Knowing

Why read this first? Because hopefully there are no spoilers here. In so many of the reviews for this movie, as well as others on Amazon, people seemed compelled to give a total synopsis of the movie all the way up to the end -- especially if they didn't like the movie. It's like if they didn't care for it, then nobody else needs to see it. Well, I'm glad that I didn't read any of the reviews here before watching KNOWING because I enjoyed not knowing and being able to decide for myself. And my opinion is that KNOWING is a very fine movie.

The previews tell you what you need to know: A time capsule which contains school children's drawings about what they think things will be like in 50 years is opened in the present day. An astrophysicist (Nicholas Cage)gets hold of one submission which is a lengthy series of numbers. He discovers that the numbers predict future disasters, most which have happened, but a few that are still to come. His mission becomes to avert the disasters. There-- that's all you need to know about the story, now sit back and enjoy the movie.

Here's what I am knowing:
1) If you hate Nicholas Cage you will hate the movie.
2) If you are a total science fiction geek you may not like this film as for me it was more spiritual than scifi.
3) If you don't like spiritual things, don't like God or the Bible, or don't want to be thinking about anything like this then you should stay away from the movie.
4) If major disasters are something you don't want to watch a movie about then this one is not for you.
5) If you prefer mindless comedy or romance, Knowing probably won't be at the top of your list.
6) This was my kind of movie-- I was thrilled, entertained, and uplifted in the end. I rented it, but I will probably want to add this to my collection.

"Knowing" achieves a level of greatness so few science fiction films ever achieve. It's not merely an engaging mystery--it's a deeply thought-provoking fable that's just as frightening as it is intelligent, and it ultimately makes a statement so profound that I was left completely awestruck. I don't often have an experience like that at the movies, and for that, I'm indebted to director Alex Proyas and writers Ryne Douglas Pearson, Juliet Snowden, Stiles White, and Stewart Hazeldine. They've successfully crafted one of the year's most stimulating films, taking the audience on a suspenseful, emotional, and ultimately (albeit unconventionally) redemptive journey that poses interesting questions on the nature of things. A movie like this could have easily placed technical achievement over character development, and thankfully, that didn't happen; we care just as much about the people as we do about the spectacular special effects.

The story begins in 1959, when an elementary school class is asked to draw pictures of what the world will look like fifty years later. What they draw will be put into a time capsule, which will be reopened in the year 2009. Rather than draw a picture, the quiet, disturbed Lucinda Embry (Lara Robinson) writes out a series of numbers on both the front and the back of a piece of paper.

Flash forward to the present day. We meet an MIT astrophysics professor named John Koestler (Nicholas Cage), who teaches his students that two theories on the nature of the universe have been proposed. On the one side, we have the determinist view, which states that everything happens as the result of a predetermined--and more importantly, a predictable--sequence of events. How, for example, could the Earth be located at just the correct distance from the sun to sustain life? On the other side, we have the random view, which states that absolutely nothing can be predicted, that life, the universe, and everything happened as the result of cosmic coincidences. What exactly does Koestler believe? Here are some clues: His wife died some years earlier, and he's openly stated that the existence of Heaven can't be proven.

As it so happens, John's young son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), goes to the same school that Lucinda Embry attended fifty years earlier. The day comes when the time capsule is unearthed and opened, and lo and behold, Caleb gets the envelope containing the numbers Lucinda wrote. He then takes it home, thinking the numbers might mean something. John initially thinks nothing of it ... until he places his wet glass of hard liquor on it and leaves a ring. Was it a predetermined act or a random act that led to a ring being formed around very specific numbers (the significance of which I won't reveal)? More important, was it a predetermined act or a random act that landed Caleb with the page of numbers in the first place? While I won't say what the numbers refer to (and this is in spite of the many ads that give plenty of hints), I will say that what John discovers changes him forever, forcing to consider ideas he never thought he would be able to consider.

To describe more of the plot would do you and the film a great disservice. Much of the story thrives on an engrossing mystery that only gets more unsettling with every passing scene. Visual motifs, such as shiny black pebbles, burning landscapes, and silhouetted figures emerging from the forest add great psychological weight. The same can be said for a house so old and ramshackle that, under different circumstances, it would be mistaken as being haunted. It ties in wonderfully with the psychological states of the characters inhabiting it. John is a solemn, broken man, estranged from his father, often detached from his son, occasionally dependent on a bottle of alcohol to drown his sorrows. Caleb is expectedly precocious but surprisingly fragile, always yearning for that which has been lost somewhere along the way. For the first time in a great while, we have a story that can actually support such characters; were it not for the awesome nature of the final fifteen minutes, John and Caleb would be nothing more than melodramatic clichés.

