  the pod people (original title los nuevos extraterrestres, literally the new extraterrestrials) is a 1983 spanish science fiction film directed by juan piquer simÃ³n. a young boy discovers a lovable alien creature, but the alien's mother is on the prowl. the film's original draft was meant to be a straightforward horror film about an evil alien on a murderous rampage, but the producers demanded script alterations in order to cash in on the success of steven spielberg's e.t. the extra-terrestrial by featuring a child and cute, lovable alien. director juan piquer simÃ³n was dissatisfied with the final result. the film was largely forgotten until 1991, when it was lampooned by the famed b-movie-mocking television show mystery science theater 3000. ==plot== the film starts with three poachers going into the woods to hunt. one of them sees what he thinks is a meteor land and goes to investigate. he finds a red glowing cave with a stash of large eggs. he decides to smash them, but is killed by an unseen entity before he can finish, which leaves one egg left intact. the mysterious being takes revenge for the destruction, first killing the other hunters and then going after members of a rock band led by rick (ian sera), who are on a weekend camping trip. this band is accompanied by laura, a girl who rick met and told about the weekend's plans, not expecting her to want to come along. sharon, a member of the band, is jealous of laura, as she (sharon) is rick's girlfriend. cathy and tracy are also band members. tommy (Ãscar martÃ­n) is a young boy living in a secluded house with his mother molly (concha cuetos) and his short-tempered uncle bill (manuel pereiro). he also finds the cave, and brings the remaining egg home where it hatches. the creature from the egg grows rapidly overnight until it is as large as tommy. tommy nicknames it "trumpy" because he has a short, trumpet-like trunk. tommy and trumpy quickly become playmates. at one point, tommy asks trumpy where he is from. trumpy indicates a star map, which for some reason features the big dipper prominently. it also becomes clear that trumpy has developed telekinetic powers around this time, as it flings various objects around tommy's room. while
1980s_science_fiction_films 1983_films Films_featured_in_Mystery_Science_Theater_3000_episodes Films_set_in_the_United_States Films_shot_in_Madrid Spanish-language_films Spanish_films Spanish_science_fiction_films