They Live

They Live is a 1988 American science fiction action

horror film[b] written and directed by John Carpenter, They Live
based on the 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the
Morning" by Ray Nelson. Starring Roddy Piper, Keith
David, and Meg Foster, the film follows a drifter[c]
who discovers through special sunglasses that the
ruling class are aliens concealing their appearance and
manipulating people to consume, breed, and conform
to the status quo via subliminal messages in mass
media.

Having acquired the film rights to the Nelson-penned

short story prior to the production of They Live,
Carpenter used the story as the basis for the
screenplay's structure, which he wrote under the
pseudonym "Frank Armitage". Carpenter has stated
that the themes of They Live stemmed from his
dissatisfaction with the economic policies of then-U.S.
President Ronald Reagan, as well as what Carpenter
saw as increasing commercialization in both popular Theatrical release poster
culture and politics.[8] Directed by John Carpenter

They Live was a minor success upon release, debuting Screenplay by John Carpenter[a]
at number 1 at the North American box office. It Based on "Eight O'Clock in the
initially received negative reviews from critics, who Morning"
lambasted its social commentary, writing, and acting; by Ray Nelson
however, it later gained a cult following and Produced by Larry Franco
experienced a significantly more favorable critical Starring Roddy Piper
reception. It is now regarded by many as one of
Keith David
Carpenter's best films.[9][2] The film has also entered
the pop culture lexicon, notably having a lasting effect Meg Foster
on street art (particularly that of Shepard Fairey). Cinematography Gary B. Kibbe
Edited by Gib Jaffe
Frank E. Jimenez
Plot
Music by John Carpenter
Nada, a homeless man, comes to Los Angeles, Alan Howarth
California in pursuit of a job, where he spots a
Production Alive Films
preacher warning that "they" have recruited the rich companies
and powerful to control humanity. He finds Larry Franco Productions
employment at a construction site and befriends his Distributed by Universal Pictures (North
coworker Frank, who invites him to live in a America)
shantytown near a church, where he meets their Carolco Pictures
community leader, Gilbert. (International)

A hacker takes over TV broadcasts, alerting that Release date November 4, 1988
humanity is "their cattle" and the only way to unfold Running time 94 minutes
the truth is to shut off the signal at its source. Those
Country United States
watching the broadcast complain of headaches. Nada
follows Gilbert and the preacher into the church, Language English
discovering a recording of gospel music playing that Budget $3 million
unbeknownst to Nada obscures a meeting with a group Box office $13.4 million (North
including the hacker. Nada also uncovers equipment America)[1]
and boxes inside but escapes when he bumps into the
preacher. The shantytown and church are destroyed in a police raid, and the hacker and preacher are
brutalized by law enforcement officers.

Nada retrieves one of the boxes from the church and takes a pair of sunglasses from it, concealing the box
in a trash pile. He finds out that they make the world appear monochrome and reveal subliminal messages
in the media to consume and conform. They also disclose that many people are ghoulish, bug-eyed aliens
hiding under human facades. Additionally, the creatures have wristwatch communicators that allow them
to teleport, along with surveillance drones. When aliens at a supermarket realize that Nada can detect
them, he is confronted by two alien police officers. He kills them, steals their guns, and enters a bank,
where he sees that multiple employees and customers are aliens. He kills several and escapes by taking a
human, Holly Thompson, hostage. Nada attempts to persuade her to put on the glasses, but she throws
him out of a window.

While Nada retrieves another pair of sunglasses from the trash pile, Frank comes to give him his
paycheck and orders him to stay away following Nada's killing spree becoming widespread news.
Realizing that Frank is not one of the aliens, Nada places the glasses on Frank, who sees the aliens for
himself and goes into hiding with Nada. The two run into Gilbert, who introduces them to the human
resistance. They are given contact lenses to replace the sunglasses and learn about the aliens using global
warming to make Earth's atmosphere similar to their homeworld while depleting its resources for their
own gain. They also learn that the aliens have been bribing human collaborators in exchange for wealth.
Holly joins the meeting, bringing information about where the signal may be coming from. Soon
afterwards, the meeting is raided by police, with the majority of those present killed and the survivors
scattered. Nada and Frank are cornered in an alley, but Frank activates an alien wristwatch, opening a
portal to the alien's spaceport on Earth under Cable 54, an alien-run news network.

