Signs
August 2, 2002 in theaters
A widowed Pennsylvania farmer discovers elaborate crop circles on his land, setting off a slow-building crisis for his family as evidence of extraterrestrial presence grows impossible to dismiss. M. Night Shyamalan uses the alien-invasion framework to tell a story about grief, faith, and a family finding its way back to itself.
Cast
Director
TRAILER
QUOTE
"See, what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs?"
DID YOU KNOW?
M. Night Shyamalan cast himself as Ray Reddy, the man who caused the death of Mel Gibson's wife -- a key role in the plot.
THE VERDICT
Synthesized from published reviews
M. Night Shyamalan's most formally disciplined film -- a story about faith and coincidence that uses alien invasion as its surface and grief as its real subject. Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix are well-matched as brothers navigating loss and dread simultaneously, and the film generates genuine tension from confinement and suggestion rather than spectacle. The last-act resolution is more divisive than the film deserves, but the first two thirds are among the most controlled genre filmmaking of their era.
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