There are two more characters of great importance. One is Lucinda Embry's daughter, Diana Wayland (Rose Byrne), who enters John's life in a way that reaffirms the notion that nothing happens randomly. The other is Diana's daughter, Abby (also played by Lara Robinson), who, like Caleb, has been contacted by the creepy silhouetted figures, eventually called the Whispering People. Watch John and Diana as they search through Lucinda's abandoned home in the middle of the woods--the fear they express is disturbingly convincing.

Like last summer's "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," "Knowing" is one of the best cinematic surprises of recent memory, a meaningful and absorbing allegory made with intention of challenging the audience in matters of spirituality. It's difficult to say whether or not this film takes a religious stance; that would depend on your own view of the nature of the universe. There are, however, a number of religious implications, the least subtle of which is revealed in the final shot. This might account for some early reviews, where words like "overwrought" and "preposterous" came up. From my perspective, those who feel that way have failed to look any deeper than what was presented in the ads, which only scratched the surface. Contrary to what trailers and TV spots have been promising, this is not your average science fiction thriller. Serious time, effort, and thought went into "Knowing," one of the best films I've seen so far this year.

I noticed early on that "Knowing" had been receiving scathing reviews from cinephiles who called the movie "cliche," "trite," and "derivative." Most of these criticisms were impassioned and seemed to compare the movie to false estimations of what the film should have been. There is nothing wrong with wanting a movie to subvert or defy your expectations; but there is something unfair about not recognizing a film for what it is, especially when the movie succeeds so brilliantly in achieving its end result. "Knowing" starts off like a typical apocalyptic thriller rooted in numerology. But slowly the momentum of the film builds with each carefully crafted scene, so its suspense dissolves into a profound study on loss and letting go. "Knowing" is about knowing your place and role in the universe, and accepting it; and as hard as it may seem, letting go of your loved ones for their betterment -- even if its at odds with your own private longings. The ending could have played out many different ways -- with us not seeing where the children ultimately arrive so that Cage's character is left only "knowing" in his heart -- or having faith. Proyas is a benevolent director, so he allows us to see that the children indeed go on to a better place (whether this scene is the last thought in Cage's head or a scene that takes place outside of Cage's existence could be a subject of debate) because the story is trying to help us understand when it is necessary for our own peace to let go of our philosophical Materialism. I think it's unfair to label this movie as "cliche" -- Proyas and writers simply used the generic conventions of your standard "end of the world" movie to turn the genre on its head and give you something more lasting than special effects. For those of you who loved this movie -- read Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End," a novel which Proyas alludes to in "The Knowing."

While it may not really be the most credible science fiction film ever made, or even the best of its own sub-genre, the "End Of The World", KNOWING is a long way away from such incredible tripe as BATTLEFIELD EARTH or the recent (and thoroughly unnecessary) remake of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Its storyline isn't always credible, but it worked for me just the same.

The premise of KNOWING, in that an MIT professor played by Nicolas Cage, has discovered a parchment hidden in a time capsule at his son's school that was buried there fifty years ago with a random set of numbers that foretold of horrors that would befall us between 1959 and 2009, and the ultimate horror that would eliminate the human race, is a brilliant and even frightening one. It's especially so when he learns what the first sequence of numbers means--911012996, meaning of course the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which killed 2,996 people.

Indeed, this is a film that involves both science and religion, which often seem to bump into one another both in the reel world and the real world. Cage gets involved because one of the disasters told in that parchment was an apartment fire in Phoenix that killed his wife and eighty others a few years back; and when he comes into contact with the daughter (Rose Byrne) of the disturbed schoolgirl who wrote the parchment, he desperately tries to protect himself, her, and their two children (Chandler Canterbury; Lara Robinson). In the end, however, knowing what the numbers on the parchment mean can only lead to the tragic conclusion that the film gets to eventually--that The End can't be stopped.

Despite some occasionally lame dialogue in the screenplay, KNOWING elicits a fair number of scares and plenty of suspense as it goes step by step towards The End. Its blend of science fiction and Biblical prophecy was, for me, rather interesting, because it did not totally dismiss the prophecy aspect out of hand (which so many on the far-right lunatic fringe say Hollywood has done for the longest time), and yet it also avoided the ham-fisted soapbox shouting of the "Left Behind" series. The special effects here, not surprisingly, are quite good, verging on operatic; and the music score by Marco Beltrami interestingly appropriates the ominous Allegretto movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 at a couple of points in the film as a musical prelude to the inevitable.

KNOWING probably won't go down as being among the best science fiction films ever, let alone of the End Of The World variety, but it works well enough, and it has provoked a lot of consideration about the impact of science and religion on the future of humanity.

