The Signal (2014 film)
| The Signal | |
|---|---|
Teaser poster
|
|
| Directed by | William Eubank |
| Produced by |
|
| Written by |
|
| Starring |
|
| Music by | Nima Fakhrara |
| Cinematography | David Lanzenberg |
| Edited by | Brian Berdan |
|
Production
company |
|
| Distributed by | Focus Features |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4 million |
| Box office | $2.42 million |
The Signal is a 2014 American science fiction thriller film directed by William Eubank and co-written with Carlyle Eubank and David Frigerio. The film stars Brenton Thwaites and Laurence Fishburne. The film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically in the United States on June 13, 2014. The film is among an increasing number of low-budget,independent science fiction films to be included at the Sundance Film Festival in recent years.
Three MIT students – Jonah, Nic, and Haley – are on a road trip to move Haley to California, a decision that stresses Nic's relationship with her. Haley feels Nic is distancing himself from her and Nic explains he doesn't want his disability to hold her back (Nic walks with forearm crutches, and the possibility of muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, or some other degenerative disease is implied but never specified). During their stay in a hotel, Nic and Jonah discover that a hacker named NOMAD, who nearly got them expelled for breaking into MIT servers, has found their location and is taunting them with strange and ominous emails. They track NOMAD to an abandoned house in the middle of Nevada and decide to go after him. After finding nothing in the house, Nic and Jonah hear Haley scream and run outside, only to see her pulled into the sky before disappearing into a white light themselves.
Nic, now with the number 2.3.5.41 tattooed on his arm, wakes up in a strange and sterile underground research facility where he is questioned by Dr. Wallace Damon, the head of the "transition group" in charge of helping Nic to cope with his strange situation. Damon tells Nic what they encountered near the house was an EBE: an extraterrestrial biological entity. Nic remains in a state of disbelief. Dr. Damon then shows him footage from Nic's own video camera and pauses where an alien face can be seen peering from behind a tree. Nic is taken to his room where he hears Jonah talking to him through a small vent in the wall, saying "(his) body feels weird." Nic also notices that his legs, previously weak but functional, are now completely numb. When Dr. Damon questions him again, Nic tries to get answers about Haley's condition (she is in a coma at the time), but is unsuccessful. Following an unexplained experiment on a cow in another part of the facility, a security alarm goes off and Nic, along with other personnel, finds large dents with scorch marks running across the walls and no sign of Jonah. Nic asks Damon where Jonah went but Damon tells him that Jonah was never recovered from the house. Increasingly agitated, Nic tries to break Haley out but is intercepted. After being restrained, he's shocked to discover that his legs have been amputated and replaced by prostheses made from alien technology. Nic then uses these super-powered limbs to break Haley and himself out of the facility, only to discover they're in the middle of a vast barren desert.
...
Wikipedia