They Live (1988)

They Live is a 1988 American Science Fiction-Horror film directed by John Carpenter and stars Roddy Piper as the protagonist of the movie.

Plot
A drifter called Nada arrives in Los Angeles. While out on the street, he sees a street preacher warning that “they” have recruited the rich and powerful to control humanity. Nada takes a job on a construction site and befriends a fellow construction worker called Frank, who leads him to a shanty town soup kitchen and its leader, Gilbert.

That night, a hacker takes over television broadcasts, claiming that scientists had discovered signals that were enslaving the population and keeping them in a dream-like state, and that the only way to stop it is to shut off the signal at its source. Those watching the broadcast complain of headaches.

Nada secretly follows Gilbert and the street preacher into a nearby church, and discovers them meeting with a group that includes the hacker. He sees scientific equipment and cardboard boxes inside, and hears Gilbert worrying that the Hoffman lenses they made won’t be enough without "strong people" to help them. Nada is discovered by the blind preacher and escapes.

That night, the shantytown and church are destroyed in a police raid, and the hacker and preacher are surrounded and beaten by riot police. Nada watches it happen and does not like it. It also makes him extremely curious about what they were talking about. The following day, Nada retrieves one of the boxes from the church he knew were hidden there and hides them in a trash can. After that he decides to take one of these sunglassse and puts them on.

After putting them on, Nada discovers that the sunglasses make the world appear black and white, but they also reveal subliminal messages in the media everywhere to obey, consume, reproduce, and conform. The glasses also reveal that many people are actually aliens with skull-like faces. They try to bribe him, but he refuses and rebels and they begin to hunt him.

When he shows them to Frank, he joins him in his rebellion. Being hunted, they begin to investigate the world as it really is. They discover that everyhing is true, and that many humans know about it, but also play along with it for power and money. In time they join the resistance, who give them contact lenses instead of the sunglasses in order to fit more into the crowd. They learn there, that the alien have created this brainwashed world in order to exploit it for their gains.

Shortly after that the resistance is found by the police and wiped out. Frank and Nada survive the deadly raid, casually find the place where the signal is sent that is brainwashing the people and which is heavily guarded and decide to destroy the antenna there that sends the signal. They die in the attempt, but not before Nada is able to destroy the antenna that sends the signal, which he can also see with satisfaction before his death.

After that everyone begins to see the world as it really is and chaos begins to appear.

Cast

 * Roddy Piper as John 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

Production
The idea for They Live came from a short story called "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson, originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in November 1963. 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 while also showing his growing distaste with the ever-increasing commercialization of 1980s popular culture and politics.

The casting happened very fast and the filming of the movie happned in Los Angeles and lasted for nearly 8 weeks. It was filmed between March and April 1988 in different locations there. In some places, however, it was not safe to film, so the crew paid money to some gangs there in order to avoid problems and film in peace.

Reception
The film was a minor success at the time of its release and, although it was still a financial success in the end with having earned 13 million dollars, its earnings were still far behind the expectations at that time.

It originally received negative reviews criticizing its social commentary, writing and acting. However, like other films of Carpenter, it later enjoyed a cult following to the extent of even being mentioned in videogames and songs and, eventually, also became recognized as a largely underrated work.