Let's Go to the Movies: Week of July 18, 2022: They Live

Ulrike Granogger
July 16, 2022

“While they live… we sleep!”

Despite numerous references by Catherine to the 1988 movie classic They Live, it seems that too many Solari subscribers have not seen it. Do take this opportunity and watch it as our movie recommendation of the week.

The film, written and directed by John Carpenter, is based on a short story published in 1963, “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” by Ray Nelson. A vagrant by the name of Nada discovers a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the truth behind the façade of a world under mind control. Signals are broadcast from TV stations that keep humanity in a state of sleepwalking while “they”—a race of extraterrestrials collaborating with the rich and the powerful human elites—have taken over the Earth.

While the filming is of the quality of the 1980s and the almost six-minute street fighting scene is hilariously long, there is no better imagery to highlight the trance under which we all operate in a global control grid that seems to be taking ever stronger hold of our minds.

The movie’s main actor, Canadian wrestler Roddy Piper, believed that the script was based on a story captured in the short and very funny 1978 mockumentary The Bronswik Affair, which tells how in the 1950s, waves from a specific brand of TV sets allegedly triggered people to go on shopping sprees for unnecessary things.

Whether true or not, the idea of large-scale invisible manipulation was already being explored by the mid-20th century. Compare this with where we are now as you listen to Dr. Charles Morgan (Westpoint, 2018) and Dr. James Giordano (Georgetown University, 2019) presenting 21st-century military-grade cognitive warfare.

Related:

They Live on Wikipedia

Subliminal stimuli, Wikipedia

Original short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” by Ray Nelson, published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (November 1963)

John Carpenter official website

Related Solari Reports and Commentary:

Mind Control Tactics Used on Young People and Children (and Everyone Else)

What Are Zombies? Where Do They Come From? And Why Are They So Popular?

They Live… Vancouver March 2021

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