Coming across a meeting of aliens and collaborators celebrating the defeat of the human resistance, they
are approached by a drifter from the shantytown, now a collaborator. Mistaking them for new recruits, he
gives the pair a tour of the facility, where the aliens broadcast a signal that prevents humans from
identifying them and their hidden messages. Nada and Frank locate Holly and fight their way to the
transmitter on the roof, but Holly, herself a collaborator responsible for the raid, murders Frank. Nada
kills Holly and destroys the transmitter but is mortally wounded by a police helicopter. With the signal
shut down, he gives them the middle finger as he dies.

Meanwhile, humans all over the world discover aliens hiding among them.
Cast
Roddy Piper as Nada
Keith David as Frank Armitage
Meg Foster as Holly Thompson
Raymond St. Jacques as Street Preacher
George Buck Flower as Drifter / Collaborator
Peter Jason as Gilbert
Sy Richardson as Black Revolutionary
Susan Blanchard as Ingenue
Norman Alden as Construction Foreman
Kerry Rossall as 2nd Unit Guard

Themes
Carpenter has said that the film's political commentary derives from his dissatisfaction with then–U.S.
President Ronald Reagan's economic policies—also known as Reaganomics—and what Carpenter
viewed as increasing commercialization in both the popular culture and politics of the era.[8]

In an interview given around the time of the film's release, Carpenter remarked, "The picture's premise is
that the 'Reagan Revolution' is run by aliens from another galaxy. Free enterprisers from outer space have
taken over the world, and are exploiting Earth as if it's a third world planet. As soon as they exhaust all
our resources, they'll move on to another world...I began watching TV again. I quickly realized that
everything we see is designed to sell us something.... It's all about wanting us to buy something. The only
thing they want to do is take our money." To this end, Carpenter thought of sunglasses as being the tool to
seeing the truth, which "is seen in black and white. It's as if the aliens have colonized us. That means, of
course, that Ted Turner is really a monster from outer space."[d] The director commented on the alien
threat in an interview: "They want to own all our businesses. A Universal executive asked me, 'Where's
the threat in that? We all sell out every day.' I ended up using that line in the film." The aliens were
deliberately made to look like ghouls, according to Carpenter, who said "The creatures are corrupting us,
so they, themselves, are corruptions of human beings."[10]

In another interview, Carpenter clarified that his criticisms of society and the film business contained in
the film were not entirely serious. He stated in American Cinematographer, "I've made a lot of money in
the film business the way it is run today, and I am a complete capitalist. I'm just advocating a little
humanity in the world. In order to do that, you have to go strong in the other direction, be a little
outrageous. It’s fun to attack the status quo."[11]

In 2017, in response to neo-Nazi interpretations of the film's themes, Carpenter further clarified that the
film "is about yuppies and unrestrained capitalism" and "has nothing to do with Jewish control of the
world".[e]
Production

Development
The idea for They Live came from a short story called "Eight O'Clock in the Morning"[18] by Ray Nelson,
originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in November 1963, involving a
protagonist, George Nada, and an alien invasion in the tradition of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which
Nelson, along with artist Bill Wray, adapted into a story called "Nada" published in the Alien Encounters
comics anthology in April 1986.[10] John Carpenter describes Nelson's story as "... a D.O.A.-type of story,
in which a man is put in a trance by a stage hypnotist. When he awakens, he realizes that the entire
human race has been hypnotized, and that alien creatures are controlling humanity. He has only until
eight o'clock in the morning to solve the problem."[10] Carpenter acquired the film rights to both the
comic book and short story and wrote the screenplay, using Nelson's story as a basis for the film's
structure.

Because the screenplay was the product of so many sources—a short story, a comic book, and input from
cast and crew—Carpenter decided to use the pseudonym "Frank Armitage", an allusion to one of the
filmmaker's favorite writers, H. P. Lovecraft (Henry Armitage is a character in Lovecraft's The Dunwich
Horror).[10] Carpenter has always felt a close kinship with Lovecraft's worldview, and according to the
director "Lovecraft wrote about the hidden world, the 'world underneath'. His stories were about gods
who are repressed, who were once on Earth and are now coming back. The world underneath has a great
deal to do with They Live."[10]

Casting
For the role of Nadal, Kurt Russell was the first choice, but he was involved in the movie Tequila Sunrise
of the same year. The filmmaker cast professional wrestler Roddy Piper, whom he had met at
WrestleMania III earlier in 1987. For Carpenter, it was an easy choice: "Unlike most Hollywood actors,
Roddy has life written all over him."[10] Carpenter was impressed with Keith David's performance in The
Thing and needed someone "who wouldn't be a traditional sidekick but could hold his own."[10] To this
end, Carpenter wrote the role of Frank specifically for David.

