Knowing (film)

Knowing
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alex Proyas
Written by	Alex Proyas Stuart Hazeldine Juliet Snowden
Produced by	Todd Black Jason Blumenthal Steve Tisch
Starring	Nicolas Cage Rose Byrne
Cinematography	Simon Duggan
Edited by	Richard Learoyd
Music by	Marco Beltrami
Distributed by	Summit Entertainment
Release date	March 20, 2009
Running time	121 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$50 million
Box office	$8,950,000 million (domestic)

Knowing is a 2009 science fiction film directed by Alex Proyas and starring Nicolas Cage. The project was originally attached to a number of directors under Columbia Pictures, but it was placed in turnaround and eventually picked up by Escape Artists. Production was financially backed by Summit Entertainment, which also distributed the film. Knowing was filmed in Melbourne, Australia, using various locations to represent the film's setting, Boston. The film was released on March 20, 2009.

Plot

In 1959, Lucinda Embry (Lara Robinson) is a student at a newly opened elementary school. The school establishes a competition amongst its students to celebrate the school's opening. Lucinda's entry, selected by the school, involves burying a time capsule to be opened 50 years later in 2009. All the children in Lucinda's class drew pictures of what they believed would occur in the future except for Lucinda, who wrote rows of random numbers on the entire page, but is prevented from finishing. After the ceremony, a search is done for the missing Lucinda, who is found by her teacher in a closet scratching her fingers bloody on the door while trying to write the last few numbers. Lucinda then begs her teacher to "make them stop whispering."

In 2009, the time capsule is opened and the new generation of students is given the envelopes with the pictures inside. Lucinda's envelope ends up in the hands of Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury). Caleb's father, MIT Professor and astrophysicist John Koestler (Nicolas Cage), looks at the numbers and doesn't think anything about them. John, the son of a preacher, has trouble reconciling his previous beliefs about the world having meaning, or if it is only a result of a random universe. His doubts stem from his wife's death in a fire a year before. John stumbles upon the numbers' meaning, and discovers the encoded message predicts with perfect accuracy the dates, death tolls, and locations of every major disaster occurring in the last 50 years, and that three of the events have not yet taken place; the last one being destruction on a global scale.

John is present when the first event occurs; a commercial plane crashes killing 81 people, confirming the legitimacy of the numbers (although his friend tries to pass it off as mere coincidence rather than true synchronicity). He tries to prevent the second event, but fails as a deteriorating Metro system in New York causes one train to collide with another sitting in the station, killing people on both trains and on the platform.

John believes that his family somehow plays a role in these events, because his wife died in one of those events, and his son was chosen to get Lucinda's prophecies so he could learn the truth. Caleb then begins to hear the same whispering that Lucinda did, and is shown a glimpse of the future global catastrophe by a silent man who begins to watch Caleb. John tries contacting the daughter of Lucinda, Diana, to gain more information. Initially rebuffed, Diana and her daughter, Abby, visit John and Caleb after John is proved right about the second disaster. Diana leads John to her mother's small home in the woods, where they discover a picture of the Merkabah (also known as Ezekiel's Wheel) which Diana says her mother was fascinated with; while examining the home the silent man and three others converge on the truck, wordlessly communicating with the two children. Spooked, Caleb blows the car horn, and John follows the "whisperer." The man turns to face John and opens his mouth to blind John with a flash of light, then disappears.

Abby is revealed as also being "whispered" to, and unwittingly tips John off that the global disaster will result from a solar flare that will scorch the Earth, killing everything. Diana believes they will be safe in a system of caves she knows, so they return to the Koestler's house for supplies. On the way to the caves, John remembers about the door in the school that Lucinda scratched the last numbers on. John goes and breaks into the school, taking the door to his home where he scrapes the paint to reveal the numbers. Diana, however, decides to leave him and take the children where she thinks they will be safe. John is unable to contact her because the solar flare is beginning to interrupt cell phone signals.

While Diana is at a gas station, an emergency broadcast from the government informing citizens of the solar flare is given. Panic at the gas station ensues while Caleb calls John from a public phone. Diana talks to John, who reveals that the numbers point to the longitude and latitude of Lucinda's home. He believes that is where they will be safe from the catastrophe, unlike the caves, which will be unable to protect them due to the radiation resulting from the solar flare. However, two of the "whisperers" hijack Diana's car with the two children. Diana gives chase in another car, but is killed when she tries to run a red light in pursuit. John watches as two paramedic's pronounce her dead exactly at midnight, on the very day that Lucinda said she would die.

John follows the coordinates to Lucinda's house and discovers the children safe in the presence of the "whisperers." The children are comfortable with the "whisperers," and Caleb tells John that "They are here to help us start over. To help everyone to start over."

John simply asks the man "Who are you?," and a giant crystal shaped structure resembling Ezekiel's Wheel descends to float above them. The "whisperers" invite the children to join them to escape the destruction, but John is not allowed to go, according to the ever-silent man who communicates directly to Caleb that "only those who heard the call may go." John convinces Caleb to go, saying that they will be together again eventually. The "whisperers" then shed their human appearances to reveal themselves as human-like, ethereal beings with faint angelic wings of light. They then leave Earth along with similar crystal shaped "ships." John goes back to be with his father, mother and sister, as anarchy reins outside, and they are all seen embracing before the Solar Flare strikes the Earth and kills everyone. The last scene we see Caleb and Abby being dropped off on a new Earth as other ships drop off others. The movie ends as the two children run toward a large white tree.

Cast

• Nicolas Cage as John Koestler, a professor
• Rose Byrne as Diana Wayland
• Chandler Canterbury as Caleb Koestler, the professor's son

Production

Knowing was written originally by novelist Ryne Pearson, and the project was set up at Columbia Pictures. Both Rod Lurie and Richard Kelly were attached as directors, but the film eventually went into turnaround. The project was picked up by the production company Escape Artists, and the script was rewritten by Stiles White and Juliet Snowden. Director Alex Proyas was attached to direct the project in February 2005. Summit Entertainment took on the responsibility to fully finance and distribute the film. Proyas and Stuart Hazeldine rewrote the draft for production, which began on March 25, 2008 in Melbourne, Australia. The director hoped to emulate The Exorcist in melding "realism with a fantastical premise".

The film is set in Boston, and to represent the city, filmmakers used Australian locations such as Geelong Ring Road, Melbourne Museum, Mount Macedon, and Collins Street. Filming also took place at Camberwell High School, which was converted into John Adams Elementary, set in Boston circa 1959. Interior shots took place at the Australian Synchrotron to represent an observatory. Filming also took place at the Haystack Observatory in Westford, Massachusetts. In addition to practical locations, filming also took place at the Melbourne Central City Studios in Docklands.

Proyas used a Red One digital camera, making the film the first time the director used digital cameras. He sought to capture a gritty and realistic look to the film, and his approach involved a continuous two-minute take in which Cage's character sees a plane crash and attempts to rescue passengers. The take was an arduous task, taking two days to set up and two days to shoot. Proyas explained the goal, "I did that specifically to not let the artifice of visual effects and all the cuts and stuff we can do, get in the way of the emotion of the scene."

Reception

Knowing was commercially released in 3,332 theaters in the United States and Canada on March 20, 2009, grossing an estimated $8,950,000 on the opening day. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 25% of critics gave the film positive write-ups based upon a sample of 72, with an average score of 4.5/10. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 41 based on 23 reviews.

External links

• Official site
• Knowing at IMDb
• Knowing at AllMovie