Plot: In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Colleen Hess dies a horrific death in a traffic accident. After the accident, her minister husband Graham denounces his faith and his vocation to work full-time on his farm. His brother Merrill, a former minor-league baseball player known more for his batting brawn than his finesse, moves into the farmhouse to help Graham look after his two adolescent children, asthmatic son Morgan and daughter Bo, who has a finicky taste for water. Six months after the accident, crop circles appear in Graham's cornfield. They initially speculate that local trouble-making youths could be the culprits, but they learn that theirs is only one of a number of crop circles made simultaneously worldwide. In addition, animals have been acting erratically. Morgan and Bo seem to have a better sense of what is happening than the adults. Based on other evidence, the family slowly begins to believe that the crop circles are only one of many signs being sent by extraterrestrials. Not knowing whether the extraterrestrials are friendly or not, the Hesses take extreme precautions to protect themselves. Graham also begins to believe that nothing that happens is by chance, and that everything has a reason.
Alternative Plot: Everything that farmer Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) assumed about the world is changed when he discovers a message - an intricate pattern of circles and lines - carved into his crops. As he investigates the unfolding mystery, what he finds will forever alter the lives of his brother (Joaquin Phoenix) and children (Rory Culkin), (Abigail Breslin). A unique story that explores the mysterious real-life phenomena of crop signs and the effects they have on one man and his family.
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