While circling a passage in the notes, Bruce Willis does so with his right hand. Willis is actually left-handed; he possibly circled it right-handed to provide for a better camera angle.
This is the second movie with Bruce Willis in a leading role where one of the main characters is named "Cole", whom nobody believes and is considered to be insane or unusual. The other was Twelve Monkeys - in which Cole says, "All I see are dead people". Also, both movies have a number in the title, and both take place in Philadelphia.
The second movie in which Bruce Willis plays a psychologist who has a traumatic experience and wants to give up. The other one was Color of Night (1994).
The second of three consecutive films (with Wide Awake (1998) and Unbreakable (2000)) made by M. Night Shyamalan that take place in Philadelphia, where Shyamalan lived for years. Wide Awake also includes the idea of using a church as a "resting place".
M. Night Shyamalan pitched the film as a cross between The Exorcist (1973) and Ordinary People (1980).
The movie was rented by 80 million people in 2000 - making it the year's top-rated tape and DVD title.
Director Cameo: [M. Night Shyamalan] Dr. Hill, who examines Cole Sear after the "accident" at the birthday party.
Director Trademark: [M. Night Shyamalan] [car accident] Cole tells his mother about his powers while they're stuck in traffic because of a car accident.
Filmed in sequence.
The voice on the tape of Vincent's session is speaking Spanish, the person is saying: "Please, I don't want to die sir, save me, save me."
Several camera angles were chosen to simulate the comic book device of a frame around each scene.
Julianne Moore was offered the part of Audrey Dunn.
The establishing shot of Audrey at the care center as seen through a fogged circle frame echoes the intro shot of Lois Lane through Jimmy Olsen's camera in Superman (1978).
The film takes place in Philadelphia. On the wall of Elijah's workshop among the newspaper clippings is a headline "Killer Virus Released at Airport". Bruce Willis stared in Twelve Monkeys (1995), in which a killer virus was first released at the Philadelphia airport.
The logo of the news station reporting the train wreck should look familiar to comic book fans: it is the same as the logo used by the Marvel superhero group The Fantastic Four. The logo can be seen during the news report shown on TV.
The piano piece that is played during Elijah's exhibition is the same one being practiced by Marie's/Rogue's mother in the opening scenes of X-Men (2000).
In Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), Inspector Cobb (Larry Bryggman) says of McClane (Bruce Willis) that "by next month he's gonna be a security guard". In this movie, Willis finally is a security guard.
Elijah asks David what made him choose protection as a career out of all the things he could have done, such as "founding a chain of restaurants". In reality, Bruce Willis is one of the founders of Planet Hollywood, a restaurant chain.
Several scenes relating to the "Mr. Glass" character involve glass:
as a newborn, he's primarily seen reflected in mirrors
as a young child, he's seen reflected in a blank TV screen
he leaves his calling card on the windshield of David Dunn's car
he's reflected in a glass frame in his art gallery
his walking stick is made of glass.
Osteogenesis Imperfecta is a real but rare disease and is accurately portrayed in the movie.
As in comic books, the main characters have their identified color schemes. David's is green and Elijah's is purple. They show up in their clothes, the wallpaper and bed sheets in their houses, Elijah's note to David, and various personal items, among others.
Several important objects are introduced upside-down:
the TV train wreck footage
Elijah's first comic book
the "Keep Out" sign guarding the train's wreckage.
The silver gun with the black grip, which Elijah sees in the belt of the man with the camouflage jacket while lying on his back.
Audrey in the car crash flashback Elijah's face after he falls down the stairs.
The name Elijah is a biblical reference. Elijah was prophesied to return to Earth to pave the way for the coming of a savior.
Director Trademark: [M. Night Shyamalan] [car accident] A car accident is a pivotal point in David and Audrey's relationship.
Signs (2002)
Joaquin Phoenix replaced Mark Ruffalo, who had to pull out of the film due to ill health This film was shot in Newtown, PA. The scene which takes place in "2 Aldo's Pizzeria" is really a family-run pizzeria called "Mom's Bake at Home Pizza".
The film was shot on the property of an agricultural school, Delaware Valley College, where two areas of corn were already growing at different stages. The corn grown for the film was naturally further behind the other two areas of corn, so it was not a planned element.
Director Trademark: [M. Night Shyamalan] [things reflected on television screens] .
The "Brazilian Video" was shot with a household camcorder by M. Night Shyamalan himself.
Director Trademark: [M. Night Shyamalan] [car accident] Graham's wife died in a car accident.
Director M. Night Shyamalan cites Birds, The (1963), Night of the Living Dead (1968), and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) as the influences for this film.
Graham Hess was originally written as an older character. 'Newman, Paul' was offered the role but turned it down, as did Clint Eastwood.
The artwork done by Bo Hess in the movie was actually done by Salek Shyamalan, director M. Night Shyamalan's daughter.
Composer James Newton Howard was asked to purposely reference classic film scores from similar genres, such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Psycho (1960). The opening music and main three-note motif is strikingly similar (a probable reference) to both the theme of "Psycho" and the theme of "The Twilight Zone".
The stories of the children's' birth are actually the stories of M. Night Shaymalan's two children.
Only the scenes in the bookstore and the pizza shop were filmed in Newtown (Bucks County), Pennsylvania. The scenes of the house and cornfields were filmed on 40 acres that were leased to the film company by Delaware Valley College (an agriculture college) of Doylestown (Bucks County), Pennsylvania. After filming, the film company donated all the corn grown to the college's vegetable and fruit market. The house was built on the grounds and torn down after filming. Delaware Valley College is acknowledged in the credits at the end of the film.
The scene in which Graham has his last conversation with his wife was scheduled for 12 September 2001, and was filmed after a cast and crew candlelight vigil.
In the part of the "Brazilian Video" the anchorwoman says the video was taped in Passo Fundo city that means "Deep Step", and what the boy's saying all the time is "It's behind that garage".
Just after the DVD is inserted into the player, and immediately after the Touchstone logo, a dark, fuzzy image appears in black and white, very quickly. It is a movie still with Merrill, Morgan and Bo sitting on the couch with the aluminum hats on their heads. The picture is shown even faster when "Play" is selected.
Mel Gibson's name was listed on the call sheet as "Lem Nosbig" to throw off any non-crew members wanting to know what days he'd be on the set.
The Hess family hides in the basement, which Graham Hess says was once used for coal storage. In H.G. Wells's "The War of the Worlds", the main character hides from the aliens in a coal shed.
M. Night Shyamalan's scene in which he talks to Hess about the death of his wife was shot a day after a member of Shyamalan's family died.
