Signs on City of Man Podcast

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Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) and his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) looking for the titular signs in M Night Shyamalan’s film

Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) and his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) looking for the titular signs in M Night Shyamalan’s film

This year’s Christian Humanist Radio Network Halloween crossover event begins today! The theme of this year’s event is the films of M Night Shymalan and the first episode comes from City of Man. On this episode, Katie Grubbs, Marie Hause, and yours truly—hosting for the first time ever—begin the crossover with a discussion of Shyamalan’s 2002 film Signs.

Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), a former minister who abandoned the faith after his wife’s untimely death, wakes one morning to find mysterious, impossible symbols pressed into his cornfields. Is this a prank? The appearance of similar crop circles around the globe suggests… something more sinister, or certainly something more complicated. Confronted with the growing evidence of alien invasion, Hess, his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), and his children Morgan and Bo (Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin) retreat to the family farm, where they’ll confront not only whomever made the signs in their fields but the lingering signs of their past. Is this all random? Or does all of this mean something?

Katie, Marie, and I discuss the plot of the film, its place in Shyamalan’s filmography, what Signs does and does not have in common with other alien invasion movies, and just what there is to learn from the film’s message about grief, faith, and providence. I had a really great time both revisiting this film—after more than fifteen years—and hosting this discussion. Tune in to hear more. It’ll be worth your while.

City of Man is a show on the Christian Humanist Radio Network. Visit the network’s website for shownotes for this and the other episodes in the crossover. You can subscribe and listen to City of Man via iTunes, Stitcher, and other fine podcasting services and you can listen to this episode on those platforms or via the Stitcher player embedded in this post.

Thanks for listening! I hope y’all enjoy, and have a happy Halloween!