A widowed former reverend living with his children and brother on a Pennsylvania farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields, which suggests something more frightening to come.A widowed former reverend living with his children and brother on a Pennsylvania farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields, which suggests something more frightening to come.A widowed former reverend living with his children and brother on a Pennsylvania farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields, which suggests something more frightening to come.
- Awards
- 3 wins & 34 nominations
- Mexico City Reporter
- (voice)
- (as Paul Nolan)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJoaquin Phoenix replaced Mark Ruffalo, who had to pull out of the film due to a brain tumor. It was later found to be benign.
- GoofsThey nail boards on the outside of inward-opening doors. Obviously this isn't going to prevent the doors from being opened, but anything is better than nothing and they're panicking anyway. Moreover, when Merrill asks Graham how they will know if boarding the windows will work, Graham replies, "Because they seem to have trouble with pantry doors". Graham is implying that if the aliens have trouble with pantry doors, boarding them can only help. Doing so also may give everyone, especially the children, a sense of hope and/or security.
- Quotes
Graham Hess: People break down into two groups. When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation is a fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope. See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?
- Crazy creditsThe 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.
- Alternate versionsThere is actually an alternative version of this movie, which had different noises for the aliens, prior to release. The noises did not make into the final product. The aliens sounded more demonic than the mostly (although equally scary) alien noises they ended up having. It alone could have gotten the movie an R on the basis of "terror" alone. It was mostly edited out to keep the movie from being too dark, although some of the things about the aliens were demonic, and kept in the movie. "Signs" got away with a lot for a PG-13 movie. To find them, via the comments, go to the Youtube video to the "Signs" trailer, courtesy of user Rob Jackson (the Rotten Videos group's copy of the video; just type "Signs 2002 trailer Rotten Videos," and look for Rob Jackson's comments, they have the links to some of the clips from that version; courtesy of user Kaylin Starlight).
- ConnectionsEdited into Signs: Deleted Scenes (2003)
Whereas H.G. Wells wrote on the grand scale about what nations and governments were doing to fight an alien invasion, M. Night Shyamalan's Signs concerns itself with the small picture, what is happening in one tiny corner of the world, to be precise Bucks County, Pennsylvania and very specifically Mel Gibson and his family.
One day farmer Gibson who used to be a minister woke up and found that his cornfield had been systematically decimated and a precise geographical pattern was laid out that could be seen from the air. He concluded it was some kind of prank which would have been the normal reaction of anyone. But when reports of the world wide similar crop defilings and then sitings of shadowy alien figures than the world is in a crisis mode.
But the world is on the back-burner for Gibson. He was a clergyman but gave it up after the death of his wife who was hit by a drunk driver. He's got his own issues to deal with if he can get himself, his children Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin and brother Joaquin Phoenix through the ordeal. All this without knowing how the world in general is coping. Gibson and the family can only speculate and that's where imaginations run wild.
I have to say that Mel Gibson does a thoroughly good job as an everyman caught up in a global crisis. When War Of The Words was made by George Pal in the Fifties, the leads Gene Barry and Ann Robinson were scientists who had vital information for the survival of the world. The globe is still at risk in Signs, but Mel and his family can't worry about that, just in keeping themselves alive.
Signs is thinking science fiction ranking up there with the best work of Ray Bradbury and John Heinlein. It's both entertaining and engrossing, you can't ask for more from a film.
- bkoganbing
- Nov 26, 2009
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Señales
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $72,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $227,966,634
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $60,117,080
- Aug 4, 2002
- Gross worldwide
- $408,247,917
- Runtime1 hour 46 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1