Summary (Jul 23, 2003): Hollywood has greatly influenced our views of what an advanced civilization might present to our fears and hopes. The movie, Signs, poses this classic speculative adventure into special effects, against the background of the ambiguities of crop circles and hand-to-claw combat.
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Signs: Feeling Our Oats? by Seth Shostak Astronomer, Project Phoenix
Are the aliens signaling us with grain graffiti? Are they leaving evidence of their presence on Earth by feeling our Wheaties?
Some folks think so. Despite the fact that a lot of the elaborate cereal graphics that have appeared during the last few decades in England and elsewhere are the admitted handiwork of pranksters and artists, there are still many people who think that some of these crop circles have been carved by extraterrestrials.
Hollywood director M. Night Shyamalan has capitalized on the appeal of this phenomenon in his new, high-profile film "Signs." Mel Gibson, a man of the cloth who has had one of those perennially popular "crises of faith," has given theology the heave-ho in favor of raising corn and kids. His rustic, rural lifestyle is set on tilt when aliens mess up the back forty with a large glyph. Soon thereafter, Mel is staring into the semi-infinite with his steely blues, intoning "it's begun."
Despite its theme, "Signs" is not really a sci-fi film.
 | | Two species greeting each other, separated by epochs. Homo sapien and T. Rex |
The movie has large dollops of horror and humor, but it's mostly about how farmer Gibson gets his God groove back. Nonetheless, the motives and methods of the aliens that have defaced crops around the world are worthy of discussion, and I'll indulge in some below. I've tried to avoid information that would be a spoiler for readers who haven't seen the film, but being consummately mortal, I cannot guarantee perfection in this task.
Stop reading here if you value total cinema surprise.
OK, it's the start of the 21st century, and the aliens have come to Earth to harvest us, whatever that means. (As an aside, I note that despite being up to his ears in ears, Mel Gibson apparently has little interest in harvesting his crop. One assumes that growing corn is merely a hobby, and he makes his real living by writing books or modeling swim wear.)
 | Alien species, terrestrial biodiversity.
Credit: NGS |
The aliens are going to accomplish their ambiguous, but clearly evil objectives with claw-to-hand combat, eschewing high technology lest we retaliate with nuclear weapons and ruin the planet.
The crop circles are intended as navigation beacons for the invasion fleet. Of course, this hardly makes sense. Would the Air Force scrape lines and circles in the sands of Afghanistan to guide their maneuvers? Is it reasonable of the aliens to trust their navigation to devices that can be obliterated in a matter of hours by an angry farmer with a tractor?
It doesn't matter. The hostile horde from afar turns out to be astoundingly ineffectual when it comes to battling earthlings. Somehow they have the technology to travel many light-years to our planet, and can rapidly engrave our crops, but when the chips are down, these grays in the maize can't bash their way through an old cellar door.
As is the usual case for Hollywood aliens, these guys are highly anthropomorphic. (But why would species from another planet look like us?) Furthermore, while we lumber around with cell phones, PDAs, wallets, clothing, and hair, the aliens show up buck-naked.
All right, so "Signs" isn't very rational when it comes to aliens.
But what about the crop circles that actually do appear near harvest time around the world? Could any of them be the work of visitors from the stars?
Related Web Pages Search for Life in the Universe: Part II
A Perfect World I: Tyson
Tyson and Planetary Society
Tyson Testimony to Congress on Astrobiology
Edward Weiller: Are We Alone?
Chris Chyba: The Search for Life
Table Talk
SETI Institute
Note: Movies
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