FAQ for
Signs (2002) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Signs can be found here.

No. Like most of M. Night Shyamalan's films, Signs was written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

Each person will see it differently based on their personal experiences and biases. The theme is not so much about religion as it is about faith. The central character is a Episcopalian priest who has lost his faith due to a family tragedy. Faith can be religious or secular (self-determination). Some will see a priest receiving a message from his god. Others will see a man taking control of his destiny through a deeper understanding of life. The events that he witnesses are sufficient to make him regain his faith. When experienced by a secular person, a different set of conclusions can be drawn. The events themselves are ambiguous. It is this ambiguity that Night leaves with the viewer, showing that events sometimes can be seen as more than just coincidence...that they can be Signs. How you interpret them is personal. It is how individuals form their core beliefs.

Three reasons: What kind of environment did they come from? What are the rewards for coming to earth? How much did they know about earth before they arrived? People live and thrive in inhospitable environments on earth all the time. The sea is very unforgiving, but sailors manage to survive. Deserts and the Arctic north are very nasty places to live but people are there as well. The film implies that people are being harvested for food. That's as good a reason as any if food is scarce.

Probably on their home world. The purpose of the crop circles is assumed to be navigation, but is left ambiguous. Maybe it's cosmic graffiti. Remember, we are talking aliens here. If we understood them fully, we should be capable of interstellar travel. :)

They were armed. They had their "Alien Wrist Gas" (Whatever that is) that looked like it came out of the alien's arm, like a snake spitting venom. Why would an alien need weapons when he has a built in lethal organic weapon?

Water vapor may have affected the aliens, but this is not shown in the film. Liquid water is more concentrated than that of water vapor and was shown to have a significant negative affect to the skin. It can be assumed that as the relative humidity approached 100%, the aliens would be at greater risk. Based on the radio report, it is assumed that the aliens left behind were injured in some way. It can be argued that these were the aliens that were most severely affected by water. The rest may have been able to tolerate small exposures.

Terrestrial lifeforms are all composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus elements, which were (and are) abundant when life started to exist on Earth. Liquid water is also abundant, and serves as the main solvent for the organic compounds within terrestrial lifeforms. Water serves as a source of chemical energy, and can dissolve both positively and negatively charged particles, which makes water an essential condition for life on Earth. However, other elements and solvents could theoretically be the basis of life as well. Ammonia is another possible solvent, although its characteristics are less favourable than water. As excess ammonia is harmful to terrestrial lifeforms, too much water could also be toxic to ammonia-based lifeforms. In very rare cases, there have been terrestrial beings, including some humans, who have shown an intolerance or allergy to water, so it's a possibility that a race of extraterrestrial beings could do the same.