The Role of Faith and God in M. Night Shyamalan’s Film “Signs” –

Every Easter, I tackle a film or book that deals with themes of the season, or has a setting that occurs around that time of the year. There was Scorsese’s Silence in 2019, Chocolat in 2020 and Steel Magnolias in 2021. My pick this year is M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs. According to Rotten Tomatoes, Signs is Shyamalan’s third best film, coming after The Sixth Sense and Split. Shyamalan’s films have always been divisive, and Signs is no different, and while I agree that The Sixth Sense and Split are better films, Signs is the one film I keep coming back to, due in main part to the relatable themes and ideas.

We follow the Hess family, who are still reeling from a tragedy that happened to them more than six months ago. We aren’t privy to what exactly it is until midway into the film, but with a father always anxious about his two children, and no overt mention of their mother, it’s easy to put two and two together. Signs begins with the family discovering crop circles in their field of corn. “I think God did it,” Morgan (Rory Culkin) says to his father, as they gaze at the flattened sight of corn.

But Graham (Mel Gibson) is resistant to anything that has to do with God. He used to be a reverend, but isn’t anymore, and when the townsfolk calls him father – a habit they can’t seem to break – he strongly insists that they don’t. Graham’s decision to break away from the church is due to his loss of faith – from a man who believed in God, to a man who could now only see a Godless universe because of what happened to his wife Colleen. Graham tells his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) that there are two kinds of people – the first sees something unexplainable and looks at it as a sign, a miracle, while the other only see devastation.

Merrill recounts an incident that happened at a party, where the girl he was making out with threw up on herself, but because he had gum in his mouth and took the time to remove it, he was lucky enough to avoid that whole situation. After that, Merrill became a believer of miracles. That gum in his mouth was no coincidence, and it helped him steer clear of a potentially traumatising situation. As he talks about this, he feels comforted, and even though all signs point to the end of the world, Merrill has hope that things will be okay. Whoever was looking out for him before will have his back again – he’ll be okay. However, he also discovers where his brother stands on things, that while he feels comforted, Graham’s experiencing inner turmoil and feeling utterly alone.

As things escalate around the world, the family prepares themselves for a possible attack from the aliens. Their home is a stone’s throw away from the crop circles, so a confrontation feels inevitable. As they sit down for what could be their last meal together, Morgan suggests saying a prayer before they dig in. Graham is furious at his suggestion and refuses. Prayer is a way we speak to God, and Graham’s anger at God made him abandon that. In times of crisis, people need something to hold on to, something to believe, but Graham cannot bring himself to let God in again.

But as the aliens gain entry into their home, and things begin to get quite nerve-wrecking, Graham begins praying again. At first, we might look at it as self-conversation, however, these words are directed at someone. When he says, “I’m not ready” and “Don’t do this to me again”, we know that he’s speaking to God, that in spite of his constant refrain to himself that God doesn’t exist and prayer is a waste of time, he still feels a desire to connect. He’s still playing the role as man of God, even if he refuses to acknowledge it.

Even though it’s perfectly acceptable for him to loathe Ray Reddy (played by Shyamalan himself), the man responsible for his wife’s death, Graham never reacts with anger or violence towards him. When he receives a call from Ray, he immediately heads over to his house when the call gets cut off. Despite how painful it is, he listens to Ray speak about the accident that took his wife’s life, and in his own way brings comfort to a man who’s been struggling with the guilt of what he’s done. At the end of their conversation, Ray gives him two bits of advice regarding the aliens. One, they’re not so good around water, and two, he’s locked one up in his pantry, and warns Graham about going into his house.

Graham’s curiosity gets the better of him, and when he tries to get a glimpse of the alien, he ends up having to cut the thing’s fingers. This all lines up at the end of the movie, where Graham comes face to face with the same alien that he injured, who’s now holding Morgan in its hands, threatening to spill poisonous gas into his lungs. In this moment, Graham remembers Colleen’s final words to him, and he sees, just as she wanted him to: Morgan’s asthma, Merrill’s incredible swinging, Bo (Abigail Breslin) leaving glasses of water around the house – what was seemingly disparate all come together for him in this scene. As he clutches his son in his arms, for the first time in a long time, Graham feels hope. Now, he can look at his wife’s tragedy and her last words as hopeful, instead of the gibberish he thought it was when he first spoke to Merrill about her final moment.

What also stands out is his conversation with Bo and Morgan prior to this, where he tells each of them the story of their birth. Even though the threat of danger surrounds them, instead of fear and despair, Graham chooses to comfort them with stories of beauty and hope. He allows himself to talk about Colleen again, to feel the joy of her memory more than the anguish of her death.

In an interview, Shyamalan spoke candidly about his film, as well as its detractors. The main criticism the film received was the letdown of the water twist – why would aliens invade a place made up of 70 percent water when water is like acid to them? Water has always been a key religious symbol in Christianity; many of Jesus’ miracles involved water, so making water the element that took down the aliens didn’t really bother me. While Signs is sometimes labelled a sci-fi because of the extraterrestrial element, Shyamalan makes it clear that the film is really about the war between heaven and hell, that it’s a film about faith more than anything.

Having faith isn’t easy, nor is it consistent, as so much of life isn’t within our control. It also feels more uncomplicated to believe that there’s nothing out there but darkness and the abyss. As I rewatch the last scene of Signs, I realise that if I were in Graham’s position, and I was holding my son in my arms like that, I’d want to have belief over despair. Maybe that makes me a miracle person just like Merrill, and I’m okay with that.

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