What if it really is "Aliens Among Us"? Or John Carpenter's most underrated sci-fi film

Imagine a world where climate change is destroying the planet, where law enforcement brutality is ubiquitous, and only a handful of the rich enjoy comfort and stability. In 1988, John Carpenter took a look at the world as he saw it and turned it into a terrifying sci-fi thriller with a touch of absurdity.

In 2024, the cult film They Live Again seems even more relevant, and watching it today could be even more impactful than it was back then.

Thirty-six years ago, in the late fall of 1988, They Live and They Live first hit screens and made us realize that, yes, there is something very, very scary about everyday life.

"Consume", "buy" and other valuable instructions from aliens — “Consume”, “Buy” and other valuable instructions from aliens

Context

“They Live” is based on Ray Nelson's short story “Eight O'Clock in the Morning,” which was published in the November 1963 issue of Science Fiction & Fantasy, just a month before the first Dune installment, “The World of Dune,” was published in Analog. Incidentally, the story was accompanied by works by respected authors Roger Zelazny and Isaac Asimov.

"Fantasy and Science Fiction"November 1963 — “Fantasy and Science Fiction”, November 1963

In print, science fiction became increasingly experimental in the 1960s, with more explicit and complex political commentary combined with a more literary and sometimes less literal aesthetic. If Nelson's story can be classified as belonging to a subgenre, it is best seen in close relation to some of Philip K. Dick's short stories from the 1950s.

In both the film and the short story, the atmosphere of They Live Among Us is reminiscent of what you’d find in Dick’s work. A paranoid loner who discovers a terrible alien conspiracy at the root of all the world’s ills could easily characterize about 80 percent of Philip K. Dick’s (or Harlan Ellison’s) short stories, so it’s no surprise that They Live Among Us became a hit in the 1980s, the same era that saw the release of feature films like Blade Runner (1982) and The Terminator (1984) — films that were inspired by older science fiction.

But what makes They Live Among Us perhaps more interesting than those two films is that it is deliberately devoid of an escapist quality. John Carpenter's cinematic style in They Live Among Us makes the rough edges of Blade Runner and The Terminator seem forced and polished.

Residents of other planets also love earthly classics

Plot

George Nada is a homeless American who comes to Los Angeles looking for work. The economy is in recession and poor people live in slums. Nada finds work at a construction site where she meets Frank Armitage. Frank takes Nada to the slums where they are fed by volunteers. Nada notices strange things happening at a church where she discovers that the “choir singing” is a recording and that there are scientific installations throughout the building.

Frank: I walk on the white line all the time. I don't bother anyone. No one bothers me. You better start doing the same!
Nada: The white stripe in the middle of the road. It's the worst place to drive.

At night, the police surround the church, dispersing the people and destroying the slums. Nada returns the next day, finds a box of cheap glasses similar to the ones the people in the church were wearing. Putting them on, he sees the world in shades of gray, with motivational slogans: “OBEY”, “CONSUME”, “BE FRUITFUL”, and so on.

Comfortable urban environment as imagined by aliens in 1988

Upon entering a supermarket, Nada encounters a humanoid and realizes that many of the people around him are also aliens. Nada goes to a bank, where he utters the famous phrase: “I came to chew gum and kick ass… and I chewed my gum.” He goes on a shooting spree, killing aliens.

Escaping pursuit, the hero captures a woman, Holly, and forces her to take him to her home. There, Nada tries to prove her case, but she slips him a TV and throws it out the window. The next morning, he tries to meet Frank, who at first does not believe, but then puts on glasses and also sees aliens. They contact the resistance and learn about a signal that controls people.

When the police attack the resistance camp, Nada and Frank escape into the underground tunnels where they find the source of the signal. Freed from the aliens, they plan to disable the signal, but know it is a suicide mission.

On the roof, Nada confronts Holly, who turns out to be a traitor, causing her to kill Frank. Nada, feeling his life is ending, kills Holly and destroys the antenna. As he dies, he gives the aliens the middle finger.

With the signal destroyed, people in Los Angeles begin to realize that aliens are among them and the world changes.

Magic sunglasses can't reveal evil people

This film starts with a solid foundation in reality, including characters who don't look like movie stars. Wrestling star Roddy Piper plays the title character, Nada, with just the right amount of undercurrent pathos and a certain realistic absurdity.

Even if you've never SUDDENLY seen They Live, you've probably heard the line, “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I'm all out of bubblegum.” This line was improvised by Piper, and is, in a way, a continuation of an earlier line where he outright says, “It figures it'd be something like this.” The “something like this” he's referring to is the fact that the ruling class of humans on Earth are actually all creepy aliens with hideous skeletal faces. To see their true nature, you need a special pair of sunglasses that turn the world into black and white and reveal basic truths about how humans are manipulated by the media, the government, and each other.

Holly (Meg Foster) plays her game, and by the end of the film we realize that the aliens couldn't have conquered the world without the help of humans. Holly's transformation at the climax of the film is not only shocking, but also connects her behavior in all the previous scenes.

Creation

As stated earlier, the idea for They Live is based on Ray Nelson's 1963 short story “Eight in the Morning”. Nelson and artist Bill Urey subsequently adapted it into a story called “Nada”, which was published in the comic book anthology Alien Encounters in April 1986. John Carpenter describes Nelson's short story as “a DOA-type story in which a man is put into a trance by a stage hypnotist. When he wakes up, he realizes that the entire human race has been hypnotized and alien beings are controlling humanity. He only has until eight in the morning to solve the problem.” Carpenter acquired the film rights to both the comic and the short story and wrote a screenplay using Nelson's story as the basis for the film's structure.

Because the script was a product of many sources—a short story, a comic book, and input from the cast and crew—Carpenter decided to use the pseudonym “Frank Armitage,” a reference to one of the director's favorite writers, H. P. Lovecraft.

For the role of Nada, Carpenter cast professional wrestler Roddy Piper, whom he had met at WrestleMania III in early 1987. It was an easy choice for Carpenter: “Unlike most Hollywood actors, Roddy has life written into him.” Carpenter had been impressed by Keith David's performance in The Thing and was looking for someone “who wouldn't be a traditional sidekick but could hold his own.” To that end, Carpenter wrote the role of Frank specifically for David.