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==Plot==
Nada, a homeless man, comes to [[Los Angeles|Los Angeles, California]] in
A hacker takes over TV broadcasts,
Nada retrieves one of the boxes from the church and takes a pair of sunglasses from it,
While Nada retrieves another pair of sunglasses from the trash pile, Frank comes to give Nada his paycheck and orders him to stay away following Nada's killing spree becoming widespread news. When Nada tries to put the glasses on him, Frank resists and a lengthy brawl ensues. After subduing him, Nada places the glasses on Frank, who sees the aliens for himself and goes into hiding with Nada. The two run into Gilbert, who introduces them to the human resistance. They are given [[
▲The two run into Gilbert, who introduces them to the human resistance. They are given [[Contact lens|contact lenses]] to replace the sunglasses, and learn that the aliens are using [[Climate change|global warming]] to make Earth more like their homeworld while depleting its resources for their own gain. They also learn that the aliens have been bribing human collaborators. Holly joins the meeting, bringing information about where the signal may be coming from; she apologizes to Nada for what happened, saying she hadn't known what was going on, but soon afterwards the meeting is raided by the police, with the majority of those present killed and the survivors scattered. Nada and Frank are cornered in an alley, but they activate an alien wristwatch which opens a portal to the alien's spaceport on Earth under Cable 54, an alien-run news network.
▲Discovering a meeting of aliens and collaborators celebrating the elimination of the "terrorists," they are approached by a drifter from the shantytown, now one of the collaborators. Thinking they are new recruits, he gives them a tour of the facility, where the aliens broadcast a signal that prevents humans from seeing them and the hidden messages. Nada and Frank find Holly and fight their way to the transmitter on the roof, but Holly, herself a collaborator responsible for the raid, kills Frank. Nada kills Holly and destroys the transmitter, but is mortally wounded by a police helicopter. With the signal shut down, Nada gives them [[the finger|the middle finger]] as he dies.
▲Meanwhile, humans all over the world discover the aliens hiding among them.
==Cast==
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Upon the film's release, Carpenter remarked, "The picture's premise is that the '[[Reagan Revolution]]' is run by aliens from another galaxy. Free enterprisers from outer space have taken over the world, and are exploiting Earth as if it's a [[third world]] planet. As soon as they exhaust all our resources, they'll move on to another world... 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." To this end, Carpenter thought of sunglasses as being the tool to seeing the truth, which "is seen in black and white. It's as if the aliens have colonized us. That means, of course, that [[Ted Turner]] is really a monster from outer space."{{efn|Turner had received some bad press in the 1980s for [[Film colorization|colorizing classic black-and-white movies]].}} The director commented on the alien threat in an interview: "They want to own all our businesses. A [[Universal Pictures|Universal]] executive asked me, 'Where's the threat in that? We all sell out every day.' I ended up using that line in the film." The aliens were deliberately made to look like ghouls, according to Carpenter, who said "The creatures are corrupting us, so they, themselves, are corruptions of human beings."<ref name="Swires, Steve"/>
In 2017, in response to [[neo-Nazi]] interpretations of the film's themes, Carpenter further clarified that the film "is about [[yuppie]]s and [[unrestrained capitalism]]" and "has nothing to do with [[Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory|Jewish control of the world]]".{{efn|Attributed to multiple references:
==Production==
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On the [[review aggregator]] website [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has an approval rating of 86% based on 73 reviews, and an average rating of 7.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A politically subversive blend of horror and sci fi, ''They Live'' is an underrated genre film from John Carpenter."<ref name=RT>{{cite web|url=https://rottentomatoes.com/m/they_live/|title=They Live (1988)|publisher=[[Fandango Media]]|work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|access-date=October 17, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221115091456/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/they_live|archive-date=November 15, 2022|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Metacritic]] gives the film a [[weighted average]] rating of 55 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://metacritic.com/movie/they-live|title=They Live Reviews|work=[[Metacritic]]|publisher=[[CBS Interactive]]|access-date=June 29, 2021|archive-date=June 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629054203/http://www.metacritic.com/movie/they-live|url-status=live}}</ref>
In his review for the ''[[Chicago Reader]]'', [[Jonathan Rosenbaum]] wrote, "Carpenter's wit and storytelling craft make this fun and watchable, although the script takes a number of unfortunate shortcuts, and the possibilities inherent in the movie's central concept are explored only cursorily."<ref>{{cite news | last=Rosenbaum | first=Jonathan | title=They Live | url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/they-live/Film?oid=2035158 | work=[[Chicago Reader]] | access-date=May 12, 2009 | archive-date=July 28, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728040153/http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/they-live/Film?oid=2035158 | url-status=live }}</ref> Jay Carr, writing for ''[[The Boston Globe]]'', said "[o]nce Carpenter delivers his throwback-to-the-'50s visuals, complete with plump little [[B movie|B-movie]] flying saucers, and makes his point that the rich are fascist fiends, ''They Live'' starts running low on imagination and inventiveness", but felt that "as sci-fi horror comedy, ''They Live'', with its wake-up call to the world, is in a class with ''[[The Terminator|Terminator]]'' and ''[[RoboCop]]'', even though its hero doesn't sport bionic biceps".<ref name=Boston>{{cite news | last=Carr | first=Jay | title=What if we're cattle for aliens?
