Knowing is a 2009 American-British^[3] science fiction film mystery-thriller 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. Knowing was filmed in Docklands Studios Melbourne, Australia, using various locations to represent the film's Boston-area setting. The film was released on 20 March 2009, in the United States. The DVD and Blu-ray media were released on July 7, 2009.

Plot[link]

In 1959, student Lucinda Embry hears whispers as she stares at the sun. Later, she writes a page of seemingly random numbers and adds it to her school's time capsule, set to be opened in 50 years.

In 2009, Caleb Koestler is a student at the same school. When the time capsule is opened, Caleb is supposed to read and write about some of the capsule's contents. He's given the page of numbers written by Lucinda. His widowed father Jonathan (Nicolas Cage), a professor of astrophysics at MIT, notices the numbers have a specific set of sequences referring to the times and locations of fatal disasters over the last 50 years. The last three sets of digits are dated in the immediate future.

That night, Caleb speaks with mysterious strangers in his room. They give him a small smooth stone, showing him visions of the world on fire.

Jonathan tracks down Lucinda's daughter Diana and granddaughter Abby. Though apprehensive and scared, Diana eventually decides to help Jonathan. She says that her mother used to hear voices and that the next date in the document, October 19, was the day she always said she would die.

Copy of Matthäus Merian's engraving of Ezekiel's "chariot vision" (1670)

Searching Lucinda's mobile home, they find pictures of the disasters she predicted, a copy of Matthäus Merian's engraving of Ezekiel's "chariot vision",^[4] and a pile of small smooth stones near Lucinda's bed.

The last number in the document appears to be "33" but they discover it is really "EE" written backwards. They figure out that EE means "Everyone Else", representing a cataclysm that no one will escape.

Outside, more alien strangers walk up to the children waiting in the car. John drives them away only to have Abby say that the "whisper people" want her and Caleb to go with them.

The next day, John has a sudden revelation and rushes them to the MIT observatory, where he discovers that a massive solar flare will soon reach Earth, making it uninhabitable.

Diana wants to hide in some caves. John reluctantly agrees at first, but Diana decides to take the children and heads for the caves without him. As Jonathan chases after them, he calls Diana and tries to persuade her against relying on the caves. He warns her that the solar flare will penetrate miles under ground.

While Diane stops for gas, the aliens take the children. Diana chases them but is broadsided by a truck. John arrives at the accident just as Diana dies, finding the small stone in Diana's hand. He goes back to Lucinda's mobile home, finding the children and the aliens waiting in a dry river bed covered with the stones. A space ship descends from the sky. John is refused entry but allows his son to leave with the aliens. The ships departs with the children and a pair of rabbits, and a distant shot shows many similar vehicles leaving Earth.

The next morning the skies are on fire from the solar flare. John fights his way through the chaotic streets of Boston, arriving at his estranged father's home. They embrace as the solar flare burns away the atmosphere and incinerates the surface of the Earth, destroying all life on the planet. The film mostly focuses on the destruction of New York City in this scene.^[5]

The film ends as Caleb and Abby are deposited by the aliens on an Earthlike planet. They are seen joyfully running with many other children through a beautiful mountain field towards a giant white tree.

Cast[link]

• Nicolas Cage as Professor Jonathan "John" Koestler
• Rose Byrne as Diana Wayland
• Chandler Canterbury as Caleb Koestler
• Lara Robinson as Young Lucinda Embry / Abby Wayland / Young Diana Wayland
• Nadia Townsend as Grace Koestler
• Ben Mendelsohn as Professor Phil Beckman
• Alan Hopgood as Reverend Koestler
• Adrienne Pickering as Allison Koestler
• Liam Hemsworth as Spencer
• D.G. Maloney, Joel Bow, Maximillian Paul, and Karen Hadfield as The Strangers
• Alethea McGrath as Miss Taylor in 2009
• Danielle Carter as Miss Taylor in 1959

Production[link]

In 2001, novelist Ryne Douglas Pearson 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, the last one of which ended with 'EE' - "everyone else". The producers liked the concept and bought his script.^[6] 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.^[7] 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".^[6] Summit Entertainment took on the responsibility to fully finance and distribute the film. Proyas and Stuart Hazeldine rewrote the draft for production,^[8] which began on 25 March 2008 in Melbourne, Australia.^[9] The director hoped to emulate The Exorcist in melding "realism with a fantastical premise".^[10]

