They Live

A drifter named John Nada shows up in a sunbaked city with nothing but a backpack and an eye for oddities. He stumbles into a hidden pair of sunglasses that make the everyday world look different, exposing a layer of reality most people never see. Through those lenses he recognizes that many ordinary faces are really something else, and that advertising, media, and the elite keep the public placid and distracted. Nada links up with a few skeptical allies to try to expose what the glasses reveal, and what starts as survival turns into a quest to wake people up without giving away key surprises.

John Carpenter directed the film, which came out in 1988, and it was adapted from material by Ray Nelson. The cast includes Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster, and the production reflects Carpenter's economical, genre-conscious style.

The picture earned a modest theatrical reception, then grew a larger audience on home video and cable. It didn't dominate box office charts at release, but its afterlife on video helped secure steady fan interest.

They've stuck in pop culture because of vivid imagery and a few unforgettable set pieces, especially a famously long fight sequence between the leads. The concept of special glasses that reveal a hidden social order has been referenced in music, comics, internet memes, and protests, and the film's visual shorthand has inspired filmmakers and artists who riff on media control.

Critics' views were mixed to positive at first, and the film's reputation has improved over time, now often praised by genre fans. It holds roughly a 7.3/10 user rating based on over 3,300 votes, and viewers point to its satire of consumerism, its take on propaganda and conformity, and its blunt, physical action as the main ingredients that keep people talking about it decades later.