The Puppet Masters is a 1951
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
novel by
Robert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called "the dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of the genre. He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's...
in which American secret agents battle parasitic invaders from outer space. The novel was originally serialised in
Galaxy Science FictionGalaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was the creation of editor H. L...
(September, October, November 1951).
Thematically, the book evokes a sense of
paranoiaParanoia is a thought process heavily influenced by excessive anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. In the original Greek, παράνοια simply means madness...
later captured in the 1956 film
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which had a similar premise. Heinlein's novel also repeatedly makes explicit the analogy between the mind-controlling parasites and the Communist Russians, echoing the emerging
Red ScareMcCarthyism is the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence...
in the U.S.
Plot introduction
This novel is Heinlein's only foray into the "
alien invasionThe alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which an extraterrestrial society invades Earth with the intent to exterminate and replace human life , enslave it under a colonial system , to harvest humans for food , or sometimes to destroy the earth altogether .The...
" genre within
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
. His approach to the story is different from most preceding invasion stories. It does not present the "helpless humanity" angle typical of stories from
The War of the Worlds onwards, nor does it simply dress up conventional horror themes in the trappings of science fiction. While the invaders are horrifying enough, the focus of the plot is very much the practical business of, on the one hand, the aliens mounting the invasion, and on the other, the efforts of free humans to defeat it.
The setting is the early 21st century (the first scene is in 2007). There had been a
nuclear warNuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weapons are used. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare is vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
between the Soviet Union and the West which left both sides battered but unbroken, and following the hot war they just went back to the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
. The Soviet Union and China remain a single bloc dominated by Moscow, and the sharp Sino-Soviet breach of the late 1950s had not happened. (A casual reference to
KurdishKurdish is the language spoken by Kurds in western Asia. Unlike many other languages it does not have a single standardized linguistic entity with the status of an official or state language...
as one of the languages which an agent "behind the curtain" finds useful indicates that the Soviets have at some time taken over some Kurdish-speaking areas ).
Social customs have changed somewhat, in a way typical for Heinlein's fiction (i.e. having become more liberal, such as marriage contracts being possible with fixed terms etc.) and rayguns and personal flying cars are commonplace. Space stations exist and colonies have been established on the planet
VenusVenus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6...
.
Space technology is far more advanced than in the actual first decade of the 21st century. For example, in the last scene, a space warship is sent on a twelve-year trip to Titan, with not only life-support for a large crew but also enough armaments - presumably nuclear - to all by itself confront an entire world. However,
communications satelliteA communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications...
s have not been thought of, and TV broadcasts are still limited to line-of-sight, as they were at the time of writing.
This has a crucial importance for the plot. A big country like the United States is divided into numerous "blocks" which receive TV broadcasts from their neighbors and relay them onwards. When the invaders seize one of these "blocks", they effectively control all communications within it and can isolate its inhabitants from the outside world, deny the central government any access to them and consolidate control at their leisure.
The book was written when the wave of supposed
flying saucerFlying saucer is the name given to a type of unidentified flying object with a disc- or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either alone or in tight...
sightings was at its peak and getting enormous attention in the US media. The actual spaceship of the invaders is a "flying saucer'.
The term "puppet masters" of the title only occurs twice in the book itself, including the very last statement where the narrator writes: "Puppet masters - the free men are coming to kill you!
Plot summary
"Sam" is an agent in an intelligence organization within the United States government, so secret it reports only to the President, and is entirely unknown to anyone else. He is superbly trained, equipped with a built-in communicator he calls a "skull phone" as well as a number of ways to commit suicide if the need arises.
Called in by "the Old Man", his boss and the head of the organization, they go to investigate the report of a flying saucer landing in
Grinnell, IowaGrinnell is a city in Poweshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 9,105 at the 2000 census. Grinnell was named after Josiah Bushnell Grinnell and is the home of Grinnell College.- History :...
after several other agents fail to report back. With them is another agent named "Mary", a stunningly beautiful redhead. Sam is informed that her life is only slightly less precious than the Old Man's, and that he (Sam) is the most expendable.
