MovieChat Forums > Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Discussion > The Cave Scene-That Huge 'Plot Hole'

The Cave Scene-That Huge 'Plot Hole'

posted 15 years ago by Deluge69-663-991830
18 replies | jump to latest

I always felt that Dana Wynter's character was already the alien pod when McCarthy returns to the cave. She had fallen asleep after he left for those few minutes, and was cloned.

By the odd tone of her voice, it seemed apparent. She was simply fooling him, saying "How tired" she is. Then she "passes out" for those few seconds, then "comes to" as the pod. She even then says she slept for a few moments while he was gone, and her real body obviously disintegrated.

Otherwise, she would have crumbled to dust before him, as what happened to her character in the remake.

I know many always wondered about that scene (including myself), and what happened to her real body.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Deluge69-663-991830 14 years ago

I still wonder about that as well.

Though we didn't see it, it's possible that when they ran into the cave, they may have left two pods in there.

There was a small "time gap" when we here them say they're "not here", then cutting ahead to Miles and Becky later "freshing up" at the stream. Perhaps they left two hidden somewhere nearby.

That's about the best 'explanation' possible.

For years, many thought she was still the real Becky when he returns, then becomes the pod when she falls out, then opens her now alien eyes.

If you watch it again, she already is a pod when he returns. Listen to her odd tone of voice when she says, "I'm here, Miles" It sounds quite aloof. And before he leaves, she is emotionally upset. Quite a peculiar change.

[–] puirt-a-beul 14 years ago

I've just watched it for the first time since my childhood, and I think you're right, Deluge. When Miles gets back to the cave, Becky is already a Pod person.

Plus the fact that when he finds her, she's lying on the other side of the cave from where she lay down as he first went out to identify the source of the music.

There's still one aspect of it that doesn't quite work: everywhere else in the movie where we see someone becoming a pod person, the undifferentiated pod is placed somewhere near them in the house and has to grow (at least overnight) to be like the person it's "snatching". That obviously didn't have time to happen with Becky, so even if there was a pod somehow lying in the cave, it still doesn't quite fit with the "rules" that had previously been set up.

But that aside, I think you;re right about when Becky was converted. When Miles drops her on the floor, and she closes her eyes, that's not when she converts, it's when she stops pretending to Miles.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] Deluge69-663-991830 14 years ago

You essentially re-summed it up.

Listen to the tone of Beckey's voice when Miles returns to the cave. He calls out, then we hear this strange tone to her voice when she replies "I'm here, Miles." That always sent chills, being so ominous.

For so long, many fans (including Yours Truly) mistakingly thought she converted when she fell, then opened her cold, alien eyes. We were probably so freaked by it that we forgot the film's basic "rules."

Nothing worse than incoherent nightmares.

[–] jquirk-1 14 years ago

I disagree with all of the previous postings. There is no plot hole in the sequence described. Miles and Becky were chased by about 50 people into the cave. Pods for both of them could have been placed near the cave or even in it by any one of those people as a precautionary measure. Or, perhaps there were already some pods in the immediate vicinity? I believe the latter is more likely.

While Becky and Miles were laying low in the cave - there was a dissolve sequence that indicated the passage of some time - the pods obviously were transforming into both their likenesses, just like the pods that were discovered earlier at Miles' house. Becky was so tired that she immediately fell asleep in the cave when Miles left to investigate the source of the music. And then, boom! Becky's double took over, put on the original's clothing and waited for Miles to return.

[–] straker-1 14 years ago

There's another way to rationalise this plothole. We all assume, from the 1978 remake, that what happens is this basic set up: 'Pod near human...pod duplicates human...human crumbles away and is disposed of...clone remains." But is that the case in the 1956 version? It seems to me that what is happening in the first movie is quite different. Rather than the pod physically replacing the original, the human him/herself BECOMES the pod.

Let me explain this: The pod does not technically absorb the human original, but exchanges place with it, cell by cell. Thus, the pod copies we see lying around are not in fact duplicates at all, but part of the original human, transferred to the copy, the "repository". A human who is, say, halfway through being podded would be walking around half-pod without knowing it, while the inert pod clone would be half human. As more human material is somehow teleported to the pod copy, the copy - though still inert and 'dead' - becomes more realistic and 'humanlike'. Because it's not alien at all; it IS human. Sleep is not necessary for the process to continue; it merely accelerates it. Going to sleep completes the process, though, and we are left with an dead but wholly human copy lying around and a mobile walking talking pod person who was human but is now wholly alien. The host becomes the copy, the copy becomes the host. Transference one to one, rather than replacement. This explains the cave scene...our heroine was 90% of the way through being replaced when she entered the cave (she complains of being tired, yet they haven't been without sleep for very long at all - the reason she's whacked is that her life force is literally being drained away), and that last 10% was lost - transferred to the inert pod copy - when she briefly nodded off. Where her pod was doesn't really matter in this scenario.

Thoughts?

[–] jquirk-1 14 years ago

Sorry, straker-1, but I can't buy your interpretation. In fact, Kevin McCarthy speculates in the original that the real human bodies disintegrate once the duplicates are formed. I mean, we actually see the duplicates growing out of the pods in the movie. My interpretation doesn't make me right, either, but I just have a little trouble swallowing yours.

[–] jgroub 9 years ago

I know you posted this almost 5 years ago, but I think you're onto something here - although I disagree, but only very weakly.

