‘Signs,’ Mysteries, and the Drones Captivating a Nation

Multiple drones are seen over Bernardsville, N.J., on Dec. 5, 2024 Brian Glenn/TMX via AP

Commentary

News reports of recent drone sightings are eerily similar to M. Night Shyamalan’s 2002 movie “Signs.”

The movie tells the story of Rev. Graham Hess, an Episcopal priest played by Mel Gibson, who loses his faith after his wife is killed in a freak accident. Hess gives up his vocation to work on a farm where he lives with his two small children and brother. The movie turns from drama to science fiction as Hess finds a crop circle in his cornfield, the first of many strange occurrences that eventually lead to a frightening alien invasion.

Prior to the invasion, news coverage becomes saturated with reports of mysterious lights hovering in the skies. Sightings occur first over Mexico City, but eventually come in from around the world.

In the film, the lights are initially seen as unidentified flying objects (UFOs) but are later revealed as alien spacecraft. Remember, “drones” weren’t part of the average person’s lexicon yet. The only time anyone likely heard the word was in November 2002 when the United States conducted its first targeted drone strikes, killing suspected al-Qaeda terrorists in Yemen.

Yet one can’t help but look back at Shyamalan’s depiction of the film’s hovering lights with trepidation when juxtaposed with current news footage of mystery drones.

Also similar to the movie, the lighted aircraft began appearing in other locations: Our real-world sightings began in Morris County, N.J., but have spread out to places like New York, Pennsylvania, California, and Oregon.

“Signs” was filmed on location in Bucks and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania where the fictional plot plays out. Astonishingly, Bucks and Montgomery are currently in the news, reporting mysterious drone sightings. They are approximately an hour and a half drive from the New Jersey county where it all began.

Some media outlets are coming right out and asking, “Are the mystery drones in the US actually UFOs?” Others are reporting drone sightings are happening around the world: Mystery drones were recently reported over four joint U.S.–UK military bases in England as well as Ramstein air base in Germany, for example.

Ross Coulthart is an Australian investigative journalist who regularly covers UFO sightings. When asked who he thought could be behind the drone mystery, Coulthart rationally observed, “Let’s hope it’s aliens because if it’s Russia or China we have a very serious problem.”

He went on to say that if our government is telling us that’s it’s not our technology and it’s not a foreign adversary, the other options aren’t good either. “It leaves the possibility of some dissident, rogue group in government, or maybe some private contractor that’s doing the wrong thing.”

Meanwhile, Coulthart said he was being “besieged by angry people” from across the United States who are offended at White House claims that they are misidentifying regular manned airplanes. National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said in a news conference that many sightings are actually manned aircraft that are “being operated legally.”

Also right out of an M. Night Shyamalan thriller, we can add the curious fact that an FBI probe revealed that drones have been blamed for changing the time on clocks in New Jersey. Fox News reportedly spoke to a Morris County family who said the time on their car clock changed as a drone hovered above them, but returned to normal when they drove off.

In a separate incident, a software engineer in radio communications reported his car clock changed as well. He said he thought it could be due to the fact that “newer cars get their clock time from GPS satellites. ... If [the drones] are using GPS jamming or spoofing then it’s plausible the car would follow the signal and change the clock to match whatever signal is coming from the drone/plane.”

And speaking of satellite technology, the big question on everyone’s mind is, “What does SpaceX founder Elon Musk think?” Even as President Biden’s administration is facing bipartisan criticism over its handling of the drone mystery, National Security Adviser Kirby had no answers when he appeared in a contentious segment on Fox News. A frustrated Martha MacCallum asked, “Have you called in like, AI experts or said like, ‘Why don’t we ask Elon Musk what he thinks?’” Apparently they have not.

With Musk recently criticizing manned fighter jets and advocating for drones as the future of air combat, it seems odd that he’s waited so long to comment on the subject. President-elect Trump, on the other hand, called on the current administration to either tell the public what they are or shoot them down.

The question is, do these mystery drones mean that we are the brunt of a joke or the victims of a hoax? Are we being probed from within or infiltrated by an enemy nation? Or is it really too far-fetched to think that our interstellar neighbors in globular cluster Messier 13 are finally responding to the Arecibo message?

According to Rev. Graham Hess in “Signs,” the answer might not be as important as how we respond to it:

“See, what you have to ask yourself is, ‘What kind of person are you?’ Are you the kind who sees signs, sees miracles, or do you believe people just get lucky? Or look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?”

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.