Sci-fi movie ads No.1: They Live

Martin Anderson

Published on Jan 5, 2009

Roddy Piper is the hard-working drifter who finds a pair of sunglasses that reveal the true nature of the military-industrial hegemony in John Carpenter's increasingly relevant SF actioner. The joy of this scene is the leisurely way in which a horrified Piper tries to comprehend that the world is full of subliminal messages advocating the subservience of the human race to the now-revealed creatures who are in charge of everything. Children Of Men (see above) producer Marc Abraham is behind the 2011 remake. Acclaimed street artist Shepard Fairey got his 'Obey' motif from the underlying subliminal messages in They Live.