''Knowing'' is a 2009 American science fiction thriller film directed and co-produced by Alex Proyas and starring Nicolas Cage. The film, conceived and co-written by

Ryne Douglas Pearson Ryne Douglas Pearson (born August 15, 1964) is an American novelist, screenwriter, and YouTube cooking show host. His YouTube channel "Cooking With Ry" focuses on outdoor cooking, grilling, and barbecue. Works Novels * Art Jefferson seri ...

, 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. ''Knowing'' was filmed in Docklands Studios Melbourne,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, using various locations to represent the film's Boston-area setting. The film centers on the discovery of a strange paper filled with numbers and the possibility that they somehow predict the details of various disasters culminating in the

apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imager ...

. The film was released on March 20, 2009, in the United States. The DVD and Blu-ray media were released on July 7, 2009. ''Knowing'' grossed $186.5 million at the worldwide box office, plus $27.7 million with home video sales, against an average production budget of $50 million. It met with mixed reviews, with praise for the acting performances, visual style and atmosphere, but criticism over some implausibilities and the ending.

Plot

In 1959, a Lexington, Massachusetts elementary school celebrates its opening with a competition in which students draw what they believe will happen in the future. All the children create visual works except for Lucinda Embry. Guided by whispering voices, Lucinda fills her paper with a series of numbers. Before she can write the final numbers, the allotted time for the task expires, and the teacher collects the students' drawings. The following day, Lucinda engraves the remaining numbers into a closet door with her fingernails. The works are stored in a time capsule and opened fifty years later when the current class distributes the drawings among the students. Lucinda's paper is given to Caleb Koestler, the nine-year-old son of widowed MIT

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

professor John Koestler. John discovers that Lucinda's numbers are dates, death tolls, and geographical coordinates of major disasters over the past fifty years (including the Oklahoma City bombing, the September 11 attacks, and

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

), and three have yet to happen. In the following days, John witnesses two of the three final events in person: a plane crash and a

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

derailment caused by a faulty

siding Siding may refer to: * Siding (construction), the outer covering or cladding of a house * Siding (rail) A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line, branch l ...

. John becomes convinced that his family has a significant role in these incidents: his wife died in one of the earlier events, while Caleb was the one to receive Lucinda's message. Meanwhile, Caleb begins hearing the same whispering voices as Lucinda. John tracks Lucinda's daughter Diana and her granddaughter Abby to prevent the last event. After some initial disbelief, Diana goes with John to Lucinda's childhood home, where they find a copy of Matthäus Merian's engraving of Ezekiel's "chariot vision", in which a great sun is represented. They also discover that the final two digits of Lucinda's message are not numbers, but two reversed letter E's, matching the message left by Lucinda under her bed: "Everyone Else" – implying an extinction-level event. During the search, Caleb and Abby, who were left asleep in the car, have an encounter with the beings who are the source of the whispers. Diana tells John that her mother had always told her the date she would die. He also visits Lucinda's teacher, who tells him of the scratching on the door left by Lucinda. Ezekiel's vision

The next day, Abby colors in the sun on the engraving, which gives John a revelation. He rushes to the MIT observatory and learns that a major solar flare with the potential to destroy all life will strike Earth on the last date indicated by the message. As Diana and Abby prepare to take refuge in nearby caves, John goes to the school and finds the door on which Lucinda engraved the final numbers and identifies them as coordinates of a place where he believes they may find salvation from the solar flare. The skeptical and hysterical Diana loads Caleb and Abby into her car and flees for the caves. At a

gas station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...

, the whispering beings steal Diana's car with Caleb and Abby inside. Diana pursues them at speed in a stolen SUV, but is killed in a collision with a semi-truck on the date her mother predicted. The beings take Caleb and Abby to Lucinda's mobile home, where John encounters them shortly thereafter. The beings, acting as extraterrestrial angels, are leading children to safety on interstellar arks. John is told he cannot go with them because he never heard the whispering, so he convinces Caleb to leave with Abby and two pet rabbits they found, and both are transported away by the beings. The ark, along with many other arks, leave Earth. The following morning, John decides to be with his family when the flare strikes and drives through a chaotic Boston to his parents' house, where he reconciles with his estranged father. The solar flare then strikes, destroying all life on Earth. Meanwhile, the ark, along with others, deposits Caleb and Abby in another world resembling an earthly paradise and departs. The two run through a field towards a large white mysterious tree (implied to be the tree of life).

Cast

Production

In 2001, novelist

approached producers Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal with his idea for a film, where a time capsule from the 1950s is opened revealing fulfilled prophecies, of which the last one ended with 'EE' – "everyone else". The producers liked the concept and bought his script. 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 Stiles White is an American special effects artist, television writer, television producer, screenwriter, film producer, and film director. He is best known for writing the film '' Knowing'' and writing and directing the film ''Ouija''. He is al ...

and Juliet Snowden. Director Alex Proyas was attached to direct the project in February 2005. Proyas said the aspect that attracted him the most was the "very different script" and the notion of people seeing the future and "how it shape their lives". Summit Entertainment took on the responsibility to fully finance and distribute the film. Proyas and

Stuart Hazeldine Stuart Hazeldine (born 10 June 1971 in Surrey, England) is a British screenwriter, film producer and director. He is best known for his 2009 psychological thriller ''Exam'', for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Outstanding Deb ...

