10 Great Sci-Fi Movies Where The Aliens Walk Among Us
2. They Live
It might seem to some that featuring two movies by John Carpenter is over-indulging the director a little, but few films have increased their status as a cult classic in recent years as his 1988 movie They Live, widely considered to be far more prescient today than it was on its release. They Live follows a drifter by the name of Nada (played by former wrestler Roddy Piper) as he looks for work on a construction site and befriends Frank Armitage (Keith David). After discovering a box of sunglasses in a seemingly abandoned church, he puts a pair on and they reveal a black and white world where the billboards contain ominous messages instructing people to "Obey" and "Consume", while people in positions of power and authority are actually humanoid aliens with skull-like faces. He soon hooks up with a group of underground activists and freedom fighters, who inform him that Earth is under the control of an alien race who intend to deplete it of all its resources while using advanced technology to keep humanity in a subliminal state of ignorance. With its themes of mindless consumerism, environmental degradation and the cold, psychopathic hidden side to the ruling elites, it's clear why They Live has transformed itself into something of a cultural meme in today's society, increasingly skeptical of the power-that-be as many people have become. It also features one of the most entertainingly silly and protracted fight scenes ever committed to film as well as one of the best ad-libbed lines in science fiction, "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum". What more could you ask for?
