: The film’s visual style—black-and-white "truth" vs. colorful "illusion"—critiques the neoliberal ideologies and mass media manipulation of the 1980s.
Watch how the film's iconic sunglasses reveal the chilling reality of subliminal mind control: They Live
: Through the glasses, seemingly normal people are revealed to be skeletal-faced extraterrestrials. Glossy advertisements and magazines are shown to contain blunt, black-and-white subliminal commands such as "OBEY," "CONSUME," "MARRY AND REPRODUCE," and "STAY ASLEEP" . : The film’s visual style—black-and-white "truth" vs
Los Angeles, Nada (Roddy Piper) finds a pair of special sunglasses that strip away the "mask" of reality. black-and-white subliminal commands such as "OBEY
: The film features a legendary, six-minute-long back-alley brawl between Nada and Frank, which John Carpenter designed to show the grueling difficulty of convincing someone to see an uncomfortable truth.