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[[File:they-live-alien_2737.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|'''''[[Title Drop|THEY LIVE]] WE SLEEP'''''
|''Resistance Graffiti''}}
Nada is a drifting construction worker, played by wrestler "Rowdy" [[Roddy Piper]]. He arrives in a new town, and finds a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see that not only are aliens living among us, they have hidden [[Subliminal Seduction|subliminal messages]] urging humans to conform, consume and reproduce in all media. Nada sets out to make sense of what the sunglasses are showing him, leading to several action scenes, and an incredibly long fist-fight with Nada's construction worker friend, Frank ([[Keith David]]). Eventually, Frank and Nada find an underground movement set on exposing the aliens and freeing humanity, and join in their efforts.
'''''They Live!''''' is a 1988 action movie that was directed by [[John Carpenter]]. While in the U.S. it's mainly considered another cheesy actioner from [[The Eighties]], the movie is an intriguing exercise in criticizing the Reaganomics and the deregulatory liberalism of the decade through one of its pet products: the (apparently) brainless action/sci-fi movie. In Europe, lots of critics have sung praises of this movie, often quoting the "put on the glasses" brawl between Rowdy and Keith as one of the best one-on-one physical duels ever committed to cinema and was parodied shot for shot in an episode of [[South Park]].
The movie also sports [[Chew Bubblegum|that one particularly awesome line]], which has been borrowed, quoted and subverted many times over.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Actually Pretty Funny
* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: It's based on a short story. A "true" adaptation would have been about 15 minutes long.
* [[Aliens Made Them Do It]]: One of the themes of the subliminal messages is encouraging humans to reproduce.
* [[Ancient Conspiracy]]
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* [[The Eighties]]: If Carpenter is right, we can blame the whole decade on the pernicious influence of an alien conspiracy and their human collaborators...
** Also, according to Carpenter, the extra long fist fight was put in to deliberately avoid the invincible action hero that was so prevalent in the 80's.
* [[Eye Scream
* [[Flipping the Bird]]: Nada gets one right before the ending.
* [[Gadget Watches]]: The aliens' wristwatches, which work as a communication device and as an emergency teleporter.
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* [[The Mole]]: {{spoiler|Holly}}.
*[[Man Bites Man]]: During the fight, when Frank has Nada pinned to the ground, Nada tries to push him off. Causing Frank to bite his hand.
* [[Nice Guy]]
* [[Non-Actor Vehicle]]: Roddy Piper.
* [[No Name Given]]: "Nada" is just Roddy's placeholder in the credits, which is also the name of the character in the short story. His character's name is never revealed, as John Carpenter thought of him as an entirely-anonymous manual laborer. It also doubles as [[Meaningful Name]] in some languages, since "Nada" is the Spanish word for "Nothing", and the Croatian-Serb word for "Hope".
* [[Not What It Looks Like]]
{{Quote|'''Nada:''' I have come here, to chew bubble gum and kick ass.....And I'm all out of bubble gum.}}
* [[Overly Long Gag]]: The fight scene.
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{{quote|''"Put the glasses on! PUT 'EM ON!"''}}
* [[Shout-Out]]: One of Nada's earlier lines in the film is ''[[The Godfather|"I believe in America"]]'' - and if anything, it's more grimly ironic here than it was the first time...
* [[Take That, Critics!]]: The second-to-last shot; after {{spoiler|the aliens' satellite is destroyed and reveals their true faces}}, the shot shows [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|alien proxies]] for [[Roger Ebert|Siskel
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Many examples, but the main character in particular points a big fat arrow at himself by pointing out hidden aliens. It's [[Hand Wave|hand-waved]] later when he says that wearing the shades for too long is like being on drugs, which would explain his lack of subtlety.
* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: Nada learns to use all kinds of firearms, evolving from a normal placeholder into [[The Gunslinger|a gunslinger]].
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