They Live (1988)

A drifter discovers a pair of sunglasses that allow him to wake up to the fact that aliens have taken over the Earth.

Director:

John Carpenter

Writers:

Ray Nelson (short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning"), John Carpenter (screenplay)

Stars:

Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Roddy Piper	...	Nada
Keith David	...	Frank
Meg Foster	...	Holly
George 'Buck' Flower	...	Drifter
Peter Jason	...	Gilbert
Raymond St. Jacques	...	Street Preacher
Jason Robards III	...	Family Man
John Lawrence	...	Bearded Man
Susan Barnes	...	Brown Haired Woman
Sy Richardson	...	Black Revolutionary
Wendy Brainard	...	Family Man's Daughter
Lucille Meredith	...	Female Interviewer
Susan Blanchard	...	Ingenue
Norman Alden	...	Foreman
Dana Bratton	...	Black Junkie

Storyline

Nada, a down-on-his-luck construction worker, discovers a pair of special sunglasses. Wearing them, he is able to see the world as it really is: people being bombarded by media and government with messages like "Stay Asleep", "No Imagination", "Submit to Authority". Even scarier is that he is able to see that some usually normal-looking people are in fact ugly aliens in charge of the massive campaign to keep humans subdued.

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Plot Keywords:

alien | sunglasses | construction worker | subliminal message | television | 

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Taglines:

You see them on the street. You watch them on TV. You might even vote for one this fall. You think they're people just like you. You're wrong. Dead wrong.

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Genres:

Action | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

JohnCarpenter - movie site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 November 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

John Carpenter's They Live

Filming Locations:

Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$4,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$13,008,928 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alive Films, Larry Franco Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Carpenter wanted a truly rugged individual to play Nada. He cast wrestler Roddy Piper in the lead role after seeing him in WrestleMania III. Carpenter remembered Keith David's performance in The Thing and wrote the role of Frank specifically for the actor.

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Goofs

As Nada sits in the car, his revolver changes color from chrome to black.

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Quotes

Nada: Put the glasses on! Put 'em on!

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Connections

Featured in Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

User Reviews

elite, parasitic subsociety exploits American working class--reflects real American society?

This movie is not so much about aliens who are hiding among us, but instead it taps into the deeply submerged suspicion held by most of us that we are being manipulated and taken advantage of by the elite of American society, by our leaders, by the rich, etc. Also, we sometimes feel that we are manipulated and programmed (in a subtle way) to respect hierarchical authority ( e.g., the "OBEY" subliminal command from the movie).

Some leftist thinkers might say that human societies are in a way being parasitized by the elite of their societies, and that the elite operate as a parasitic sub-society, living off of the lower classes. America might be said to be operated more in such a fashion (i.e., parasitized by the elite) than are the countries of western Europe. Obvious examples of this parasitic behavior are the "golden handshakes" and backscratching exchanged between corporate CEO's and the Boards of Directors of their companies. But it is far more pervasive than just that.

_They_Live_ uses the invisible alien elite as a proxy for our suspicions about how we are all being exploited by the elite of our real-life society, and how these elite are subtly programming us to accept this exploitation.

So, the major theme of the movie is not, as another poster correctly pointed out, about being manipulated to be good little consumers in a crassly commercial world. No, it is far more profound than that. Instead, it is more about how the working class Americans in _They Live_ are being exploited by the elite upper crust, who, in the movie, happen to be aliens, but who, in the real world, are a subsociety that use their collective power to exploit the rest of us.

Unfortunately, this movie sometimes has an unintentionally comic air to it. Still, the exploration of that theme is so rare in pop culture, and that theme is so profound, and reaches so far into what American society is, was, and is becoming, that this movie is a Must-See for anyone with an interest in politics and sociology.