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Film: They Live

"They are our masters! They're all around you! All about you! Blinding us from the truth!"

THEY LIVE, WE SLEEP

— Resistance Graffiti

They Live is a 1988 action movie that was directed by John Carpenter.

Nada is a drifting construction worker, played by wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. He arrives in a new town, and finds a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see that not only are aliens living among us, they have hidden subliminal messages urging humans to conform, consume and reproduce in all media. Nada sets out to make sense of what the sunglasses are showing him, leading to several action scenes, and an incredibly long fist-fight with Nada's construction worker friend, Frank (Keith David). Eventually, Frank and Nada find an underground movement set on exposing the aliens and freeing humanity, and join in their efforts.

While in the U.S. it's mainly considered another cheesy actioner from The Eighties, the movie is an intriguing exercise in criticizing the Reaganomics and the deregulatory liberalism of the decade through one of its pet products: the (apparently) brainless action/scifi movie. In Europe, lots of critics have sung praises of this movie, often quoting the "put on the glasses" brawl between Rowdy and Keith as one of the best one-on-one physical duels ever committed to cinema and was parodied shot for shot in an episode of South Park. The movie also sports that one particularly awesome line, which has been borrowed, quoted and subverted many times over.

The movie provides examples of:

Adaptation Expansion: It's based on a short story. A "true" adaptation would have been about 15 minutes long.
An Aesop: Consumerism is bad, very bad!
Author Tract
John Carpenter: 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.
Bittersweet Ending: Nada wins, but he and Frank both die. Though it gets sweeter when he flips them off before dying.
Black Dude Dies First: When the Resistance is raided, the Resistance's black armorer gets gunned down as soon as they enter. Frank is killed by Holly to reveal that she was working with the aliens all along.
Blind Seer: The blind priest, who is somehow able to relay the resistance's transmissions through speech.
- It's not him relaying them through speech, it's him reciting the speech given in the transmission. Given that an earlier scene shows him preaching to an outdoor congregation with very similar wording and tone, it's likely he was one of the speechwriters, and was just reciting his own work as it aired.
Chew Bubblegum: The Trope Maker. And it was an ad-lib.
Nada: I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum.
The Cynic: Exemplified by Frank in a very well done exposition scene with Nada. Establishing Frank's pessimism, and Nada's hope for the future.
Does This Remind You of Anything? / Take That: Ronald Reagan's The Eighties.
Dying Moment of Awesome: At the end, Nada is faced with the choice of joining the aliens or blowing up the transmitter, exposing them to the world at large. He decides "Fuck it", and blows it sky high, knowing full well that this will get him killed. After being shot, he still manages to flip the aliens off right before he dies.
The Eighties: If Carpenter is right, we can blame the whole decade on the pernicious influence of an alien conspiracy and their human collaborators. Also, according to Carpenter, the extra long fist fight was put in to deliberately avoid the invincible action hero that was so prevalent in the 80's.
Evil Is Visceral: Skinless blue aliens
Flipping the Bird: Nada gets one right before the ending.
Gadget Watches: The aliens' wristwatches, which work as a communication device and as an emergency teleporter.
Grievous Bottley Harm:
- Holly forces Nada out of her house by hitting him in the head with a bottle and making him crash through a window.
- Averted later during the brawl between Nada and Frank; Frank tries to break a bottle for an improvised sharp weapon, but it shatters completely.
Groin Attack: Done a few times during the back-alley fight between Frank and Nada.
The Hero Dies: Nada himself at the end. His death ends up saving the world however.
Heroic Sacrifice: Nada himself destroys the alien transmitter to free mankind, knowing full well that he'll be shot and killed by the aliens in response.
I Can Rule Alone: After he discovers the conspiracy, Nada is offered at least twice to join the aliens. However, both times they either don't mean it, or it's not really plausible. The two aliens disguised as cops are only saying it to get Nada to a quiet place where they can kill him, and Holly offering it at the end would never work out, since at this point Nada had already killed dozens of aliens and would obviously be killed in retaliation.
Invisible Aliens: The aliens broadcast a signal that makes them look human, and their messages look like ordinary billboards or pieces of paper.
Kill 'em All: By the end of the film, Holly, Frank and Nada himself were dead.
Large Ham: Not much, but when the action kicks in Roddy Piper and Keith David can be quite funny.
La R�sistance
Les Collaborateurs: The wealthy elite of society are secretly cooperating with the aliens, including a former friend of Nada and Frank from the camp.
Made of Iron: Nada, the sheer amount of damage he takes throughout the movie does little to slow him down. Granted, he is The Drifter.
Mass Hypnosis: Note the above.
The Mole: Holly.
No Name Given: "Nada" is just Roddy's placeholder in the credits, which is also the name of the character in the short story. His character's name is never revealed, as John Carpenter thought of him as an entirely anonymous manual laborer. It also doubles as Meaningful Name in some languages, since "Nada" is the Spanish word for "Nothing", and the Croatian-Serb word for "Hope".
Non-Actor Vehicle: Roddy Piper.
Overly Long Gag: The fight scene.
Properly Paranoid: Well, it plays straight the whole pot of conspiracy theories at once...
Selective Obliviousness: Frank, mostly cause he's just trying to stay out of trouble.
See Thru Specs: The sunglasses allow anyone wearing them to see the aliens and subliminal messages.
"Put the glasses on! PUT 'EM ON!"
Surveillance Drone: Flying little drones that are invisible to regular people.
Take That, Critics!: The second-to-last shot; after the aliens' satellite is destroyed and reveals their true faces, the shot shows alien proxies for Siskel & Ebert who are criticizing violence in films by directors like George Romero and John Carpenter. Given Carpenter's inclusion of himself (not to mention that he quite obviously has a sense of humor), this scene may just be an Affectionate Parody of Siskel and Ebert.
- Especially since Roger Ebert was one of the few critics to champion Carpenter's Halloween 1978 and helped launch Carpenter's career.
Title Drop: Provided textually. Nada comes across some street graffiti stating "They Live. We Sleep." It refers to the aliens who are secretly ruling mankind.
Took a Level in Badass: Nada learns to use all kinds of firearms, evolving from a normal placeholder into a gunslinger.
Too Dumb to Live: Many examples, but the main character in particular points a big fat arrow at himself by pointing out hidden aliens. It's handwaved later when he says that wearing the shades for too long is like being on drugs, which would explain his lack of subtlety.
Use Your Head: When Nada tries to hit Frank on the groin, Frank blocks and he has to headbutt him instead.
Weirdness Censor: In the Chew Bubblegum scene, notice how the crowd is reacting not to the man with the shotgun bursting into the room, but his declaration of his lack of gum.
- Someone find this guy some gum quick!
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Nada, interestingly enough (in the beginning anyway).
You Have to Believe Me: Averted in a way during the 5 minute fight sequence where the protagonist won't take no for an answer from the person he is trying to convince.