They Live
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.
Country
Genre
Budget
$4 000 000
Revenue
$13 008 928
Director
Actors
Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George Buck Flower, Peter Jason, Raymond St. Jacques, Jason Robards III, John Lawrence, Susan Barnes, Sy Richardson
All actors and roles (10)
All actors and roles (10)
Scenario
Producer
Larry J. Franco, Andre Blay, Shep Gordon
Operator
Gary B. Kibbe
Composer
Artist
Audition
Editing
Gib Jaffe, Frank E. Jimenez
All team (151)
All team (151)
Short description
A lone drifter stumbles upon a unique pair of sunglasses that reveal aliens are systematically gaining control of the Earth by masquerading as humans and lulling the public into submission.
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".
- 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 "Can You Feel" (1999) by the German electronic group SQ-1 is based on the plot of the film. Similarly, the music video "Into Your Eyes" (2005) by American artist Armand Van Helden is also based on this film.
- In the bank scene, where the main character, Nada, selectively shoots aliens visible through his glasses, he says: "I come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, but i’m all out of bubble gum." This phrase can later be heard in the game series named after the main character, Duke Nukem. In reality, this line belongs to the lead actor, Roddy Piper, who is a well-known professional wrestler. He competed in Wrestlemania III, which is where John Carpenter first noticed him.
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Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
