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20th
Anniversary Screening!
35mm print!
John Carpenter’s
THEY
LIVE
(US,
R, 1988, 93 min)
"I have come to
kick ass and chew bubble gum...and I'm all out of
bubble gum."--John Nada
ESCAPISM is
proud to include John Carpenter’s kick-ass satire
of 80’s Reagonomics and alien invasion flicks! An
economic crisis brings unemployed Nada (Roddy Piper) to L.A. in search
of work. What he finds instead is that the ruling elite of
the world are aliens in disguise, their aim being to keep humans in a
state of mindless consumerism. His discovery comes when he
dons a pair of special sunglasses made by a resistance group and sees
for the first time reality unadorned. Billboards, store
signs, magazine covers--all bear subliminal messages (“OBEY,
CONSUME, NO INDEPENDENT THOUGHT.”) Money itself
reads, “THIS IS YOUR GOD.” But worst of
all, with these glasses you can see that most government officials are
really hideous, bug-eyed aliens! John Carpenter laces the
film with his trademark blend of humor and horror, making aliens that
are hideously arrogant, greedy, and easy to hate, while the humans are
confused and desperate in their struggle against them.
You’ll never look at billboards, money, or sunglasses the
same way again. Special Trivia: The fight scene between Roddy
Piper and Keith David lasts over eight minutes, making it the longest
single fistfight scene in cinema history outside of boxing movies.
Viewer’s
Guide: Violence, language, brief nudity.
SCREENINGS - Friday at 7:00 p.m., Saturday at 5:20 p.m. & Sunday at 9:40 p.m.
OFFICIAL SITE
SEE THE
TRAILER
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