During their stay in a hotel, Nic and Jonah discover that a hacker named NOMAD, who nearly got them expelled for breaking into MIT servers, has found their location and is taunting them with ominous e-mails.

Nic and Jonah hear Haley scream and the two run outside to find her, only to see her pulled into the sky before disappearing into a white light themselves.

Following an unexplained experiment on a cow in another part of the facility, a security alarm goes off and Nic, along with other personnel, finds large dents with scorch marks running across the walls and no sign of Jonah.

After hitching a ride with an old lady, Nic and Haley hijack an 18-wheeler truck to find a way around the seemingly endless canyon that extends around the facility and surrounding area.

After Nic discovers indications of alien technology implanted in Haley's spine, the trio drive up to a military checkpoint.

As Nic and Haley approach the bridge that leads to the outside world, they run into Damon and his military men, who blow out the truck's tires with spikes.

Agitated and emotionally compromised, Nic uses his bionic legs to sprint at supersonic speed across the bridge, where he breaks through an invisible barrier.

He realizes he is not in a government facility, but is actually on an immense alien spacecraft numbered 2.3.5.41 (matching the numerical tattoo on his arm) that is docking at their home world.

"[10] Screenwriter David Frigerio echoed his co-writers' sentiments in his explanation of the film's themes: Once Singularity hits and people start getting really smart, like a million times smarter than we are now—and that might not be that far off in the distance...where does that put human emotions?

"[12] In the film, the character Nic finally listens and hears "The Signal", and in a fiery burst discovers his true feeling, love.

"[13] This decision flies in the face of logic, but trusting love empowers him, and the transformation enables him to break out of the allegorical cave of darkness he had formerly found himself in and out into the wide field of reality.

[20] The film's score was written by Nima Fakhrara who designed experimental musical instruments to construct the resonant soundscapes.

[2] The Signal was released in a Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD combo pack on September 23, 2014 by Focus Features and Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

The site's consensus says, "Director William Eubank clearly has big ideas and an impressive level of technical expertise; unfortunately, The Signal fritters them away on a poorly constructed story.

[32] Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" rating, saying, "Hard science fiction meets tender hearts in a slow-burn, twist-filled thriller...

"[33] Nicolas Rapold of The New York Times wrote, "William Eubank's The Signal demonstrates the fine line between paranoid science-fiction fantasy and demo reel... After a brief excursion into found-footage horror, Nic wakes up in one of those antiseptic, white-walled secret compounds used for human experimentation in the movies.

Rapold judges that "the story evolves into a kind of poor man's X-Men", though "the grandiosity of the film's setups partly fits in with the guys' sense of righteous-geek drama, and you wouldn't be surprised to see Mr. Eubank directing a bigger-budget movie down the road..."[34] Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film a one-and-a-half star rating and a half-scathing review: "Two of the major plot turns in The Signal—a good-looking sci-fi thriller with more fashion sense than brains—hinge on misdirection involving simple arithmetic and spelling.

I won't spoil the fun by elaborating further, but when each moment arrives, it's cheapened by the implicit insult to the audience's intelligence.

O'Sullivan adds, "I'll say one thing: The general state of confusion fostered by the head-scratching plot is a surprisingly effective way of maintaining continued engagement with it—if by 'engagement' you mean 'This better lead somewhere.'

)"[35] In contrast, USA Today wrote, "Had Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch made a movie together, it might have looked something like The Signal.

Visually stunning, emotionally stunted and weird as all get-out, this sci-fi tale (**1/2 stars out of four, rated PG-13...) isn't worthy of the canon of either master of disturbing imagery.