Ratings: IMDB ― 7.4%, Rotten Tomatoes ― 94%, ME ― 85%
Matthew Bennell: [dials his phone] I'll get the police.
Telephone Operator: [voice] Police.
Matthew Bennell: Officer, I'd like to report four bodies in my backyard.
Telephone Operator: Wait right there Mr. Bennell.
Matthew Bennell: How do you know my name?
Jack Bellicec: [Jack's eyes widen with fear] Hang up, Matthew.
Matthew Bennell: [into the phone] I didn't tell you my name.
Jack Bellicec: Hang up!
Matthew Bennell: [hangs up the phone] I didn't tell them my name!
Jack Bellicec: That's because they're all part of it. They're all pods, all of them!
Donald Sutherland as Matthew Bennell, Jeff Goldblum as Jack Bellicec and Veronica Cartwright as Nancy Bellicec
Trivia (FROM IMDB):
Donald Sutherland was hit by a Volkswagen beetle while filming a shot of Matthew and Elizabeth running. He fell onto the windshield and was able to see the driver saying "Oh, my God! Not you!"
Donald Sutherland insisted on performing his own stunts in the film's climax. His scenes at the pod factory were filmed without harnesses or nets. In the shot of a fireball erupting from the factory, Sutherland barely missed it. However, an extra missed his cue and was seriously injured from the explosion.
The leather half-glove that Leonard Nimoy's character wears was deliberately used for the sole purpose of making the character more distinctive and recognizable. Nimoy got the idea from a friend who wore it to cover a burn on his hand.
Harry, the homeless banjo guy's banjo playing was actually performed by Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia.
1:24:04 During the taxi ride, Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams' nervousness is genuine. Don Siegel had lost much of his vision and was driving through the dark streets of San Francisco without his glasses.
Matthew's story/joke goes as follows. The British are trapped in the Sahara and are surrounded by the Germans. One day, an officer makes an announcement: "I have good news and bad news. The bad news is, we have no food but camel poop. The good news is, there is plenty of it."
According to the commentary on the DVD, director Philip Kaufman said they paid Robert Duvall by giving him an Eddie Bauer jacket.
While rehearsing Kevin McCarthy's cameo, a naked homeless man recognized him and said "The first one was better".
Among the sounds Benjamin A. Burtt used for the pod growing scene, the heartbeat came from an ultrasound recorded on his pregnant wife. The pod screams were recorded pig squeals. Additionally, the natural diegetic sounds (crickets, birds chirping) fade as the film progresses, until only mechanical sounds (sirens, the garbage trucks) are heard.
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1:48:53 Elizabeth's nude scene in the factory was also filmed with clothes. That was seen when the film debuted on ABC in 1980.
Robert Duvall, who had previously worked with Director Philip Kaufman on The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972), happened to be in San Francisco at the time of filming and shot his only scene for free.
Producer Robert H. Solo mentioned in the book "They're Here..." that Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy were each paid $25,000 for their roles. Donald Sutherland was paid something between $200,000 and $300,000.
At the beginning of the film, as the alien spores rain down on earth, you see them presumably landing on the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco - the headquarters of what was then the parent company of United Artists, which produced the film.
Veronica Cartwright also appears in the remake The Invasion (2007).
Silence is heard as the end credits roll as there was no end title music composed or recorded for the film.
During the mud bath scene a man suggests that Nancy read a book titled "Worlds In Collision" by Immanuel Velikovsky. The book was published in 1950 and spent eleven weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list. However, the book was met with overwhelming rejection of its thesis by the scientific community.
The unusual and well-received musical score by Denny Zeitlin, an accomplished American jazz pianist and composer, is the only motion picture score he has composed in his career.
Three of the principal cast-members went on to star in David Cronenberg movies: Art Hindle in The Brood, Brooke Adams in The Dead Zone, Jeff Goldblum in The Fly.
The second time that Leonard Nimoy has appeared in a story about alien plants taking over human bodies to make them feel euphoric. The first was Star Trek: This Side of Paradise (1967).
The night after the movies release, someone put pod like in the movie all over the streets of L.A. And some people got so freaked out that they thought they were real and called the police.
1:23:47 The taxi that Matthew and Elizabeth get into has a telephone number of (415) 673-1414 and is called DeSoto cab. The cab company is real and that is in fact their telephone number.
Steven King describes the decapitation scene in "Danse Macabre", saying it was unbelievably brutal.
Cameo ―
Kevin McCarthy: man asking for help. McCarthy was the star of the original film, of which this film is a remake.
Don Siegel: 1:24:04 Taxi driver. Siegel directed the original film, of which this film is a remake.
Robert Duvall: the priest on the swing.
Michael Chapman: 1:26:49 Janitor at the Health Department. Appears when Elizabeth cries in Matthew's arms and later when they sneak into the building.
Director Cameo ―
Philip Kaufman: 1:05:45 playing an impatient man rapping on the window of a phone booth occupied by Donald Sutherland.
