They Live (1988) - Quotes

Taglines: Who are they? And what do they want?

Taglines: 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.

Frank: Maybe they've always been with us, those things out there. Maybe they love it — seeing us hate each other, watching us kill each other off, feeding on our own cold fucking hearts.

Nada: Well, I've got news for them. Going to be hell to pay, cause I ain't daddy's little boy no more.

Drifter: What is wrong with having it good for a change? Now they're gonna let us have it good if we just help em. They're gonna leave us alone, let us make some money. You can have a little taste of that good life too. Now, I know you want it. Hell, everybody does.

Frank: You'd do it to your own kind.

Drifter: What's the threat? We all sell out every day. Might as well be on the winning team.

Frank: What do these things want?

Gilbert: They're free-enterprisers. The earth is just another developing planet. Their third world.

Frank: How long have they been there?

Nada: Who knows.

Frank: What are they? Where do they come from?

Nada: Well, they ain't from Cleveland.

Nada: I'm giving you a choice: either put on these glasses, or start eating that trash can.

Frank: Not this year.

Nada: OK. All right. (Fight ensues)

Frank: [about the glasses] We can't be the only ones who can see. We've got to find the people who made these.

Nada: Yeah, if any of them are still alive.

Frank: So how you gonna make it?

Nada: I deliver a hard day's work for my money. I just want the chance. It'll come. I believe in America. I follow the rules. Everybody's got their own hard times these days.

Frank: I got a job now and I plan on keeping it. I'm walking a white line all the time. I don't bother nobody. Nobody bothers me. You better start doing the same!

Nada: White line's in the middle of the road. That's the worst place to drive.

Graffiti: They live, we sleep

Subliminal Messages on Billboards and Magazines: OBEY“, "MARRY AND REPRODUCE“, "NO INDEPENDENT THOUGHT", "NO THOUGHT", "CONSUME“, "CONFORM", "SUBMIT", "STAY ASLEEP", "BUY", "WATCH TV", "NO IMAGINATION", "DO NOT QUESTION AUTHORITY", "SLEEP", "WORK 8 HOURS", "SLEEP 8 HOURS", "PLAY 8 HOURS", "HONOR APATHY", "NO IDEAS", "FOLLOW", "SURRENDER", "COOPERATE", "DOUBT HUMANITY", "REWARD INDIFFERENT

Subliminal Message on US Currency: THIS IS YOUR GOD

Gilbert: The world needs a wake-up call. We're going to phone it in.

Drifter: You still don't get it, do you, boys? There ain't no countries anymore, no more good guys. They're running the whole show! They own everything, the whole god-damn planet. They can do whatever they want!

Announcer: Attention: Your wristwatch has malfunctioned. This entryway is temporary and will disappear in 10 seconds.

Bearded Man on TV: [[W:Racial justice|Racial justice; [human rights; [Greed|our own gain] The poor and the underclass are growing. ] and ] are nonexistent. They have created a repressive society and we are their unwitting accomplices. Their intention to rule rests with the annihilation of consciousness. We have been lulled into a trance. They have made us indifferent to ourselves, to others. We are focused only on ].

Bearded Man on TV: [[cattle; [slavery] They are dismantling the sleeping middle class. More and more people are becoming poor. We are their ]. We are being bred for ]. We could be pets, we could be food, but all we really are is livestock.

Bearded Man on TV: [[Nature|environment; [w:fluorocarbons|fluorocarbons; [Earth; [Global warming|turning our atmosphere into their atmosphere] Look around at the ] we live in. Carbon dioxide, ], and methane have increased since 1958. ] is being acclimatized. They are ].

Frank Armitage: The whole deal's like some crazy game. They put you at a starting line, and the name of the game is "Make It Through Life," only everyone's looking out for themselves and looking to do you in at the same time.

Frank Armitage: The steel mills were laying people off left and right. They finally went under. We gave the steel companies a break when they needed it. You know what they gave themselves? Raises.

John Nada: You know, you look like your head fell in the cheese dip back in 1957.

John Nada: Brother, life's a bitch, and she's back in heat.

John Nada: I don't like this one bit. Not one bit!

John Nada: Come to show em where I am? Not nice!

John Nada: Mama don't like tattletales!

John Nada: I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubble gum.