Beloved, R-Rated 80s Sci-Fi Is Being Hidden To Keep You From Seeing Its Warning

By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago

John Carpenter may be best known for timeless horror classics like Halloween and The Thing, and rightfully so, but I’m extremely disappointed to find out that one of his best works, 1988’s They Live, is being brushed under the rug. Only available through on-demand purchases, the messaging in They Live is more prescient than ever, and it’s a shame that the average movie watcher doesn’t have easy access to this satirical, dystopian sci-fi masterpiece.

With its blatant themes against consumerism and conformity, They Live is a valid entry in Carpenter’s extensive catalog that needs to be witnessed by anybody who’s tired of being manipulated by the media they consume every day, the very media that tells them to be happy with the status quo instead of thinking for themselves.

Maybe that’s why They Live is hidden behind a paywall. Perhaps the truths about the American corporatocracy that Carpenter was trying to expose through his satire are just a little too on-the-nose for a modern audience to handle. Or maybe it’s a rights issue. Whatever reason you can’t stream the title is irrelevant because the real problem is that we’re losing this cult classic to time thanks to its availability issues.

Nothing Is How It Seems

They Live centers on Roddy Piper’s Nada, a transient who arrives in Los Angeles looking for work after a string of bad luck. He quickly picks up a construction job and befriends Frank (Keith David), a homeless man stuck in similar dire financial straits.

Frank leads Nada to his tent community, where other down-on-their-luck citizens hold up between shifts for a place to rest and grab a bite to eat. While roaming the community, Nada discovers that the community leader, Gilbert (Peter Jason), disappears into a neighboring church with the shantytown’s preacher (Raymond St. Jacques), and decides to follow them.

Nada learns that the church is a front hiding a dark secret in the form of a human resistance fighting alien overlords who are colluding with the government and corporations to keep humanity blissfully ignorant. The resistance hijacks the news feed to subliminally inform humans that they’re puppets having their strings pulled by the powers that be. Before the church is raided by government goons, Nada narrowly escapes with a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the world for what it really is, a hotbed of political propaganda built on complacency and conformity so the aliens can quietly take over and throttle Earth’s resources for their own personal gain.

It Takes Two To Tango

Now that Nada knows what’s truly at stake in They Live, the only thing he can do is find somebody who will believe his startling discovery. He meets Holly Thompson (Meg Foster) after his first brawl with the aliens, but she refuses to buy in and throws him out a window for dramatic effect. Frank, who wants nothing to do with Nada’s wild theory that nothing is what it seems, ruthlessly fights him off when Nada tries to force the glasses onto his face to prove it’s not all in his head. When they both finally come to their senses, it becomes clear that it’s only a matter of time before the alien uprising destroys humanity while everyone goes about their day, blissfully unaware of the dangerous manipulation at the hands of their corporate overlords.

As the film reaches its climax, it reveals just how far the conspiracy against the masses goes, and at this point, there’s no turning back. It’s up to Nada to figure out how to wake everybody up, even if it costs him his life.

Watching They Live

As timely as the subject matter in They Live feels against today’s socio-political backdrop, it’s nowhere to be found on streaming and only available through on-demand purchases. In my mind, this John Carpenter entry is essential viewing in the same way that George Orwell’s 1984 is essential reading.

It’s over the top with its paranoia, but its messaging is loud and clear: conformity and complacency are traps, fabricated to keep us consuming and producing as a means to sustain the ruling class. If you’re looking to break free from society’s shackles of expectation, you owe it to yourself to watch They Live, if not purely for entertainment, then for a crash course on how to handle yourself when your eyes finally open and you can see clearly when it matters most.

As of this writing, They Live is available on-demand through Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Fandango At Home.