John Carpenter (Escape from New York, The Thing) directed this wickedly subversive sci-fi satire on the media, corporate greed, conformity, repression, and the class divisions caused by Reaganomics in the '80s.
Wrestler Roddy Piper is John Nada, a homeless drifter who finds a pair of sunglasses that reveal a world infested with skull-faced aliens, controlling us with subliminal commands to obey, consume, and reproduce. John and his friend Frank (Keith David) join an underground movement, and try to shut down the transmitter by enlisting the aid of Holly Thompson, an assistant TV program director played by Meg Foster (Leviathan). Carpenter, who won an OSCAR® for the short "The Resurrection of Bronco Billy," pseudonymously adapted the film from Ray Nelson's story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning," and composed the score with Alan Howarth.
