When The Invasion came out in during the summer of 2007, quite few critics questioned the point of the film. This was the third remake of the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers from 1956. The first two remakes were great. Phillip Kaufman’s take came out in 1978 with Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy and Jeff Goldblum dealing with their friends in San Francisco getting taken over. Abel Ferrara stationed the action on a military base in 1993. What made the new version with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig necessary in 2007? At the time it just seemed like a studio going another round with its IP. Turns out the film was ahead of its time. If you saw The Invasion in 2020 of afterward, the film feels a bit on target as a mysterious illness effects millions in a pandemic.
A Space Shuttle loses control while attempting reentry to Earth. It blows up in a massive fireball leaving a debris field across a large chunk of America. People are warned to not touch any chunks of the destroyed shuttle. Naturally people pay zero attention to the warning and grab what they find. They sell the pieces online. What they’re not noticing is that a weird fungus on the wreckage. It’s infecting people. One of the people who gets infected is CDC head Tucker Kaufman (Gosford Park‘s Jeremy Northam) who handles a piece without wearing any gloves. He gets cut and seems changed the next day. His ex-wife is Carol Bennell (Eyes Wide Shut’s Nicole Kidman) who is a psychiatrist in Washington D.C. has no clue what he’s going to do to her life. One of her patients (Alien‘s Angela Cartwright) swears her husband is not her real husband. She swears she’s not going nuts. Carol gets the same feeling when Tucker arrives in the city wanting to reconnect with their son Oliver (Jackson Bond). She doesn’t feel right turning the kid to the dad, but legally she can’t deny his request for time. The media does report of a mystery illness that’s affecting people, but swears its just another nasty flu bug. Carol senses there’s more than a flu. While out trick or treating with the kid, she finds a weird skin-like substance. She gets her boyfriend Dr Ben Driscoll (James Bond’s Daniel Craig) to inspect it. He gets help from his pal Dr. Stephen Galeano (Casino Royale’s Jeffery Wright). This substance isn’t Halloween gag weirdness sold at Spirit. The trio realize something sinister is happening beyond people getting sick with flu-like symptoms.
The Invasion has improved due to circumstances of what happened in 2020. Not that the movie predicts COVID. But it predicts some of the worst aspects of the pandemic. There’s a scene where infected people are spreading the disease on others which reminded me of the jerks who had to cough on people who were wearing surgical masks in public. There are other gestures and actions that flashback to the lockdown. The film is different from previous versions because there’s no giant pods that get stuck near sleeping people to create their doppelganger. The aliens are now a communicable disease. People are nasty enough to spread it. There’s also a subplot about being fearful of the inoculations being passed out to people that might be really infecting them. How was this film not quoted constantly by “that relative” in their social media posts? What might have been seen as science fiction in 2007 is a hard truth in 2024.
The performances are fine. Nicole Kidman works out great in the lead since she’s got a natural icy nature that makes you often think that she’s already been infected. There’s great stunt casting in Angela Cartwright since she played a major character in the 1978 remake. We also get Daniel Craig and Jeffery Wright uniting off a James Bond set. The Invasion is a movie worth revisiting after all we’ve gone through in the last five years. Just don’t breathe on anyone while you’re watching.
The Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The transfer is 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible). You’ll get to see how people transform into the invaders. The Audio is DTS-HD MA 5.1. There’s also an LPCM 2.0 stereo mix for people who don’t want the microbes around them. The movie is subtitled in English.
Audio commentary by co-hosts of The Faculty of Horror podcast: Andrea Subisati and Alexandra West. They get into the “messiness” of the film that make it enjoyable to watch The Invasion more than once. They have fun with Daniel Craig’s accent. They dig into the various reshoots that were done before the movie’s release. It’s an enjoyable listen along.
Body Snatchers and Beyond (23:53) a visual essay by film scholar Alexandra Heller Nicholas. She goes into the other books and movies about body snatching from alien forces. There is talk of the original film and the ’78 remakes. There’s a lot of footage from Abel Ferrara’s Body Snatchers. I am hoping it’s a clue that this might get upgraded too. Nicholas also gets into the differences in the 2007 version from the previous films.
That Bug That’s Going Around (16:17) is a visual essay puts The Invasion in context with 2020 by film scholar Josh Nelson. He points out the popular films at the start of the pandemic were Contagion and Outbreak. Both films were about the spread of an infectious disease. He gets into how The Invasion relates to 2020’s lockdown. Remember how the President downplayed the severity to just the common flu…which happens in the film. He points out that Tucker is the name of the main character in the film is also the same as real Tucker who took rose up during the pandemic.
We’ve Been Snatched Before (18:56) is about how a microbe can destroy humanity. There are science fiction writers, science writers, doctors and researchers involved. They talk about the original being about the red scare and the ’78 remakes being about New Age Cults. This one is about terrorism and pandemic diseases. We get into how things spread. This bonus feature from 2007 really does predict 2020 and reactions.
The Invasion: A New Story (2:59) is about how this is different from the previous versions. The film is about how we react to things. Joel Silver talks about the film. This was made in 2007
The Invasion: On the Set (3:25) shows the crew shooting around Washington D.C. There’s talking about shooting on embassy road and permissions they needed from foreign governments. We learn how they filmed a jumper scene. This is from 2007.
The Invasion: Snatched (3:17) gets into the special effects for how the body snatchers from space convert people. Angela Cartwright appreciates they went with spores instead of pods. Daniel Craig sums it up. This is from 2007
Theatrical trailer (2:00) opens with the Space Shuttle crashing. The contamination is everywhere and people are changing.
Image gallery has 37 press photos, behind the scenes shots and the poster.
Illustrated collector’s booklet with essays by film critics William Bibbiani and Sally Christie
Double-sided fold out poster with original and newly commissioned artwork by Tommy Pocket that’s suitable for framing.
Arrow Video presents The Invasion: Limited Edition. Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. Screenplay by David Kajganich. Starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond, Jeffrey Wright, Veronica Cartwright & Roger Rees. Running Time: 100 minutes. Rating: Rated PG-13. Release Date: November 12, 2024.
