No livro de Jack Finney , os corpos originais se decompõem em seus átomos compostos à medida que o casulo duplica ligações atômicas.
Capítulo 16:
“Yes, Doctor Bennell, your body contains a pattern, all living matter does—it is the very foundation of cellular life. Because it is composed of the tiny electrical force-lines that hold together the very atoms that constitute your being. And therefore it is a pattern—infinitely more perfect and detailed than any blueprint could be—of the precise atomic constitution of your body at exactly that moment, altering with every breath you take, and with every second of time in which your body infinitesimally changes. And it is during sleep, incidentally, when that change occurs least; and during sleep when the pattern can be taken from you, absorbed like static electricity, from one body to another.”
Again he nodded. “So it can happen, Doctor Bennell, and rather easily; the intricate pattern of electrical forcelines that knit together every atom of your body to form and constitute every last cell of it—can be slowly transferred. And then, since every kind of atom in the universe is identical—the building blocks of the universe—you are precisely duplicated, atom for atom, molecule for molecule, cell for cell, down to the tiniest scar or hair on your wrist. And what happens to the original? The atoms that formerly composed you are—static now, nothing, a pile of grey fluff. It can happen, does happen, and you know that it has happened; and yet you will not accept it.” He watched me for a moment, then smiled. “Though perhaps I’m wrong about that; I think maybe you have accepted it.”
O filme de 1956 tem os corpos originais (ou as duplicatas, se o processo foi interrompido) simplesmente desapareceu. O filme de 1978 mostra as pessoas recém-criadas limpando pilhas de poeira, e os corpos originais quebrando enquanto a duplicação é concluída, mas não é realmente explicada.