Science fiction films often anticipate the future. Invasion movies, a popular niche, might give us a clue about our own. What do I mean by invasion? Aliens and microbes from outer space, earthly viruses, invasions of nations, schools, and homes, and thought invasions—things and thoughts that leave their boundaries and enter ours, like propaganda and gaslighting.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers has engaged readers and moviegoers for a long time, ever since Jack Finney's best-selling book, published in 1955, became a classic science fiction horror and famous film noir starring Kevin McCarthy in 1956. An aggregate of reviews in Rotten Tomatoes called it "one of the best political allegories of the 1950s." Three other movies are in direct lineage from the 1956 film, which begins with a patient saying that her husband is not her husband, even though they look identical. A paranoid delusion? Capgras syndrome?

The 1956 invasion occurred in Santa Mira, a small town in suburban California. Family values, the baby boom, baseball, and television were welcome changes from the decade before that brought them World War 2, Hiroshima, the Korean War, and Joseph McCarthy's Red Scare, straddling both decades. Some interpreted Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) as a warning that society should not be complacent: "Dehumanization and loss of identity are themes in science fiction."

Twelve years later, Donald Sutherland starred in the remake. An aggregate Rotten Tomatoes review of the 1978 film says, "Employing gritty camerawork and evocative sound effects, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a........

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