They live. The film that makes "The Matrix." And no pendoflops are needed.

You see them on the street.
You watch them on TV.
You might even vote for one.
You think they just like you.
You're wrong ...... Dead wrong.

Recently there was a post about the fact that soon computers will be able to create a picture almost indistinguishable from reality. The comments expressed a sensible idea: no need to draw a picture, it is enough to translate images into the brain. They also recalled the "Matrix".

Remember once you played Doom and Duke Nukem? A few years later Far Cry appeared, but he didn’t bring such sensations as from the very first level of Doom.
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There is a movie that makes “The Matrix” in the story in the same way that Doom and Duke Nukem do through the Far Cry gameplay.

This is a great movie by John Carpenter. They Live. By the way, "Duke" and this film binds a lot. But more about that later.

The film is based on Ray Nelson's story “At eight in the morning” (Eight O'Clock in the Morning), written in 1963.

The action takes place against the backdrop of urban and industrial landscapes in Los Angeles around the 70s of the XX century. Everyday everyday reality: lumpens, digging in trash bins and the inhabitants, buried in the TV box, and consume, consume, consume. Consumer, in one word.

But there are things that seem not quite ordinary. For example, a TV program is sometimes interrupted by clandestine broadcasts, to which, however, people hardly react. Cops who are already very actively processing a strange street preacher.

And the main character, John Ned, a simple hard worker, becomes a witness to the defeat of the underground organization. Driven by curiosity, he enters their room, where he finds only a box with sunglasses. John’s frustration gives way to shock when he accidentally puts on these glasses.

Without any rendering and cables in the skulls (hello, Wachowski brothers), people's consciousness is controlled, and the glasses show what is not visible to people. Strange creatures with ugly faces live among people, some strange repeaters live at traffic lights, and on advertising posters there are inscriptions like “obey”, “consume”, “don't doubt the power”, “sleep”, “don't think”, “ watch TV".

Unlike "cult", as it has become fashionable to say the efforts of PR people, "The Matrix", They Live is a film in which the viewer literally plunges and empathizes with the main character. Still, the work of the operator and the acting game - it's cooler than the heaped special effects:

This is your god

Dumb engine could not insert a clip from here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA-_SSO_hhI

By the way, Roddy Piper, who played the main role (his invitation came as a surprise to everyone), is in itself a person with a rather complicated and interesting fate. Like John Carpenter, whom I consider to be one of the most talented people in Hollywood. The director, actor, producer, screenwriter and composer are all one person, and he has made great films such as Halloween, Something, Escape from New York.

I've got one that can see!

The rendered crowd of Smith agents does not make such an impression on me as a small episode in which an alien, looking directly into the eyes of the viewer, says: “I've got one that can see!” And after a few seconds (rate the operator’s work here) from all strangers approaching, conveying information about the signs of the one who was able to see them.


Dumb engine could not insert a clip from here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBY6pF42I-c

But this scene, where one of the heroes refuses to wear glasses to see reality, this is not just a fight. Behind it stands quite the usual unwillingness of people to “wake up” (a simple analogue is the fear of going to the doctor in order not to learn about their illness):



By the way, in modern cinema they don’t fight like that; some special effects remain. The scene, however, breaks off at the most interesting, when John still puts on his glasses on Frank and makes him look at the world.

From the rest of Western fiction film They Live is different because it is a social , not a political picture. There is no image of an external enemy or “evil empire,” but it shows the relationship between the “elite” and society. And many more important things have been shown, in the "Matrix" this is not even close.

The film did not have commercial success, and John Carpenter himself was even called a communist.

Duke Nukem forever!

One of the best computer games, Duke Nukem 3D, was released in 1996. 8 years after the John Carpenter film. There are many moments in the game that resonate with the film:

• The action of the film and the game begins in Los Angeles.
• One of the levels is called - They Live.
• Balls flying over the streets with cameras, after a few more years, such devices will appear in Half-Life 2.
• Remember how sometimes these monsters teleported in the Duke?
  
  
  Remember what they did before the disappearance? They clicked on the clock, just like the newcomers from the movie.
• And, of course, this:
  
  Dumb engine could not insert a clip from here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp_K8prLfso

Welcome to the real world

Let's return to our reality. PR technologies and mass media have already distorted the picture of the world beyond recognition. No real-time rendering, no telepathic translation of aliens.



When, from all screens, from the pages of magazines and newspapers, via the Internet, on the radio, they repeat a thousand times “vote for something” or “buy something”, then the majority will do so. Most do. Votes, buys, consumes. Moreover, stating that it is they who are beyond the control of "stupid advertising."

Education and the Internet are the glasses that allow you to see. It is not by chance that recently activities have been conducted to establish control over the Internet, in particular, over the blogosphere. From “trial balloons”, bills on registering blogs as media, to demonstration processes designed to convince people of the thought: write what you think, you will get in trouble.

To control society, no aliens are needed. Actually, Carpenter says about it: "The creatures are corrupting." Control of the media is what is working now.

In conclusion: