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by
Lee Tistaert
Some moviegoers may be
confused as to why exactly the aliens
got scared off at the very end and took
off. Nothing is said right into our face
about it, but you hear the brief moment
on the television after the family heads
out of the basement. Right before Graham
unplugs the television from the closet
there is a brief moment where the
newscaster states that they've found a
device to use in defense of the aliens,
but it is not said at the time what the
tactic is...for a reason. I didn't catch
this till my third viewing. We learn
from the final showdown that the
critters can be killed by water, and if
you put two and two together from that
much, we can put together the fact that
the aliens realized that water is their
weakness and fled. But that one alien
still had one case of business to finish
before doing so.
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Some have been asking
about a possible flaw lurking within the
basics of Signs. And that is, why would
the aliens come to earth if the land is
majority water when that factor is what
kills them? If you remember back to the
recruiting office, the over-the-top
general character states to Merrill that
they are "probing", which specifically
refers to hiding in the shadows making
sure it is safe "for the rest of them".
The extra terrestrials were just
checking our planet out and from the
sounds of it, did not have knowledge
that water was their weakness. Once they
figured it out, they vanished in fear.
If you think about the
themes of faith and fate within Signs,
you will come down to the main theme of
"everything happens for a reason".
Without Graham's wife getting killed,
they wouldn't have known to "swing away"
at the very end which would have
resulted in a high likelihood of death.
So when you think about it, God killed
off Graham's wife but the payoff could
sit in the idea that one's better than
four (deaths) and that fate brought
Shyamalan's character into carelessly
ending her life for a reason. Shyamalan
subtly states in his car that the
tragedy looked meant to be. So in a way,
or really, the major point: good can
result from even the worst events.
Outside of the
secrets/meanings from Signs, you may
very well catch M. Night Shyamalan's
personal homage to Hitchcock in several
occasions. First there is the shot of
birds rapidly flying into the sky after
Graham cuts the two fingers off the
alien in a reference to The Birds. With
the other being when (I think) Graham is
trying to help Morgan through the asthma
attack in the basement. There is a
close-up of Gibson and we see his neck
in a very good view. If you look
intently enough, you will see the slight
sketch of a bird; another homage to The
Birds. And of course the opening credits
is a basic reference to Hitchcock from
the start, with a theme song that
Shyamalan very likely took advice from
Psycho.
For now, these are the
facts that I could think up from Signs
and if anything else comes apparent, I
will add the scoop here. If you seem to
think I'm missing something that is
worthy of a mention, feel free to
email
me or use the form below.
Note: LMI may use a
segment of your ideas from your email as
an example in this column, but have the
sole right to edit to approval. We will
not list full email addresses for
purposes of security.
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Visitor
Input:
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deja_account writes:
One of the questions repeatedly being
asked is why did the aliens need the crop
circles as a marker.
One point that seems vital (and one that
should have been alluded to in the film)
is that all the crop circles are in places
*away from water* - think about it,
Bangalore, Mexico City, Inland Europe etc.
This would also explain, why the aliens
would come to a planet full of water. If
they are desperate enough for survival,
their thought would be to come to this
planet, but land in the *non-water* areas.
Now, they would have no way of knowing
that 'water' exists in everyone's homes
which would then explain their sudden
defeat and hasty departure.
I also think Shymalan was using 'water' as
a metaphor for 'faith'. It is seemingly in
vast quantities on earth, but the aliens
land on a farm where they think 'water/faith'
isn't present, when in fact it is.
Could the reference to water in Middle
East countries be a reference to holy
water?
Also, building up on your theory that Mel's
wife was an alien - could it be that the
daughter (Bo) in fact was one? Witness her
discomfort with water, her out of ordinary
birth -- could it be that this was the
original twist that was discarded in a
script rewrite?
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JPK writes:
I went into Signs expecting a very
blatant surprise ending on the lines of
someone being an alien (like Lee has
mentioned) or that the whole town or at
least the one family were completely crazy
and imagining the whole thing.
After seeing it and talking with
others, I think a decent explanation of
the 'aliens' is that they are in
fact demons/angels (probably
demons). The crop circles and lights
would fall in line with signs of the
apocalypse (we head 'end of the world'
quite a few times). The fact the
'aliens' seem to have no interest in
staying or stealing resources but instead
killing humans would lend credence to a Judgment
Day scenario. This would also
explain the 'water' problem. Any
alien that could breathe air and touch
humans (who are mostly water), would
likely not have a problem with water
(there are plenty of planets out there
without water), but demons might.
