From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia They Live
They Live
They Live Budget $3,000,000 (estimated)
Box office $13,008,928
They Live is a 1988 science fiction/horror film directed
by John Carpenter, who also wrote the screenplay under
the pseudonym Frank Armitage (this is the name of one
of the characters in the movie). Part science fiction hor-
ror and part dark comedy, the film echoed contemporary
fears of a declining economy, within a culture of greed
and conspicuous consumption common among Ameri-
cans in the 1980s. In They Live, the ruling class within the
moneyed elite are in fact aliens managing human social
affairs through the use of a signal on top of the TV broad-
cast that is concealing their appearance and subliminal
messages in mass media.
Plot
The story revolves around a nameless man referred to as
Theatrical release poster
"Nada" (Roddy Piper), a quiet drifter who finds work on a
Directed by John Carpenter Los Angeles construction site. One of the workers, Frank
Armitage (Keith David), takes him to a local shantytown.
Produced by Larry Franco
After eating at the soup kitchen and spending the night,
Written by John Carpenter he notices odd behavior at the small church across the
(as Frank Armitage) street. Investigating, he discovers that the church’s soup
Based on Eight O’Clock in the Morning by kitchen is a front: inside, the loud "choir practice" is
Ray Nelson a recording, scientific apparatus fills a back room, and
cardboard boxes are stacked everywhere, including some
Starring Roddy Piper
Keith David
in a secret compartment that he stumbles across.
Meg Foster That night, the police surround the church, forcing
Raymond St. Jacques the inhabitants to flee. The police then turn on the shan-
Peter Jason tytown, destroying it with bulldozers and beating the
Sy Richardson blind minister of the church. Nada returns to the site the
George ’Buck’ Flower
next day and investigates the church again, which has
Music by John Carpenter been emptied. He takes one of the boxes from the secret
Alan Howarth compartment and opens it in an alleyway, finding it full
Cinematography Gary B. Kibbe of sunglasses. He keeps one pair and stashes the rest in
an unused garbage can.
Editing by Gib Jaffe Looking through the sunglasses reveals to Nada that
Frank E. Jimenez
all advertisements and media in the world actually con-
Studio Alive Films tain subliminal messages designed to control an unwit-
Larry Franco Productions ting human population; billboards, television programs,
Distributed by Universal Studios magazines, and store products now simply display total-
itarian commands such as "Obey", "Consume", "No In-
Release date(s) November 4, 1988 (1988-11-04)
dependent Thought", "Marry and Reproduce", or in the
Running time 93 minutes case of money, "This is your God."
Additionally, he soon discovers that many people are
Country United States
actually aliens, who are human-looking except for skull-
Language English like faces. The aliens tend to be wealthy upper class
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia They Live
members of society, as well as politicians. When the ly, who works at the station, is found by Frank and Nada
aliens realize he can see them for what they truly are, the and they take her with them to the roof. Nada runs up to
police suddenly arrive. Nada escapes and steals a police the roof expecting that Holly and Frank are behind him.
shotgun; while evading the police, he accidentally stum- Holly unexpectedly executes Frank. Through the special
bles into a local bank filled with aliens. Realizing that the lenses Nada notices the broadcasting antenna, disguised
jig is up, he proclaims, "I have come here to chew bub- as a satellite dish. Holly gets to the roof, and reveals her
blegum and kick ass...and I’m all out of bubblegum." A role as a secret collaborator, then takes aim at Nada. Na-
shooting spree ensues and after killing many aliens, one da drops his gun, but then retrieves a hidden pistol from
of them disappears after twisting a dial on his wristwatch his shirtsleeve and kills Holly. Nada then turns his atten-
(that resembles a Rolex) before Nada can shoot him. Flee- tion back to the broadcasting antenna. Nada is shot and
ing the bank, he forces a woman named Holly Thomp- fatally wounded by approaching aliens in a helicopter,
son (Meg Foster) at gunpoint to take him to her house but manages to destroy the broadcasting antenna in the
in the Hollywood Hills. Taking off the glasses to rest, he process. As a last dying act, Nada gives the aliens the fin-
remarks "wearin’ these glasses makes you high, but, oh, ger.
you come down hard." Holly tricks Nada and pushes him With the signal now destroyed, people around L.A.
through her window. He leaves behind his pair of sun- discover aliens in their midst as they see them on TV, at
glasses and firearms, however. the bar, and even having sex with them.
