Shyamalan's SIGNS - SPOILER-HEAVY DISCUSSION

[Furn_Darkside]

To paraphrase my gf after we saw it, "it takes the entire world being destroyed for a man to regain his faith, and only one person for him to lose it."

But that is not true, is it?

The entire world being destroyed and even the possible loss of his son (in the basement) reaffirms his loss of faith.

It is the memories (and the understanding of those memories) of his dead wife that reawakens his faith.

FD

 

[Furn_Darkside]

One other question. . . . At the end, with the first-person death of the alien . . . that scene seemed familiar somehow. Is that an homage to some other death scene (perhaps something from Hitchcock?).

It is nothing I am familiar with - though one buddy of mine said the music reminded him of Psycho. I don't agree with that either.

FD

 

[Furn_Darkside]

5) When they showed the shadows on the ground in the book, I got really freaked out there was going to be a downer ending. Another facet of faith and belief.

That scene did happen, sort of- in the end all three of them(father and kids) were outside their wrecked house and on the ground confronting death. Only the uncle was standing.

FD

 

[LightPhoenix]

Graham has the memories of what happened to his wife - they're what caused him to lose his faith in the first place. It isn't until the aliens are there and they start being violent that Graham really begins to gain back some faith. It isn't until the end when it tries to kill the son that he gets it back.

As for the shadows on the ground, IIRC they looked a lot more like two children and one adult rather than two adults and one child. Could be me just seeing it wrong.

 

[RangerWickett]

Consider this interpretation. The radio said that people were being taken away by the aliens, and at several points people wonder if it's the end of the world. Well, what if it actually is? In the Christian biblical book of Revelation, all of those who are saved are taken up to heaven, and all the sinners are condemned to hell.

Now, since the story is obviously trying to point out that having faith is a good thing, I think we need to turn this on its head a little bit, and say that the aliens are, in a way, a representation of some sort of hellish agent, that takes all of the sinful to Hell. . . . Or space, or whatever.

Of course, I know this seems a little far fetched, but consider that the method of defeating them is discovered in the Holy Land, where, you'd think, most people are faithful to their God, this begins to suggest that the aliens could not harm those who are faithful. Then, of course, there's the fact that water harms them, just as holy water can supposedly drive off fiends and demons (and hey, the water at the end was all inside the house of a reverend, so maybe it was blessed; *grin*)

The kicker that makes me give this theory credence is that the last alien comes back for Graham Hess after all his fellows have gone, because Graham still has to decide his faith. If he ignores the signs, and is faithless, then the alien would have killed him. The alien actually just seems to wait for Graham to make up his mind.

Add in some symbolism that the son (seemingly) dies and then comes back to life, an act which reaffirms Graham's faith, and I think it makes a pretty good theory.

 

[Umbran]

Blast you, RangerWickett! You beat me to it.

As we were driving away from the theatre yesterday, this very idea came to me. You see, there are lots of logical problems in the movie - what sort of creature evolves to be so vulnerable to simple liquid water? What sort of creature has the technology to cross interstellar space, but can't get past a borded up door? And so on...

Yes, there are ways to explain away all these things, but you have ot handle each one separately. Occam's Razor suggests we take the simpler explanation. Stop thinking of them as "space aliens" and think of them as a form of demon (or angel, or what have you), and it all starts making sense.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Stop thinking of them as "space aliens" and think of them as a form of demon (or angel, or what have you), and it all starts making sense.

I am not sure how that is the simpler solution, but it doesn't exactly match the rapture I read about in revelations. Granted, that was some time ago.

Amusingly, that is what I thought was going to happen during my first sitting of the movie- the rapture.

what sort of creature evolves to be so vulnerable to simple liquid water? What sort of creature has the technology to cross interstellar space, but can't get past a borded up door? And so on...

Who says these are the aliens that built the ships? These could be just working for the intelligent ones. You did hear what sounds like two voices on the baby monitor- one was a moaning noise.. the other a clicking noise.

Why might they be vulnerable to water? Maybe they have bodies like salt-water marine life- and fresh water has a more dramatic effect on them.

Maybe, if they are a servant race, they are made vulnerable to water to keep them in line.

Why might they have technology for ftl ships, but not to get through doors- we never saw any technology on the creatures- perhaps all of their science is biological.

Just guesses
FD

 

[Umbran]

I am not sure how that is the simpler solution, but it doesn't exactly match the rapture I read about in revelations. Granted, that was some time ago.

It is simpler, in that it takes care of all logical problems in one step, rather than having to separately discuss a number of different problems with unrelated assumptions.

I hardly think failing to exactly follow the Biblical rapture is a major strike against this hypothesis. The infernal and divine dance to their own tunes, not to a script written by humans.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

Just got back from seeing the movie. Great stuff. I loved the Sixth Sense, loved Unbreakable, and love this one. Shyamalan's the man.

Anyone else connect the primitive means of fighting that proved successful in the holy land? They must have been splashing holy water...tap was just as good but hey....

As my fiancee said on the way home, "Primitive means? Can't get much more primitive than beating the aliens up with sticks and pouring water on 'em."

Maybe there's a message in there about the failings of technology...

 

[Umbran]

Maybe there's a message in there about the failings of technology...

It seems not so much ot me about technology's failings as it's ultimate irrelevancy. Which makes some sense if the movie is more about faith than aliens.