Throughout history there have always been people who have envisioned the end of the world. To date, the prophecies of these individuals obviously haven’t come true. There was the doom and gloom that surrounded the start of the new millennium, then it was all about a planetary alignment, and presently there are people concerned that 2012 which is the end of the Mayan calendar will result in the destruction of the human race (and I’ll go on record right now that this isn’t going to happen.) Beyond 2012, we will once again find someone who has foreseen the end of days and the fear of the obliteration of civilization has served as a good premise for a number of movies.

Knowing is the latest in the apocalyptic future that may or may not await us. Beginning in 1959 at William Dawes Elementary School in Lexington, Massachusetts, a class is putting together a time capsule which is to be opened in 50 years. Their assignment is to draw a picture of what they think the world will be like but Lucinda Embry, who was the one who came up with the idea, instead begins writing a series of numbers, something that she doesn’t end up finishing and is found later in the basement of the school scratching more numbers into a door.

Five decades later we catch up with John Koestler (Nicolas Cage), an astronomy professor at MIT and a widower. His young son Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) attends William Dawes and his class is preparing to open the capsule. As the contents are handed out, Caleb ends up with Lucinda’s paper and takes it home with him. John insists that he returns it the next day but soon becomes intrigued by the numbers and embarks on finding what the pattern is, if any. He soon discovers that the numbers correspond to disasters in the world; they give the date, the number of dead, and John soon finds that the exact coordinates are listed as well. Lucinda however has died a number of years ago and John can’t rely on her for more information, but he soon finds her daughter Diana (Rose Byrne) and her daughter Abby (Lara Robinson.) Diana is unwilling to help at first but eventually comes around as the two learn there is one final disaster coming which will destroy life on the entire planet.

Knowing plays itself out as a science fiction thriller, at least until you start to put together more and more of what’s going on. In truth, this movie is much more of an attempt to blend Western religion with metaphysical beliefs. Without giving too much of the plot away, the thing that is headed our way is a solar flare which will decimate all life on the planet by destroying the ozone layer. This idea is essential the same concept as the Biblical prophecy that God will destroy the world by fire and for decades, everyone has claimed that this would be the result of nuclear war, though a flare makes more sense given the capacity to burn everything in the blink of an eye. However, having watched The Universe on the History Channel, scientists have also stated that the change of this actually occurring is incredibly slim. You’d have more luck trying to win the lottery.

When you look at the traditional disaster film, especially those that involve the treat of humanity being wiped out, there is a usual approach that is taken; we find out we’re in danger of extinction, there are some deaths, but a group of people somehow manage to work out the finer details and save everyone. Knowing works a bit different however and while John has seen the connection with the numbers he finds that it’s not so easy to get people to believe it. That’s understandable as I think any of us confronted by a friend who said they had details on the end of the world probably wouldn’t buy into it. John has also decided to not tell his son, but there are other forces at work. Both Caleb and Abby have been seeing strange men in black who speak only to them. The film never quite identifies the source, but I’m sure we could attribute this to telepathy. The “whisper people” as the children have come to refer to them have also offered them the chance to come with them.

This aspect of the film leads to another tie-in to religion that is disguised in such a way that I don’t think many will notice it. The men in black as it turns out are aliens who have come to save humanity, but not all of it. The children, and others like them, are the chosen ones; the idea that those who hear the voice of God will be spared in the coming Armageddon. Some would call this the Rapture, an idea that sprung up by literal interpretation and is seen as absolute truth by some religious followers. There is even a scene of the aliens at one point rising into their spacecraft and if you look closely, you can see wings on them, almost like angels, which once again points to the religious influence of the film.

Knowing isn’t a bad movie, at least not during the first part, but it does start to believe its own preaching towards the end. The first half of the movie is a very good, solid thriller which isn’t keen on giving too much of the plot away. We have to wonder if John has in fact cracked the code on this paper or if maybe he’s just reading too much into it, though there are events that begin to occur which show that he’s definitely on the right path. The big mystery though is what the final prophecy relates to, not to mention who are the strange men in black? The film also doesn’t show a reliance on trying to portray disaster by using too many computer generated visuals and blowing up every landmark across the globe. Instead, it wants to try and give a more intelligent plot, something that it does in part but is often trapped by its need to include unbelievable elements and ridiculous moments.

The visual quality of Knowing is adequate though I did notice that the movie has a bit more motion blur than I expected. This wasn’t necessarily in any heavy action sequences like other films since Knowing isn’t pushing towards that, but often something like a fast head turn by a character seemed to result in some blur. Darker sequences during the film do stand out quite a bit though and aren’t just a muddled mess, but overall the film could have had some minor visual improvements, though it’s not the worst that I’ve ever seen.

Alex Proyas provides commentary on the feature that is fairly interesting, but not overly impressive. The disc really doesn’t include nearly as many extra features as I had anticipated but at least they are included in high definition. Visions of the Apocalypse looks more at the history of mankind to see “doom and gloom” in his future and this is covered from a variety of different mythologies and religions. Knowing All: The Making of a Futuristic Thriller is just the standard EPK that is included with every other movie these days and really doesn’t do much to convince you that you should be impressed with the film.

Knowing could have been a good movie but the execution comes off as being heavily flawed. The writers at least didn’t try and go with the usual preachy approach of other disaster pictures and in this case, the apocalypse is one that’s unavoidable. However, Knowing also tries to subtly push religion and metaphysics down your throat, never blatantly, but it’s obvious enough that had this element been removed, Knowing might have turned out a little differently. I’m sure that somewhere out there, there are some nameless souls on the Internet trying to claim that this is some vision from Hollywood about things to come and that they know something we don’t . . . and if that happens to be you, your best bet is to avoid the movie all together and go live in a cave somewhere where you can patiently wait for the end of the world.

-mike-