 | blake [email] said at 11:07 AM 08-18-2006:
The memorable and oft-quoted line, "I have come here to kick ass and chew bubblegum ...and I'm all out of bubblegum," was ad-libbed by Piper. Psytrance artist Monastic Squid uses a sample of this line in his track "Bubblegum and kick ass". The line is nearly repeated in the David Mamet film Spartan when a drill sergeant berates his trainees, "All I have for you is a stiff dick and bubblegum, and I'm all out of bubblegum." The line is also repeated in the popular FPS game Duke Nukem 3D where Duke says "it's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of gum." The film Dazed and Confused also features a quote "I came here to drink some beers and kick some ass, looks like we're all out of beer." Additionally, rapper Ice Cube uses a paraphrase of the line in his "Get Off My Dick and Tell Yo Bitch to Come Here": "Cause all I got is hard dick, and bubblegum/Just ran out my last stick is where I'm comin from." In the short story "The Moving Finger" by Stephen King, Howard Milta says " I'M READY FOR YOU, MY FRIEND. I'M COMING TO KICK ASS AND CHEW BUBBLEGUM, AND I'M ALL OUT OF BUBBLEGUM!"
In 2001, the creators of South Park parodied/paid homage to the film's long fight scene between Frank and Nada in the episode "Cripple Fight," which contains an alley brawl between two handicapped children that copies much of the dialogue and fight choreography of the scene in They Live, right down to Jimmy screaming "You dirty mother-fucker!"
The videos for the 2005 Armand van Helden single "Into Your Eyes" and the band, 3, single "Alien Angel" borrow heavily from They Live.
Additionally, the video for "B.Y.O.B." by System of a Down also bears many similarities to They Live.
The music was composed by the director, John Carpenter
The 1994 Snog album Dear Valued Customer uses several samples from They Live.
Several famous quotes from the movie are also heard in an early version of the Cuban Boys track "Stardust" (subtitled "Part 1 - They Came From Outer Space") on their 1999 "Blueprint for Modernisation" EP. These are replaced by samples from a more obscure movie in later, more easily obtained versions of the piece, presumably because of licensing troubles.
The end of the movie features two film critics as aliens criticising filmmakers George Romero and John Carpenter, serving as a parody of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. Siskel panned Romero's Night of the Living Dead.
Rapper Cage's album 'Movies for the Blind' pays homage to the film in its cover art.
Near the end of the film, several guards can be seen using odd scanner devices. These are actually PKE Meter props from the film Ghostbusters unaltered.
The glasses featured in the film have a lens called the Hoffman Lens. This is a reference to Dr Albert Hofmann, the man who first synthesized LSD.
The film was an inspiration for street artist Shepard Fairey's ubiquitous Obey Giant images.
The NYC political group Media War borrowed the slogan "Consume, Reproduce, Obey" from the film for a 1991 activism campaign.
One of the TV news anchors in the film was actual TV reporter Dennis Michael of "Showbiz Today," also host of CNN's "The Hollywood Minute." He says that he and his "co-anchor" in the scene, Nancy Gee, were not advised what was about to happen, simply instructed by Carpenter to improvise a conversation they might have during a break from an actual newscast.
The band Dystopia also has a song titled "They Live" on their 1999 album, "The Aftermath" |
