You're Not A Sci-Fi Fan If You Haven't Seen Leonard Nimoy's '70s Classic On HBO Max

When most people think of Leonard Nimoy, they're most likely to conjure up the mental image of Mr. Spock, his beloved "Star Trek" character — even though he very nearly quit that role over an iconic detail. But while Mr. Spock is undoubtedly Nimoy's most famous role, it's not the only classic he's been a part of. In addition to starring in the original "Mission: Impossible" TV show and hosting the documentary series "In Search Of," Nimoy also had a starring role in the classic 1978 sci-fi thriller, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." The good news is that it's now streaming on HBO Max.

"Body Snatchers" is based on a novel by Jack Finney, and it's been adapted several times, including 2007's "The Invasion," one of the worst sci-fi remakes of all time. The '78 version, however, is a sci-fi classic, and stars a epic set of actors: Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum, and "Alien" star Veronica Cartwright. 

The film tells the story of a menace that comes to Earth and replaces humans with alien duplicates. Nimoy plays a psychologist who first hears of the conspiracy (not that he believes it) after being consulted by the wife of a man who isn't acting like himself. It's now considered among the best sci-fi movies of the decade, right up there with "Star Wars" and Nimoy's own "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." 

If you're not familiar with the film, then fire up HBO Max and press play on "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." No true sci-fi fan can go without seeing it. It's a seminal work in the genre, and it reshaped alien invasion movies forever.

For all of its sci-fi terror, with alien pod people killing and replacing humans with diabolical doppelgängers, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" isn't just about an alien invasion. Like the book on which it's based, the story is an allegory for how paranoia over an outside element can spread like a virus and corrupt entire populations — even in the face of the truth. "It's as valid now as it was then, maybe more so," Kaufman said in 2018 in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. The social commentary present in the original film always struck him, he told the outlet, and he felt that the story was ripe for revisiting decades later as the political climate had changed.

"I thought, 'Well, this doesn't have to be a remake as such. It can be a new envisioning that was a variation on a theme,'" Kaufman said. Beyond just making the movie again in color, the director wanted to use the opportunity to give the cast of characters more depth, while moving the action from a small town to a big city offered the chance to explore the movie's darker themes even more. "By the time we were making the film, paranoia had certainly gravitated to the big cities where it probably lurks now more than ever."

On the characters, Kaufman points to the film's trio of leads — Sutherland, Goldblum, and Nimoy — who watch as people around them slowly lose their souls. "It's the loss of humanity that is scary, not just the fact that they're beset upon by monsters or the monster within."