MovieChat Forums > They Live (1988) Discussion > Why couldn't he just put those glasses o...

Why couldn't he just put those glasses on when told/asked to?

posted 4 years ago by TheMan18 (13052)
38 replies | jump to latest

And it also did not even remotely surprise Keith David's character that the guy fighting his wants say not his money or something else from him but to simply put on a pair of glasses that may perhaps also reveal something, and instead of doing it out of sheer curiosity, he just kept fighting the guy instead?

And also, why didn't the other guy maybe say more about the glasses during the fight than "Put these glasses on"?

Maybe Keith David's character thought those glasses had poison on them or something and the other guy was maybe simply trying to subdue him with them or cause his some other damage, no?

[–] AP (5288) 4 years ago

It was just an excuse for a fight scene. Originally, the sequence wasn’t even supposed to be that long.

[–] chrisjdel (2714) 4 years ago

True. Like that sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where one of the bad guys gives a lengthy show of his sword skills and Indy just nonchalantly pulls out his gun and shoots him, this fight scene is one of those ad-libbed things the director decided to keep in the film because it was so perfect.

[–] ShogunofYonkers (77566) 4 years ago

I've read that Ford had some kind of stomach bug or food poisoning for that shoot so they cut it short

Wether true or not it is a great iconic scene

[–] pjl69 (2647) 4 years ago

The point of the scene was how difficult it was to make people to see the truth.

[–] TheMan18 (13052) 4 years ago

2pjl69 - OK, so it was meant to be metaphorical then?

[–] MoviesSuck (964) 4 years ago

Lol, that’s what he just said. So yes.

[–] ManToTrust (1660) 4 years ago

At this point, Frank basically thought he was Alex Jones who had massacred innocent people in a bank (who could blame him?). So he doesn’t want to engage him in his crazy games

[–] Mrmojo4700 (21539) 4 years ago

Where I come from when someone tries to force you to put on glasses it’s time to fight. You never, EVER let someone do that!

[–] DrRed (538) 4 years ago

LOL.
I was walking down an alley once and Corey Hart tried to force me to put sunglasses on,
at night!

[–] Mrmojo4700 (21539) 4 years ago

Whatever you do, don’t switch the blade on the guy with shades, no, no.

[–] mav100000 (345) a year ago

But do you dare masquerade on the guy in shades???

[–] Mrmojo4700 (21539) a year ago

No, no.

[–] TheMan18 (13052) 4 years ago

And you refused? Not even out of curiosity did you want to put them on?

[–] DrRed (538) 4 years ago

Yes, I refused.
He told me that it's so I can see the light that's right before my eyes.

Normally I would have kicked his a$$ but I didn't because I still had plenty of bubble gum.

[–] moviechatterer (15777) 2 years ago

"I still had plenty of bubble gum."

😂🤣😁

[–] chrisjdel (2714) 4 years ago

Even if Roddy Piper's character was the type to launch into a well thought out explanation, his friend was in no mood to listen to a guy he thought was a tin foil hat crazy. Besides, that fight scene was one of the most iconic parts of the movie!

[–] TheMan18 (13052) 4 years ago

So in a nutshell, besides Carpenter wanting a fight scene, Keith David's character just didn't want to put those glasses on and could not have foreseen it maybe revealing something important, right?

How many times has someone in a fight told or asked someone to put on a pair of glasses either to trick them and run away but nothing was revealed?

[–] chrisjdel (2714) 4 years ago

If you're going to put on the crazy guy's pair of magic glasses and look around, you'll have to take your eye off the crazy guy for a minute. Bad idea. Unless of course you actually believe that some vast conspiracy will be revealed by gazing through a pair of Ray Bans.

I'm surprised Frank showed up at all. If one of my friends carried out a mass shooting, and I saw his image on TV as the suspect, I'd probably turn him in before more people died. Wouldn't you?

[–] TheMan18 (13052) 4 years ago

And if you take your eye off the crazy guy for a minute under the circumstances, there's a possibility he might hurt you, right?

[–] chrisjdel (2714) 4 years ago

Yep. Or ... what if he's really one of them? 😱

[–] PaladinNJ (21525) 4 years ago

Keith David's character was just trying to get away from Piper. He wasn't going to listen to anything he had to say.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Some people don't want to be told what to do. I understand it's an odd idea in the hyper-conformist 2000s.

[–] ccr1633 (1524) 4 years ago

Leaving aside the artistic metaphors, you should also factor in that Mr. Nada had just taken a shotgun into a bank and blew away at least a half dozen (apparent) people. It's not entirely irrational to be stubborn in the face of requests, no matter how trivial, from a person who you had every reason to believe was a homicidal maniac. Obviously, Keith David's character considered him enough of a friend to offer him some assistance, but he did that reluctantly and clearly wanted his benevolent gesture to be the end of all their contact.

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 4 years ago

You're never going to honor some trivial request from a crazy person. If a drooling man with one shoe on up and asked you to "wear this hat," you would not want to. The more intensely he demanded it, the more you would be suspicious. Perhaps if Piper took time to explain the whole thing but even then Keith would probably be even less inclined to play along.

No one wants to be the fool that follows the fool.

[–] TheMan18 (13052) 4 years ago

As for the last part about fool following the fool, would that describe best Tony Blair's decision for example to follow George Bush into the Iraq war?

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 4 years ago

Take it to the politics board, you fool.

[–] TheMan18 (13052) 4 years ago

Just a thought!

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 4 years ago

tl;dr

[–] TheMan18 (13052) 4 years ago

Sure sure sure )