If you were in the movie ?
If you were in the movie what weapons would you have and or find ?
What would be your exit strategy out of the city?
This is not really fair because its easy for we viewers in "Earth Prime" to watch a story with knowledge that the characters in the story do not have and say we would have done this or that but we have an advantage over them
However, based on the knowledge I gleaned I would do whatever possible to escape from the city and if I was Matthew contact that guy I knew in Washington DC to explain the situation. I did not like that they failed. they did not need to flat out "defeat" the aliens only escape from the city and warn the world, it would have taken a while for the invasion to take over the entire planet.
Roads all blocked maybe steal a boat.
Calling the cops near the end when the pods were developing on the lawn was DUMB did not even consider the cops might be in on it, same goes with phone operator.
How is this for clever? It is obvious that pod Kibner told the other pod people that he had the situation under control. He probably promised them that he would ensure that they get taken over in that scene with the pods on the lawn. The pod people only reacted violently when that failed and they called the cops.
How about this: Kill the pods on the lawn then instead of calling the cops all leave the house acting like emotionless drones (doing this much earlier than they actually did) until they can figure a way out of the city.
There must have been some safe places to sleep where there were no pods nearby maybe a big parking garage with no plant life. On a different thread there was a discussion of "getting sleep away from pods". We could sleep in shifts and wake each other up if any of us think a pod has detected the sleeping person. Even in the movie they briefly discussed that.
A shame she freaked out when she saw the mutant dog creature. Had she really been tough and stared straight ahead and kept her composure the dog creature would have just assumed she was a pod and walked off. The main female character (main hero's girlfriend" is a pathetic wimp in the first 3 movie versions and has to be rescued by the male hero and is the one to fall asleep first.
I would have used my effing BRAIN to put 2 and 2 together. Those scenes where the same people who were freaking out about their loved ones being changed acting like everything was just fine a few days later, like that old korean guy in the laundromat ITS SO EFFING OBVIOUS THEY HAVE BEEN TAKEN OVER TOO. The main characters in this really made some dumb decisions.