In Iowa, they discover that the people are being brought under the mental control of repulsive, slug-like creatures that attach to their backs, just below the neck. Detaching one slug from its host, they seal it in a film canister and bring it back to headquarters in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
By the time they get there though, it is a stinking mess, and they are unable to convince the President that there is an invasion.
Sam eventually leads a small team back to Iowa. They inadvertently succeed in capturing a live slug, as one of their number becomes "hagridden" without them realizing it. However, Mary spots it when he does not react like a normal male to her beauty. The agent is unmasked, subdued and confined. The slug escapes by transferring to another person, and eventually to Sam himself. He immediately escapes.
Meanwhile, the invasion continues to expand. Slugs are shipped through the mail to recruit more humans. Gradually they infect more and more important people, especially the members of exclusive clubs frequented by politicians. Before the Old Man tracks Sam down and captures him, they have infected the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, whose department controls the
United States Secret ServiceThe United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that falls under the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
; the slugs are a step away from infecting the President himself.
By the time Sam recovers in hospital, anyone fully dressed is suspect. The Old Man wants someone to "wear" the slug so it can be interrogated. Sam cannot bear the idea, but when Mary volunteers, he gives in and does it himself. He is completely aware of himself when possessed, but totally committed to the slugs' cause. The slug dies under torture from electric shocks, but in the process Sam learns that they come from
TitanTitan , or Saturn VI, is the largest moon of Saturn, the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere,
and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found....
, the largest moon of
SaturnSaturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn, along with Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, is classified as a gas giant...
.
Thoroughly disgusted by the treatment he has received, Sam is ready to quit. He is at first furious with Mary for entrapping him, and then with the Old Man, when he learns that his boss tricked Mary into it. At this point, it is revealed that the Old Man is Sam's father.
Eventually the politicians realize the danger. From Minnesota to Louisiana, the center of the country has been taken over. On a solo mission to
Kansas CityKansas City is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. It is one of two county seats of Jackson County, the other being Independence, just to the city's east...
, Sam is shocked to discover that the number of slugs is much greater than thought. Instead of taking over key people, they have absorbed the entire human population of the occupied territory. However, he and the Old Man are unable to convince the President to stop a meticulously planned military counterinvasion of the heartland; the entire force is taken over by the enemy. They find that slugs are capable of
fissioningBinary fission, or prokaryotic fission, is the form of asexual reproduction and cell division used by all prokaryotic and some eukaryotic organisms...
in two fairly quickly. The number of infected humans must now be so large that any military action would kill tens of millions.
The problem having reached a scale beyond their ability to influence it, Sam and Mary are given leave. By this time, they have fallen in love and get married before going to Sam's bolt-hole in the
Adirondack MountainsThe Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
. Their idyll is interrupted when a slug takes over first his beloved pet cat, then Mary. Sam manages to push Mary onto a hot fire to kill the slug, leaving them both badly burned, but alive and free.
Returning to HQ for treatment, they find that a new law requires everyone to be functionally naked to show that a slug is not in control. The law is rigorously enforced not as much by police as by
vigilanteA vigilante is someone who unlawfully punishes a criminal, or participates in a mob or conspiracy to mete out unlawful punishment to a criminal or criminals....
s, who often shoot first and confirm afterward.
Sam begins to believe that the slugs have him marked for repossession. They can communicate by "direct conference", where their hosts sit back to back and the slugs partially merge. A network of such interactions could spread his description rapidly among the invaders, who knew how valuable he is. Some scientists even speculate that the slugs are really just one organism in many bodies.
For their part, the slugs drop all pretenses and openly wage war on the states to their east and west. Where human hosts cannot go, they use animals such as dogs, horses and even elephants.
Sam and Mary go with the Old Man to investigate a saucer which crash-landed in
MississippiMississippi is a state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi . The state is heavily forested outside of the...
. Inside they encounter the slugs' hosts from Titan, small elf-like creatures, who died when Earth's air entered the ship. There are also tanks containing humans in
suspended animationSuspended animation is the slowing of life processes by external means without termination. Breathing, heartbeat, and other involuntary functions may still occur, but they can only be detected by artificial means. Extreme cold can be used to precipitate the slowing of an individual's functions; use...
