They Live (1988) Universal/Sci-Fi-Horror RT: 95 minutes Rated R (language, violence, brief nudity and sexual content) Director: John Carpenter Screenplay: John Carpenter (as “Frank Armitage”) Music: John Carpenter and Alan Howarth Cinematography: Gary B. Kibbe Release date: November 4, 1988 (US) Cast: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George “Buck” Flower, Peter Jason, Raymond St. Jacques, Jason Robards III, John Lawrence, Susan Barnes, Sy Richardson, Wendy Brainard, Lucille Meredith, Susan Blanchard. Box Office: $13M (US)
Rating: *** ½
The best sci-fi movies say something about the times in which they were made. I’ll grant that this statement doesn’t apply to the Star Wars trilogies, but they’re in a class of their own. As for my original statement, may I introduce into evidence the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the remake? Both made statements about the current affairs of their respective times. In the 50s, it was Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch hunt for Communists in America. In the 70s (aka “The Me Decade”), it was the laid-back Southern California lifestyle.
Similarly, John Carpenter uses They Live to make a statement about the deterioration of the American Empire. The US he depicts, a society of greedy rich people and poor folks with nothing, is a mess with the declining economy, pollution and the depletion of natural resources. In the guise of an alien invasion tale, he delivers a biting commentary on mass consumerism and the deadening effect it has on the American people. It’s true we’ve become slaves to the media. Just look around. What if there’s something sinister behind it? What if ads contain subliminal messages intended to make us complacent as a society? What better way to open the door to a hostile takeover by aliens? It’s a frightening thought when you consider it.
The main character (played by pro-wrestler Piper) is never actually named in the movie. He’s referred to as “Nada” in the credits. It’s the Spanish word for “nothing”. It’s the way we see most people we encounter on a day-to-day basis, whether it be a stranger on the street or the person in front of us at the supermarket check-out counter. When we first meet him, he’s an unemployed drifter who’s come to L.A. looking for a job, any job. What he finds is a city full of apathetic people who don’t give a damn about anybody other than themselves. Most of the characters aren’t even referred to by name. Nobody cares enough to know names. That’s how bad it’s become.
He finds work at a construction site where he meets Frank (David, The Thing), one of several people who have taken up residence at a nearby shantytown across the street from a church where something strange is going on. There’s also this bearded man who keeps showing up on illegal TV broadcasts claiming we’ve all been enslaved and lulled into compliance by signals that keep us in a dream-like state. After a police raid destroys the encampment, Nada finds a box of sunglasses hidden in the church. He takes a pair and puts them on only to discover a horrifying truth that’s been right in front of him for who knows how long.
When seen through the lenses, the world is totally different. It’s literally a black-and-white place where billboards, magazines, newspapers, labels on products and paper currency all have subliminal messages written on them. They display totalitarian commands like “Obey”, “Consume”, “Conform”, “No Independent Thought”, “Marry and Reproduce” and “This Is Your God” (on the currency). He also sees some people are actually aliens, their skull-like appearance concealed by human faces. They walk among us as politicians and members of the upper class; they are the ruling class. They use the subliminal messages and TV signals to control the human population by hypnotizing them so that they can’t see the aliens for who and what they truly are. When it becomes known that Nada sees things as they really are, he’s forced to go on the run from police and aliens-in-disguise.
Nada has a hell of a time getting anybody to believe him. He takes TV station employee Holly (Foster, Masters of the Universe) hostage at gunpoint after an incident at a bank. She humors him until she’s able to escape. When he tries to tell Frank, the two men get into a prolonged brawl until Nada finally forces him to see the truth. It turns out they’re not the only ones aware of the situation. They’re recruited by a rebel army planning to destroy the alien transmitter and eliminate the threat to humanity once and for all.
As you can see, They Live is markedly different from other movies of its kind. You’ll find none of that jazz about giant spaceships destroying national monuments and major cities. The military is not called in to fight the invaders. There are no huge mobs of frightened people fleeing in panic. It’s a bit more subdued than that. Any filmmaker can make a megabudget alien invasion noisefest replete with fancy CGI and frenetic, overedited action scenes, all of which is really a means of concealing tired plots and shallow characterizations. It takes a true master to put a different, original spin on things. Enter Mr. Carpenter who impressed the hell out of me the previous year with his brilliant Satanic horror movie Prince of Darkness. He does the same with They Live, a decidedly more cerebral take on the alien invasion genre.
That’s not to say there isn’t any action in They Live. On the contrary, there’s a fair amount of shooting and running and fighting, especially fighting. Did you really expect otherwise from a movie featuring a pro-wrestler in the lead? This leads to the movie’s only real flaw. By way of displaying his star’s special set of skills, Carpenter gives us a prolonged fight scene between Piper and Keith. It lasts for nearly six minutes. I hate to say it, but it stops the movie dead in its tracks. I get why the makers put it in. You can’t make a movie starring Rowdy Roddy Piper and not have him show off his moves. His fans expect it. They’d go berserk if he didn’t. But did Carpenter really have to drag it out like he does? I’ve heard arguments on both sides. I think it’s distracting and off-base. That, of course, is my own opinion.
Overlong fight scene notwithstanding, Piper shows real action star potential in They Live. I wasn’t completely sold on him until the now-iconic scene where he enters a bank armed to the teeth and announces, “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum!” before killing a few more aliens. What a GREAT line! That’s when I knew a new star was born or so I thought. It didn’t happen for him. He co-starred in a handful of DTV titles- e.g. Resort to Kill, Back in Action and No Contest- until his death in 2015. It’s tragic how the major studios failed to see the possibilities with Piper, yet kept allowing Hulk Hogan to “act” in cinematic travesties like Mr. Nanny and Santa with Muscles.
Co-star David Keith is also very good as a guy just trying to make money to take care of his family in Detroit. He doesn’t want to get mixed up in things, but realizes he has no choice after seeing the truth of the matter. He’s also a real bad ass. Foster, with her piercing blue eyes, offers up ample support as a woman who plays a pivotal role in what’s going on. Raymond St. Jacques (Cotton Comes to Harlem) is on board as a blind street preacher involved in the human revolution. Carpenter regular Peter Jason (Prince of Darkness) shows up as one of the leaders of the revolution. It’s always good to see him: he’s one of the best character actors in Hollywood.
Like I said earlier, They Live is that rare sci-fi movie that isn’t overly reliant on special effects. It was made on a meager budget of $3M meaning Carpenter can’t afford to lay L.A. to waste with a huge battle. What he can afford looks pretty good. Some have said the little flying saucers Nada sees while wearing the glasses look like something from a low budget sci-fi movie from the 50s. I think that’s kind of the point, Carpenter is obviously paying homage to the films that influenced some of his work.
Are the themes explored in They Live still relevant today? It depends on how you look at it I suppose. I don’t want to say anything about the state of the world today. We know what’s going on out there. It’s all over the nightly news and the Internet. It’s gone past apathy to outright hatred. On the other hand, mass consumerism is still very much a thing only now it’s done on Amazon. If Carpenter remade it today, he’d probably do it a little differently. Even so, I like They Live just as it is. It’s gained a cult following over the years and it’s well-deserved. It deserves to be recognized for transcending the sci-fi genre and making a relevant statement in a manner that never feels heavy-handed or overly serious. It’s intelligent, understated, satirical and fun. It’s sci-fi for the thinking person, yet it’s accessible to those who only came to see Rowdy Roddy fight. Well done, Mr. Carpenter.