In her review for ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Janet Maslin]] wrote, "Since Mr. Carpenter seems to be trying to make a real point here, the flatness of ''They Live'' is doubly disappointing. So is its crazy inconsistency, since the film stops trying to abide even by its own game plan after a while."<ref>{{cite news | last=Maslin | first=Janet | title=A Pair of Sunglasses Reveals a World of Evil | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/04/movies/review-film-a-pair-of-sunglasses-reveals-a-world-of-evil.html | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=November 4, 1988 | access-date=May 12, 2009 | archive-date=December 1, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201033935/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/04/movies/review-film-a-pair-of-sunglasses-reveals-a-world-of-evil.html | url-status=live }}</ref> Richard Harrington wrote in ''[[The Washington Post]]'', "it's just John Carpenter as usual, trying to dig deep with a toy shovel. The plot for ''They Live'' is full of black holes, the acting is wretched, the effects are second-rate. In fact, the whole thing is so preposterous it makes ''[[V (1984 TV series)|V]]'' look like ''[[Masterpiece Theatre]]''."<ref>{{cite news | last=Harrington | first=Richard | title='They Live': (R) | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/theylive.htm | date=November 5, 1988 | access-date=May 12, 2009 | archive-date=November 11, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111132535/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/theylive.htm | url-status=live }}</ref> Rick Groen, in ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', wrote, "the movie never gets beyond the pop [[Orwell]] premise. The social commentary wipes clean with a dry towelette – it's not intrusive and not pedantic, just lighter-than-air."<ref>{{cite news | last=Groen | first=Rick | title=''They Live'' | work=[[The Globe and Mail]] | date=November 5, 1988}}</ref>
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===Legacy===
''They Live'' was ranked #18 on ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' magazine's "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83" list in 2008.<ref name="EWCult">{{cite magazine | title=The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83 | magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] | url=https://ew.com/gallery/cult-25-essential-left-field-movie-hits-83 | access-date=August 16, 2016
[[Rotten Tomatoes]] ranked the fight scene between Roddy Piper's character Nada and Keith David's character Frank Armitage seventh on their list of "The 20 Greatest Fight Scenes Ever".<ref>{{cite web | last=Ryan | first=Tim | title=Total Recall: The 20 Greatest Fights Scenes Ever | work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] | url=https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/Total-Recall-The-20-Greatest-Fights-Scenes-Ever/ | date=April 17, 2008 | access-date=December 14, 2016 | publisher=[[Fandango Media]] | archive-date=February 19, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200219190200/https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/Total-Recall-The-20-Greatest-Fights-Scenes-Ever/ | url-status=live }}</ref> The fight scene influenced the 2008 film ''[[The Wrestler (2008 film)|The Wrestler]]'', whose director, [[Darren Aronofsky]], interpreted the scene as a spoof.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/2015/07/31/roddy-piper-they-live-dead|title=Remembering Roddy Piper's rowdy film career|last=Frannich|first=Darren|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|date=July 31, 2015
Novelist [[Jonathan Lethem]] called ''They Live'' one of his "favorite movies of the eighties, hands down". He said, "It's a great movie...Look at what it does to people, look at how it emboldens and provokes...It's disturbing and ridiculous and outrageous and uncomfortable, but I think it's the kind of great movie that doesn't really need defense, it just needs to be given the air". Lethem wrote a book-length homage to the movie for the [[Soft Skull Press]] ''Deep Focus'' series.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kachka |first=Boris |url=https://vulture.com/2010/10/jonathan_lethem_says_tk.html |title=Jonathan Lethem on John Carpenter's They Live and His Own Move to California |publisher=[[New York (magazine)|New York Media]] |work=Vulture |access-date=July 29, 2012 |date=October 28, 2010 |archive-date=October 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029205423/http://www.vulture.com/2010/10/jonathan_lethem_says_tk.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
