They Live (titled onscreen as John Carpenter's They Live) is a 1988 American science-fiction action horror film written and directed by John Carpenter, based on the 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson, and starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster. It follows an unnamed drifter who discovers through special sunglasses 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.

Plot

A drifter, credited mononymously as "Nada", arrives in Los Angeles. While out on the street, he sees a street preacher warning that “they” have recruited the rich and powerful to control humanity. Nada takes a job on a construction site and befriends fellow construction worker Frank, who leads him to a shanty town soup kitchen and its leader, Gilbert.