Invasion of the Body Snatchers/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Executive Meddling:
    • The 1956 version ends with the cops catching the snatchers in the act, because the studio thought the original ending was too dark.
      • In hindsight, maybe they had to for their own peace of mind, the original being too dark to just walk away from.
    • The 2007 version had a particularly bad case of this. The original director, Oliver Hirschbiegel turned in a cut that was, like the previous versions, a psychological thriller. The studio had wanted an action flick however, and hired the Wachowski Brothers to refilm the entire third act.
  • Fake American: British actress Dana Wynter plays Becky Driscoll in the original. They got around it in the script by saying the character had just returned to the US after having lived in England for several years.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Mel Cooley is one of the mental hospital doctors in the prologue/epilogue to the 1956 version.
  • What Could Have Been: Legend has it that the 1956 version originally ended with the hero, Miles Bennell, on the highway screaming "You're next! You're next!" to all the passing motorists, leaving the audience on a cliffhanger, but the studio disliked this ending so it was changed to a more hopeful ending.