The Signal (2024) follows Sven and Charlie as they try to decipher the message sent to them by Sven’s wife, Paula, who just returned from space. The series is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Sven and Charlie watch the live stream as Paula’s ship returns to Earth, but they nearly don’t make it after Paula waits until the final moment to release the parachute.
Paula and Hadi are scientists who were sent to the International Space Station on a scientific mission backed by billionaire Benisha Mudhi.
Sven is Paula’s husband and Charlie is their deaf child who uses hearing aids to listen. Charlie feels like her mother is being weird on the broadcast, but Sven doesn’t give it too much attention.
Paula and Hadi were supposed to return from Chile on a flight a few days later, but when the flight disappeared, the passengers’ families got worried.
Sven gets a strange call from Paula before the flight, and he doesn’t understand what she’s trying to talk about.
A few days later, it was reported that the wreckage of the plane was found in the ocean and all passengers likely passed away.
Sven, and Hadi’s wife, Mira, are questioned by detectives Friederike and her partner because they suspect Paula had something to do with the disappearance.
Freiderike makes Sven listen to a recording from the cockpit of the plane that was recovered. In it, Paula sends a message to Sven asking him not to fight with Charlie.
Charlie doesn’t want to accept that her mother is gone and continues to listen to the radio she used to communicate with Paula while she was at the ISS.
Charlie is very interested in the space program and her favorite book describes the space race during the Cold War.
During her time at the ISS, Paula discovers a message coming from outer space. It is only heard while they are in the dead space that cuts them off from Earth.
She tells Hadi and he urges caution and further research to confirm what they are listening to.
Instead, he tries to convince Paula that she was just imagining the recording and aims to find out the origin by himself.
Months before the mission, Paula had a psychotic break and was diagnosed with medication to keep her healthy.
However, she didn’t take them and kept her report hidden with Sven’s agreement so that she could still go on the mission.
The recording is released to the media and the families of the other passengers blame Paula and Hadi for the accident.
They camp outside Sven’s house and ask for answers, or justice. One day, Sven gets a call from Rainer, the man who trained Paula and Hadi to become astronauts.
He says that there is some kind of cover-up going on but the call is cut halfway through. Charlie says that she spoke to her mother, but Sven doesn’t believe her.
He drops her off with Mira and goes to Rainer’s house to check. Rainer is nowhere to be found, but Sven does find the file detailing what Paula discovered out there.
Charlie runs away to find out where Paula called her from and reaches a house in the middle of nowhere.
Sven is about to go after her when he’s stopped by Frederike. He shows her the file and asks her to dig into the disappearances rather than his wife.
Sven finds Charlie at an old woman’s bunker and the old woman says that she knows what Paula found.
She plays the recording and says that it’s been getting closer, which means that something from out there is coming to Earth soon.
The army shows up and takes Sven and Charlie in, where they find Rainer. Rainer tells them that the army plans to attack the incoming object before it lands.
They cannot prepare for the risks that the possible aliens possess and choose to go with the most violent solution.
Meanwhile, Freiderike investigates the flight that went down, and they realize that a passenger checked in with their bag, but didn’t get on the flight.
The black box had been found by then and Paula and Hadi were exonerated after evidence of an explosion beforehand was found.
Freiderike finds out who planted the bomb and tries to warn Sven but they are targeted by mysterious individuals that take them out.
Paula discovers the date and time as well as the location of the arrival, and Hadi threatens to kill her unless she tells him the coordinates.
She waits till they’re out of the dead zone to state the coordinates so that the people listening in also hear it and it isn’t kept a secret.
Ending explained:
A back-up plan
The news reports that there was no debris found by the military, suggesting that they fired at nothing.
Paula learned of the government’s decision to shoot it down and decided to keep the real coordinates a secret.
She tells them to Charlie but doesn’t explain so that she can have plausible deniability. When Sven discovers the coordinates written on her arm, he gets excited.
The army comes after them once again, but they manage to escape. The same truck that killed Friedrike comes after them and knocks them off the road.
Sven uses a distress button that Benisha sent through her assistant Nora in case they ever needed help.
Just like all the others
Sven and Charlie wake up in Benisha’s house, and she offers to help them fulfill Paula’s wish.
Charlie shows her the coordinates and they head over there in time for the arrival. On the helicopter ride there, Sven switches on his phone and gets messages from Freidrike.
They warn him that Benisha is the one responsible for the plane’s accident. Nora checked in with an explosive in her bag.
Paula realized that Benisha was the one pulling Hadi’s strings so she had to be silenced too. Benisha justifies her decision to Sven and tells him not to overreact.
They head to the alternate location in the desert but nothing arrives.
Two steps ahead
Sven suddenly realizes what Paula’s plan is and tells Benisha that nothing is coming. She threatens to shoot him and asks Charlie for the right coordinates but the young girl doesn’t know.
She orders her men to kill them, but Nora protests. Benisha then tells Nora to do it instead as she walks away.
Nora pretends to kill them and asks them to stay down until she leaves so they can escape.
Once Benisha leaves, Sven tells Charlie that although she had the right location, she didn’t have the right time.
Sven remembered that Paula asked him and Charlie to work together, and she left him a voice message talking about their anniversary, except she mentioned the wrong date.
That was the date of the arrival, and it is months away. Sven and Charlie head back home and prepare.
Meanwhile, Benisha is arrested after Nora agrees to be a witness and turns herself in.
Sven and Charlie go back to the desert on the right day and what eventually arrives is the original Voyager probe sent out in the 70s.
The news reports that it was likely sent back by something out there, and it reminds the world of their intentions while sending it out.
Back then, the world worked together but now they have let differences and greed divide them against a common goal.
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