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The film is noted for a popularly quoted line spoken by Nada: "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sovereignman.com/investing/i-have-come-here-to-chew-bubblegum-and-kick-ass-and-im-all-out-of-bubblegum-17318/|title=I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum.|date=2015-08-03|website=Sovereign Man|language=en|access-date=2019-03-02|archive-date=2019-03-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190302210325/https://www.sovereignman.com/investing/i-have-come-here-to-chew-bubblegum-and-kick-ass-and-im-all-out-of-bubblegum-17318/|url-status=live}}</ref>
The main character [[Duke Nukem (character)|Duke Nukem]] in the video game ''[[Duke Nukem 3D]]'' was made to be a mix of 80's and 90's action film stars, including Roddy Piper, [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]], [[Bruce Willis]], [[Kurt Russell]], and [[Bruce Campbell]]. His look was partially based on Nada's appearance, sporting
===Home media===
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On March 2, 2012, the film was released on [[Blu-ray]] by [[StudioCanal]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.studiocanal.co.uk/Film/Details/802b18c0-ce36-4cba-bd12-9e840007abef|title=They Live|publisher=[[StudioCanal UK]]|access-date=July 3, 2018|archive-date=July 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180705042736/http://www.studiocanal.co.uk/Film/Details/802b18c0-ce36-4cba-bd12-9e840007abef|url-status=live}}</ref> On November 6, 2012, [[Shout! Factory]] released a "Collector's Edition" of the film on both DVD and Blu-ray.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/57534/they-live/|title=They Live: Collector's Edition|last=Miller III|first=Randy|date=October 16, 2012|website=[[DVD Talk]]|access-date=November 15, 2022}}</ref>
In 2014, Universal Pictures released ''They Live'' on DVD along with ''[[The Thing (1982 film)|The Thing]]'', ''[[Village of the Damned (1995 film)|Village of the Damned]]'', and ''[[Virus (1999 film)|Virus]]'' as part of the ''4 Movie Midnight Marathon Pack: Aliens''.<ref>{{Cite AV media |title=4 Movie Midnight Marathon Pack: Aliens |medium=DVD |publisher=[[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]] |date=2014 |id=Stock #61142800}}</ref>
On January 19, 2021, Shout! Factory released the "Collector's Edition" of the film on [[4K Ultra HD Blu-ray]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.shoutfactory.com/product/they-live-collector-s-edition?product_id=7494|title=They Live|publisher=[[Shout! Factory]]|access-date=July 12, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/home-video/3630830/scream-factory-bringing-live-4k-ultra-hd-limited-edition-keith-david-action-figure/|title=Scream Factory Bringing 'They Live' to 4K Ultra HD With Limited Edition Keith David Action Figure!|last=Squires|first=John|date=September 8, 2020|website=[[Bloody Disgusting]]|access-date=November 15, 2022}}</ref>
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==Future==
In 1996, while promoting ''[[Escape from L.A.]]'', Carpenter revealed that he'd always wanted to make a sequel to ''They Live'' as it's one of his favorite films, but was never able to get interest or financial backing for the project.<ref name="EscapeFromLA">{{cite magazine |last=Beeler|first=Michael|date=September 1996|title= Escape from L.A.: Director John Caprenter|url=https://archive.org/details/cinefantastique_1970-2002/Cinefantastique%20Vol%2028%20No%202%20%28Sep%201996%29/page/n17/mode/1up?view=theater
In 2010, a remake movie was stated as being in development with Carpenter in a producing role. In 2011, [[Matt Reeves]] signed on to direct and write the screenplay. The project eventually shifted away from being a direct remake of ''They Live'', to a re-adaptation of "8 O'Clock in the Morning" with intents of abandoning the satirical and political elements of the original movie.<ref>{{cite web|first=Sean|last=O'Neal|url=https://
==Notes==
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* {{IMDb title|0096256}}
* {{TCMDb title|20304}}
* {{
* {{AFI film|67101}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|they_live}}
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[[Category:Films about squatting]]
[[Category:Universal Pictures films]]
[[Category:English-language horror films]]
[[Category:English-language science fiction action films]]
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