The only problem with this movie is that it sags a bit in the middle. This is not a huge problem though since the bulk of the movie is fascinating. Cage's son opens a document from a time capsule which contains a series of numbers. Cage, an astrophysics professor at MIT, works with the numbers and discovers that they are predictions of disasters by dates and longitude and latitude settings. Cage tries to prevent these disasters from occurring. This is the surface gist of the plot but there is so much more going on, much of it metaphysical and spiritual in addition to being sci-fi. This film has some of the most gorgeous sci-fi effects imaginable. For those into action-adventure special effects, those are great too. Cage is quite good here. He has been in a fair amount of bad movies in recent years but this is not one of them. To say anymore would ruin the plot line, which is very engrossing as it unfolds.

[SPOILERS] By no means was this was movie as sophisticated as "2001: A Space Odyssey," and it had a lot of plot holes, but it was still a good flick. In the tradition of movies like "Stargate," this movie manages to include several mythological elements - specifically Biblical references, without being too preachy or religious: Ezekiel's Vision, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Adam and Eve and the Tree of Life. It does make you think.

"Knowing" maintained a sense of urgency, and the ending was interesting because no one ends up saving the world like they do in just about every other disaster movie ever made.

To D. M. She, the the person who criticised the movie for not foreshadowing important events: There was plenty of foreshadowing, some of it subtle, some of it quite explicit. You just weren't paying attention.
1. John discusses the sun with his students (and later with his colleague) - foreshadows the solar flair.
2. The museum Diana and John visit features a variety of extinct animals, foreshadowing future extinctions.
3. The name of Caleb's school is "William Dawes," a horse rider who warned minutemen of an impending invasion.
4. Diana finds a ceramic angel that she crafted for mother - foreshadows the arrival of the angels.
5. The picture of Ezekiel's Vision hanging in Lucinda's trailer is a direct reference to the alien ship.
In any case, foreshadowing (or the lack of it) is not indicator of how good a movie is, and I am surprised that this movie had any foreshadowing at all because that risks giving away the ending. That would ruin the movie.

Knowing starts out strong, with a '50s era flashback to a creepy kid obsessed with numbers, that also serves to remind us that this film is aiming for something of a '50s science fiction vibe. As part of the opening ceremony for a new elementary school, kids put pictures of the future into a time capsule, with plans to open it up 50 years later. The creepy dark-haired girl puts her list of seemingly random numbers into the mix, along with the crayon drawings produced by the rest of the kids.

Fifty years later, of course, Nick Cage plays a single father and MIT astrophysicist whose belief in providence was shaken by the death of his wife. When the time capsule is opened, and his son gets the numbers, and as he comes to see what the numbers mean, it becomes apparent that even senseless tragedy may not be simply random. Alex Proyas channels Close Encounters of the Third Kind for a number of plot elements and for a religious sense of mystery that drives the film, but aims less for a sense of wonder as dread, until things start to get silly. Still, it's a fun ride and well worth watching, and comes to a satisfying finish.

In what follows I won't give away the end, but may say too much for some, so if you don't want spoilers, stop reading .... The creepy atmosphere of uncertainty and dread that director Alex Proyas sets up to begin with gradually gives way to hokey and predictable developments as, in classic Hollywood style, Cage's scientist and his personal and family dramas become perfect microcosms of events of cosmic significance. Where saving the world and falling in love and reconciling with family and healing old wounds all come to amount to the same thing. My wife and I could not help but laugh out loud as Nick Cage promised his son with utter sincerity that he wouldn't let anything happen to him - even as it had just been proven to him beyond reasonable doubt that he had no power to prevent the calamities the mysterious numbers were predicting. Or when Rose Byrne's character, faced with the destruction of the world (including herself and her daughter) explains how devastated she would be without her daughter if the upcoming disaster causes them to be separated, and Nick's character nods, knowing exactly how she feels. Of course, and the thing that would really get me most about my entire city (including myself and my entire family and everyone around me) being destroyed in a nuclear explosion is that I'd miss my dog and be sad about being separated from my wife and kids.

And what about the numbers? Apparently supernatural beings wanted to warn us about impending disasters by revealing the numbers to a young girl. Of course, that didn't help much when the numbers ended up in a time capsule for the duration of most of the disasters. I guess the girl who knew them lived long enough to let others know about them, but they thought she was crazy. Still, even those who knew about and wanted to avert the predicted disasters were unable to change their fate - so what was the point of a bunch of pale supernatural beings sitting around watching to be sure the kids made the right predictions if they couldn't do anything about it? Perhaps, I guess, to convince them that the final prophecy was real and so they should go along? Why not just explain things to the kids, since clearly they were able to? It might make sense if somehow the plot established that their only means of communication was through numbers, but that's not the case, as revealed in the course of things. There's a lot here that doesn't make a lot of sense, except as a way of tying some kind of voodoo fascination with numerology to an apocalyptic scenario.

