John Carpenter's 1988 opus They Live is a scathing indictment of capitalism and the
culture of greed masquerading as a B movie about invading aliens.
It stars professional wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper as a homeless laborer whose world is
turned upside down when he finds a box of special sunglasses that allow the wearer to
see the truth about subliminal messaging forcing humanity to OBEY.
It’s one of Carpenter's greatest films, but grab a pair of Hoffman lenses for yourself
to see the truth that even hardcore fans may not know about They Live.
H.P.
Lovecraft, Ray Nelson, and Richard Armitage
Sharp-eyed viewers may have noticed that the screenplay is credited to Frank Armitage,
which happens to be the same name as Keith David's character.
This, of course, is a pseudonym.
Carpenter wrote the screenplay but felt it was enough of a collaborative effort with
his future wife Sandy King, and Roddy Piper as well, that he didn’t take sole credit.
Instead, he lifted the name “Armitage” from The Dunwich Horror, a classic story by
H.P.
Lovecraft, whose work often involved characters being driven mad by discovering hidden truths.
Lovecraft wasn’t the direct inspiration for They Live, though.
Instead, Carpenter drew from another short story: Ray Nelson's "Eight O'Clock in the
Morning."
Published in 1963, and turned into a comic book in 1986, it features a character named
Nada who awakens to the fact that the world is secretly being run by snake-like aliens
who control humanity's thoughts and actions.
While many of the story's elements would later make it to the screen, Carpenter wisely added
a few tweaks to the plot and changed a few elements to make it more believable.
Or at least as believable as a story about magic sunglasses that let you see aliens can
be.
“I’m givin’ you a choice, either put on these glasses, or start eating that trash
can.”
The Man With No Name
Like the lead character of Nelson’s short story, Roddy Piper’s character is called
“Nada” because he is meant to be a blank slate everyman.
He is given very little backstory and is never referred to by his name in the film even once,
with “Nada” only appearing in the credits.
In the years since, though, Carpenter has let it slip that the character's first name
is John, and that he indeed has an extensive backstory, even if the filmmaker himself doesn't
know what it is.
“I’ve had a rough couple of days.”
In an interview, Carpenter revealed that only one man knew Nada’s full origin story: Roddy
Piper.
Before filming, Carpenter asked Piper to come up with a backstory on his own, and further
told him to never share what it was with the director, to lend his character more authenticity.
True to his word, Piper never went on the record before his untimely death in 2015,
meaning that Nada will always be what Carpenter intended: a mystery to everyone, even the
man who wrote and directed the movie.
The most brutal brawl in cinema history
At nearly six minutes long, the iconic alleyway fight between Nada and Frank is one of the
most celebrated brawls in film history.
It's been endlessly referenced, quoted and parodied, and it’s inevitably brought up
as a point of comparison every time new contender for the "best fight scene of all time" emerges.
“...Oh man, I’m sorry!”
With the idea of creating a fight scene that would be completely unique in films, Carpenter
turned to stunt coordinator Jeff Imada, whose work can be seen in action movies like Lethal
Weapon, The Bourne Conspiracy, and Furious 7, and to Piper, drawing on his experience
as a professional wrestler.
The result speaks for itself, but David complimented Piper on helping to make the film more realistic,
while Piper’s assessment of David makes it clear that he’s no slouch either.
"This guy hits like a mule!”
He's all out of bubblegum
Soon after Nada's unpleasant discovery about the world around him, he has a scuffle with
a pair of cops and manages to get away with one of their shotguns by ducking into a building,
which turns out to be a bank.
As the patrons react to Nada with his shades and shotgun, he utters one of the all-time
classic badass lines in cinema history:
“I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass … and I'm all out of bubblegum.”
The line has been embedded in pop culture ever since, but it wasn't Carpenter's creation,
it came directly from Piper.
According to Carpenter, Piper carried a book full of one-liners that he’d use in his
wrestling promos, and while he was writing the script, Carpenter lifted the best one
for the scene.
It’s just a shame he never got to use that one on Hulk Hogan.
Sticking it to Reagan
Carpenter's choice to make his heroes down-on-their-luck homeless men up against alien invaders who
all seem to be rich yuppies (and, more frighteningly, politicians) underlines the film's ultimate
message, which should be even clearer today than it was 30 years ago.
Carpenter has gone as far as calling it a documentary about the exploitation of the
poor by the upper class and an indictment of the rampant economic inequality that makes
it possible, and even filmed the opening in an actual homeless settlement, paying the
residents as extras.
If Carpenter intended They Live to be a ballistic missile lobbed at '80s materialism and excess,
he's never been shy about who he saw as the ultimate symbol of that excess: President
Ronald Reagan.
Speaking with Starlog around the time of the film's release, Carpenter was clear on this
point, calling the president and his cabinet "a bunch of crooks.”
In the years since, Carpenter has been happy to elaborate on his contempt for Reagan whenever
given the opportunity.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2013, Carpenter said that he’d “decided
I had to make a statement … and that's They Live,” citing the literal and figurative
way that it “was giving the finger to Reagan when nobody else would."