John Carpenter’s movies are famously politically charged, having taken on conversations about police violence, colonialism, governmental treachery and in the case of THEY LIVE (1988), a mocking satire of Reagan-era policies in which a homeless man discovers aliens are secretly working with the ultra rich to overtake the citizens of Earth.

Nada arrives in LA homeless and in search of work. After securing a gig in construction, he makes connections leading him to a secret meeting in a church where he finds sunglasses that when worn, reveal something unimaginable: the world around him is slowly being taken over by  hideous aliens disguised as humans who use subliminal media messaging and surveillance drones to control unwitting citizens. Nada joins forces with his friends and later a larger human resistance movement to destroy the source of the alien takeover.