In Knowing, Cage plays professor John Koestler, an MIT teacher whose son's elementary school is about to unveil a time capsule buried in 1959. As his son Jacob (Chandler Canterbury) receives a letter written by a student from 50 years back, the letter contains a series of cryptic numbers, which appear random at first. As John soon discovers, nothing is random, and life as we know it may be taking an unexpected turn.
Knowing Synopsis
Lexington, Massachusetts, 1959. Students of the local elementary school are being asked to draw what they think the future will look like in the year 2009. All children draw various pictures of rocketships, flying cars, all except the quiet and very shy Lucinda Embry (Lara Robinson). Trance-like, she frantically writes a seemingly endless series of what appear to be random numbers. As the school's custodians bury the capsule, Lucinda goes missing --- only to be found in one of the school's basement closets, still obsessively writing more numbers on the closet door with her bloodied fingernails.
Flash-forward to present day: MIT professor John Koestler (Cage) is engaging in a class discussion of determinism vs chaos theory, with his students. As they debate the argument of whether the future is pre-determined or unwritten and open to change, John loses himself in thought, still coping with the loss of his wife, who died in a disastrous hotel fire prior to the events of this movie.
John soon heads out to attend his son Jacob's school's time capsule unveiling, and is puzzled at the content of the letter his son receives: Lucinda's cryptic numbers. Jacob smuggles the letter home, and asks his father what the letter means.
Over the course of that evening, John's research leads him to realize that the numbers aren't random at all, but instead list with exact precision the most disastrous events of the past 50 years, including the hotel fire that claimed his wife. With more numbers following these dates, John posits that they may in fact predict upcoming events, and tries to find a way to prevent them, possibly saving lives.
Seeking validation from a fellow scientist (Ben Mendelsohn), and trying to learn more about the woman who as a child wrote these numbers, John frantically seeks to verify whether the next event is really slated to occur as the numbers predict, or whether this is all a series of random events, which simply happen to match numbers written down five decades back.
Are these just numbers? How could they be so precise despite having been sealed underground for so long? What happens when the numbers run out? Knowing explores this question, while allowing audience debate as to fate vs choice.
Knowing Overall Analysis
At first glance, the sheer concept of this film -- a mystery composed of scientific, philosophical and possibly metaphysical components -- has all of the elements of an M. Night Shyamalan thriller. Though the trailer for this movie does give away many of the film's major plot points --- a plane crash, a subway catastrophe -- Knowing still holds enough material to make for a sustained drama, which keeps the audience guessing right until the end.
While this film fits right into the mold of past disaster movies (Armageddon, Deep Impact, The Day After Tomorrow), the very concept of whether one man can change the course of events yet to come, allows for the story to transcend the mere genre of apocalyptic films, which often merely lead up to two hours of pointless carnage.
Relying on a clever script by Ryne Pearson as the framework for this complex drama dealing with philosophical elements, director Alex Proyas still holds enough material back, feeding more and more pieces of the equation to the audience, until the movie's shocking finale comes about.
Nicolas Cage does his usual thing here, giving us a man obsessed with finding answers to questions which shouldn't always be asked, while still doing his best to protect his son. Cage's antics thankfully take a backseat to the story itself, as this film leans more towards an event movie, than a character-based drama.
Proyas is no stranger to this genre, his last three high profile films (The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot) all contained fantasy/sci-fi elements. This film is no exception, though there may be mixed opinions as to the ending. Regardless, Proyas deftly managed to keep this writer curious as to what would happen next, therefore this film performed admirably in that regard.
Look for some high intensity 'money shots', during major disaster sequences (as referred to in the movie trailer); those complex F/X shots are likely to figure at the top of the list, in next year's Oscar category for Achievement in Visual Effects.
This film is recommended for fans of Sci-Fi, disaster films and metaphysical concepts.
7 out of 10, for a decent, action-packed story which worked on its own, despite Nic Cage's usual bit of overacting.
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