This is related to Östlund's background as a skiing film director, where a cut would only indicate failure.

The reactor control panel indicated no water flow and failure of pumps.

This may indicate a congestion or failure of their database connections.

Statistics, if they are the measure of success, would seem to indicate colossal failure.

Lean, filthy dogs, indicate failure in business, also sickness among children.

Many procedures return a boolean result indicating success or failure, which is put in H5.

"The tragic loss of our men does not necessarily indicate failure - it is war."

From the phrase for failing to get any hits, it can be used to indicate failure at something.

In most cases a permanent set that exceeds the specified maximum will indicate failure.

Merely hurting you would indicate failure on his part.