After recovering, Nada returns to the garbage can in
which he threw away the box of sunglasses and finds an-
other pair. He goes to the construction site to talk with
Cast
Frank about what he has discovered. Frank is initially • Roddy Piper as John Nada
uninterested in Nada’s story because he sees Nada as a • Keith David as Frank Armitage
wanted man fleeing a shooting spree. The two engage in • Meg Foster as Holly Thompson
a long, brutal fistfight as Nada attempts to convince and • George ’Buck’ Flower as The Drifter
then force Frank to put on the sunglasses. Finally, when • Peter Jason as Gilbert
both are beaten and bloody, Nada forces the glasses on- • Susan Barnes as Brown Haired Woman
to Frank and he sees the aliens around him as well. Frank • Sy Richardson as Black Revolutionary
joins Nada as they get in contact with the group from the • Susan Blanchard as Ingenue
church. They learn that a meeting is being held at a lo- • Norman Alden as Foreman
cal community center later that evening. The communi-
ty group listens to a seminar in the background introduc-
ing radical ideas. For example, the aliens are blamed for
Production
carbon dioxide and methane emissions – "They are turn-
ing our atmosphere into their atmosphere." With the aid
Development
of human collaborators, the aliens are also responsible The idea for They Live came from two sources: a short sto-
for using up the planet’s resources so quickly: essential- ry called "Eight O’Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson,
ly, "we’re their Third World". Holly returns, claiming to originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science
now believe Nada, and delivers some information to the Fiction in the 1960s, involving an alien invasion in the tra-
rebels. dition of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and a story called
At the meeting, they learn that the aliens’ primary "Nada" from the Alien Encounters comic book.[1] John Car-
method of control is a signal sent over television, which penter describes Nelson’s story as "...a D.O.A. type of sto-
is why the general public cannot see the aliens for what ry, in which a man is put in a trance by a stage hypnotist.
they are. An unknown but brilliant inventor has created a When he awakens, he realizes that the entire human race
lens called the "Hofmann lens". The lens shows the world has been hypnotized, and that alien creatures are con-
as it really is. The sunglasses, which are also available as trolling humanity. He has only until eight o’clock in the
contact lenses, interfere with the aliens’ hypnotic signal. morning to solve the problem."[1] Carpenter acquired the
The meeting is raided by the police, who quickly start to film rights to both the comic book and short story and
kill every person there, armed and unarmed alike. Nada wrote the screenplay using Nelson’s story as a basis for
and Frank escape with the help of one of the wrist de- the film’s structure.
vices. They find themselves in a network of underground The more political elements of the film are derived
passages that link hidden parts of the alien society in- from Carpenter’s growing distaste with the ever-increas-
cluding a port for space travel. Through the passages ing commercialization of 1980s popular culture and poli-
they find the aliens are throwing a party for their human tics. He remarked, "I began watching TV again. I quickly
collaborators. realized that everything we see is designed to sell us
Further passages lead to the basement of a local TV something... It’s all about wanting us to buy something.