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GSnrub writes:
I've always been under the impression that
usually when a man falls asleep at the
wheel it's considered reckless driving.
Surely the fact Gibson's wife died would
bring up the added charge of manslaughter.
Taking this into account I can't help but
be surprised by the fact Shyamalan's
veterinarian is neither in jail a mere six
months later nor, at the very least, has
he had his license taken from him and is
in fact free to drive around spooking out
Gibson and co. as they eat pizza.
The aliens must've been aware of their own
water aversion. Without that knowledge,
surely they wouldn't have placed all the
crop circles "far away from water" as
Shyamalan says in the film. Whatever a
general or a veterinarian says about what
the aliens are up to is more than likely
hypothetical. But let's assume an alien
race with highly advanced technology would
be able to decipher whether a planet
contains anything potentially harmful on
it's surface. And being 70% covered in
water, coming to our planet would be akin
to us attempting an attack on one
consisting of 70% acid. With acid rivers
weaving their way through what land there
is and underground springs of acid.
Not to mention the extensive piping
system, delivering a hefty supply of acid
at each building via taps and such. Hell,
if they'd done their job when they checked
the place out, they could've noticed that
our bodies were in fact made up mostly of
water. Otherwise, I sure hope I'm not
drafted if we ever develop a space fleet
for attack on other planets. Lest I be
sent to Jupiter by a gunhappy general with
only my lungs to stop the poison gases
from working on me. |
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Lee Tistaert's response:
While GSnrub has a point regarding the
manslaughter, I think the correct
reasoning behind the aliens not under the
impression that water is nearly everywhere
in the world sits in the fact that their
primary territories (farms) are far from
the locations of oceans and lakes etc, but
have no way of knowing the water piping
systems and whatnot in typical houses. To
their view, farms are far from water
regions and use that as their entranceway.
What they don't realize is that H20 can be
found where it doesn't appear to be on the
map, which is their fault, and why they
most likely flee at the end; in fear. |
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GBass writes:
The alien in the showdown could not have
fled with the other aliens anyways; he had
nothing to lose. I think it was Merrill
who said that the aliens had fled, leaving
the injured aliens behind. As we know,
Graham cut his fingers off so he could not
return with the others. |
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plps writes:
When I walked out of the theater after
seeing "Signs", I wasn't happy. I knew
going in that it didn't have a so-called
"twist" ending, but I still expected it to
have a blow-your-mind factor and I still
don't think it did. Then I realized that I
was over-thinking it. By now, I'm pretty
sure that with "Signs", M. Night Shyamalan
set out to make a good old fashioned alien
invasion movie (he was quoted as saying
"Signs is Night of the Living Dead. Signs
is War of the Worlds"). But the cleverness
of the movie is that it really is just
that; it's just told from a different
perspective (from the isolated family's
perspective).With the ending, I think Shyamalan may
have initially tried to prove that
"everything happens for a reason" like you
said in your article. But after thinking
about it for a few days, I realized that
this ending is much more open to
speculation than those of his two previous
movies. Remember when Graham said that
"random nerve endings were firing off" in
his wife's mind (or something like that).
He thought she was just pulling up a
random memory of being at one of Merrill's
games and that's where the "swing away"
came from. With the showdown at the end,
when Shyamalan cuts back to those lines, I
feel this is where he tried to make the
point that everything happens for a
reason. However, the main point of all
this is: why did his wife say that?
A friend of mine disagreed w/ the
random memory thing and was convinced that
right before her passing, Graham's wife
saw what was going to happen and
essentially told her husband what to do to
save the family. The other reasoning may
be that it was, in fact, all just random
memories. Graham knew that he would never
forget his wife's last words -- that they
would always be in the foreground of his
mind, so it was just luck that she
remembered Merrill's baseball game and
said "swing away", forever burning those
words into graham's mind.
It's like graham says to Merrill: you
have to decide if you believe in luck or
fate (I don't remember the exact lines).
The aliens were just an excuse to tell the
story of that very question, and that's
what makes "Signs" different from 6th
Sense and Unbreakable.
Signs Secrets Continued >> |
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