESP target sequence (e.g., a deck of cards) violates the condition of independence used for most standard statistical tests. Multiple responses for
1476-407: The psychologist Joseph Jastrow wrote that much of the evidence for extrasensory perception collected by Rhine and other parapsychologists was anecdotal, biased, dubious and the result of "faulty observation and familiar human frailties". Rhine's experiments were discredited due to the discovery that sensory leakage or cheating could account for all his results such as the subject being able to read
1517-485: The substance under the guise of " influenza vaccines ". As it continues across the globe, local conflicts are resolved, including the Iraq War and Darfur . However, certain illnesses during childhood render humans immune to the viral invaders. Medical scientists somehow create a miracle vaccine in a few months to "cure the pandemic". The treatment wipes the memories of the replicas, and the infected live "as though they were in
1558-489: The symbols from the back of the cards and being able to see and hear the experimenter to note subtle clues. In the 1960s, parapsychologists became increasingly interested in the cognitive components of ESP, the subjective experience involved in making ESP responses, and the role of ESP in psychological life. This called for experimental procedures that were not limited to Rhine's favored forced-choice methodology. Such procedures have included dream telepathy experiments, and
1599-451: The town and tells his story to another doctor. A truck carrying pods is wrecked; thereafter, the second physician believes the tale. He asks the government agents to quarantine the town, but viewers are left to wonder whether they were successful. Prior to a rewrite, the ending was less hopeful about the fate of humanity, ending before McCarthy escapes. The final shot is Bennell standing on a highway shouting warnings at passing cars and into
1640-409: The viewpoint that the Communist regimes have destroyed the "real" nations that previously existed before they came to power and replaced the "authentic" national identities and cultures with something artificial and profoundly distasteful. Likewise, the particular place where the pods have landed in is a small town in rural California, meaning that Americans are the ones being targeted for replacement by
1681-436: Was developed, originally called Zener cards – now called ESP cards. They bear the symbols circle, square, wavy lines, cross, and star. There are five of each type of card in a pack of 25. In a telepathy experiment, the "sender" looks at a series of cards while the "receiver" guesses the symbols. To try to observe clairvoyance, the pack of cards is hidden from everyone while the receiver guesses. To try to observe precognition,