FILM REVIEWS:
SIGNAL ONE (Canada/USA 2024) ***
Directed by Jonathan Sobol
SIGNAL ONE is a sci-fi first contact with an alien thriller with a twist. The twist is that aliens are not always hostile, as is widely received. “All alien forms are hostile” is the idea formulated by writers of Sci-fi like H.G. Wells. But the aliens are not the typical ones envisioned. The alien form in this movie is re-imagined to be energy, and energy that hovers, transforms and inhabits. The idea does not always work, as it is less cinematic in nature, but the Canadian filmmaker tries his utmost best to provoke thought and change the audience’s perspective of an alien force. Director Sobol imagines the true horror is not giant spaceships, but that of
human identity, free will, and civilisation itself, which can be rewritten simply through communication.
Unlike alien invasion films focused on war, Signal One treats contact as psychological, informational, and existential.
When tech billionaire Sam Houston hires the brilliant computer scientist Annika, she ventures to an isolated facility run by the brilliant, nihilistic creator of LITTLEMOUTH, a machine which can communicate with alien intelligence. Annika soon learns some humanity-altering facts: that we are not alone in the universe, that alien intelligences are communicating around us at every moment, and that we are likely too primitive to even remotely understand what they are trying to tell us. But when the goal of the endeavour shifts from listening to talking back, the project rapidly devolves into chaos. With contact comes consequences, and soon Annika and the team must work to ensure the very survival of our species.
The title of the film, “Signal One”, refers to the first confirmed extraterrestrial contact,
the primary transmission frequency, and humanity’s first irreversible step into cosmic communication.
The film proposes a strong female protagonist, Annika, a brilliant (more than her male counterparts) but socially withdrawn computer scientist played by Isabelle Fuhrman.
Annika specialises in pattern recognition, deep-space signal analysis, and machine-learning systems designed to detect non-human communication. She trusts algorithms more than people,
avoids close relationships, and becomes increasingly obsessed with strange mathematical anomalies appearing in deep-space transmissions. Another strange minor female role is Lena (Kiera Allen), a disabled cryptographer who believes the signal may already be altering human cognition.
Director Sobol complements the sci-fi aspect by introducing character interaction. The main male antagonist, who propels the events of the film, is a billionaire similar to Elon Musk. Marcus Vale (Dennis Quaid), a charismatic technology billionaire, runs a secretive private research operation on a remote Caribbean island. Publicly, he is known as a futurist, AI entrepreneur, and aerospace investor. Privately, he has spent years searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. Vale tells Annika that her discovery matches signals his organisation has secretly monitored for decades. He invites her to join his isolated facility called Signal One. Annika initially refuses, but after discovering her university files have mysteriously disappeared and government agents begin following her, she realises larger forces are involved.
The other male antagonist is Perry (British actor David Thewlis), the brilliant but deeply nihilistic creator of the “Littlemouth” machine, a man obsessed with communicating with alien intelligence, and one of the key figures behind the dangerous experiment at the centre of the film.
Though apparently functioning as the film’s philosophical core. Perry seems motivated by existential despair and scientific obsession.
SIGNAL OMNe is the most ambitious film from Canadian Jonathan Sobol, who broke into the filmmaking scene with CITIZEN DUANE.
SIGNAL ONE is an edge-of-your-seat story that asks what happens when we learn we aren't alone in the universe, that opens in select theatres and on demand everywhere June 5, 2026.
Trailer:
