- published: 28 Jan 2016
- views: 8982
They Live is a 1988 American science fiction-horror film directed by John Carpenter, who also wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym Frank Armitage (this is also the name of one of the characters in the movie). Part science fiction horror and part dark comedy, the film echoed contemporary fears of a declining economy, within a culture of greed and conspicuous consumption common among Americans.
The film follows a nameless drifter referred to as "Nada", who discovers the ruling class within the moneyed elite are in fact aliens managing human social affairs through the use of a signal on top of the TV broadcast, concealing their appearance and subliminal messages in mass media.
A nameless unemployed drifter, referred to as "Nada" (Roddy Piper), finds construction work in Los Angeles. Fellow worker Frank Armitage (Keith David) takes him to a local shantytown for food and rest, where Nada notices odd behavior; a blind preacher urges people to take action outside a local church with shantytown member Gilbert (Peter Jason), a police helicopter scouts overhead and a homeless drifter (George Buck Flower) complains as a bearded man interrupts the TV signal, urging action against those in power. Nada investigates and finds the church is a front; the choir is actually an audio recording and scientific apparatus and cardboard boxes fill the room. Nada sees a wall compartment hiding another box but escapes when the preacher catches him. At night, police bulldoze the shantytown and attack its fleeing inhabitants. In the morning, Nada finds the church empty, but procures the hidden box. At an alleyway, he stashes it, finding it full of black sunglasses and taking a pair.
We live like creatures
We love like homicide
We'll write your future
Control both space and time
We control reality
We control your chemistry, baby
Rearrange anatomy
Deep within these shadows we're alive
Look at all these imbeciles
Shaking hands while decomposing
We've crunched these numbers
And we've found that your soul is null and void.
[Chorus:]
Come with me you pretty thing
And we'll celebrate with amputations
We've wasted everything
And now they've come to take our children.
Your secret's safe with me
I'll take it to the grave, now baby.
God help you please my dear
I'm gonna take your dead soul away.
Below these sutures
Hate flows like cyanide.
Destroy your future
Consume your everything.
We destroy reality
We control your chemistry, baby.
Rearrange mortality
What we do is not your concern
[Chorus]
We live like creatures
We love like homicide
We'll write your future
Control both space and time
We live like creatures
We love like homicide
We live like creatures
When your heart broke off
Your words were cut off
Your conscience shut off
Remorse is useless now
God doesn't want us back now, baby
[x4]