Knowing (film)

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, she 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 sheet is given to Caleb Koestler, the nine-year-old son of widowed MIT astrophysics professor John Koestler.

John notices that Lucinda's numbers are dates, death tolls, and geographical coordinates of major catastrophes over the past fifty years (including the Oklahoma City bombing, the September 11 attacks, and Hurricane Katrina), and three have yet to happen. In the following days, John encounters two of the three final events in person: a plane crash and a New York City Subway train collision caused by faulty siding. 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." During this 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.

A copy of Matthäus Merian's engraving of Ezekiel's "chariot vision" (1670), which the film's protagonists interpret as an announcement of the end of the world.

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 massive solar flare with the potential to destroy all life will hit the 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, the whispering beings steal her car with Caleb and Abby inside. Diana pursues them at speed (in a stolen SUV) but is killed in a traffic accident involving 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 parent's house, where he reconciles with his estranged father. The solar flare then strikes, destroying the Earth's atmosphere and all life on the planet. 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).

Camberwell High School, a public secondary school in Victoria, was used as the filming location for William Dawes Elementary

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, of which the last one ended with 'EE' – "everyone else". The producers liked the concept and bought his script.[5] 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.[6] 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".[5] Summit Entertainment took on the responsibility to fully finance and distribute the film. Proyas and Stuart Hazeldine rewrote the draft for production,[7] which began on March 25, 2008 in Melbourne, Australia.[8] The director hoped to emulate The Exorcist in melding "realism with a fantastical premise".[9]

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.[5] 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.[2] Filming also took place at Camberwell High School, which was converted into the fictional William Dawes Elementary, located in 1959 Lexington.[10][11] Interior shots took place at the Australian Synchrotron to represent an observatory.[12][13] Filming also took place at the Haystack Observatory in Westford, Massachusetts.[14] In addition to practical locations, filming also took place at the Melbourne Central City Studios in Docklands.[15] The plane crash, which was mostly shown in one take 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.[5] 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 as the flare spreads across the Earth's surface, destroying everything in its path.[16]

Proyas used a Red One 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."[17]

The music for the film was written by Marco Beltrami, but also features classical works such as Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven) - Allegretto,[18] which is played without any accompanying sound effects in the final Boston disaster scene of the film.[19] Beltrami released the soundtrack as a CD with 22 tracks.[20]

Music in the film but not released on the soundtrack

• The Planets, Op. 32: IV. "Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity" - written by Gustav Holst[18]
• "News Theme" - written and performed by Guy Gross[18]
• Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 - composed by Ludwig van Beethoven and performed by Sydney Scoring Orchestra

• 2012 (film)
• 20th Century Boys
• List of films featuring the deaf and hard of hearing

• Knowing at IMDb 
• Knowing at AllMovie