Mel Gibson said making M. Night Shyamalan’s 2002 science-fiction thriller Signs forced him to reassess his acting, after the director told him his performance was too exaggerated. Gibson felt out of step with the younger, more restrained approach on set and later stepped away from acting for eight years, making the film a turning point in his career.

Signs cast Gibson as a former priest and farmer confronting apparent extraterrestrial activity, alongside Joaquin Phoenix. Shyamalan, then riding the success of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, made the film another major hit: it earned about $408m worldwide and is remembered for its slow-building tension, water-glass motif and celebrated jump scare. Gibson returned to acting in 2010 with Edge of Darkness.