Filming
They Live was shot in eight weeks during March and April 1988, principally on location in downtown Los
Angeles, with a budget only slightly greater than $3 million.[10] One of the highlights of the film is a five-
and-a-half-minute alley fight between Nada and Frank over a pair of the special sunglasses. Carpenter
recalls that the fight took three weeks to rehearse: "It was an incredibly brutal and funny fight, along the
lines of the slugfest between John Wayne and Victor McLaglen in The Quiet Man."[10]

Music
Music for the film was composed by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth.[19]
Release
They Live was theatrically released in North America on November 4, 1988, and debuted at #1 at the box
office, grossing $4.8 million during its opening weekend.[1][20] The film spent two weeks in the top
ten.[21] The film's original release date, advertised in promotional material as October 21, 1988, had been
pushed back two weeks to avoid direct competition with Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.

Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 75
reviews, and an average rating of 7.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A politically
subversive blend of horror and sci fi, They Live is an underrated genre film from John Carpenter."[7]
Metacritic gives the film a weighted average rating of 55 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, indicating
"mixed or average reviews".[22]

In his review for the Chicago Reader, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote, "Carpenter's wit and storytelling craft
make this fun and watchable, although the script takes a number of unfortunate shortcuts, and the
possibilities inherent in the movie's central concept are explored only cursorily."[23] Jay Carr, writing for
The Boston Globe, said "[o]nce Carpenter delivers his throwback-to-the-'50s visuals, complete with
plump little B-movie flying saucers, and makes his point that the rich are fascist fiends, They Live starts
running low on imagination and inventiveness", but felt that "as sci-fi horror comedy, They Live, with its
wake-up call to the world, is in a class with Terminator and RoboCop, even though its hero doesn't sport
bionic biceps".[6]

In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "Since Mr. Carpenter seems to be trying to
make a real point here, the flatness of They Live is doubly disappointing. So is its crazy inconsistency,
since the film stops trying to abide even by its own game plan after a while."[24] Richard Harrington
wrote in The Washington Post, "it's just John Carpenter as usual, trying to dig deep with a toy shovel. The
plot for They Live is full of black holes, the acting is wretched, the effects are second-rate. In fact, the
whole thing is so preposterous it makes V look like Masterpiece Theatre."[25] Rick Groen, in The Globe
and Mail, wrote, "the movie never gets beyond the pop Orwell premise. The social commentary wipes
clean with a dry towelette – it's not intrusive and not pedantic, just lighter-than-air."[26]

The 2012 documentary film The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, presented by the Slovene philosopher and
psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek, begins with an analysis of They Live. Žižek uses the film's concept of
wearing special sunglasses that reveal truth to explain his definition of ideology. Žižek states:

They Live is definitely one of the forgotten masterpieces of the Hollywood Left. … The
sunglasses function like a critique of ideology. They allow you to see the real message beneath
all the propaganda, glitz, posters and so on. … When you put the sunglasses on, you see the
dictatorship in democracy, the invisible order which sustains your apparent freedom.[27]
Legacy
They Live was ranked #18 on Entertainment Weekly magazine's "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field
Movie Hits Since '83" list in 2008.[28]

Rotten Tomatoes ranked the fight scene between Roddy Piper's character Nada and Keith David's
character Frank Armitage seventh on their list of "The 20 Greatest Fight Scenes Ever".[29] The fight scene
influenced the 2008 film The Wrestler, whose director, Darren Aronofsky, interpreted the scene as a
spoof.[30] The fight scene was parodied by the TV show South Park in the episode "Cripple Fight".
Shepard Fairey credits the film as a major source of inspiration, sharing a similar logo to his Andre the
Giant Has a Posse campaign. "They Live was...the basis for my use of the word 'obey'", Fairey said. "The
movie has a very strong message about the power of commercialism and the way that people are
manipulated by advertising".[31]

The 1991 video game The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants features a reference to the movie, with
Bart using special sunglasses to see a group of aliens who have invaded Springfield.[32]

