SSC Film Studies

Invasion of the body snatchers and War of the worlds both being films that we’ve studied from the American industry both show key themes in similar ways, and this will be exploring those key themes.

Paranoia is a consistent theme throughout Invasion of the body snatchers, as our main character Miles keeps losing people who he trusts. Making him feel paranoid about everyone around him, as they become “pods” as he says during the office scene to Dana that “they all seem to be strangers down there” showing Miles concern about the other residents and is paranoid over the fact that they could have been forced to turn against him.

For War of the worlds the theme of Paranoia looms over the scenes where Ray and Rachel meet Ogilvy in his basement, as all three characters stay in the basement to hide from the Aliens, but Ray and Ogilvy show different approaches towards the aliens, which doesn’t only make Ray paranoid of the Aliens but also Ogilvy, this is shown when Ray says to leave Rachel alone, as he starts to fear of what he might be saying to her, showing this element of paranoia through the film.

In invasion of the body snatchers the fear of others is a consistent theme through out the film, as Miles doesn’t fear the ‘pods’ and thinks that they’re not a problem as there is only a minority of them. But as soon as the minority grows, Miles begins to fear them until he’s being forced to become one of the ‘pod’ people, this is where the fear of something different, the fear of others theme comes in as Miles is afraid of them, this is shown when Miles tries to escape with Dana when pretending to be one of the pod people.

In War of the worlds fear of others is shown when the pods first attack Earth and Ray tries to escape with both Robbie and Rachel in a car, when being shot at by the aliens, Rachel screams in terror saying “Is it the terrorists again?” showing that the fear of others is set into this character from the terrorist attacks from 2001. This helps shows that in War if the worlds a fear of others are a theme set in the film.

Throughout Invasion of the body snatchers the theme of a fear of annihilation is established when Miles is running onto the motor way like a mad man screaming out saying “they’re here, they’re here!” and turns into a close up where he shouts and “And you’re next!” this shows Miles fear of annihilation and thinks that everyone will fall under this influence if it spreads.

War of the worlds contains a theme of fear of annihilation, is shown in over the hill scene. As the countless amount of people running over the hill to where we can only presume is a one way battle zone, as Robbie fears for the annihilation of his race and wants to stand up against the alien tripods and says “We need to fight back now, if we want to save ourselves” showing that the fear of annihilation has gotten to Robbie as he’s willing to go into battle.

In War of the worlds the theme of extermination is highlighted during the docking scene, this scene shows all survivors trying to escape via ship, but during this scene the Alien tripods find them and set target to exterminate the humans at the bay and the audience get to visually see this wave of destruction swarm through the crowds of people, another scene which shows this extermination is when Ray, Robbie and Rachel wash up on shore and climb up a hill to only look around to see the tripods exterminating and sweeping areas clean, this evidence helps show that extermination is a theme within the film.

The theme of Assimilation is a consistent theme through Invasion of the body snatchers. As we start in the film being told of the growth of the pod people, and that people keep joining them, not willingly. This is shown when Miles goes to his friend’s house only to see that they’ve all been converted to Pod people and then tries to convert Miles as well. This evidence helps show that a theme of assimilation is a consistent theme through invasion of the bod snatchers.

But the main difference between these two films is the way in how they both end, with Invasion of the body snatchers it ends leaving it up to the audience to think of what happened next and doesn’t end on a good positive note, as it leaves the aliens still in existence. Giving an impact on the audience that not everything didn’t end well after the end, this is emphasised with the end text when it pops up saying “The End?” the question mark emphasises that this isn’t over, whereas with the War of the worlds it ends on a happy note as Robbie returns alive, the aliens die and everyone lives happy ever after, a complete different ending to what Invasion of the body snatchers, leaving a different impact on the audience.