They Live
Short description
John Nada, a drifter looking for work, finds construction employment in Los Angeles and takes up residence in a shantytown with a coworker, Frank Armitage. There he comes across a box of ordinary-looking sunglasses, and when he puts them on, the world changes: billboards turn into blunt commands, and many people around him reveal a horrifying, skull-like alien appearance. John realizes that extraterrestrials have quietly infiltrated society, occupying positions of influence while keeping humanity docile, and he sets out to find others who know the truth and to fight back.
John Carpenter directed and wrote the film, the thirteenth of the twenty-two features he has directed in chronological order, arriving between Prince of Darkness and Memoirs of an Invisible Man. Roddy Piper plays John Nada, with Keith David as Frank Armitage, Meg Foster as Holly Thompsen, and Raymond St. Jacques as a street preacher. The production, made for about four million dollars, returned roughly thirteen million worldwide.
On IMDb the film holds a 7.2 rating from around 163,000 votes, and on TMDB a 7.3 from over 3,600 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 7.3 from seventy-six reviews, placing professional and audience responses close together. Its credited cast of forty-eight and crew of 151 reflect a modest production that blends action and science fiction with social commentary.
What's left behind the scenes
- The role of Frank was written specifically for Keith David.
- In the scene where the main character first meets an alien he can distinguish through the glasses, the alien is buying a newspaper. If you pay attention, you can see him receive change twice (before and after Nada puts on the glasses).
- Before the fight with Neid, Frank throws his bag on the ground, and it then disappears; the spot where it fell will be empty in subsequent frames.
- The main character’s name is never mentioned in the film, and in the credits, Roddy Piper’s character is listed as “Nada” (likely as a surname) – which means “nothing” in Spanish.
- The plot of the music video for the German electronic collective SQ-1’s “Can you feel” (1999) is based on the film’s plot. Similarly, the music video for American artist Armand Van Helden’s “Into your eyes” (2005) is also based on this film.
- The film is based on Ray Nelson’s short story "Eight in the Morning."
- A simple fight scene between Frank and Nada over Frank's refusal to wear the "magic glasses" turned into a 5-minute brawl, instead of the director's intended 20 seconds.
- In the scene in the bank, where the protagonist Nada selectively shoots aliens visible through the glasses, he says: "I come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, but I’m all out of bubble gum." This phrase later appears in a game series named after the protagonist, Duke Nukem. In fact, this phrase belongs to the lead actor, Roddy Piper, who is also a well-known athlete in the world of wrestling, having competed in Wrestlemania III, where he was noticed by John Carpenter.
- In the underground corridor, the security guards' radio looks like an anomaly detector from the film "Ghostbusters".
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