They Live story
They Live is a 1988 American science fiction film written and directed by John Carpenter, and based on the 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson. It follows an unnamed drifter played by Roddy Piper, who discovers that the ruling class are aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to spend money, breed, and accept the status quo with subliminal messages in mass media.
10 total · 7 major · 3 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| extraterrestrial being | major | Aliens has insinuated them selves as Earth's ruling class. |
| mass consumerism | major | Aliens were manipulating society through the mass media to make people accept the status quo of mass consumerism. |
| mass media in society | major | Aliens used the mass media to control people in society. |
| mind controlled society | major | Aliens, who had insinuated themselves as the ruling class, used ubiquitous subliminal messages to control people. |
| social inequality | major | Aliens were manipulating society through the mass media to make people accept the status quo of social inequality. |
| subversive life form from outer space | major | Aliens, who were living as the ruling class, were secretly manipulating society using subliminal messages to accept the status quo and conform to have everyone serve them. |
| what if I saw strange things no one else could see | major | An unnamed drifter was able to see subliminal messages that aliens were using to control people when he wore special sun glasses. |
| police brutality | minor | The police administered beatings during a razing of a shanty town. |
| speculative subliminal stimuli | minor | Aliens, who were living as the ruling class, were secretly manipulating society using subliminal messages to accept the status quo and conform to have everyone serve them. |
| what it is like to be homeless | minor | An unnamed drifter took up abode in a homeless people shanty town upon arriving in a new city. |