. Mary has a mental breakdown when she enters the ship. It triggers long-suppressed memories from when she was a child in a failed Venus colony which was taken over by slugs. She herself spent years in one of the tanks. Mary caught a disease which killed her slug.
They discover that the disease is "Nine-day Fever", which is almost 100% fatal if untreated. However, they find that it kills slugs faster than humans. It might just be possible to spread the fever among the slugs using "direct conference", and then treat as many humans as possible before they die.
The Old Man springs a surprise on Sam. He had expected Sam to replace him one day, and would show when he was ready by bucking the Old Man's authority. From now on, Sam is in charge, official titles notwithstanding.
Time is short – diseases erupt in the infected areas, as the slugs neglect hygiene and often drive their hosts until they starve. Outbreaks of plague in the Communist countries suggest that they were taken over even before the center of the United States.
The counterattack begins. Releasing animals with infected slugs into enemy territory, they wait for the epidemic to break out. Days pass, and then calls start coming in from desperate people whose slugs have died. Hundreds of thousands of agents, Sam and the Old Man among them, parachute in to treat victims with drug-dispensing guns. Just when the battle seems won, the Old Man is possessed by one of the few healthy slugs and kidnaps Sam, intending to take them both into hiding to regroup for a new invasion. Sam watches in horror as the Old Man's slug begins dividing so he too can be possessed. Despite being tied up, Sam is able to crash their flyer into the sea, killing the slug.
In the final section, Sam writes in a journal before embarking with Mary on a ship which will take the battle to Titan. The slugs will remain a problem for years to come, having infected too many parts of the Earth to root out easily, but they will never be able to take over.
Characters in The Puppet Masters
- Sam, born Elihu Nivens, is the classic Heinlein hero, multi-talented, independent, fiercely loyal to friends and an implacable enemy to foes. He is thirtyish, but has changed appearance so many times even he has doubts as to how he originally looked.
- Mary, born Allucquere in a religious commune on Venus, is Heinlein's classic heroine. She is tall, red-headed, hard-nosed and brilliant. Sam describes her as having the "real redheaded saurian bony structure to her skull". Her professional exterior conceals psychological scars from her encounter with the slugs as a child. Only the Old Man knows the truth about her, thanks to the deep hypnotic analysis that all agents have to undergo. (Academic theorist, artist, and performer Allucquere Rosanne Stone (born Zelig Ben-Natan) lived near the Heinleins at some point in the late 1960s and took the unusual name, but is rather evasive about the exact circumstances.)
- The Old Man, born Andrew Nivens, is the head of a top secret government agency that he wishes did not have to exist, doing his job reluctantly because nobody else would do it properly. He represents the third of Heinlein's favorite types of character, the "wise, grumpy old man". He is the first in the line that includes Jubal Harshaw
Jubal Harshaw is a fictional character featured in Stranger in a Strange Land, a novel by Robert A. Heinlein. He is described as: "Jubal E...
, Professor Bernardo de la Paz, Johann Sebastian Bach Smith, and the later life of Lazarus LongLazarus Long is a fictional character featured in a number of science fiction novels by Robert A. Heinlein. Born in 1912 in the third generation of a long-life selective breeding experiment run by the Ira Howard Foundation, Lazarus turns out to be unusually long-lived, living well over two...
. (Lazarus Long's grandfather, who has a major role in the later part of Time Enough for LoveTime Enough for Love is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published in 1973. The work was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1973 and both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1974.-Plot summary:...
, is particularly similar in character to "The Old Man".)
Alternate version
Heinlein's original version of the novel was 96,000 words, and was cut to about 60,000 words for both the 1951 book version and the serialization in
Galaxy. For the
Galaxy version, editor H.L. Gold also did extensive rewriting, to which Heinlein strenuously objected, with only partial success.
