They Live
You see them on the street. You watch them on TV. You might even vote for one this fall. You think they're people just like you. You're wrong. Dead wrong.
A lone drifter stumbles upon a unique pair of sunglasses that reveal aliens are systematically gaining control of the Earth by masquerading as humans and lulling the public into submission.
- Director
- John Carpenter
- Signature
- Tension · Craft · Wonder
- Worldwide
- $13M
Who's in it
Cast
The billed ensemble, with character names. Open any performer for their Nutevio filmography.
The Nutevio profile
Movie DNA
How They Live actually feels to watch, measured on the twelve traits our editors track across every Nutevio title.
Perfect if you enjoyed
Story overview
What It's About
Spoiler-free. Read the analysis below for the full argument.
A lone drifter stumbles upon a unique pair of sunglasses that reveal aliens are systematically gaining control of the Earth by masquerading as humans and lulling the public into submission.
Where to watch
Streaming
Availability verified against regional listings.
Checking regional listings…
The numbers
Box Office & Release
They Live returned 3.3× its budget worldwide.
- Budget
- $4M
- Opening weekend
- —
- Domestic gross
- —
- International gross
- —
- Worldwide gross
- $13M
- Release date
- Nov 4, 1988
- Runtime
- 1h 33m
- MPAA rating
- R
- Language
- English
- Country
- United States of America
Figures from the verified production record. Fields we cannot source are left blank rather than estimated.
Watch
