Questions while watching the movie Signs (2002)
Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
Mel Gibson plays an Episcopalian priest, Graham Hess, who lost his wife in a car accident. (Episcopalians are Protestant Christians who are similar to Catholics in many aspects of theology and worship.
Episcopalian priests can be married.) He lives on a farm in Pennsylvania with his children Morgan
(who has life-threatening asthma), Bo (his daughter), and Graham’s younger brother Merrill, who had
been a minor-league baseball player, but who never made it to the majors, and now works in a filling
station. When the movie begins, Graham has lost his faith in God on account of the death of his wife.
Mysterious crop-circles appear in the Hesses’ cornfields. These signs also begin appearing in other places
around the world, and soon some of the Hesses become convinced that the world is about to be invaded
by aliens from space.
In this film we see the Hesses and other characters struggling with questions of faith and meaning during
this period of extreme tension and crisis. A primary theme of the film: what is the meaning of
coincidences in our lives? Are they just random events, or is God revealing Himself through them? Is
it possible that something which appears tragic at first, might be a means through which God is working?
Some Questions to Consider
(but you don’t have to limit yourself to these)
1. The townspeople do not seem to take Graham Hess very seriously when he says that he has quit his
ministry as a priest. Why not? Is it that they see something in Graham which even Graham does not see?
Is it that they desperately need spiritual comfort, and therefore will turn to him whether he likes it or not?
Or is it something else altogether?
2. From your perspective, is it more accurate to say that Graham lost his faith in God’s existence, or that
he still believes in God but is angry at Him? Why? But now, how do you think that Graham himself
would have answered that question? If your answers are different, what accounts for that fact?
3. When the crop circles first appear, the sheriff notes that these hoaxes had been done in cornfields in
the past. What is different about this situation that causes them to think that there might be more to
these crop-circles than simply a hoax? Do you see an allegory here? For example, even though many
people’s claims that God has spoken to them are crazy or attention-seeking hoaxes, can we rule out all
such claims on that account? If not, what would have to be different in order to take such claims
seriously?
4. Note carefully the scene in which the Hess family is listening to radio-signals on a baby-monitor while
sitting in the car. At the end of the scene, when Morgan points the monitor at the sky, in what kind of
shape or direction are the family members seated? Is this symbolic?
5. We do not see the aliens during most of the film. The evidence (signs) of their existence builds slowly.
Notice that members of the Hess family believe at different speeds: first, the dogs know that something is
wrong. Then Morgan is convinced, then Bo, then Merrill, and then finally Graham, but only after seeing
the UFOs in the sky on the evening news. Why is Graham the last one to believe, and what did it require
for him to believe? Do you see in this an allegory for anything?
6. When Merrill is in the army recruiting office, a townsperson reveals to the army recruiter why Merrill
failed to make it to the major leagues. What was the reason? Later in the film, how does this “weakness”
in Merrill’s life turn out to have been meaningful after all? What if Merrill had actually succeeded in going
to the majors? How might the story have ended differently?
7. What role does Morgan’s asthma play in the story? What strange activity that Bo has done her entire
life, have a meaningful twist at the end?
8. Ray Reddy is the man who killed Colleen Hess after he fell asleep at the wheel. How would you
describe his life and attitude after the accident? Is he in despair? Denial? When he talks to Graham
Hess, what does he say about the nature of the accident that has relevance for our theme?
9. Graham refuses to pray with his family at the dinner table, which distresses all of them. Then, when he
is trapped in the basement of his home with his dying son, he begins to pray again. What does he say?
What does this reveal? Discuss. (You might want to relate this to Question 2 above.)
10. In the darkness of the basement, Graham and Merrill are looking for the old coal chute. If you look
carefully, while they’re swinging the flashlight, you get a fleeting glimpse of a picture on the wall. A
picture of what? Is there symbolism here, especially in the context of a dark, frightening basement?
11. Graham tries to comfort his son in the basement, who is having a serious asthma attack. What does
Graham say to the boy? Is there a double-meaning in the words?