This is one of those movies I will not pass up when it comes up on the cable menu. If only to see the part where Roddy gets so pissed, he goes full Canadian accent on us.

Definitely a goodie, but 1988 was at the end of the Reagan Admin, teeing up for Bush 1.

one of the Greatest under-rated sci-fi movies of all time!

Definitely one of the greatest fight scenes in a movie, between Roddy and his bud in the back alley. Also, it may be only me but this embedded video has some serious stutter issues.

Man, I love this movie. It was on the other day and my wife and I had to watch it.

This is EXACTLY how I felt during the last few elections. Exactly.

The scene were he tries to convince his friend to put on the glasses is one of the best fight scenes in the history of film.

leave us not forget that this movie has the single greatest fight scene ever. EVER. simply not open for debate.

+ Watch video

The movie is based on a cool short story called "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson.
[www.geocities.com]

The aliens are called the "Fascinators"!! I love that.

"This is your god" was actually considered to be implemented into the new bills. Unfortunately, they found it hard to get the money to leave the mint.

Let us not forget perhaps the finest one-liner ever.

"I am here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I am all out of bubblegum."

One of Carpenter's best.

Another alien movie, The Hidden is also excellent.

1988.

Though it would interesting to know when the short fiction was written and set into begin with.

@zerofritz: And let us not forget that the Timmy-Jimmy fight was choreographed scene for scene from THAT fight scene. CRIPPLE FIGHT!!!!

+ Watch video

Love this movie. Always have.

Want to hear something creepy? I was looking at the Coke website, where you can collect points to get worthless crap, and this little ad for Sprite pops up at the bottom of my screen. Except all I see is the animated gif flash the word "OBEY" out of the corner of my eye, and when I look again it's gone. Totally creeped me out.

I eventually reloaded it and managed to get a screen shot: [fileserver1.jpghosting.com]

This movie is win.

I watched this movie with my dad when I was 6 years old. I spent the next few months walking around with my little Ray Bans chewing bubble gum, and looking for hidden messages everywhere.

/where's the special edition DVD?

It sure explains a lot though, you know?

It's one single thing that provides a cohesive explanation for all the insanity that surrounds us - why nothing about human society makes any sense at all.

Kinda reminds me of "The Arrival."

We watched it at Blockbuster during an all-nighter inventory not long after it came out. As that fight scene continued on, all of us (including the guys who'd come to clean the carpets) just stopped everything to watch. We were mesmerized.

If someone asks you to put on some sunglasses, just put them on, dammit!!

That fight scene between Roddy Piper and Keith David is pretty much real, and they did actually beat the hell out of each other. The scene was originally only going to be like 20 seconds.

@zeppelined: It's their "Sublymonal" advertising campaign. Been going on for a couple of years now. The TV spots were creepy.

I always feel sad about this movie, but it could have been great, but I felt let down at the end. I dunno, it just didn't sit right with me. Other than that, I loved Roddy Piper in it, I was surprised how good he was.

i could swear i saw another "they live" reference somewhere. it's coming back, i tell ya. one of the greatest movies ever.

i once worked at a video store for about two years. sadly, we didn't carry this movie, but we were frequently visited by a paranoid schizophrenic. he'd come in every few days, in his "members only" jacket, bad hawaiian shirt, old man pants, a single strand of purple plastic mardi-gras beads. wispy gray hair, and howard-hughes finger nails, and always carrying a newspaper. he rented EVERY movie in our action section, so we dubbed him "action man." big fan of charles bronson and bad macho shit like that.

and he'd talk. weird shit. one day, he went on for a while about the monsters out there on the streets, and how he saw a woman who was half dinosaur, and how nobody could see it but him. and how we needed more people like [generic action star], who'd kick ass and take names later.

i wanted to make him watch this movie so badly.

@Airport_Whiskey: Is this where that line comes from? Dear God, but I'm ignorant. I only know it from Duke Nukem. It felt like a reference, but...

Well. Good. I'm glad to know.

@arachnophilia: I knew a guy like that, via a convenience store I worked at. His heroes weren't action types, but stock car drivers. He believed that they traveled from planet to planet, racing, I guess, and that they were hyper-evolved. (Earth was the worst planet, Iowa was the worst place on Earth; the stock car folk got to leave.)

He was actually pretty nice. At least to me. And smart, too, once you got a handle on his lingo and symbolism.

Actually watched this for the first time last night. My god it's fantastic.

OBEY

Man, that Video Player is laggy.

Oh I can tell this is going to be a good day!

Get up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee and a cigarette, check my email, pop into io9 and see comment after comment discussing how this is one of the greatest, most underrated movies (for plot, tone, delivery, dialog, action) ever. I remember, after seeing They Live in the theater as a teenager, feeling just like Annalee - everyone HAS to see this movie!

All is right in the world.

I second 92BuickLeSabre.

And as an added bonus, this clip points out the source of the eerie political speech used in Consolidated's creepily prophetic song "Friendly Fa$ism"

"There are no limits!"