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.^[6] Locations included the Geelong Ring Road, the Melbourne Museum, Mount Macedon and Collins Street.^[1] Filming also took place at Camberwell High School, which was converted into the fictional William Dawes Elementary, located in 1959 Lexington.^[11][12] Interior shots took place at the Australian Synchrotron to represent an observatory.^[13][14] Filming also took place at the Haystack Observatory in Westford, Massachusetts.^[15] In addition to practical locations, filming also took place at the Melbourne Central City Studios in Docklands.^[16] The plane crash, which was mostly shown in one take in the film, was done in a nearly-finished freeway outside Melbourne, 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.^[6] 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 being obliterated.^[17]

Proyas used a Red One digital camera, making the film the first time the director used digital cameras.^[18] 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."^[19]

Soundtrack[link]

The music for the film was written by Marco Beltrami, but also features classical works such as Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven),^[20] which is played without any accompanying sound effects in the final Boston disaster scene of the film.^[21] Beltrami released the soundtrack as a CD with 22 tracks.^[22]

Music in the film but not released on the soundtrack

• The Planets: Op. 43: IV Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity - written by Gustav Holst
• News Theme - written and performed by Guy Gross
• Beethoven Symphony No. 7 In A Major, Op. 92, in (1811-1812) - composed by Ludwig van Beethoven and performed by Sydney Scoring Orchestra

Reception[link]

Knowing received mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 34% of critics gave the film positive write-ups based upon a sample of 176 critics with an average score of 4.7 out of 10.^[23] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 41 out of 100 based on 27 reviews.^[24] The consensus observed that Knowing had "some interesting ideas and a couple of good scenes"

A. O. Scott of The New York Times said, "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 Heart-throbbing spectacular two hours of Knowing will make you long for more, even as you worry that there will not be time for all your questions to be answered."^[25] 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 extremely talented here, in part because of a script that gives him little to do but freak out or act depressed".^[26]

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."^[27] 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."^[28]

Roger Ebert was enthusiastic about the film, rating it four stars and saying, "Knowing is among the best science-fiction films I've seen—frightening, suspenseful, intelligent and, when it needs to be, rather awesome^[29] " in the Chicago Sun-Times. 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."^[30] Ebert later went on to call the film the 6th Best Film of 2009. Peter Bradshaw reviewed the film for The Guardian and suggested Knowing was saved by its ending, concluding that "the film sticks to its apocalyptic guns with a spectacular and thoroughly unexpected finish."^[31] Philip French's review in The Observer suggested the premise was "intriguing B-feature apocalypse, determinism 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 at the Pearly Gates. On the other hand, Darwinists will be gratified to see Gaia and her stellar opposite numbers sock it to an unconcerned mankind."^[32]

Box office[link]

Knowing was released in 3,332 theatres in the United States and Canada on 20 March 2009 and grossed $24,604,751 in its opening weekend,^[33] placing first at the box office.^[34] According to exit polling, 63% of the audience was 25 years old and up and evenly split between genders.^[35] On the weekend of 17 March 2009, Knowing ranked first in the international box office, grossing $9.8 million at 1,711 theatres in ten markets, including first with $3.55 million in the United Kingdom.^[36] As of 26 July 2009, the film had grossed $79,957,634 in the United States and Canada and $107,901,008 in other territories for a worldwide total of $187,858,642.^[2]

Home media release[link]

Knowing was released on DVD on 7 July 2009 opening at No.1 for the week, selling 773,000 DVD units for $12,508,192 in revenue. As per the latest figures, 1,521,797 DVD units have been sold, bringing in $22,968,367 in revenue. This does not include DVD/Blu-rentals or Blu-ray sales.^[37]

Litigation[link]

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 U.S. Patent No. 7,107,286 entitled "Integrated Spatial Information Processing System for Geospatial Positioning."^[38][39][40] The case was dismissed on January 10, 2011.^[41]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Knowing at the Internet Movie Database
• Knowing at Rotten Tomatoes
• Knowing at Metacritic
• Knowing at Box Office Mojo
• Knowing at AllRovi