station, Cable 54, and the source of the aliens’ signal. Hol- The only thing they want to do is take our money." To
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia They Live
this end, Carpenter thought of sunglasses as being the
tool to seeing the truth, which "is seen in black and
Reception
white. It’s as if the aliens have colorized us. That means,
of course, that Ted Turner is really a monster from outer Critical response
space." (Turner had received some bad press in the 1980s Although not an immediate commercial success, the crit-
for colorizing old black-and-white movies.) The director ical consensus according to Rotten Tomatoes was that
commented on the alien threat in an interview, "They critics thought of the movie as "A politically subversive
want to own all our businesses. A Universal executive blend of horror and sci fi" and went on to call it "an un-
asked me, ’Where’s the threat in that? We all sell out derrated genre film from John Carpenter." Rotten Toma-
every day.’ I ended up using that line in the film." The toes gave the film a rating of 88%.[2] Metacritic, an aggre-
aliens were deliberately made to look like ghouls accord- gator of film critics ratings and reviews, gave the film’s
ing to Carpenter, who said: "The creatures are corrupting rating average of 50 out of 100.[3]
us, so they, themselves, are corruptions of human bein- In his review for the Boston Globe, Jay Carr wrote, "But
gs."[1] once Carpenter delivers his throwback-to-the-’50s visu-
Because the screenplay was the product of so many als, complete with plump little B-movie flying saucers,
sources: a short story, a comic book, and input from cast and makes his point that the rich are fascist fiends, They
and crew, Carpenter decided to use the pseudonym Live starts running low on imagination and inventive-
"Frank Armitage," an allusion to one of the filmmaker’s ness", but felt that "as sci-fi horror comedy, They Live,
favorite writers, H. P. Lovecraft (Frank Armitage is a with its wake-up call to the world, is in a class with Ter-
character in Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror).[1] Carpenter minator and RoboCop, even though its hero doesn’t sport
has always felt a close kinship with Lovecraft’s worldview bionic biceps".[4] In his review for the Chicago Reader,
and according to the director, "Lovecraft wrote about Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote, "Carpenter’s wit and story-
the hidden world, the world underneath. His stories were telling craft make this fun and watchable, although the
about gods who are repressed, who were once on Earth script takes a number of unfortunate shortcuts, and the
and are now coming back. The world underneath has a possibilities inherent in the movie’s central conceit are
great deal to do with They Live."[1] explored only cursorily".[5] Rick Groen, in his review for
the Globe and Mail, wrote, "the movie never gets beyond
Casting the pop Orwell premise. The social commentary wipes
After a budget of approximately three million dollars was clean with a dry towelette - it’s not intrusive and not
raised, Carpenter began casting the film. For the crucial pedantic, just lighter-than-air".[6] Allmovie contributor,
role of Nada, the filmmaker cast professional wrestler Paul Brenner gave the film three and a half out of five
Roddy Piper, whom he met at WrestleMania III earlier stars.[7] In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin
in 1987. For Carpenter it was an easy choice: "Unlike wrote, "Since Mr. Carpenter seems to be trying to make
most Hollywood actors, Roddy has life written all over a real point here, the flatness of They Live is doubly dis-
him."[1] Carpenter was impressed with Keith David’s per- appointing. So is its crazy inconsistency, since the film
formance in The Thing and needed someone "who stops trying to abide even by its own game plan after a
wouldn’t be a traditional sidekick, but could hold his while".[8] Richard Harrington, in his review for the Wash-
own."[1] To this end, Carpenter wrote the role of Frank ington Post wrote, "it’s just John Carpenter as usual, trying
specifically for the actor. to dig deep with a toy shovel. The plot for "They Live" is
full of black holes, the acting is wretched, the effects are
Filming second-rate. In fact, the whole thing is so preposterous it
makes V look like Masterpiece Theatre".[9]
They Live was shot in eight weeks during March and April
1988, principally on location in downtown L.A. with a
Box office
budget only slightly larger than $3,000,000.[1] One of the
highlights of the film is a five-and-half minute alley fight The film opened on November 4, 1988 debuted at #1 at
between David and Piper over a pair of the special sun- the Box office and remained #1 for 3 Weeks grossing
glasses. Carpenter recalls that the fight took three weeks $4,827,000 (USA) during its opening weekend, ahead of
to rehearse: "It was an incredibly brutal and funny fight, such films as the U2 documentary Rattle and Hum.[10][11]
along the lines of the slugfest between John Wayne and The film had a total domestic gross of $13,008,928 (USA)
Victor McLaglen in The Quiet Man."[1] on an estimated $3-4 million budget.[10] Carpenter is on
Viewers may also recognize the sensor/communica- record as attributing the film’s initial commercial failure
tor devices used by some of the alien troops as the PKE to result from an audience "[those] who go to the movies
meter (Ghost Tracker) prop from the Ghostbusters films. in vast numbers these days don’t want to be enlight-
ened".[1]
