They Live (1988) on Netflix
A drifter called Nada arrives in Los Angeles seeking work and befriends Frank, a fellow construction hand. Sunglasses he takes from a church box reveal aliens behind human faces.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.2/10167,249 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes87%
Trailer
Plot summary
A street preacher in Los Angeles claims that a hidden "they" has signed up the rich and the powerful to keep humanity in line, and a homeless man named Nada is listening. Nada lands a job on a construction crew and makes a friend of Frank, a coworker who offers him a place in a shantytown beside a church, where Gilbert leads the community. A hacker seizes control of television broadcasts and announces that humans are their cattle, adding that the truth can only be uncovered by shutting the signal off at its source. Nada slips into the church, discovers boxes and equipment, and takes a pair of sunglasses from one box. Wearing them, he sees the world in black and white, with subliminal commands to consume and conform, and he sees that aliens wear human faces.
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Cast
- Wendy Brainardas Family Man's Daughter
- Lucille Meredithas Female Interviewer
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about They Live (1988)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The line, described as the film's most famous, was improvised by Piper on set, and a similar phrase had appeared in the 1973 film Five on the Black Hand Side.
- Carpenter hired real homeless people as extras for the shantytown scenes, paying them with both food and wages.
- That extended brawl, inspired by a classic John Wayne and Victor McLaglen fight from a 1952 film, took a full month to plan out but only three days to actually shoot.
- Shepard Fairey credits the film as the basis for his use of the word "obey", saying it has a very strong message about the power of commercialism and the way that people are manipulated by advertising.
- The film's celebrated alley fight between Nada and Frank runs five and a half minutes, yet the original script marked the scene only with the words They fight, leaving the choreography to the actors and an uncredited stunt coordinator.
- One of the costliest shots, an opening train sequence that cost $12,000 to film, had to be filmed twice at full cost after a technical problem ruined the first attempt.
