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Plot summary
Graham Hess gave up his Episcopal parish after his wife Colleen was killed in a traffic collision, and he now works the family farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. His younger brother Merrill, once a ballplayer in the minor leagues, moved into the farmhouse to help care for Graham's children: Morgan, who has asthma, and Bo, who is particular about water. A large crop circle shows up in the cornfield, and the family first blames local troublemakers. Then they learn that circles have turned up around the world at the same time, that animals are acting strangely, and that lights are hanging over cities. Morgan hears odd noises on Bo's baby monitor; Merrill watches footage from Brazil of a humanoid creature. Unsure whether the visitors mean harm, the Hesses board up their house.
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Signs (2002)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- M. Night Shyamalan was a fan of You Can Count on Me and cast Rory Culkin and Mark Ruffalo, but Ruffalo required surgery for a tumor behind his ear and could not work on the film, so a week before filming the role was recast with Joaquin Phoenix.
- The role of Graham was originally written to be an older man: Shyamalan approached Paul Newman, who declined due to lack of interest, and Clint Eastwood, who declined because of scheduling conflicts.
- It was the biggest opening weekend of Mel Gibson's career, surpassing Ransom, and earned more than Disney's previous best for a live-action non-sequel not based on existing popular source material, which had been held by Pearl Harbor.
- In a 2007 interview Bong Joon-ho cited the film as an inspiration for his 2006 monster film The Host, saying he liked that it focused on Mel Gibson's family rather than on the aliens.
- M. Night Shyamalan, the film's producer, writer and director, also appears in it as Ray Reddy, a veterinarian responsible for Colleen's accidental death, for which he feels deeply remorseful.
