Strange things are happening in the California town of Santa Mira! The patients of local doc Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) are making bizarre accusations that their loved ones are imposters. The town shrink calls it a case of mass hysteria, but Dr. Bunnell soon discovers that the people are some sort of clones grown from plantlike pods -- and the real humans have been killed.

    The pod people look just like the folks they've replaced, the biggest difference being a total lack of emotion. And they work together to secretly nurture more pods -- which grew from seeds that had drifted through space for years -- with a goal of replacing the entire human race.

    Bennell and pretty divorcee Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter) strive to escape the pod people and warn the rest of humanity, but Driscoll falls prey to the evil aliens after falling asleep. And as the pod people close in on Bennell, he runs out on the highway frantically screaming at passing drivers that aliens have taken over Santa Mira.

     "They're here already!" he screams into the camera. "You're next!"

    Fortunately, there's a wreck on the highway involving a truck carrying pods, validating Bunnell's seemingly wild rantings, and we're left believing that the FBI will come to the rescue, rooting out the pod people and saving all mankind.

    Invasion of the Body Snatchers is considered to be one of the most chilling sci fi movies ever made and spawned two remakes, a 1978 version with the same title and a 2007 film called The Invasion starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.