ABOUT PLOT

“I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum.” 

Based on Ray Nelson's 1963 short story "Eight O’Clock in the Morning." John Carpenters 1988 film sees a drifter (WWE Wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper) discover a pair of special sunglasses. Wearing them, he is able to see the world as it really is: people being bombarded by the media and government with messages like "Stay Asleep", "No Imagination", "Submit to Authority". Scarier still is that he is able to see that some usually normal looking people are in fact gruesome aliens in charge of a massive campaign to keep humans subdued. 

POLITICAL

Part science fiction thriller and part dark comedy, the film echoed contemporary fears of a declining economy, within a culture of greed common among Americans in the 1980s. In They Live, the ruling class within the monied elite are in fact aliens managing human social affairs through the use of a signal on top of the TV broadcast that is putting subliminal messages in mass media and concealing their appearance .

Carpenter’s left leaning film from the Regan era is a satire of advertising and consumerism under late capitalism. Carpenter himself is quoted as saying “I don’t think anybody realized we were releasing They Live so close to Election Day in 1988. It just shows you how dumb I am.” 

KICK ASS

Political subtext aside one of the scenes the film is best remembered for is the 5 minute and 20 second fight scene between Nada (Roddy Piper) and Frank (Keith David). The fight was only supposed to last 20 seconds, but Piper and David decided to fight it out for real, only faking the hits to the face and groin. They rehearsed the fight for three weeks. Carpenter was so impressed he kept the whole scene intact. It has gone on to become the longest fight scene ever committed to film.

REVIEWS

“Conceived on 1950s B-movie sci-fi terms, They Live is a fantastically subversive film, a nifty little confection pitting us vs them, the haves vs the have-nots.”

Review from VARIETY

 "Carpenter creates an effectively nightmarish vision with an intelligent subtext, all generously peppered with humour, fist flying action and kick ass bravado. They Live is thought provoking while maintaining its B movie credentials."

Review from FILM 4

“In ‘They Live’ it’s not about who wins; it’s about how much can people hurt each other.”

A great article from TIMEOUT where Daren Aronofsky talks about fight films that influenced The Wrestler.

 "Ultimately, They Live is a film about two ways of seeing contenting oneself with surface appearances ('taking the blue pill as', as the Wachowskis would call it two decades later) or daring to look at what lies beneath."

Scott Foundas, VARIETY