The Invasion 2007

An alien lifeform, much like a fungus or spore, clings to the space shuttle Patriot as it crashes back to Earth, spreading tainted debris from Texas to Washington, D.C. Curious onlookers steal, touch, and even sell the parts on eBay, much like what happened with the Columbia disaster. This in turn infects many people, robbing them of their emotions when they enter REM sleep. One of the first people infected is Tucker (Jeremy Northam), a CDC director investigating the crash. Once he is overcome by the alien, Tucker uses the CDC to spread the disease further, disguising the spores as flu inoculations. In a panic from a made-up "flu bug" people rush to get "inoculated", later becoming pod people when they sleep that night. Meanwhile, Tucker's ex-wife, psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman), knows something is amiss, and after locating several patients who say their loved ones are "impostors", teams up with love interest and fellow doctor Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig) to uncover what is really going on. With the help of Driscoll's friend Galeano (Jeffrey Wright), a biologist, they find out about the spore, and discover that it takes over the brain during REM sleep. They also find out that people who have suffered diseases that affect the makeup of the brain, such as syphilis or ADEM, are immune to the spore, because their previous diseases prevent the spore from "latching on" to the brain matter. Oliver, Carol's son, is immune to the spore because of scarlet fever-type symptoms he had as a young child. After evading the "pod people", hiding her emotions, and staying awake with great difficulty throughout the movie, Carol manages to get Oliver away from the infected, and to Galeano, who uses Oliver's blood to create a vaccine which is delivered airborne. Because the spore latches on to the brain during REM sleep, no one remembers a thing when they are cured, feeling as though they have woken from a dreamless nap. Driscoll becomes infected at one point, but is cured at the end of the movie. He was shot by Carol when he was infected, but survives. Both Ben and Carol are actually sympathetic towards the pod people and what they had to offer through a perfect world at the end of the movie, when they read the paper and see "business as usual" (other tragedies, war, violent news, etc.).