The pod people take over the mind of their victims at the moment that they are the most vulnerable and at a moment that they don’t realize they are being taken over, and then it’s too late. Communism was feared because of its rapid expansion tendencies and that Americans were being turned to communism without their own realization. Therefore, just as the townspeople were taken over by the pod people without realizing it the United States and Americans were being taken over by communism without realizing it. The fear of the actual expansion of communism can be seen in a scene near the end of the movie. Dr. Miles Bennell escapes from the small town of pod people and runs into the busy highway attempting to get someone’s attention and as he jumps onto the back of a truck that appears to be transporting crops of some sort it is revealed that the truck is transporting the pods into the city. So, even though the threat of the small town didn’t affect the “outside world” it soon would. This was the exact fear that people had of communism. Assuming the film is a commentary on communism the characteristics of the pod people can be equated to the