Signs film: Encyclopedia II - Signs film - The Plot

Signs film - The Plot

The film is about a rural family that lives on a farm. The father, Graham Hess (Gibson), is a former Episcopal priest who has lost his faith after his wife is killed in a horrific traffic accident by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel (as portrayed by M. Night Shyamalan). No longer practicing religiously, he lives with his brother, Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), and his young daughter (Bo) and son (Morgan). Things are fairly steady in life until a mysterious crop circle appears in his corn field. Its origin and purpose is unknown. Some in the town speculate that it may be a prank; a few believe that it may have been created by intelligent alien lifeforms.

Throughout the film we learn that his daughter has a peculiar aversion to water that is not fresh from the faucet; she constantly says things like "the water is contaminated", and is always asking for a fresh glass of water, leaving behind half-consumed glasses of water around the house (or whatever dwelling she happens to be it).

As the story progresses, it is clear that Graham's farm is under watch, and he and his brother chase a dimly seen person who was spying on them at night from the roof of their farm. The being disappears into the crops, moving faster and disappearing far easier than anyone can explain. Soon Graham and his family are shocked to learn that similar crop circles have suddenly appeared all around the world, in ways too similar and created too quickly to merely be a grand elaborate hoax.

Graham tries to distract his family from the facts by taking them into town. There, Morgan buys a book on Extraterrestrials from a angry man who believes the news are just a plan to sell sodas, due to the fact that he has watched twelve soda's comercials. Mean-while, Merril is at a head-quarters of the US Army. There, he learns that the extraterrestrials are doing a military procedure in which "they" send a small group to check things out, to see the level of danger, and to see if everything is clear for the "rest of them". Mean-while, Graham helps a young pharmacist to clear her mind, although he is not a father anymore. After all, the family met at a pizza restaurant. There, they see Ray, the man who killed Graham's wife.

Back home, Morgan is trying to make his sister's baby monitor work, in hope to catch the alien's signal. Merril tries to convince Morgan that everything is a hoax created by nerds, but it doesn't work at all. As they get out the car, voices begin to come out the baby monitor. Expecting that the higher the baby monitor is the better the sign is, Morgan climbs up the car and find out that there are two of them talking. Soon the baby monitor loses the signal.

As the movie progresses, we see more televised news reports of crop circle sightings around the world, followed by sightings of UFOs, presumed to be of alien origin. The situation turns dangerous when the UFOs become invisible, due to the fact that a bird was observed flying into them and falling, however, the government and news agencies are certain that they still are there. This is followed by sightings of a presumed alien being at a birthday party in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

The movie picks up its pace when Graham visits the home of the man who accidentally killed his wife. The emotionally-wounded doctor's enigmatic discussion expresses regret for killing Graham's wife, his theories about what is happening, and the cryptic but terrifying last line "Don't open my pantry, Father. I found one of them in there; I locked 'em in.". Upon investigating, Graham indeed finds some thing intelligent and alive locked in the man's kitchen closet, only dimly seen in the reflection of a knifeblade. When it lunges for him Graham cuts off two of the intruder's fingers.

Graham returns home and see his family waiting for him on the sofa. Merril tells him that the alien's skin can change their colors, hence why they could not see them that night. Learning from Morgan that they would probably invade if they were hostile, and believing that the aliens are about to invade if they were so, Graham decides to protect his famly with two alternatives: Going to the lake, in hope that they don't like water, or staying home. After a controversial "election", they decide to stay home and they board up all doors and windows. While Graham and Merril are doing that, Morgan and Bo watch the news and find out that there are several UFOs over 274 cities, and growing. After a dramatic dinner,they board up the last doors and windows (and decide to board up the bedrooms' doors, because there isn't enough boards.) and go to the family room, waiting for the aliens, that arrive soon after.

After running all around the house, the aliens climb up to the roof and get in through what can only be the attic. When Merril looks up the stairs to investigate the noises they are making he discovers that they forget to board up the attic door. As time is short, they decide to get down the basement. Down there, they know that they are trapped, so they try to protect themselves as best they can. Standing in front of a "grate" which was used to put coal into the basement, Morgan is caught by a alien hand. In a rather tense and moving scene in which they try to free Morgan from the alien, the flashlight is dropped and all that is visible is Bo's legs. When the event has calmed down, Merrill picks up the flashlight and shines it around the basement and discovers Graham lying on the floor with Morgan between his legs. Morgan is having an asthma attack. Graham turns to Merrill and tells him "We don't have his medicine." As they sit together Graham attempts to calm Morgan down by talking to him. In this scene we discover that Graham still believes in God. This is proved by him talking to God saying "I hate you" and "Dont do this to me again". Although Graham is no longer a priest, or that he no longer prays, he still believes in God.

The next morning they return upstairs to discover their house ransacked. The local news reports that the aliens invaded the whole world, kidnapping people by gassing(and consequently killing) them. It is never explained what their purpose was, but the director (M. Night Shyamalan) has suggested that they were harvesting humans for food. At this point in the film, all of the aliens appear to have left the planet; humans have discovered a way to defeat them. The aliens have even left their wounded behind. Before they can celebrate, the alien whom Graham mutilated earlier appears and takes his son into his arms. It sprays a poisonous gas from its arm, which we now understand to be the way that it attacks and kills people.

Merrill, a former baseball player, begins to attack the alien with a bat after Graham tells him to "swing away" (repeating to him his wife's final words, which were for him to tell his brother to "swing away"). The alien falls backwards into a half-full glass of water that the daughter left out, and it burns through his flesh. Knowing his weakness (and the alien's) Merril keeps on attacking him until enough water hits and kills him. Also, they discover that because of the asthma attack, Morgan's lungs were closed off and the gas did not penetrate. Graham regains his faith because he feels that the last words of his wife were a message from God. He also believes that the aversion to stale water and asthma had both turned out to be blessings in disguise.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Plot", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki