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Graham Hess
- Played by: Mel Gibson.
A former reverend who lost his faith to God after the death of his wife in a car crash. After some strange signs in his cornfield and UFO sightings all over the world, his faith will be proved again.
- Actor Allusion: Mel Gibson once again, plays a man who lost his wife.
- Agent Scully: When the aliens signs begin to appear he asks his brother if these are miracles or coincidences, but he believes the latter. After his son's "miraculous" resurrection, he believes again and resumes his reverend activity.
- Aloof Big Brother: For Merrill. The young brother sees him as a role model but he is a bit disappointed with him because of his lack of faith.
- Cozy Voice for Catastrophes: He tells the heartwarming stories of Morgan and Bo's births in a very soft voice to calm the kids as aliens approach the house.
- Crisis of Faith: He lost his wife and blamed God for not saving her, quitting as a reverend. At the end, he recovers.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Graham remembers his wife's last words ("Swing away") and the conversation about miracles or coincidences with Merrill. And tells Merrill to fight the alien with the bat.
- Manly Tears: In the "last dinner" scene, after his outrage for not praying at the table, he starts eating all the food and then sobs, feeling bad for shouting at his family.
- Papa Wolf: When the aliens start their invasion. He saves Morgan after a severe asthmatic attack.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: When Merrill proposes to run around outdoors to scare the strangers in his field, Graham is reluctant to swear and states that he is in anger.
Merrill Hess
- Played by: Joaquin Phoenix.
Graham's young brother who moves to his house after the death of Graham's wife. He was a former baseball player.
- Agent Mulder: At first he thinks that the signs are a hoax of "thirty year old guys who never had girlfriends", but then starts to believe the alien signs and UFO sightings are a miracle after listening to alien sounds on Bo's baby monitor. Also, he doesn't believe in coincidences after an event at a party where turning aside to throw away his gum before kissing a woman delayed him just long enough to avoid being "traumatized" when she vomited on herself at that moment.
- Chekhov's Skill: His baseball days were over, but then Graham tells him to "swing away" the alien with the bat.
- Cool Uncle: To Bo and Morgan.
- Foil: After the death of Colleen, he comes to help Graham and gives him some sensible advice over his doubt and insecurity.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Merrill accidentally broke the only light bulb in the basement when picking up the pickaxe. If the light bulb had stayed intact, Morgan would have seen the alien hand about to grab him and not had an asthmatic attack.
- Promoted to Parent: Moves in with Graham sometime before the film to help raise his kids.
Morgan Hess
- Played by: Rory Culkin.
Graham's son and Bo's big brother. He starts to take an interest in the alien invasion and investigates anything that could save from a large-scale event. He is also asthmatic.
- Asthma Peril: Played with. Morgan has an asthma attack while locked in the family's basement hiding from the aliens, as they forgot his medication. However, this prevents him from inhaling the alien's gas and saves his life. Despite the fact that he stopped breathing, he survives the night unharmed
- Big Brother Instinct: Has this for Bo. He killed one of the family's dogs because it was going to hurt her.
- Chekhov's Gunman: His book becomes quite useful when dealing with aliens despite the lack of high advanced technology.
- Chekhov's Skill: Morgan's asthma. He suffered a severe attack after an alien grabbed him. The alien sprayed some toxic gas to him but because his respiratory system was closed, he wasn't affected.
- Improbable Infant Survival: His asthmatic attack left him close to death and an alien sprayed toxic gas to him only for Morgan's respiratory system to be closed.
Bo Hess
- Played by: Abigail Breslin.
Graham's daughter and Morgan's little sister. She is very attached to her brother and has a great sense for feeling water tastes.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Justified as she's Graham's youngest child.
- Big Brother Worship: She is very attached to Morgan like no one else. She also has a bad feeling about something horrible happening to him in a near future.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Bo leaves water-filled glasses all over the house because, according to her, they taste bad. It happens that the aliens can be killed by water, and Merrill uses this to defeat a remaining alien.
- Creepy Child: Could be seen as this by some viewers.
Colleen Hess
- Played by: Patricia Kalember.
Graham's late wife and mother of Bo and Morgan. She died 6 months ago, when Ray Reddy fell asleep at the wheel and hit her during a walk.
- Chekhov's Gunman: She tells Graham that Merrill should "swing away" before she died. As Graham recalled, it may have been because she remembered a match played by Merrill. At the film's climatic battle, Graham remembers these words and prompts Merrill to "swing away" the invader.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Being torn apart from the torso and below by a car's front but having her alive for a moment before the car was removed.
- Half the Woman She Used to Be: The car crashed her to a tree and her torso was cut from the rest of her body. But the crashed car left the torso enough to have her alive for a while before it was removed.
- Missing Mom: Justified as she is dead before the events of the film.
- Posthumous Character: She only appears in flashbacks of the car accident.
Ray Reddy
- Played by: M. Night Shyamalan.
The man who accidentally killed Colleen in a car crash.
- The Atoner: The car accident left him devastated and he tried to contact Graham after that but stopped for fear of consequences. Then the alien invasion starts and he wants to amend things with Graham before leaving for safety.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He tells Graham that he's going to the lake as most alien sightings occur in places that lack of water bodies.
- Fight Unscene: Ray fought an alien and trapped it inside a pantry before leaving.
Caroline Paski
- Played by: Cherry Jones.
A police officer who is in good terms with Graham. She investigates the mysterious signs in the fields and the strange animal behavior around. She was also present at Colleen's tragic car accident.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The last time she was seen, she was telling Graham to take care before leaving to do her duties and only appeared in Graham's flashbacks. It is unknown if she survived the alien invasion.
Lionel Prichard
- Played by: Michael Showalter.
A local prankster along with the Wolfington Brothers. He is attributed at first as the culprit behind the Crop Circles on Graham's property.
- Jerkass: He tells SFC Cunningham, who was a fanboy of Merrill Hess during his baseball years, that Merrill had a shameful record of strikes aside from his homeruns.
- Red Herring: He is first attributed as the one behind making the crop circles as a joke because he is a well-known local prankster.
The Aliens
A group of extraterrestrial beings that leave mysterious signs in fields and arrive in camouflaged spaceships. They seem to want to invade the planet.
- Aliens Are Bastards: They seem to want to invade the planet but they actually intoxicate humans and collect them for reasons unknown.
- Aliens Speaking English: Averted. They speak their own language without any translations or subtitles.
- Aliens Steal Cable: Actually it's because of Morgan's baby monitor. The monitor interferes in the aliens' communication system and the Hesses listen to them "talking".
- Big Bad: The aliens want to invade the Earth to capture human beings for their own purposes.
- Chameleon Camouflage: They are able to camouflage due to their skin having color absorbing abilities and their long legs could pass as a corn stem. Their spaceships have this camouflage ability at daylight.
- Crop Circles: The mysterious signs that aliens leave in the fields all over the world is hinted to be like a geographic coordinated system for the aliens.
- Deadly Gas: They spray toxic gases in small doses through stingers hidden in their wrists.
- Ditzy Genius: They have engineering skills far more advanced than ours, enabling them to build highly advanced spaceships capable of turning invisible and traveling far greater distances than our best rocket ships, but they are stupid enough to attack a planet that is roughly 70% Kryptonite for them by running around on foot with no weapons or protective clothing.
- Exposed Extraterrestrials: Which is really stupid when you consider the fact that water is deadly to them.
- Fingore: The alien Graham meets at Ray's house gets most of its fingers cut after the creature tried to grab Graham and the latter attacks it out of fear. That same alien comes back to Graham's house and he recognizes it by its lost fingers.
- Hostage Situation: The pantry trapped alien tracks Graham to his house and threatens to intoxicate Morgan with its toxic gas.
- Humanoid Aliens: The aliens have bipedal position but have four fingers and a human skull-like face.
- Informed Ability: Are hyped as technologically superior Dreaded; turn out to be just a bunch of Stupid Evil Glass Cannons.
- Insufficiently Advanced Alien: The aliens don't seem to have any sort of advanced technology aside from their invisible spaceships. They explore the planet completely naked only using their camouflage, acrobatic abilities, strength and toxic gas to defend themselves. They may simply be a group of raiding explorers like SFC Cunningham said, or, believing the theory of Morgan's book, using highly advanced technology could stop from invading the planet.
- It's Personal: Not for the aliens as a whole, but the one individual alien that attacks the Hesses at the film's climax does so because it's out for revenge after Graham previously hacked off two fingers on its left hand.
- Kill It with Water: The aliens' weakness. Water acts for them as an acid. The Hesses had it easy as Bo leaves lots of filled glasses around the house.
- Kill the Cutie: The aliens kill Isabel, the Hesses' remaining German Shepard dog, offscreen.
- Little Green Man: Averted. Morgan says that according to his book, aliens could be small creatures as their intelligence is much more developed than their body. The aliens do have green skin but are taller than human adults.
- Mirror Scare: The alien trapped in the pantry comes to Graham's house and holds Morgan hostage. Its appearance is revealed with a Scare Chord in the TV's reflection.
- Monster Delay: The aliens appear shadowed with small glimpses of their limbs. It is not until the birthday party recording in the news and the attack at the Hesses's home that we see their true appearance.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Averted. It's stated that when they pulled out, they left their wounded behind.
- Stupid Evil: This supposedly advanced race evidently believe an all-out Leeroy Jenkins is the best way to invade a Kryptonite Is Everywhere (to them) planet. And their apparent inability to bypass basic, non-futuristic doors only hurts their case even more.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Water is highly dangerous for them.
