Carol Bennell

Carol Bennell is the central character from the 2007 sci-fi film The Invasion. She was played by actress Nicole Kidman. The character is loosely based on Miles J. Bennell, originally played by Kevin McCarthy in the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as well as Matthew Bennell, played by Donald Sutherland, from the 1978 remake Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Biography
Carol Bennell was a psychiatrist operating out of the Washington, D.C. area. In 2007, she found that several of her patients, such as Wendy Lenk, had demonstrated symptoms of paranoia, claiming that their loved ones were not truly who they were supposed to be and were in fact someone else entirely. Along with her friend and love interest Ben Driscoll, Carol investigated the matter more closely and soon came to realize that this behavioral phenomenon was spreading across the country.

They discovered that an alien virus had come to Earth via the ruins of the crashed space shuttle Patriot and was being inadvertently transmitted by the CDC via the tainted debris. The virus became active in an infected person during REM sleep, reconfiguring their brain waves, in effect, turning them into imposters. Some people however, were immune to the disease; specifically, people who have suffered diseases that affect the makeup of the brain, such as encephalitis or ADEM. Fortunately, Carol's son Oliver was immune to the virus.

Carol's secretary was infected by the strain and tried to transmit it to her by way of a cup of tainted tea. Before Carol had the opportunity to drink the tainted tea however, she received a call from Ben Driscoll, requesting her presence. Carol met up with Ben and they observed a man named Yorish, who had become infected with the virus, but was still in a state of deep sleep. Carol attempted to take a photograph of him, but this only brought him out of his sleep state, causing him to go into cardiac arrest.

Carol then went to pick her son up from his father's house. His father, Tucker Kaufman, was not only one of the infected, but was also the man chiefly responsible for spreading the virus in the first place. Along with several of his colleagues, Tucker attempted to capture Carol, and transmitted the virus to her by spitting in her face. Carol escaped from him, but knew that she would soon become one of them after falling asleep. She went to the home of her friend Ludmilla Belicec. Ludmilla's husband Henyrk returned home and Carol found that he too was now one of the infected.

Carol ran away and tried to evade the infected by pretending to be one of them. She learned that so long as she did not demonstrate human emotion, she could effectively hide within plain sight. She received a text message from her son, telling her that he had been taken to his grandmother's house. Carol went to her mother-in-law's home and dined with his family while still pretending to be one of them. She found Oliver and ran off with him.

Carol knew that she would not be able to stay awake forever and before long, the virus would overtake her. To help stay awake, Carol and Oliver went to a pharmacy where she took an assortment of prescription amphetamines. Ben met up with them, but Carol found that he too had now been infected. Several more infected filed into the pharmacy, and Carol was forced to keep them at bay with a police issue sidearm (retrieved earlier from an infected officer). Ultimately she kills them all, but for Ben whom she shoots in the leg.

Eventually, Carol and Oliver reached a group of non-infected scientists who picked them up from a rooftop via helicopter. They were able to use Oliver's immunity to the virus to develop a vaccine. Once the vaccine became airborne, all those who were infected were cured. The infected awakened the next day with no memory of what had transpired. Carol resumed her relationship with Ben.