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 primarily in the town of Lexington with some scenes set in the nearby cities of Cambridge and Boston. However, it was shot in Australia, where director Proyas resides. Locations included the Geelong Ring Road; the Melbourne Museum; "Cooinda", a residence in Mount Macedon which was the location for all of the "home and garden" scenes; and

Collins Street Collins Street or Collins St. may refer to: Structures Places of worship * Collins Street Baptist Church, a church in Melbourne, Australia * Collins Street Independent Church, a church in Melbourne, Australia Skyscrapers * 101 Collins Street, a sk ...

. Filming also took place at Camberwell High School, which was converted into the fictional William Dawes Elementary, located in 1959 Lexington. 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 Docklands, also known as Melbourne Docklands, is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. Docklands recorded a population ...

in Docklands. The plane crash, which was mostly shown in

one take A one-shot cinema (also one-take film, single-take film, or continuous shot feature film) is a full-length movie filmed in one long take by a single camera, or manufactured to give the impression it was. Use and theory In a 2019 article, discus ...

in the film, was done in a nearly-finished freeway outside Melbourne, the Geelong Ring Road, mixing practical effects and pieces of a plane with computer-generated elements. The scenographic rain led to the usage of a new gel for the flames so the fire would not be put out, and semi-permanent make-up to make them last the long shooting hours. The solar flare destruction sequence is set in New York City, showing notable landmarks such as the Metlife Building, Times Square and the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...

being obliterated as the flare spreads across the Earth's surface, destroying everything in its path. Proyas used a

Red One Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

4K digital camera. He sought to capture a gritty and realistic look to the film, and his approach involved a continuous two-minute scene in which Cage's character sees a plane crash and attempts to rescue passengers. The scene 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."

Soundtrack

The music for the film was written by

Marco Beltrami Marco Beltrami (born October 7, 1966) is an American composer and conductor of film and television scores. He has worked in a number of genres, including horror (''Scream'', ''Mimic, The Faculty, Resident Evil, The Woman in Black, A Quiet Place' ...

, but also features classical works such as Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven) - Allegretto, which is played without any accompanying sound effects in the final Boston disaster scene of the film. Beltrami released the soundtrack as a CD with 22 tracks. ; Music in the film but not released on the soundtrack * '' The Planets'', Op. 32: IV. "Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity" - written by Gustav Holst * "News Theme" - written and performed by Guy Gross * Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 - composed by Ludwig van Beethoven and performed by Sydney Scoring Orchestra

Reception

Box office

''Knowing'' was released in 3,332 theaters in the United States and Canada on March 20, 2009, and grossed US$24,604,751 in its opening weekend, placing first at the box office. According to exit polling, 63% of the audience was 25 years old and up and evenly split between genders. On the weekend of March 17, 2009, ''Knowing'' ranked first in the international box office, grossing US$9.8 million at 1,711 theatres in ten markets, including first with US$3.55 million in the United Kingdom. The film had grossed US$80 million in the United States and Canada and US$107 million in other territories for a worldwide total of US$186.5 million, plus US$27.7 million with home video sales, against a production budget of US$50 million.

Critical reception

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 34% critic rating based upon a sample of 184 critics with an average rating of 4.80/10. The site's consensus: "''Knowing'' has some interesting ideas and a couple good scenes, but it's weighted down by its absurd plot and over-seriousness". Metacritic gave the film a score of 41% based on 27 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

A. O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

of '' The New York Times'' gave the film a negative review and wrote, "If your intention is to make a brooding, hauntingly allegorical terror-thriller, it's probably not a good sign when spectacles of mass death and intimations of planetary destruction are met with hoots and giggles ... The draggy, lurching two hours of "Knowing" will make you long for the end of the world, even as you worry that there will not be time for all your questions to be answered." In the '' San Francisco Chronicle'', Peter Hartlaub called the film "an excitement for fans of Proyas" and "a surprisingly messy effort". He thought Nicolas Cage "borders on ridiculous here, in part because of a script that gives him little to do but freak out or act depressed". Writing for '' The Washington Post'', Michael O'Sullivan thought the film was "creepy, at least for the first two-thirds or so, in a moderately satisfying, if predictable, way ... But the narrative corner into which this movie... paints itself is a simultaneously brilliant and exciting one. Well before the film neared its by turns dismal and ditzy conclusion, I found myself knowing—yet hardly able to believe—what was about to happen." Betsy Sharkey of the '' Los Angeles Times'' found it to be "moody and sometimes ideologically provocative" and added, "''Knowing'' has its grim moments—and by that I mean the sort of cringe- (or laugh-) inducing lines of dialogue that have haunted disaster films through the ages ... So visually arresting are the images that watching a deconstructing airliner or subway train becomes more mesmerising than horrifying."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the '' Chicago Sun-Times'' was enthusiastic, rating it four stars out of four and writing, "''Knowing'' is among the best science-fiction films I've seen—frightening, suspenseful, intelligent and, when it needs to be, rather awesome." He continued, "With expert and confident storytelling, Proyas strings together events that keep tension at a high pitch all through the film. Even a few quiet, human moments have something coiling beneath. Pluck this movie, and it vibrates." Ebert later listed it as the sixth best film of 2009. Peter Bradshaw of '' The Guardian'' suggested ''Knowing'' was saved by its ending, concluding that "the film sticks to its apocalyptic guns with a spectacular and thoroughly unexpected finish."

