Knowing (2009)

Director:

Alex Proyas

Writers (WGA):

Ryne Douglas Pearson (screenplay) and
Juliet Snowden (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

20 March 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Knowing is Everything...

Plot:

A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.

Plot Keywords:

Number | School | Disaster | Time Capsule | Drawing

Cast

Nicolas Cage	...	John Koestler
Chandler Canterbury	...	Caleb Koestler
Rose Byrne	...	Diana Wayland
Lara Robinson	...	Abby Wayland / Lucinda
D.G. Maloney	...	The Stranger
Nadia Townsend	...	Grace Koestler
Alan Hopgood	...	Reverend Koestler
Adrienne Pickering	...	Allison Koestler
Joshua Long	...	Younger Caleb
Danielle Carter	...	Miss Taylor (1959)
Alethea McGrath	...	Miss Taylor (2009)
David Lennie	...	Principal Clark (1959)
Tamara Donnellan	...	Lucinda's Mother
Travis Waite	...	Lucinda's Father
Ben Mendelsohn	...	Phil Beckman

Also Known As:

Know1ng (USA) (promotional title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for disaster sequences, disturbing images and brief strong language.

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #45115) | Ireland:15A | Australia:M | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | South Korea:12 | UK:15 | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Czech Republic:12 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Belgium:KT | Finland:K-13 | Norway:15 | Netherlands:12 | Mexico:B | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:15 | Iceland:12 | Peru:14 | Japan:G | Brazil:12 | South Africa:13V | New Zealand:M

Filming Locations:

Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Summit Entertainment

Trivia:

After realizing that the cataclysm will come in the form of a coronal mass ejection (CME), John Koestler states that the effects would be on the order of 100 microtesla. Geomagnetic storms are measured by magnetic disruptions at the Earth's equator, expressed in nanotesla. A strong storm would be 100 to 200 nanotesla. Therefore, a 100 microtesla event would be 1,000 times stronger than this and certainly cause the disruptions to electronic devices as portrayed in the film.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The first number sequence that John spots is "911012996", the date and death toll of the September 11th attacks on the WTC in New York. After spotting the numbers, John has to have a look at them and experiment with breaks between the digits before coming up with the answer of 9/11/01, 2996; a course of action that makes little sense. If he spotted the pattern on the paper then why does he need to work it out? He would have seen the numbers, recognized part of it as being the date of the attacks and then maybe wondered about the numbers either side, rather than just picking a series of numbers that, at first, apparently made no sense to him.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Miss Taylor: Everyone inside now!

Movie Connections:

References "Creature Comforts" (2003)

Soundtrack:

The Planets: Op. 43: IV Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity

Better, and different than expected

First off, Nicolas Cage was pretty good as a science teacher who's initial skepticism over a batch of numbers (scribbled on a piece of paper found in a school's time capsule from the 1950s) is tested and eventually worn away by a quest to find out what they mean. Cage runs hot and cold when it comes to the characters he plays; he's awesome in films like "Raising Arizona", "Con Air", or "National Treasure", while not so believable in stuff like "The Family Man". He's maturing as an actor and getting better, it seems, with every role. Another standout is Rose Byrne, as the daughter of the odd little girl who wrote out the bizarre number sequences that Cage's character is analyzing. Byrne's always good at playing pensive women with something mysterious in their back stories. Yet as good as the actors were, the special effects and the twists in the storyline are what make this movie really entertaining. The writers didn't take the easy, obvious route with the story which was refreshing. The plot continues to surprise throughout taking some very different turns with the outcome of the story which made it even more unpredictable and better for it. I like movies that keep me guessing and this is one of those. See it if you like the unexpected.