# They're aliens. Get over it.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [August 1, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863 "2004-08-01T19:58:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/1 "2004-08-01T19:58:05Z")
**Re: The movie "Signs"**
They’re aliens. There are no good reasons at all to suspect otherwise, and plenty of reasons to suspect that they are aliens. Get over it.
“Oooooh! But you’re just _assuming_ they’re aliens! We’re never actually _told_ that!”
We’re never actually told that Vito Corleone, from “The Godfather”, is a member of the mafia. Sure, that’s what characters in the movie seem to assume, but it’s just an assumption. The director never appears on camera and says, “Oh, hey, FYI, he’s a mobster.” We are left only with our assumptions.
We’re never actually told that Sauron is evil in “The Lord of the Rings”. Sure, most of the characters believe him to be evil. But we only have their perspective - and why should we believe them? We’re never actually told he’s evil; other charaters just _assume_ he is. We are left only with our assumptions.
We’re never actually told that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father. Sure, Vader says that, but why should we believe him? That would just be an assumption. We have no clear evidence. Certainly we aren’t shown him concieving Luke, followed by 9 months of pregnancy, followed by childbirth. We have only Vader’s word to go on. We are left only with our assumptions.
Oh. And mountains of evidence.
Just like “Signs”. The creatures look like aliens from another planet, as such are traditionally depicted in a variety of media. They make crop circles, just like popular culture associates with aliens from another planet. They have hovering ships created from advanced technology. They are biologically very different from any known creature that lives or has ever lived on planet Earth. At least some of the characters in the movie clearly believe the creatures to be aliens.
But oh no - we’re not actually _told_ that. Well, not on camera by the director with his hand on a Bible swearing on the souls of his children.
I understand the desire to pretend they aren’t supposed to be aliens. If they weren’t, the movie would suck less in one or more ways. But it would suck more in other ways, because if they weren’t supposed to be aliens then _why the fuck were they depicted to be aliens_?
In one manner or another the director, who is indeed a very talented director, failed.
_Sorry. This has been brewing for a while._
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/2 "2004-08-01T20:00:22Z")
Actually, my reaction to the “they’re not necessarily aliens” argument is usually, “Then what the hell ARE they?!”
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/3 "2004-08-01T20:02:00Z")
I never once heard anybody claim they were not aliens.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/4 "2004-08-01T20:03:51Z")
Of course they’re aliens. They’re extraordinarily _stupid_ aliens, seeing how their weakness is water and they chose to invade a planet whose surface area is 3/4 covered with the stuff.
Almost as dumb as the ID4 aliens running Appletalk on their mothership computers. Silly aliens.
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### Author:  [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/5 "2004-08-01T20:07:13Z")
> [@Dewey Cheatem Undhow](#):
>
> Of course they’re aliens. They’re extraordinarily _stupid_ aliens, seeing how their weakness is water and they chose to invade a planet whose surface area is 3/4 covered with the stuff.
>
> Almost as dumb as the ID4 aliens running Appletalk on their mothership computers. Silly aliens.
Well, atleast they did not run any Microsoft products.
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### Author:  [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/6 "2004-08-01T20:28:51Z")
> [@Revtim](#):
>
> I never once heard anybody claim they were not aliens.
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5124591&postcount=67](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5124591&postcount=67)
There have been other posts on the subject, but this one is the most recent that I know of. There were several posts of this nature when the movie “Signs” was in theatres.
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### Author:  [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/7 "2004-08-01T22:04:18Z")
Actually, a couple years back, **Reality Chuck** proposed that this was a [McGuffin](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2358513&postcount=24).
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/8 "2004-08-01T22:05:25Z")
I have no intention of ever seeing **Signs,** but is there any chance the aliens are related to the ones from [**V?**](http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/4015/v.html)
“We will now invade the Earth and take all her precious water for ourselves!”
“Supreme Commander, wouldn’t it be easier to just go to Saturn and mine all the ice there?”
_ **BWAZZAAAPPPP!** _
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### Author:  [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/9 "2004-08-01T22:21:46Z")
Apparently, the humidity, and the rain, and the dew didn’t affect them. Just water thrown by people. Also evidently they couldn’t figure out how to get out of a closet.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/10 "2004-08-01T22:26:44Z")
> [@mike1dog](#):
>
> Apparently, the humidity, and the rain, and the dew didn’t affect them. Just water thrown by people. Also evidently they couldn’t figure out how to get out of a closet.