Philip French Philip Neville French Order of the British Empire, OBE (28 August 1933 – 27 October 2015) was an English film critic and radio producer. French began his career in journalism in the late 1950s, before eventually becoming a BBC Radio prod ...

's review in '' The Observer'' suggested the premise was "intriguing B-feature apocalypse,

determinism Determinism is a philosophical view, where all events are determined completely by previously existing causes. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and consi ...

versus free will stuff" and that the ending has something for everyone: "A chosen few will apparently be swept away by angels to a better place. If you're a Christian fundamentalist who believes that Armageddon is nigh, you'll have a family hug and wake up to be greeted by

St Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupation ...

at the Pearly Gates. On the other hand, Darwinists will be gratified to see

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenog ...

and her stellar opposite numbers sock it to an unconcerned mankind." Richard von Busack of '' Metroactive'' derided the striking similarity between the film and the

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...

novel '' Childhood's End''.

Accolades

The film was nominated at the

8th Visual Effects Society Awards 8th Visual Effects Society Awards February 10, 2010 ---- Best Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture: ''Avatar'' The 8th Visual Effects Society Awards, given on February 10, 2010 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, hon ...

in the category of "Best Single Visual Effect of the Year" for the plane crash sequence.

Release

Home media release

''Knowing'' was released on DVD on July 7, 2009, opening in the United States at No. 1 for the week and selling 773,000 DVD units for US$12.5 million in revenue. In total, 1.4 million DVD units were sold in the United States for a US$21.1 million and US$25 million worldwide. From Blu-ray sales, the film also earned US$1.6 million in the United States and a total of US$2.6 million worldwide. The estimated gross for global domestic video sales is US$27.6 million.

Litigation

On November 25, 2009, Global Findability filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Summit Entertainment and Escape Artists in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claiming that a geospatial entity object code was used in the film ''Knowing'' which infringed Patent . The case was dismissed on January 10, 2011.

Science controversy

Regarding the film's grounding in science, director Alex Proyas said at a press conference: "The science was important. I wanted to make the movie credible. So of course we researched as much as we could and tried to give it as much authenticity as we could".Erin McCarth
Knowing Blends Science Fact with Fiction
Popular Mechanics, Retrieved January 5, 2012 Ian O'Neill of

Discovery News Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Channe ...

criticized the film's solar flare plot line, pointing out that the most powerful solar flares could never incinerate Earthly cities. Erin McCarthy of '' Popular Mechanics'' calls attention to the film's confusion of

numerology Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...

, the occult's study of how numbers like dates of birth influence human affairs, with the ability of science to describe the world

mathematically Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

to make predictions about things like weather or create technology like cell phones. Steve Biodrowski of '' Cinefantastique'' refers to the film's approach as disappointingly "pseudo-scientific". He writes, "Cage plays an astronomer, and his discussions with a colleague hint that the film may actually grapple with the question of predicting the future, perhaps even offer a plausible theory. Unfortunately, this approach is abandoned as Koestler pursues the disasters, and the film eventually moves into a mystical approach". Asked about his research for the role, Nicolas Cage stated: "I grew up with a professor, so that was all the research I ever needed". His father,

August Coppola August Floyd Coppola (February 16, 1934 – October 27, 2009) was an American academic, author, film executive, and advocate for the arts. He was the brother of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, and the father of actor Nicolas ...

, was a professor of comparative literature at

Cal State Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

."August Coppola, arts educator, dies at 75."
San Francisco Chronicle

Explanatory notes

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2009 films 2009 science fiction films 2000s disaster films 2000s science fiction thriller films American disaster films American action adventure films American science fiction thriller films Apocalyptic films Films about widowhood Films directed by Alex Proyas Films produced by Alex Proyas Films set in 1959 Films set in 2009 Films set in Manhattan Films set in Boston Films set in Massachusetts Films shot in Massachusetts Films shot in Melbourne Films shot in New York City Summit Entertainment films Films scored by Marco Beltrami Escape Artists films Saturn Films films Films about extraterrestrial life Films about aviation accidents or incidents Films about precognition Australian action adventure films Films with screenplays by Stiles White 2000s English-language films 2000s American films