They Live, 1988

Before The Rock and John Cena made the jump from the wrestling ring to the big screen, there was Rowdy Roddy Piper. John Carpenter, a huge wrestling fan, had seen the heel perform at Wrestlemania III and was enraptured by his uneven gait and his physical presence, and thus a silver screen star was born. It was a match made in heaven: in They Live, Piper plays a drifter known only as Nada who’s made his way to LA looking for work. He discovers a pair of Ray-Bans that, when worn, let him see the true nature of the world: a near-constant barrage of consumerism peddled by scary aliens who have been controlling us for years. Keith David also stars and, along with Piper, gives us one of the most batshit crazy fight scenes ever filmed for a movie—more than five minutes of the two beating the piss out of each other.

They Live is a hilariously scathing take on consumerism and hypermasculine ‘80s action movies that only Carpenter could pull off with such a deft hand. — Alyssa Mercante