Novelist Jonathan Lethem called They Live one of his "favorite movies of the eighties, hands down". He
said, "It's a great movie...Look at what it does to people, look at how it emboldens and provokes...It's
disturbing and ridiculous and outrageous and uncomfortable, but I think it's the kind of great movie that
doesn't really need defense, it just needs to be given the air". Lethem wrote a book-length homage to the
movie for the Soft Skull Press Deep Focus series.[33]

The 2013 video game Saints Row IV features an extended parody of the film with Roddy Piper and Keith
David voicing fictionalized versions of themselves in a recreation of the fight scene between Nada and
Armitage.[34]

Rock band Green Day paid homage to They Live in their music video for "Back in the USA" from the
album Greatest Hits: God's Favorite Band.[35] Similarly, punk band Anti-Flag used the film as inspiration
for the music video for their song "The Disease". David Banner and 9th Wonder also used the film as the
influence behind their 2010 video for "Slow Down".[36]

Minnesota-based alternative hip-hop artist P.O.S. used scenes from the film interspersed with clips of
himself for the song "Roddy Piper" from his 2017 album Chill, Dummy.

In July 2018, the film was selected to be screened in the Venice Classics section at the 75th Venice
International Film Festival.[37]

The film is noted for a popularly quoted line spoken by Nada: "I have come here to chew bubblegum and
kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum".[38] The line, described as the film's most famous, was
improvised by Piper on set; Similar verbiage had been employed by the 1973 film Five on the Black
Hand Side where a character proclaims "I ain't giving up nothing but bubblegum and hard times, and I'm
fresh out of bubblegum."[39][40]

The main character Duke Nukem in the video game Duke Nukem 3D was made to be a mix of 80's and
90's action film stars, including Roddy Piper, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Kurt Russell, and
Bruce Campbell. His look was partially based on Nada's appearance, sporting similar sunglasses and
quoting many lines from the film.
Home media
They Live was released on VHS by MCA Home Video in 1989.[41][42] It was later released on DVD by
Universal Home Entertainment on October 17, 2000.[43]

On March 2, 2012, the film was released on Blu-ray by StudioCanal.[44] On November 6, 2012, Shout!
Factory released a "Collector's Edition" of the film on both DVD and Blu-ray.[45]

In 2014, Universal Pictures released They Live on DVD along with The Thing, Village of the Damned,
and Virus as part of the 4 Movie Midnight Marathon Pack: Aliens.[46]

On January 19, 2021, Shout! Factory released the "Collector's Edition" of the film on 4K Ultra HD Blu-
ray.[47][48]

Awards and honors

Award Category Subject Result

Fantasporto International Fantasy Film
Best Film John Carpenter Nominated
Award

Best Science Fiction

They Live Nominated
Film
Saturn Award
John Carpenter and Alan
Best Music Nominated
Howarth

Future
In 1996, while promoting Escape from L.A., Carpenter revealed that he'd always wanted to make a sequel
to They Live as it's one of his favorite films, but was never able to get interest or financial backing for the
project.[49]

In 2010, a remake movie was stated as being in development with Carpenter in a producing role. In 2011,
Matt Reeves signed on to direct and write the screenplay. The project eventually shifted away from being
a direct remake of They Live, to a re-adaptation of "8 O'Clock in the Morning" with intents of abandoning
the satirical and political elements of the original movie.[50] By October 2023, producer Sandy King
stated that a modern audience could see similarities with events of the movie going on in a real-world
context, while stating that an expansion from They Live would be announced shortly; while
acknowledging the possibility of a sequel becoming a reality.[51]

See also
List of cult films

Notes
a. For the screenplay, Carpenter was credited by the pseudonym "Frank Armitage".
 b. Attributed to multiple references:[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
c. The character is referred to as "Nada" in the film's credits, which is Spanish for "Nothing"; in
the original short story, the name of the character is George Nada. "Nada" is also the name
of a short comic book published in Alien Encounters in 1986, which was adapted from the
same short story as They Live.
d. Turner had received some bad press in the 1980s for colorizing classic black-and-white
movies.
e. Attributed to multiple references:[12][13][14][15][16][17]

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Further reading
Wilson, D. Harlan (2015). They Live. New York: Wallflower Press. ISBN 978-0-231-85074-2.
OCLC 894509133 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/894509133).
External links
They Live (http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/they-live/) at John Carpenter's official
movie site
They Live (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096256/) at IMDb
They Live (https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/20304/enwp) at the TCM Movie Database
They Live (https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/67101) at the AFI Catalog of Feature
Films
They Live (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/they_live) at Rotten Tomatoes

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