They Live
You see them on the street. You watch them on TV. You might even vote for one this fall. You think they're people just like you. You're wrong. Dead wrong.
Synopsis
They Live (1988) is John Carpenter's sci-fi action cult film you can watch online on iFILM. Drifter John Nada picks up a pair of sunglasses at a construction site. One look through them and the whole city changes.
Billboards now read "Obey" and "Sleep." The faces of politicians and executives are bare, grinning skulls. Aliens have been running human society for years, hiding in plain sight and pumping subliminal commands through every screen and print ad. Roddy Piper plays Nada, a man with nothing to lose and one pair of glasses that makes him the most dangerous person alive. Keith David is his reluctant partner Frank, who needs a convincing argument — and quite a long back-alley brawl — before he'll put the glasses on.
Carpenter shot the whole film for four million dollars as a direct broadside at Reagan-era consumerism. The six-minute fight between Nada and Frank is still studied in film schools for its raw, unbroken blocking. Stream They Live (1988) online on iFILM.
Starring
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