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. Starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster, the film follows an unnamed drifter who discovers through special sunglasses that the ruling class are aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to consume, breed, and conform to the status quo via subliminal messages in mass media.