3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia They Live
Legacy [13] Ryan, Tim. "ROTTEN TOMATOES: Total Recall: The
20 Greatest Fights Scenes Ever". Rotten Tomatoes.
The film was ranked #18 on Entertainment Weekly maga-
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/
zine’s "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits
forbidden_kingdom/news/1722234/14/
Since ’83" list.[12] Rotten Tomatoes ranked the fight scene
total_recall_the_20_greatest_fights_scenes_ever/.
between Roddy Piper’s character, John Nada, and Keith
Retrieved 13 December 2010.
David’s character, Frank Armitage, seventh on their list
of the "The 20 Greatest Fights Scenes Ever".[13]
Shepard Fairey also credits the movie as a major External links
source of inspiration, sharing a similar logo to his "OBEY"
• They Live at John Carpenter’s official movie site
campaign. “They Live was … the basis for my use of the
• They Live at the Internet Movie Database
word ‘obey,’” Fairey said in a statement. “The movie has
• They Live at Rotten Tomatoes
a very strong message about the power of commercialism
• They Live film trailer at You Tube
and the way that people are manipulated by advertis-
ing.”[citation needed]
References
[1] ^ Swires, Steve (November 1988). "John Carpenter
and the Invasion of the Yuppie Snatchers". Starlog:
pp. 37–40; 43.
[2] They Live Movie Reviews, Pictures--Rotten
Tomatoes
[3] They Live - Metacritic; Access Date: December 22,
2009
[4] Carr, Jay (November 4, 1988). "What if we’re cattle
for aliens?". Boston Globe.
[5] Rosenbaum, Jonathan. "They Live". Chicago Reader.
http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/
capsules/8226_THEY_LIVE. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
[6] Groen, Rick (November 5, 1988). "They Live". Globe
and Mail.
[7] Brenner, Paul. "They Live > Overview - Allmovie".
Allmovie. http://www.allmovie.com/work/they-
live-49415. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
[8] Maslin, Janet (November 4, 1988). "A Pair of
Sunglasses Reveals a World of Evil". The New York
Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/
review?res=940DE1D91439F937A35752C1A96E948260&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes.
Retrieved 2009-05-12.
[9] Harrington, Richard (November 5, 1988). "They
Live". Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/
longterm/movies/videos/theylive.htm. Retrieved
2009-05-12.
[10] ^ IMDb Box Office/Business - They Live (1988)
[11] "’They Live’ tops the weekend’s box office". Sun
Journal. 9 November 1988.
http://news.google.com/
newspapers?id=8uYpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7WQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4148,1705630&dq=john+carpenter+they+live+number+1+box+office&
[12] "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits
Since ’83". Entertainment Weekly. September 3, 2008.
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/
0,,20221982_8,00.html. Retrieved 2008-09-04.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=They_Live&oldid=467707745"
4
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia They Live
Categories:
• 1988 films
• American films
• English-language films
• 1980s action films
• 1980s comedy films
• 1980s horror films
• 1980s science fiction films
• Action horror films
• Alien visitation films
• American action comedy films
• American comedy horror films
• American comedy science fiction films
• American science fiction action films
• American science fiction horror films
• American action thriller films
• Black comedy films
• Carolco Pictures films
• Dystopian films
• Films based on short fiction
• Films directed by John Carpenter
• Films set in California
• Films shot anamorphically
• Films shot in Los Angeles, California
• Satirical films
• Universal Pictures films
This page was last modified on 26 December 2011 at 04:36. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of
the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Contact us
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
5