Hacker Cinema
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1978 · Film · 116 min
Directed by Philip Kaufman
The residents of San Francisco are becoming drone-like shadows of their former selves, and as the phenomenon spreads, two Department of Health workers uncover the horrifying truth.
8 positive1 negative9 neutralfrom 18 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
18 comments on Hacker News
You can even shorten that. This is some corporate hollo-bollers takes-your-time-and-gives-nothing-in-return fakery-roo.
> exactly the opposite of what the hacker ethics promotes for good reasons.
Yup. Seems kind of like those zombie plants in the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (the first remake; though the original is also great, but it was more about communism as threat, whereas the first remake added a bit of alien horror motifes).
The Wizard of Oz (the one you know of) was a remake.
The Thing (the one you know of—though the other had a longer title anyway) was a remake.
The version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Donald Sutherland (so, the one with that meme-able image of him pointing toward the camera) was a remake.
(Franchises? There are some from like the 40s that had a dozen or so entries over the next couple decades)
Many remake examples from almost all periods of filmmaking.
There were tons of remakes of silent films after talkies came about, then another wave of remakes of jankier-effects stagier-acting-style movies from the ‘40s and ‘50s when effects got way better and naturalistic acting took over in the 70s (plus some of these were remaking black & white to color).
This isn't just a problem on the job. EVERYONE suddenly seems addicted to their phones. You walk into a coffee shop or restaurant. Everyone (including behind the counter) is staring at a phone. Look at other drivers on the road. Everyone is scrolling their phones while driving 70mph on the freeways. Even social gatherings among friends. I used to do movie night with friends, but we stopped doing it because people pull out their phones within 5 minutes of the movie starting, and there's no point. Might as well just turn off the movie and sit there in silence while everyone watches videos of random nobodies. And if I instituted a no-phones rule, nobody would come. My 11 year old has invited a few friends over to our house to play, and their parents come with, but they don't socialize! They just sit their awkwardly silent staring at their phones. I remember one parent didn't even hear me when I offered her some coffee.
As a non phone user, when I go out into the world, I feel like I'm on that movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, where I'm surrounded by these weird non-humans everywhere, and nobody thinks any of their behavior is odd but me.
Let’s be real, the overwhelming majority of those 500 are straight up terrible. Netflix alone has produced well over 100 movies, and IMO at best some of them are worth finishing not that I can think of any off the top of my head.
Now I’m sure you’ve looked forward to many movies but off the top of your head list stuff you’ve either seen more than once and or actually recommend to someone that came our in the last 10 years vs…
(78) The Deer Hunter, Superman, National Lampoon's Animal House, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (79) Apocalypse Now, Alien, Life of Brian, Mad Max, Escape from Alcatraz (80) The Shining, Star Wars: Episode V, Airplane!, The Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, The Elephant Man (81) Raiders of the Lost Ark, Das Boot, The Evil Dead, Mad Max 2, Escape from New York, Time Bandits (82) Blade Runner, The Thing, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Poltergeist, Conan the Barbarian, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Tron (83) Scarface, WarGames, Star Wars: Episode VI, Trading Places, The Evil Dead
Obviously not all great movies but that’s ~30 classic movies in just 6 years and I’m sure I’ve missed a few as kids movies are largely missing from that list.
There are some examples of remakes that are great. Frequently, these become the "classics" and people forget about the original. A canonical example is John Carpenter's "The Thing" in 1982, which was a remake of a somewhat crappy 50s movie and is now a sci-fi horror classic. Another good example is "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" from 1978, starring Donald Sutherland. It was a remake of a 1950s movie too, though in that case the 50s movie was actually pretty good, but the 1978 one was scarier.
I can't think of any good remakes from after the year 2000.
A bunch of his movies went through my mind (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, ...), but since nobody has mentioned it, The Italian Job (2003) (another remake).
He had a small amount of screen time, and maybe I'm just thinking about it because I like the movie generally, but I like the way he played the character for the short time he was on screen.
"I feel so optimistic.."