Spoilers ―
Only Philip Kaufman, W.D. Richter, and Donald Sutherland knew how the film was going to end. Veronica Cartwright was not told that Sutherland's character had been captured and became an alien. When they filmed the ending in front of San Francisco City Hall and Sutherland pointed to her, imitating the pod scream, Cartwright's reaction of cold fear is authentic.
Donald Sutherland as Matthew Bennell, Jeff Goldblum as Jack Bellicec and Veronica Cartwright as Nancy Bellicec
Trivia (FROM IMDB):
Donald Sutherland was hit by a Volkswagen beetle while filming a shot of Matthew and Elizabeth running. He fell onto the windshield and was able to see the driver saying "Oh, my God! Not you!"
Donald Sutherland insisted on performing his own stunts in the film's climax. His scenes at the pod factory were filmed without harnesses or nets. In the shot of a fireball erupting from the factory, Sutherland barely missed it. However, an extra missed his cue and was seriously injured from the explosion.
The leather half-glove that Leonard Nimoy's character wears was deliberately used for the sole purpose of making the character more distinctive and recognizable. Nimoy got the idea from a friend who wore it to cover a burn on his hand.
Harry, the homeless banjo guy's banjo playing was actually performed by Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia.
1:24:04 During the taxi ride, Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams' nervousness is genuine. Don Siegel had lost much of his vision and was driving through the dark streets of San Francisco without his glasses.
Matthew's story/joke goes as follows. The British are trapped in the Sahara and are surrounded by the Germans. One day, an officer makes an announcement: "I have good news and bad news. The bad news is, we have no food but camel poop. The good news is, there is plenty of it."
According to the commentary on the DVD, director Philip Kaufman said they paid Robert Duvall by giving him an Eddie Bauer jacket.
While rehearsing Kevin McCarthy's cameo, a naked homeless man recognized him and said "The first one was better".
Among the sounds Benjamin A. Burtt used for the pod growing scene, the heartbeat came from an ultrasound recorded on his pregnant wife. The pod screams were recorded pig squeals. Additionally, the natural diegetic sounds (crickets, birds chirping) fade as the film progresses, until only mechanical sounds (sirens, the garbage trucks) are heard.
45 of 48 found this | Share this
1:48:53 Elizabeth's nude scene in the factory was also filmed with clothes. That was seen when the film debuted on ABC in 1980.
Robert Duvall, who had previously worked with Director Philip Kaufman on The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972), happened to be in San Francisco at the time of filming and shot his only scene for free.
Producer Robert H. Solo mentioned in the book "They're Here..." that Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy were each paid $25,000 for their roles. Donald Sutherland was paid something between $200,000 and $300,000.
At the beginning of the film, as the alien spores rain down on earth, you see them presumably landing on the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco - the headquarters of what was then the parent company of United Artists, which produced the film.
Veronica Cartwright also appears in the remake The Invasion (2007).
Silence is heard as the end credits roll as there was no end title music composed or recorded for the film.
During the mud bath scene a man suggests that Nancy read a book titled "Worlds In Collision" by Immanuel Velikovsky. The book was published in 1950 and spent eleven weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list. However, the book was met with overwhelming rejection of its thesis by the scientific community.
The unusual and well-received musical score by Denny Zeitlin, an accomplished American jazz pianist and composer, is the only motion picture score he has composed in his career.
Three of the principal cast-members went on to star in David Cronenberg movies: Art Hindle in The Brood, Brooke Adams in The Dead Zone, Jeff Goldblum in The Fly.
The second time that Leonard Nimoy has appeared in a story about alien plants taking over human bodies to make them feel euphoric. The first was Star Trek: This Side of Paradise (1967).
The night after the movies release, someone put pod like in the movie all over the streets of L.A. And some people got so freaked out that they thought they were real and called the police.
1:23:47 The taxi that Matthew and Elizabeth get into has a telephone number of (415) 673-1414 and is called DeSoto cab. The cab company is real and that is in fact their telephone number.
Steven King describes the decapitation scene in "Danse Macabre", saying it was unbelievably brutal.
Cameo ―
Kevin McCarthy: man asking for help. McCarthy was the star of the original film, of which this film is a remake.
Don Siegel: 1:24:04 Taxi driver. Siegel directed the original film, of which this film is a remake.
Robert Duvall: the priest on the swing.
Michael Chapman: 1:26:49 Janitor at the Health Department. Appears when Elizabeth cries in Matthew's arms and later when they sneak into the building.
Director Cameo ―
Philip Kaufman: 1:05:45 playing an impatient man rapping on the window of a phone booth occupied by Donald Sutherland.
Spoilers ―
Only Philip Kaufman, W.D. Richter, and Donald Sutherland knew how the film was going to end. Veronica Cartwright was not told that Sutherland's character had been captured and became an alien. When they filmed the ending in front of San Francisco City Hall and Sutherland pointed to her, imitating the pod scream, Cartwright's reaction of cold fear is authentic.
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