I recently watched They Live for the first time in what feels like ages. The John Carpenter flick that sees Roddy Piper as a drifter. After finding his way to California he gets his hands on a pair of glasses that allow him to see the aliens that walk the earth. They Live is a Science-Fiction, Action film that Carpenter has referred to as a documentary. That title wouldn’t be far off. They Live uses sci-fi to criticize Reagan’s America. Even today the critiques the film has on 80s USA are criticisms many of us still have. They Live is one in a long line of science-fiction media that utilized the genre to discuss the realities around us.

You have to understand something, it’s a documentary. It’s not science fiction.

2015 John Carpenter Interview with Yahoo

While viewing a scene from They Live, I came upon a comment of someone saying they should remake this film. Their reason being that it reflects what is happening today. Why would we do that when what the film has to say still makes sense to a modern audience? The subliminal messaging speaks to a culture that is being sold to us every waking moment of our life. From our current US President to a few companies that own several smaller companies, They Live remains a true look at the world around us.

Long before They Live, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, a story about a scientist that sows a bunch of body parts together and brings the corpse to life. That’s a crude way to summarize it but correct none the less. A story about the dangers of playing god, Frankenstein was the birth of science-fiction and it showed us the power of allegory. Published in 1818, much has happened since the novel’s release and even then not much has changed. At least not where Shelley’s novel is concerned. Humans still attempt to play god and in the 37 years since the release of They Live we are still facing the same realities of consumerism and a power hungry government. Only time will tell if we will finally stop using science-fiction as an instruction manual and finally see it for the warning it is.

Following the films release, John 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.”

John Carpenter remarked following the films release,

They Live follows drifter Nada, who comes to Los Angeles in search of work. He makes his way to a construction site where he gets a job and befriends his coworker. Frank, portrayed by Keith David is a Detroit resident working in LA while his wife and children remain in Michigan. Frank invites Nada to Shantytown, an encampment near a church. Later that night a man hacks into a TV network in order to get his message out. The next day, Nada follows the Preacher and community leader Gilbert into the church. He hears gospel music that covers up the meeting being held in the church. Later that day a police raid tears up the encampment and destroys the church. Nada grabs a box in the ensuing chaos. In the box is a pair of sunglasses that are about to change Nada’s life.

Those who know of the aliens and their subliminal messages must find away to tell others. That is where the hacking comes in. The preacher who is blind but manages to see far more than many American’s attempts to tell people. They won’t listen because all they know is what’s around them and that is part of the problem. Much of the state of the world has been normalized. The existence of homelessness is seen as something that’s inevitable, to the extent that people will blame a homeless person for the problem and not the cause.

When the campers were watching the hacked broadcast they begin to get headaches as a result. This is just a smidge of the symbolism that we get more of later on. The headaches are what Nada and others wearing the glasses get after seeing the reality for too long. Ignorance is bliss and knowledge can be a headache.

Following his run-ins with the police that left several aliens dead, Frank wants nothing to do with Nada. We understand why, all he knows at this point is that Nada killed 7 people. After a 6 minute fight scene, Nada finally gets the glasses on Frank. Frank finally sees what Nada has been seeing. This fight scene is a good example of how hard it can be to get someone to look past what they’ve been told to see. A 6 minute fight scene seems like a long time but the time it for them to see the reality took a lot longer.

In a scene closer to the end of They Live, Nada and Frank witness a conference of aliens and collaborators. In the speech the speaker mentioned 2025. During this scene I looked over to my mom who looked back at me. The feeling that the 2025 they’re speaking of and the one we are living is one-in-the-same fell over me. After all these years the aliens and their collaborators still get a place at the table and a piece of the pie. Where are we? We’re just here.

Not unlike The Twilight Zone, They Live takes the reality of the world and uses Science-Fiction to tell the story. In one film, They Live showed the increasing commercialization in pop culture and politics. Beyond the story Carpenter told is 2025 America that still sees itself in They Live.