So how the hell does this director get such praise? (Or should I be blaming the screenwriter?)
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### Author:  [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/11 "2004-08-01T22:28:33Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> So how the hell does this director get such praise? (Or should I be blaming the screenwriter?)
Sometimes it’s a good idea to ask yourself, “do I get it?” If only people asked themselves that more often.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/12 "2004-08-01T22:31:52Z")
Seems quite possible to me that aliens could be effected by liquid water and not humidity. It takes a certain concentration to harm them, which is above the concentration of the water vapour in the air, but less than that of water.
And regarding them being able to travel across space but not hack through doors and stuff, if I were the writer I’d make it so that the aliens that built and possibly piloted the ships where a different class or even species that the ones that hunt down food. It’d be analogous to letting your hunting dog kill birds and bring them back to the car. Just because you drove your dog to the woods doesn’t mean he has to be able to build the car or even drive it.
There’s just as implausible things in reality, if you analyze them with the right eye.
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### Author:  [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/13 "2004-08-01T23:31:52Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Seems quite possible to me that aliens could be effected by liquid water and not humidity. It takes a certain concentration to harm them, which is above the concentration of the water vapour in the air, but less than that of water.
Yes, but if you or I for example were in an atmosphere where hydrocloric acid was in a mist, we would find the place unpalatable and uncomfortable. I doubt we’d try to invade it.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/14 "2004-08-01T23:40:20Z")
I’ve always thought that the “aliens” are not real, that they are manifestations sent by God to show Gibson _why_ bad things happen to good people, and how everything (even his kids asthma) has a purpose. The only information about them that we receive is (are?) from the TV set, and the only other on-screen person to claim to have seen them is Shyamalan’s character, who himself is integral to the main plot.
Looking at it this way, the movie makes _a lot_ more sense. Try it and you’ll see. 😃
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/15 "2004-08-02T00:12:44Z")
> [@mike1dog](#):
>
> Yes, but if you or I for example were in an atmosphere where hydrocloric acid was in a mist, we would find the place unpalatable and uncomfortable. I doubt we’d try to invade it.
If there was tasty food there, and we could stand the mist long enough to round it up (or if we had an underclass or subspecies to brave the uncomfortable mist for us), we might. Especially if we were short on food.
People dive for lobster and other sea foods, and they can’t stay underwater forever without dying. But it’s fun, so people do it. Or they have to do it to survive. Maybe it’s sport for the aliens to go to inhospitable atmospheres to round up exotic species to eat, just like it is for us.
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### Author:  [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/16 "2004-08-02T00:20:33Z")
> [@stpauler](#):
>
> Actually, a couple years back, **Reality Chuck** proposed that this was a [McGuffin](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2358513&postcount=24).
Well, yes. But does that mean they’re not Aliens? I agree the plot would have worked just as well if they’d been hydophobic demons, or hydophobic rabid dogs (ba-boom tsch) ie. McGuffin. But as presented, they are aliens. (Apparently. I’ve never SEEN the thing.)
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/17 "2004-08-02T00:24:00Z")
> [@BlackKnight](#):
>
> We’re never actually told that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father.
What, Yoda’s word isn’t good enough for ya, :wally
😃
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### Author:  [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyrrell_McAllister)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/18 "2004-08-02T00:24:39Z")
Shyamalan seems to think that they’re aliens. Irrelevantly so, but aliens nonetheless. From an [interview](http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue276/interview2.html) with Shyamalan at [SciFi.com](http://SciFi.com):
> [@](#):
>
> **This movie** _[Signs]_ **, like your other films, deals with faith.**
> **Shyamalan** : I guess I just keep pounding away at this until I get it myself. Which is kind of a guy waking up to his potential and who he is and the things around him. So all three of those movies are this guy waking up. I don’t know why, I just keep writing that guy. I could easily write another one about a guy waking up and realizing this. And then the supernatural or the sci-fi elements of the movie—the ghosts or **the aliens** —is kind of irrelevant to me. It’s just a backdrop.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2004, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/19 "2004-08-02T00:26:24Z")
Eh, what the hell does _he_ know? 😉
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-aliens-get-over-it/257863/20 "2004-08-02T00:31:14Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> So how the hell does this director get such praise? (Or should I be blaming the screenwriter?)
In his case, they are one and the same. That’s the central dilemma when evaluating Shyamalan’s filmmaking: He is a remarkably talented director who unfortunately chooses to work from his own increasingly bad scripts.
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