Signs (2002)

A family living on a farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields which suggests something more frightening to come.

Director:

M. Night Shyamalan

Writer:

M. Night Shyamalan

Stars:

Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin

3 wins & 34 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mel Gibson	...	Graham Hess
Joaquin Phoenix	...	Merrill Hess
Rory Culkin	...	Morgan Hess
Abigail Breslin	...	Bo Hess
Cherry Jones	...	Officer Paski
M. Night Shyamalan	...	Ray Reddy
Patricia Kalember	...	Colleen Hess
Ted Sutton	...	SFC Cunningham
Merritt Wever	...	Tracey Abernathy
Lanny Flaherty	...	Mr. Nathan
Marion McCorry	...	Mrs. Nathan
Michael Showalter	...	Lionel Prichard
Kevin Pires	...	Brazilian Birthday Boy
Clifford David	...	Columbia University Professor
Rhonda Overby	...	Sarah Hughes

Storyline

Preacher Graham Hess loses his faith in God after his wife dies in a brutal car accident. He lives with his children and brother in a farmhouse. Crop circles start to appear in their cornfields; Graham dismisses them as mischief by miscreants. After hearing strange noises and watching news coverage on crop circles appearing all over the world, the family grows suspicious of alien activities. Now they must stick together as a family and believe, to survive and escape the ordeal.

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Plot Keywords:

crop circle | extraterrestrial | crop | faith | farm | 

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Taglines:

Believe

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some frightening moments

Did You Know?

Trivia

The production used a new watering technique to make the corn grow faster, which the Delaware Valley agricultural college was then very keen to adopt for themselves.

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Goofs

Crew members, one possibly holding a boom mic, are reflected in the lights of Caroline's police car when she is talking to Graham after they have seen the crop circles on TV for the first time.

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Quotes

Morgan: [seeing his father staring at them in slight confusion as to why they have their heads wrapped in tinfoil] It's so the aliens can't read our minds.
Graham Hess: [in a placidly-resigned playing-along-and-almost-half-believing-it-himself-at-that-point tone] Oh - - oh, of course.

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Crazy Credits

The end credits are black text that rolls over a black screen with a illuminated blue circle in the middle, instead of the traditional white text on a flat black background.

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Alternate Versions

An additional deleted scene was shown during the credits when it aired on a pay channel in the USA. Grahm Hess tells everyone they must go into the basement. He then tells the story of how he accidentally dislocated Merrill's elbow when he was 1½ years old, and that Merrill never got mad at him. The scene ends with everyone walking down the stairs and closing the basement door.

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Connections

References Quatermass (1979)

User Reviews

Shyamalan seems to be on a downward spiral

Newsweek had a recent cover story calling him "the new Spielberg," but I for one am just about ready to start disbelieving the hype and wait for M. Night Shyamalan's films to show up on video or HBO. I realize that it is unrealistic to expect an experience like the one I had with _The Sixth Sense_ every time out, but after the disappointing _Unbreakable_, I had high hopes for _Signs_. All I can say is that this new movie is even more disappointing.

And it's strange, too, because Shyamalan is obviously a gifted director with a talent for drawing out strong performances from his casts. I was really bothered by the story in _Unbreakable_, which really only got going near the end. Here, the story never gets going--we're treated to 2 hours of buildup to, one suspects, something extraordinary, but what we get is not much of anything. If the surprise in the film is that the whole thing is really all about how Mel Gibson gets his faith back, well, I have to say, that's a pretty poor payoff for all the time and emotion invested in the film, both by the filmmakers and the audience.

There are scares and there is suspense and there are "jump-out-of-your-seat" moments, but ultimately, the movie really isn't about much of anything. I hope that, next time around, M. Night Shyamalan really works on a screenplay with a third act, with some sort of satisfying resolution to his story. Mark me down as someone who was dissatisfied with _Signs_.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Portuguese

Release Date:

2 August 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

M. Night Shyamalan's Signs

Filming Locations:

UK

Box Office

Budget:

$72,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$60,117,080, 4 August 2002

Gross USA:

$227,966,634

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$408,247,917

Company Credits

Production Co:

Touchstone Pictures, Blinding Edge Pictures, The Kennedy/Marshall Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX SDDS DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1