They Live is a 1988 American science fiction action horror film written and directed by John Carpenter, based on the 1963 short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” by Ray Nelson. Starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster, the film follows an unnamed drifter who discovers through special sunglasses that the ruling class are aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to consume, breed, and conform to the status quo via subliminal messages in mass media. Carpenter has said that the film’s political commentary derives from his dissatisfaction with then–U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s economic policies—also known as Reaganomics—and what Carpenter viewed as increasing commercialization in both the popular culture and politics of the era.
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Super, thanks.
I probably wouldn’t have understood it in 1988. Totally makes sense now.
I only saw this film in 2022 when I first arrived to Portugal – What a classic!