Would a Body Snatchers Invasion in Real Life Be Possible?

The 1978 version would seem to be the least plausible invasion of them all. We learn right at the start that 'webs' have shrouded the Bay Area. These webs are seen to sort of melt in the rain and become the pods. The webs were mentioned in the newspaper, so clearly there was enough time for them to be noticed. So, no-one took a sample and investigated?

But as to whether an invasion would succeed depends on the first night, doesn't it. If the first load of duplicates can be created without causing alarm, then a beach-head has been formed and the invasion will probably succeed. On the first night who gets podded depends of course on random chance, but from Day 2 onwards intelligent minds are overseeing the spread of the pods and the short-term cover-up. By Night 3 or 4, there'd be enough duplicates around to largely dispense with the cover-up, as indeed we see during the City Hall pod distribution sequence towards the end.

The 78 version indicates that the initial duplications were singular and in out of the way places...there's a scene where we see a large pod being handed over to Creepy Balding Guy by a black chap who emerges from under some sort of bridge or derelict building. Said black guy's attire would suggest (but not confirm) that his original was a member of a street gang. Possibly, this gang dwells in the rundown place mentioned. Apart from people who stupidly took a pod home (eg Elizabeth), the first dupes who emerged on the first day the aliens were active would have been hobos, street people, gang members and that sort of underclass. No-one takes any notice of them at the best of times, and that's presumably how most of the initial duplications were able to pass undetected. But it seems INCREDIBLY unlikely that nobody witnessed a pod duplication and raised the alarm. Remember that scene near the start where the bearded guy is running for his life across the road, looking fearfully at the sky, and then we hear the first of the pod shrieks? Even at the start, there are witnesses, and the relatively small number of duplicates don't seem to care if people hear and see them making creepy noises in broad daylight in busy areas. Why did NONE of these witnesses succeed in alerting someone in authority?

The manner of duplication is inconsistent too...the 93 version requires lengthy contact between host body and pod via the "noodles". The 56 version suggests that a pod merely needs to be close to the host, the copying being remote. Mind you, said version also suggests that the pod *takes over* the host, rather than copying it per se. That's the only way to explain the scene at the end when Becky is left in the mine, and wakes up as a pod when Bennell returns to her. Presumably her duplicate body is everything that was human about her, and in all cases the things that come out of the pods and form into humans are inert and dead. Odd way to copy, isn't it? An exchange of matter, one to one, rather than a straight conversion of pod matter into human material. The 78 version tries to have it both ways....tendril contact would seem to be essential (Matthew and Jack are both 'tendrilled'), yet the first time Elizabeth is copied she is nowhere near her pod/duplicate body. And the second time, we don't even see the pod her successful copy springs from. The transfer is so swift that it seems to be undeniable that all a person need do is go near an active pod, and said pod then begins the copying process. Elizabeth is asleep at the end for at most two minutes, which again suggests that the copying began well before she lost consciousness. So...why the need for the tendrils? Confusing, innit?

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