"Fine? You know what fine stands for, don't ya? ... Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional. .. See those columns behind you? ... That's where they used to string up thieves who felt fine."
That 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a classic. Well worth watching.
To me the 2 movies that defined him was the remake of Invasion of The Body Snatchers (that scene on the end still hunts me) and The Eye OF the Needle, where he interprets a German Spy called Fabber that discovery about Operation Double Cross and tries to reach a german U-Boat with the info.
It is a callback to the first paragraph in the article, where Atwood makes a reference to the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, in which an alien race breeds clones meant to replace people in society.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077745/
>When I tell this to my friends they always say, "Oh, just you wait, you won't be able to resist."
This reminds me of some sci-fi movies I think, such as "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Also cults.
I'm usually pretty grumpy about these lists of "underrated" movies, because they're almost always movies that any moderately well versed fan of a genre has seen.
Happily, there are actually some films on this list I haven't seen.
In particular, I recently watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers after putting it off for years. Think it was on Amazon Prime. Takes place in SF. It's really good.
The style of title is a bit schlocky compared to current tastes, but it's a thoroughly competent modern style of film.
I've seen at least half or more of the movies on that list and can recommend them. Maybe not Rollerball or the one with Woody Allen, but the others are worth a watch.
Not sure all of these are underrated, films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers are (rightfully) well-known and respected.
Big fan of THX 1138, I believe it would’ve been much better known and respected if it wasn’t overshadowed by Star Wars. I actually prefer THX 1138, but I haven’t seen it in a long time as I don’t think there’s a high-quality transfer - without the CGI retouchings - widely available.
And Zardoz is a punchline for good reason, but I still find it an interesting film. It’s got bizarre, creative worldbuilding, and I love that final shot.
I recommend people watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) to test that. I was impressed with the sound in general and the fact that I felt no need to turn on subtitles. But in particular there's a least one scene where characters are whispering to each other. I didn't need subtitles or to adjust the audio, every word was perfectly intelligble.
It's also a clear sign that it's not my ears, it's not my setup, it's the sound mix of modern movies.
I mean, maybe? But I don't really think so. Here's a list from IMDB:
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls009003184/
Let's take a look at a few of the entry's from the 1970's that actually had practical effects:
Logan's Run - Here's Logan fighting a robot: https://youtu.be/USADM5Gk9Gs?t=106 Star Wars - : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g3_CFmnU7k Soylent Green - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z2txLk0ybo Invasion of the Body Snatchers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc_0dlmSq7I Alien - here's the chest buster scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPQ7om598OM
I don't think these hold up as well as nostalgia would suggest, the exception being the alien chest buster scene, which is amazing. The others are much less ambitious and simply don't look as good as modern movies. Many of the practical effects look small or toy like. Maybe there's a sweet spot in the 90's?
Maybe, but with all the people stuck at home, it really should be on everyone's Netflix to-watch list. Fantastic movie.
Some other good picks relevant for these times: The Andromeda Strain (1971) Outbreak (1995) Contagion (2011) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 and 1978 versions) 28 Days Later (2002)
I now know how that woman at the end of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" must have felt...
That movie might have been a metaphor for corporate work places.
I really liked him in the 1978 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077745/
"You could argue that the IETF has become everything the ISO working groups used to be, and that 'rough consensus and running code' is long gone."
Yes you could, I was there in the trenches trying to urge them not to go down that road. I really lost it when we had gotten Sun to release all claim to any rights to the XDR or RPC code libraries so that IETF could endorse it as an 'independent' standard. There were enough implementations out there, a regular connectathon which tested interoperability. Paul Leach, who made it his life's work to prevent any sort of standardization of RPC, successfully rallied Microsoft to overwhelm the otherwise rational members of the IETF and de-rail that process. It was so blatant, and so petty. I remember telling Vint Cerf that I marked that day, and those events, as the death of the IETF as a body with any integrity. Many working groups soldiered along and did well until they became 'strategic' to some big player, and then their integrity too was ripped out of them. Sort of like that movie 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers.' Very sad.
Over the years I've toyed briefly with starting a new networking working group.