Here's every ending of the many different versions of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers ranked worst to best. The Body Snatchers by author Jack Finney is a short but chilling novel about alien pods that come to Earth and have the ability to replicate and completely replace human hosts, though these doppelgangers lack empathy or emotion. This concept has proven insanely elastic, with the book having been adapted four times and inspiring countless other novels, movies and shows.

Don Siegel (Dirty Harry) helmed the first Invasion Of The Body Snatchers in 1956, which used the concept as a not too subtle metaphor for the Red Scare. It was remade by Philip Kaufman in 1978 with Donald Sutherland, with this take being arguably the most acclaimed. Body Snatchers from 1993 moved the action to an isolated military base, with director Abel Ferrara working form a screenplay co-written by Stuart Gordon. While it did little business its since become a cult favorite. The most recent take was 2007's The Invasion starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. The movie was originally filmed as a slow-burn psychological thriller but later underwent extensive reshoots and re-edits to add a car chase and more overt thrills.

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The original novel ended on a surprisingly upbeat note, but how do the different finales for the movie iterations of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers stack up?

Brooke Adams screaming in the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The Invasion (2007)

The Invasion is the weakest of the bunch, though it's not without totally without merit. The reshoots added a tacked-on ending where humanity discovers the invaders and works on a vaccine, and a year later life has essentially returned to normal.

The final scene is somewhat ironic as Kidman's heroine overhears news reports that humanity has also gone back to its violent ways, and not the harmony and peace promised by the invaders.

Body Snatchers (1993)

Body Snatchers ends with the two survivors commandeering an attack helicopter and destroying the pod people and their vehicles as they try to leave and infect the world. The movie ends with them landing at another base, though audio of Meg Tilly's duplicate telling the survivors earlier in the movie they can't go anywhere as there's no one like them left hints the invaders have already spread beyond the base.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956)

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers almost had a perfect ending, with Kevin McCarthy's hero - driven half-mad by fear and grief - escapes the pod town and screams warnings at motorists on a highway as trucks filled with alien seeds pass him and leave for other cities.

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Sadly, Siegel was forced to shoot a new prologue and epilogue where McCarthy relays his crazy tale to a doctor - only for the authorities to realize he's telling the truth, implying the world is saved, which undermines the power of the planned conclusion.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers 1978 doesn't just have the best ending of the lot, its arguably one of the most chilling horror denouements of all time. The last scene sees Donald Sutherland's hero going back to work in a world changed by the pod people, seemingly hiding his own humanity to fit in. He's then approached by Veronica Cartwright's other human survivor - only to point at her and emit the pod people's trademark shriek to alert the others.

Next: Every Invasion of the Body Snatchers Movie, Ranked Worst to Best