Frame by Frame: They Live

The reveal, that moment when a movie shows us the truth about what's going on. In the right hands, this is the most powerful scene of the story.

Directed by John Carpenter, They Live is the story of a homeless drifter named John Nada who learns aliens are using subliminal messaging to brainwash and control humanity. The bug-eyed aliens exploit Earth as its own Third World, keeping most people in poverty while they enrich themselves and pillage the planet. Any similarities to Reaganomics and rampant consumerism are completely intentional.

Nada learns the truth when he finds a pair of sunglasses. When he puts them on, he sees the truth buried beneath the facade, and this moment, this revelation, is a wonderfully eerie and effective moment.

Let's break it down.

The sequence, which takes place right after Nada finds the glasses, begins as he walks into frame from the left. The shot opens, if that's the correct word, wide with him carrying the glasses. After a while, he puts them on.

I question whether "opens" is appropriate because even though this is a Los Angeles sidewalk, it is very confining, almost claustrophobic. A building wall on the left, a mailbox on the right, and a bus turns up to block the background. 

The frame is packed with obstructions. Nada, whose head brushes the top of the frame and feet hit the bottom, looks trapped among all these people going about their day.

This is appropriate. Nada is trapped by a system he is part but not aware of.

The shot becomes a high-angle point of view from Nada's perspective. He's walking, feeling down because he doesn't have answers. This shot is a nice tease because it's the first time we notice something is different when Nada has the glasses on. In this case, the image becomes black-and-white. Not exactly earth-shattering but enough to get our attention. Carpenter is accumulating us to sunglasses vision.

Also of note: a vehicle horn honks during the duration of the shot. Yes, this is a busy city street, but the honk also feels like a wakeup call, like Carpenter declaring, "Hey, pay attention! This is important."

A closeup of Nada removing the sunglasses, still looking down. We feel his confusion. Did he - and by extension us - really see the sidewalk in black and white? This scene uses a lot of closeups, keeping us up close and personal with Nada, helping us identify with him and what he's feeling as he tries to figure out what's going on.

A point of view shot of the same strip of sidewalk. Without the sunglasses, Nada sees the colors restored.

Another closeup of Nada, still confused. He turns to the right side of the screen, curious, and looks off frame as he puts the glasses back on.

Another black-and-white point of view shot in sunglasses vision, but this is a low angle shot. This "OBEY" sign looks overwhelming and imposing, almost frightening. No sky, no open space, no warmth.

Surrounded by the sharp, defined angles of the buildings around, it practically cuts the person looking at it. Carpenter set us up with the shot of the sidewalk, and now, he's punching us. 

Another background sound: squeaking tires as an unseen vehicle screeches to a halt. Again, Carpenter is subtly cuing the viewer to stop and take notice.

Another closeup, Nada removes the glasses, faster, more urgently. He's getting freaked out, and who can blame him?

Another POV of the sign, this time without the glasses. It's a computer ad with the words "We're creating the transparent computer environment" in the middle and near the bottom "Control Data." How ironic and fitting. The sign is the illusion; it's not creating transparency, and it is being used to control the sensory information of the people who see it.

Interestingly, the sign and the building do look intimidating and overwhelming in color. Modern billboard advertising is strange when you think about it. It's not comforting or friendly. It commands people to buy. Satire only needs to be one step beyond reality to make its point.

Also of note, with the color back, we can see some plants near the right-hand side of the frame, boxed in by the architecture. The natural world is being squeezed out, extinguished by the encroaching modern, alien city. These aliens want to control all life, human and plant.

Another closeup of Nada putting on the glasses.

Another wide, low-angle shot of the sign in black and white revealing its hidden message. That's right, John. You are seeing that.

Closeup of Nada taking off his glasses.

Another shot of the facade. A bit redundant, but Carpenter is drawing the moment out. He wants to be sure the audience understands what's going on before he moves on. If viewers don't grasp what the sunglasses do, this scene would not make an impact.

Nada rubs his head in a closeup. We learn later removing the sunglasses causes headaches in the user, but for now, Nada has to be wondering if he's hallucinating.