Still, I have to say, in spite of the eventual goofiness as the film became overly melodramatic, it was a lot of fun to watch, and had a satisfying end. In some ways the hokey elements add to the appeal - it's like watching '50s science fiction, where the wild implausibility combined with the seriousness of the characters gives just the right balance of melodrama and intensity to keep you on the edge of your seats and smiling. Proyas manages to keep the characters interesting, and has a strong visual sense both for creating a vivid atmosphere in the "ordinary" moments and for creating extraordinarily convincing scenes of destruction. I'm not sure what is his fascination with pale "watcher" type villians - since if you look at all his films that's what they are, from Dark City to I, Robot (note the similarity of the robots to the scary types in this film) - I can't remember The Crow well enough to say if it fits there as well (I saw it in theaters when it first came out, and that was a long time ago). But they do work, and create a palpable sense of cinematic dread (until you see them up close and they start to look a bit silly).

I really enjoyed this movie right until the end. Hated the ending.

It has a kind of M. Night Shyalaman (sp?) feel to it and Nicholas Cage does a good job not being Nicholas Cage, with some of his usual acting quirks. There is a lot of mystery as to what is really going on, and I even like the alien angle. However, I'm not too hot on the blatant bible Armageddon track of the story. Though they didn't quote scripture, per se, that Ezekiel drawing kind of nudged one in that direction, along with a few other subtle references. I don't think this was necessarily a religious movie though.

Overall, I enjoyed it right until the end, then it let me down. Otherwise it would have got more stars. Recommended for fans of bummer endings.

A group of elementary school students create pictures to be placed in a commemorative time capsule, with the intent it will be opened 50 years hence and the contents distributed to current attendees. Unlike her classmates, one introverted young girl who also came up with the suggestion, creates a list of seemingly random numbers. When the capsule is unearthed, her contribution is given to Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), son of astrophysicist John Koestler (Nicolas Cage). Through a series of events, Koestler comes to discover the numbers are not random but rather a list of dates, fatalities and locations for a range of disasters that have occurred over the ensuing half-century. As a scientist, Koestler has doubts regarding the rationality of belief in omniscience and the premise of determinism, with his questioning exacerbated by the loss of his spouse in a hotel fire a year earlier and estrangement from his pastor father.

Over the course of the two hour movie, Koestler, his son and eventually, the daughter and granddaughter of list's creator are confronted by a smattering of eerie events and the inability to circumvent the realization of other disasters on the dates and locations noted on the list.

It occurred to me I'm not sure I have ever encountered a movie or book as difficult to review without imposition of spoilers because this movie, once one reflects on all of the symbolism and hints provided early on turned out the only way it could have, as an exposition on the implications of faith and science with the science fiction components only serving as devices to attract an audience but in reality easily dispensable appendages to the story line.

There is mystery and suspense with just enough special effects to maintain one's attention for most of the movie, certainly up to the last half-hour or so when the course of events, predestined by earlier scenes, becomes a tad tiresome, especially for those who may not subscribe to any of the religious precepts the movie strives to convey. It is a movie that could instigate philosophical/theological discussions of its' higher concepts but in the attempt to meld science fiction and a multiplicity of religions, viewers expecting emphasis on the former may exit uninspired.

What a deeply spiritual film about love and trust! Love between parents and children, and the mercy extraterrestrial aliens have for human beings. It's also about trust in a Supreme Being (God). My favorite line in the entire movie is: "This (Life) is not the end! and the reply,"I know!" It's also about the ultimately ridiculous dichotomy between spirituality and science! What a brilliant and cathartic story!

One must be patient while watching Knowing. This is NOT a film for children, the faint of heart or someone looking for a good time! The story does not come together until the very end. There's also a lot of hysterics! How would any us react in such a desperate situation? Knowing, is about making personal sacrifices! It's not a story to make the viewer feel comfortable!

I could have done without the graphic violence of one disaster after another! But Knowing makes a point of not taking this life for granted and that one should live in the present as much as possible! The other obvious message is that loving relationships between people is the most important part of being human!

I was reminded while watching Knowing of my Astronomy professor, who said, "Human beings would be like ants to an advanced extraterrestrial civilization. Why would they care about us?" Maybe they would care about us! Knowing makes its case that it's certainly plausible!

Thank you Hollywood for making a mature Science Fiction film for an adult audience! It took a lot of courage to make a movie so deep in a world so crass and shallow!

SeeCreating Harmonious Relationships: A Practical Guide to the Power of True Empathy and The Empathy Gap: Building Bridges to the Good Life and the Good Society

For other great Science Fiction see:Zardoz and Enemy Mine and Fantastic Planet and A.I. - Artificial Intelligence (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) and Bicentennial Man and Galaxy Quest (Deluxe Edition)