Knowing is an action-packed science-fiction thriller starring Nicolas Cage. The movie premiered on March 20, 2009 in the US and opens on March 26, 2009 in Malaysia.
SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Nicolas Cage and Rose Byrne in "Knowing"
The movie begins with the year 1959 where a competition is held between the students of an elementary school. The winning idea from a student called Lucinda Embry is to bury a time-capsule of all the students drawing of the future they can imagine to be opened 50 years later. Instead of drawing pictures, Lucinda writes down numbers but is prevented from finishing them. Later, she goes missing and her teacher finds her in a gym closet, scratching the remaining numbers onto the wooden door.
Five decades later, the time capsule is opened and the drawings are handed over to the children. Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury), the son of John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) receives Lucinda’s envelope. John, an MIT professor and an astrophysicist, initially ignored the numbers but accidentally discovers that the numbers are no coincident but a serial of dates and death tolls of every major disaster in the last 50 years, with three events have not happened.
When John realizes the remaining numbers are the GPS coordinates, he witnesses a tragic plane crash which kills 81 people and he is almost traumatized by it as he has seen people burning before their death. After seeing an unknown man popping outside of his house occasionally, John decides to contact Lucinda’s daughter, Diana (Rose Byrne) to gain more insights, but is turned away.
After the second event John has predicted occurred, Diana and her daughter Abby visit John and Caleb. Both Caleb and Abby are able to hear the "whisper people" just like Lucinda. Initially, John thinks the last event will only kill 33 people but finds out it is actually "EE" backwards. After investigating Lucinda’s mobile trailer, they find out that "EE" stands for "Everyone Else". John then figures out there will be a massive solar flare which will kill everyone else.
Diana tries to get the kids to the cave where she believes could shelter them from the solar flare while John tries to figure out the last numbers scratched by Lucinda on the wooden door. Diana’s impatience makes her drive the kids to the cave without waiting for John. During the stop at the gas station, the "whisper people" hijack Diana’s car with the two children. Diana gives a chase in another car but is killed by a truck at midnight when she runs the red light, just like her mother predicted.
When John returns to Lucinda’s mobile home, he finds out that Caleb and Abby are safe in the hands of the "whisper people" who are revealed as celestial beings who invite the selected children to escape the disaster and help them start all over again in another planet resembling Earth. A solar flare hits Earth and kills every single life on the planet. Caleb and Abby are then seen dressed in all white in a beautiful landscape which has at least two moons, running towards a huge white tree.
Overall, the movie may seem interesting in the first place with the likes of Da Vinci Code, Final Destination, The Armageddon and Eagle Eye merged into one movie. But, with the ending, it seems like the movie which ripped off The Day The Earth Stood Still as well. Somehow, what amazes me is how everything is put together — the mystery of the numbers, the actions from the disasters, the terrifying "whisper people" who turns out to be celestial angel-like beings onto a single film.
My ratings: 7 out of 10.
Popularity: 2%
