W. D. Richter (later to direct Goldblum in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai) adapted and updated Jack Finney’s novel, and Kaufman acknowledged the classic 1956 film version while doubling down on dark humor and disturbing shocks. As extraterrestrial life forms replace San Francisco denizens with identical pod people, Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams probe the infestation while poet/spa proprietor Goldblum and wife Veronica Cartwright try not to crack under the pressure.