I liked The Signal because it fully committed to its weirdness and tone plus while I guessed some of what was happening, I plausibly thought that there was one additional possibility. After I saw the movie, I read that the filmmaker was trying to explore the main character’s conflict between emotion and logic in a sci fi setting. The Signal was not made by Duncan Jones so while it touched that theme, The Signal did not ultimately read as a metaphor for the struggle between the heart and the mind. It read as a sci fi movie first and foremost. So the director failed himself-while his main character may emotionally break out of paralysis, it does not make a difference. He will never achieve what his heart wants due to circumstances beyond his control. He will never escape Plato’s Cave even if he knows what it is. Does it fail as a movie? It depends on how you receive the end of the movie. I can see audiences getting pretty angry, but I was pleased and rewatched a few scenes afterwards. I think that it largely defied numerous genre-defining tropes while providing a clever twist on others with interesting visual metaphors, and I won’t reveal what that genre is. An essential element to enjoying The Signal depends on not knowing anything about the plot and just letting the events unfold. In contrast to The Colony, making the unknown actor the focal point of the story was a brilliant move and Brenton Thwaites played effectively against Laurence Fishburne, who plays a pivotal supporting role. One intriguing unanswered question-when did the detour actually begin: before the movie started off screen or at the obvious point? I enjoyed The Signal-it was visually arresting with a clever plot and had a great cast, but the underdeveloped role of the girlfriend, played by the magnificent Olivia Cooke, who has been delivering excellent performances in Bates Motel, was a crucial waste. Also while it is important to have a soul behind any story, in this case, I would have spent a smidge more time on the story because it was a good, weird one with a lot of potential-think a feature film for The Outer Limits like storyline.