Another wide, low-angle point-of-view shot, this time of a different building sign, and this one is more pleasing to the eye: a Caribbean vacation featuring a woman lounging on the beach in a bikini along with the words "Come to the... Caribbean." Sex sells. The implicit message of this sign is take a vacation and you will get to have sex with beautiful women. Come to the Caribbean ... and cum.

The ad itself is better looking than the last, but still, the shot feels off. We finally see some sky, but it's gray, overcast, and likely polluted. More sharp, jagged building angles that feel unnatural. Again, the building is tall, looming, overwhelming. There seems to be an implied threat to people who look at it.

Another Nada closeup. He puts the glasses on, slowly. He's thinking, not just reacting. We see his mind processing.

Another black-and-white point of view shot. This time, we see the lens of the sunglasses moving across the frame, replacing the colored ad with the real message: "Marry and Reproduce." Again, further elaborating how the glasses work. We also see the lens come off, bringing back the color.

Another closeup of Nada, stunned, afraid. Roddy Piper was a legendary professional wrestler, and as Nada, he's a big part of why this scene works. He's a strong, tough-looking son of a gun who has not backed down from anything. If he's shocked and overwhelmed, that means something. 

Finally some breathing room. A medium of shot of Nada as he walks toward us. Compared to the opening wide shot, this shot is more relaxed. There are fewer people, and space has opened behind the mailbox, revealing the previously unseen street. If the truth shall set you free, then some truth gives you some wiggle room.

In the background, the frame cuts off a street sign, so we only see the word, "Only." Nada is the only person who sees all this. He and an Asian woman nearly bump into each other. Nada has just uncovered something that shatters everything he thought he understood about reality... and the world at-large continues uninterrupted. Nada is all alone.

But soon enough, the restraints return. The claustrophobic closeup returns when Nada reaches the front of the frame and gazes up. He doesn't look confused. He looks suspicious

Another POV shot, this time of a shop sign: "Armisi's Men's Apparel."

Closeup: Nada puts the glasses on.

Another sign, another low-angle black-and-white shot: "No Independent Thought." It's not just giant billboards these messages are on. Off-screen, someone whistles for a cab.

Closeup: Nada glances down.

POV in sunglasses vision. A sign that says "Consume."

Closeup: Nada removes the glass.

POV in normal vision: "Close Out Sale."

Closeup: Nada looks away from the shop window sign and stares almost right at us. He puts on the glasses. Time for the money shot.

A wide shot of the cityscape, and the subliminal signs are everywhere: "Obey," "Consume," "Watch TV," etc. We don't see any people, just tiny cars moving in traffic. The only living things are those small, barely visible trees. Some of the signs are cut off by the frame, suggesting the signs continue to go on. We also see strange satellite dishes, which are revealed later to be sending subaural suggestions. 

It's not just one sign or one street. It's the whole world. To use the parlance of our time, Nada is officially "woke."

What's amazing about this sequence is how simply and efficiently Carpenter constructs it. There's not much camera movement. It exists mostly as a series of cuts from Nada's face to what he's looking at, and Carpenter weaves an alienating and disorienting effect without confusing the audience.

Carpenter is careful about the geometry of the scene. Nada is our visual anchor. We always know where he is in relation to everything else. Everywhere he looks, he sees the subliminal signs; they overwhelm.

The switching back and forth from color to black and white photography also. It's a simple method, but it clearly delineates when Nada wears the sunglasses and when he's not. Plus, black and white is just spooky. Our modern world is full of color, especially advertising. Black and white is stark. The colors are a mask for the real truth of advertising: they control us.

Carpenter dissects the messages inside and out. Sometimes we see the false image first, followed by the hidden one. Sometimes it's the other way around, but it's never confusing. We see the image change as the lens moves across it. Carpenter makes it clear the glasses control what we see.

He also takes his time. Carpenter does not rush or underline the scene with frantic editing. He lets the images breathe so the viewer can absorb them. The aliens have lulled humanity into a sort of waking sleep, but now, with the glasses, Nada is slowly waking, wondering what's going on.

The stillness and the silence are eerie. There's no music underlying what we should feel. The only noise is the ambient background of the city. Carpenter drops us in the middle of a nightmare and forces us to stop, watch, listen, and most importantly, think.