Instead of the glasses as a "truth seeing" device I'd have gone with the same basic idea of Futurama's "The Day The Earth Stood Stupid." Piper's not bright enough to be affected by the invader's advanced intelligence...

I think I'm too cynical about wrestler's in movies: the only one I ever liked was Andre the Giant in The Princess Bride, and that's 'cause he was playing to type (much like Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan.)

I always thought its was cool that Carpenter chose the pseudonym Frank Armitage as the credited writer for this film. Armitage was a character in H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror." Carpenter later explained: "Lovecraft wrote about the hidden world, the world underneath. His stories were about gods who are repressed, who were once on Earth and are now coming back. The world underneath has a great deal to do with They Live."

@zerofritz: Definitely the best "Beat-Down" in movie history. It make the film a classic.

@Zapp Brannigan's Girdle: I agree. Try to catch one on DVR or something and watch 'em frame by frame.

this post one of the reasons why this blog is great. One of the best sci-fi films ever made.

if stories are based on the truth or the interpretation thereof, then we are in trouble. if this planet goes to hell then at least we can blame the aliens. this movie still gives me nightmares. in the movie the aliens use their rolex watches to communicate, im still leary of those that wear those watches.-blurey

I'm still really broken up by the shitty way Keith David bought it. If you haven't seen it, I won't spoil it. But, it's really cheap compared to his role and all that he went through. Totally expendable.

Amazing movie. I'm going to have to get it next time I'm at the store. It really is worth having around all the time. Definite drinking-game material to be had in that film.

I remember seeing this in the the theatre and being shocked at how decent Roddy Piper was. The bank scene is fabulous.

SLEEP

I need to see this now, whenever people said "They Live" I thought it was a sequel to that flick with huge ants.

EVERYONE WITH COMCAST:

I just noticed this movie is under the "Free HD Movies" section. So now you have no excuse, go watch it! Also, I had a professor at my college show a clip of this movie in 'History of Media Arts Class". He used it to discuss conventions of POV editing, very cool stuff.

I still get a bit of the creeps whenever I see billboard ads. The underlying messages truly are Consume, Marry and Reproduce, and Obey. Um, I'm really not a paranoid person.

@radio1: Originally published in 1963.

(Went into the other room to look it up in, gasp, a BOOK))

@Git Em SteveDave: TIMMY! TIMMAAAY!

@victheremin: In the episode, you can't beat Cartman's diferent deliveries and also peoples reaction to "CRIPPLE FIGHT!!"

Cartman:"Attention shoppers, outside today we have cripple fight. Cripple fight outside" ::Shoppers cheer and run outside::

Had to pop in the dvd after seeing this thread. Love this movie.

And the aliens' plan for world domination is brought down with a single shot from a small-caliber pistol... and an upturned middle finger!

But I have to ask: why did the alien guards use Egon Spengler's Psycho-Kinetic-Energy meter for a walkie-talkie instead of those fancy watches? Did Carpenter get a clearance deal on Ghostbusters props?

You all look like that to me.

@NeoPoliticus: And I thought I was so skillful at applying makeup. Dark circles are such a bitch to cover.

@Tim Faulkner: I do so enjoy when I notice a prop from another movie used in a new movie, especially when used for an entirely different purpose.

Been a while since I've seen the movie. Was it the sunglasses that gave him the power to see the aliens, or was it that SWEET MULLET?

And just what is it about Carpenter flicks that make them so irresistable? Even the ones I've seen that underwhelmed me at first eventually grow on me if I give them another chance. I had the same delayed reaction to "Vampires," and "Big Trouble in Little China."

My favorite reversal was "Ghosts of Mars," which I was *stoked* to see; but my expectations were toooo lofty. I sat through the whole thing, but much of the time all I could think was, "Oh. Come. On!!!" It wasn't what I thought I wanted from a sci-fi/horror crossover. At all.

But I watched it again (don't ask me why), and then again, and yet again... Each successive viewing somehow made it a better movie. Is it the original score(s), or the unintentionally campy "Look at me, I'm *acting*!" performances? Or is it simply that, after such crushing disappointments, there's nowhere to go but up?

@Tim Faulkner: Probably, actually. John Carpenter works on the cheap.

What's with me? I never liked this flm. Too much soapboxing. No subtlety, no irony (except maybe the Alanis Morriette variety), no originality, painfully trite, and excruciatingly obvious.

@hageesheart: one of the other cashier jockeys developed a rapport with this guy. we could never get him to stop mumbling and proceed with the transaction, except for this one employee. and all he'd say was:

"fuckin' a."

to which action man would say "fuckin' a." and get on with it. i tried it once, and didn't work.

but everytime i see this movie, i think of this guy. and i wonder if maybe roddy piper is some paranoid delusional old man, and the whole thing is some crazy fantasy in his head.

I like how all the conspiracy theory nuts turned out to be right after all in this movie. The last of the classic Carpenter movies--this should spawn an article on how a director goes from making one great movie after the next to becoming a sad shadow of his former self.

YES! One of the greats. Highly reommended.

Recommended, too. With the "m."