This transference is a similar thing to what happens in Star Trek with the transporter. The transporter scans you perfectly at the atomic level, converts you into energy, and at the conclusion of the transport then reconverts you back into matter, perfectly, in the form exact dictated by the scan performed at the beginning of the transport.

The question is - is that you at the other end of the process? Or is it a very, very convincing duplicate? Okay, I'm kidding slightly there; my point is that one explanation for the Star Trek transporter is as you've described it - somehow, it is you going through the entire procedure. You go in at one end, and it is most definitely you coming out the other end. There are even instances in the show (or the movies - I think it's in Star Trek II, when they're beaming back up from the Genesis cave) where people are shown to be holding conversations while they're right in the middle of "beaming".

BUT - the other explanation is that once they scan you and convert you to energy, you're gone. You're dead. There is no more you. You go to sleep and never, ever wake up. The "you" that gets created on the other end isn't you at all. Yes, it of course looks exactly like you, has exactly your memories and personality. No one you know, from your barber to your mother, could ever tell that that wasn't you. But you died as soon as they converted you to energy, never to wake up. They've created a perfect copy at the other end.

What's the difference, you ask? Consciousness. Your consciousness. Either it continues from one to the other, or it doesn't. You're arguing that it does continue from one to the other in Invasion. That's okay; based on what's shown in the movie, I could accept that. But I don't; I think it's more sinister. I think the new "you" isn't you at all.

My argument is that the consciousness ends in the old you, whether in beaming or in podding. The new you thinks it's the old you; thinks that the consciousness has been transferred. After all, the new you has all of your memories; why shouldn't it think it's still you? I say that the consciousness has been interrupted; it is not continuous.

It is NOT going to sleep in one body and waking up in another. A new consciousness is created in the new body that to everyone else, to every possible test, every scan, IS YOU. But you already died. Your consciousness died with you.

But that's just my argument. Yours is absolutely, totally, equally valid.

I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

[–] jquirk-1 9 years ago

I totally agree: the original consciousness dies, and a new one is created in the alien body that perfectly mimics the original.

[–] psdhart 13 years ago

Or, perhaps there were already some pods in the immediate vicinity? I believe the latter is more likely.

exactly, a bit like a mine field, all around the town

[–] vestdennis 12 years ago

I always assumed the crowd left a couple of pods (or more) when they came streaming into the cave. I mean, why not? If they go in there or are already there it would doom them...

[–] jleslie48 14 years ago

just watched it again last night and here is my interpretation:

they arrive in the tunnel its daytime. when he leaves its night, plenty of time for the pods to germinate. I think the crowd that chased them into the tunnel left behind some pods "just in case"

The clones have the memories of their originals so dana's clone knows mccarthy is coming back so she was playing tired to not expose herself.

also she would have to get dana's clothes the pod people are naked...

[–] Iridescent_Phantom 13 years ago

Speculating that the persuing mob dropped a pod or two within reach of Miles and Becky is simply wish fulfillment to compensate for the lack of concrete evidence. There isn't one shot of anyone in the group even carrying a pod, bet alone flinging them around the countryside in the hope of striking it rich.

The audience is given no information, whatsoever, on the proximity of any pods. Becky is transformed during Miles's walk to the farm and back (the hollow sound of her voice is unmistakable), but there seems to be a miniscule sliver of the human Becky still extant within her body, which fades after she tells him she is so tired and closes her eyes. At that point, it would only take a fraction of a second for the human Becky to fade completely and the alien Becky to become dominant.

Becky is the only character who is absorbed without the assistance of a nearby pod. The rules have been violated, creating a genuine plot hole that has to be glossed over in order to keep the movie moving. It could have been explained with a quick shot of Miles turning from alien Becky and seeing the dissolving remains of human Becky. But that shot was never taken.

The realization that human Becky has been replaced is one of the great shock moments of 1950's science fiction, just as Miles's following line (from memory): "I've been afraid many times in my life, but I've never known real fear until the moment I kissed Becky" is one of the greatest unintentional laughs in the science fiction genre. How the film makers missed that howler is beyond me.

The plot hole doesn't seriously damage the movie. Actually, it creates a whirlpool of controversy which will probably never be settled by fans of the movie.

To God There Is No Zero. I Still Exist.

[–] Cult_of_Kibner 9 years ago

It was obviously way too vague in the movie, but that doesn't mean we can't use our noggins to work out a plausible explanation instead of just writing it off as inexplicable.

Becky became a pod person. That is itself evidence that there was a pod nearby. It may have been left there by the pod people or it may have been growing on its own nearby, but it was there. The pod body developed while they were in the cave (she didn't need to be asleep for that to be happening, as we saw in the greenhouse scene) and took her place as soon as she dozed off.

[–] Navaros 9 years ago

No, it is inexplicable. There was no pod nearby. It's just a major plot hole and glaring error in the film.

"Science creates fictions to explain facts" - Gilman

[–] Cult_of_Kibner 9 years ago

I agree the scene is unclear, but it's only inexplicable if you're dead set against using the little bit of common sense necessary to conclude that just because we didn't SEE a pod doesn't mean there wasn't one nearby.

[–] JuanMosey 8 years ago

Just saw it an hour ago and wondered the same thing.

Goddamit! Things ain't workin' out for me today!

[–] masuka-fan 8 years ago

It was like they needed a late movie twist so they decided to disregard what they'd established about how the pods work, and hoped the audience would go along with it.

If they stuck with the rules, she would have had to have been replaced before their escape, and her shouting out to the dog in the street would have had to have been a ruse. But I don't remember if there was a moment there where a switch could have taken place.