In 1990, two years after Heinlein's death, an expanded version was published with the consent of his widow,
Virginia HeinleinVirginia "Ginny" Heinlein , born Virginia Doris Gerstenfeld, was the third wife of Robert A. Heinlein, a prominent and successful author once known as one of the "Big Three" of science fiction .Born to George and Jeanne Gerstenfeld, Virginia was raised in Brooklyn and had one brother, Leon...
. This edition contained material that had been cut from the original published version, because the book was deemed to be too long and controversial for the market in 1951. The uncut version was more risqué in 1951 than it was nearly 40 years later. For example, in the uncut version the book begins with Sam waking up in bed with a blonde whom he had casually picked up the evening before, without even bothering to learn her name; the older version omitted all mention of her. The 1951 version does mention that men possessed by the invaders lost all sexual feeling - an essential element in the early parts of the plot; but the original publisher completely cut out a reference to the "puppet masters" later discovering human sexuality and embarking upon wild orgies, broadcast live on TV in the areas under their control.
An uncut version of
Stranger in a Strange LandStranger in a Strange Land is a best-selling 1961 Hugo Award-winning science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human raised by Martians on the planet Mars, upon his return to Earth in early adulthood. The novel explores his interaction with —...
was also released around the same time. Although ISBN numbers are not supposed to be reused for different editions, the publisher used ISBN 0345330145 for both a 1986 mass market paperback edition of the shortened version and the mass market paperback edition of the long version, which is the one presently in print.
The versions can be distinguished by the 1986 or 1990 date on the copyright page, and by text in the long version on page 1 reading "With the Soviets..."
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The Brain EatersThe Brain Eaters is a 1958 science fiction-horror film about alien parasites who invade the small Illinois town of Riverdale and are able to take over any living thing, mind and body, by attaching themselves to their host's back and inserting two mandibles into the base of their spines...
, a 1958 film directed by Bruno VeSota, bore a number of similarities to Heinlein's novel. Heinlein sued the producers for
plagiarismPlagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered...
. The case was settled out of court.
The theme of the novel is echoed in "Operation: Annihilate!", the last episode of the first season of
Star Trek: The Original SeriesStar Trek is a science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that aired from September 8, 1966 to September 2, 1969. Though the original series was titled simply Star Trek, it has acquired the retronym Star Trek: The Original Series to distinguish it from the spinoffs that...
in 1967.
The novel was adapted, with some plot and character changes, into the
screenplayA screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. A play for television is known as a teleplay.- Format and style :...
for a 1994
film of the same nameThe Puppet Masters is a 1994 science fiction film, adapted by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, and David S. Goyer from Robert A. Heinlein’s novel of the same title, in which a trio of American government agents attempts to thwart a covert invasion of Earth by mind-controlling alien parasites...
starring
Donald SutherlandDonald McNicol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian character actor with a film career spanning over 50 years. He is currently working in the American television series, Dirty Sexy Money. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, in...
. Although the film followed the story rather closely (except for references to Venus or Titan) it was not successful with either the critics or the public. (Sutherland also starred in the remade
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, another tale of aliens taking over humans.)
The 1998 film
The FacultyThe Faculty is a 1998 horror/science-fiction film, written by Kevin Williamson, writer of Scream and its sequel, and directed by Robert Rodriguez, director of Desperado and From Dusk till Dawn...
, directed by
Robert RodriguezRobert Anthony Rodríguez is an American filmmaker, writer, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He is perhaps best known for making profitable, crowd-pleasing independent and studio films with fairly low budgets and fast schedules by Hollywood standards. He shoots and produces many of...
from a Kevin Williamson screenplay, is about a fictional high school at which the faculty and staff become taken over by alien parasites. In the film one of the characters mumbles that
Jack FinneyJack Finney was an American author. His best-known works are science fiction and thrillers, including The Body Snatchers and Time and Again. The former was the basis for the 1956 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers and its remakes.-Biography:Finney was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and given the...
's novel
The Body SnatchersThe Body Snatchers is a 1955 science fiction novel by Jack Finney, originally serialized in Colliers Magazine in 1954, which describes a town in Marin County, California, being invaded by seeds that have drifted to Earth from space...
is "a blatant rip off" of Heinlein's novel. In turn, the film
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is based on that novel.
External links