The Puppet Masters

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Image:Puppet masters.JPG In 1951, Robert A. Heinlein published a science fiction novel, The Puppet Masters, in which American secret agents battle parasitic invaders from outer space.

Thematically, the book evokes a sense of paranoia later captured in the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which had a similar premise. Heinlein's novel repeatedly makes explicit the analogy between the mind-controlling parasites and the Communist Russians, echoing the emerging Red Scare in the U.S.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Opening plot
2 Closing scene
3 Alternate version
4 Cinematic adaptations
5 External links

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Opening plot

The story is set 50 years after the date of writing: America and the Soviet Union have had a very limited nuclear war which resulted in a draw and a resumption of the Cold War.

The narrator, an agent of a top-secret defense intelligence group referred to only as "The Section", wakes up to the jarring alarm of his skull phone. "Sam" - he later tells us his real name is Elihu Nivens, although that may not be true - is ordered to report to his agency's head. The director is known for most of the book as "the Old Man". We are later told that he is in fact Sam's father, and is that his name is Andrew Nivens, although again, that may not be true either.

Sam is required to meet with the Old Man personally, as he is required to deal with an emergency. An unknown space ship has landed in Grinnell, Iowa. The Section has sent in several agents, but none have come back. Only a single report has been received, and that one is a fragment due to the signal cutting out: "They are little creatures, about --". News reports from the location about the landing later stop for a short while, then resume with a new slant: the whole thing is a hoax. However, the Old Man is suspicious of the break in reports, and decides to risk the entire Section by going out in the field himself. Sam is ordered to come along, as is "Mary", a female agent Sam hasn't met before. The Old Man tells Sam and Mary to put on a brother and sister act; Sam plays the slower of two not-too-bright country bumpkins out seeing the sights with an elderly relative.

They begin to encounter abnormally round-shouldered people, and Mary notices that the men aren't sexually attracted to her. When the three investigate the local news station, they discover that the station manager - whose behavior towards Mary is similar to those of the others - has a slug-like parasite living on his shoulders. Putting two and two together, the protagonists realize that there are many slugs, that they have come from the saucer, and that they are taking over the brains and nervous systems of earthlings in order to control them like puppet masters controlling marionettes.

Sam and the Old Man try vainly to convince the President of the United States about the menace but are dismissed. "Don't worry, the republic won't fall apart." So Sam forces his way into a TV executive's office intending to capture a parasite on live video (the author imagined many innovative futuristic gadgets for the story, but the portable VCR was not one of them) but a blown tube ruins the shot, and the President tells the Old Man to fire Sam. Sam heads off to his vacation cottage in New Hampshire with Mary: realizing their time may be very short, the agents decide to get married.

Meanwhile, the invaders are multiplying, and no one will believe it. But Sam gets an idea on how to secure convincing proof....

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Closing scene

During the novel, we learn that the alien spaceships came from Titan where they had enslaved a native biped with somewhat elven characteristics. The conclusion is aboard the military spaceship Avenger just starting out on a 12 year voyage to Titan. Evoking Heinlein's subsequent Starship Troopers, Sam is

… a combat trooper, as is every one of us, from chaplain to cook…

and closes with this stirring, jingoistic declaration:

Puppet masters -- the free men are coming to kill you!

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Alternate version

In 1990, two years after Heinlein's death, an expanded version was published with the consent of his widow, Virginia Heinlein. This edition contained material that had been cut from the original published version, because the book was deemed to be too long for the market in 1951.

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Cinematic adaptations

The Brain Eaters, a 1958 film directed by Bruno VeSota, bore a number of similarities to Heinlein's novel. Heinlein sued the producers for plagiarism. The case was settled out of court.

The novel was adapted, with some plot and character changes, into the screenplay for a 1994 film of the same name starring Donald Sutherland. The film was not successful with either the critics or the public.

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