Knowing (film)
Encyclopedia
Knowing is a 2009 American-British science fiction film
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.
to be opened fifty years later. Lucinda writes a page of seemingly random numbers. She is later found in a closet, scratching numbers into the door.
Fifty years later, the time capsule is opened. Caleb Koestler, son of Jonathan Koestler, a widower and professor of astrophysics
at MIT
, receives Lucinda's page of numbers. He sees a mysterious stranger in the nearby trees and hears whispers. Jonathan sees the numbers, notices the sequence 911012996 and realizes it is a reference to the date and number of deaths from the September 11th attacks (9/11/01/2996). Jonathan finds similar information based on other numbers on Caleb's sheet. The last three dates on the page are in the near future. There are numbers between the dates that he cannot reconcile.
While researching, Jonathan learns that Lucinda died from a drug overdose, and Caleb receives more visits from mysterious strangers who give him a small smooth stone, and show him visions of the world on fire. On his way to pick up Caleb from school, Jonathan witnesses a major airplane crash. It is the date that the numbers predicted for the next disaster; the unexplained numbers are the locations of the events.
Jonathan then goes after Lucinda's daughter, Diana, and her daughter Abby, but scares them away when he reveals his interest in Lucinda's predictions. Jonathan pinpoints the next disaster to Worth Street
in lower Manhattan
. With news of terror-threats, Jonathan suspects the next cataclysm will be a terror attack. He pursues a man into a subway station suspecting him to be a terrorist, but he is only a shoplifter. At that same moment an approaching train derails, smashing into the station and destroying much of Jonathan's train.
Shocked to see the train fit the predictions, Diana decides to help Jonathan. She says that her mother used to hear voices, and that the next date, October 19, is the day said she would die. The two search Lucinda's mobile home in the woods, where they find pictures of the disasters she predicted, a copy of Matthäus Merian
's engraving of Ezekiel's "chariot vision"
, and a pile of small smooth stones near Lucinda's bed. As Diana thinks the last number is not "33" but "EE" written backwards, John flips the bed over to find the underside covered with the words, "Everyone Else", representing a cataclysm that no one will escape. Outside, the Strangers appear around the car carrying the children. John drives them away only to hear from Abby that the "whisper people" want her and Caleb to go with them.
The next day, Abby colors the "Likeness of a Man" in the engraving and says it is the sun. John has a sudden revelation and rushes them to the MIT observatory
, where he discovers that a massive solar flare
will soon reach Earth, incinerating the ozone layer
.
Diana wants to hide in some caves - and despite knowing it would not save them, John agrees. After seeing Caleb writing numbers, John decides to return to Lucinda's school and uncover the numbers on the old door. But before he manages to find them - which he thinks are coordinates of a safe place, at Lucinda's mobile home - Diana takes the children and heads for the caves. When Diana stops for gas, the Strangers drive off with Caleb and Abby. Diana pursues them but is broadsided
by a truck.
John arrives just as Diana dies, finding the small stone in Diana's hand. He continues to Lucinda's mobile home, finding the children and the Strangers in a dry river bed covered with the stones. A vessel similar to the wheels in the engraving descends from the sky. As John is refused entry because "only the chosen must go", he decides to let his son leave, as the Strangers dissolve into translucent figures resembling aliens. The vessel departs with the children and a pair of rabbits, and a distant shot shows many similar vessels leaving earth. John collapses in grief, waking the next morning to find the sky full of smoke and heat. John makes it to Boston
, finding the streets full of rioters. He arrives at his father's home to spend his last moments with his family. They embrace as the solar flare burns away the atmosphere and incinerates the Earth.
The film ends as Caleb and Abby in white linen clothing arrive at an otherworldly valley, then run across a field of golden grass towards a large tree.
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. was originally written by Pearson and 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. 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". Summit Entertainment took on the responsibility to fully finance and distribute the film. Proyas and Stuart Hazeldine
rewrote the draft for production, which began on 25 March 2008 in Melbourne, Australia. The director hoped to emulate The Exorcist
in melding "realism with a fantastical premise".
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. Locations included the Geelong Ring Road, the Melbourne Museum
, Mount Macedon
and Collins Street
. Filming also took place at Camberwell High School
, which was converted into the fictional William Dawes Elementary, located in 1959 Lexington. Interior shots took place at the Australian Synchrotron
to represent an observatory. Filming also took place at the Haystack Observatory
in Westford
, Massachusetts. In addition to practical locations, filming also took place at the Melbourne Central City Studios in Docklands. 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 lead 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.
Proyas used a Red One digital camera, making the film the first time the director used digital cameras. 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."
Music in the film but not released on the soundtrack
reported that 33% of critics gave the film positive write-ups based upon a sample of 160 critics with an average
score of 4.7 out of 10. 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. The consensus observed that Knowing had "some interesting ideas and a couple of good scenes" but was hampered "by its absurd plot and over-seriousness".
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 draggy, lurching two hours of Knowing will make you long for the end of the world, even as you worry that there will not be time for all your questions to be answered." In the San Francisco Chronicle
, Peter Hartlaub called the film "a disappointment for fans of Proyas" and "a surprisingly messy effort." He thought Nicolas Cage "borders on ridiculous here, in part because of a script that gives him little to do but freak out or act depressed".
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 silly and morbidly depressing 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." 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."
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 " 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." 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." 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."
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
directed by Alex Proyas
Alex Proyas
Alexander "Alex" Proyas is a Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for directing such films as The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot and Knowing. He is known for employing a stylish photographic techniques in his films, with dark overtones usually in a post-apocalyptic...
and starring Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
. The project was originally attached to a number of directors under Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, but it was placed in turnaround and eventually picked up by Escape Artists
Escape Artists
Escape Artists is an independently financed motion picture and television production company with a first look non-exclusive deal at Sony Pictures Entertainment, headed by Partners Steve Tisch, Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal...
. Production was financially backed by Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment LLC is an independent film studio headquartered in Santa Monica, California with international offices in London.-History:...
. Knowing was filmed in Docklands Studios Melbourne
Docklands Studios Melbourne
Docklands Studios Melbourne is a major movie and film complex located in Melbourne’s redeveloped docklands precinct. The studios opened their doors in 2004 under the former name . The site is located approximately 1.5 km from the city of Melbourne’s Central Business District...
, Australia, using various locations to represent the film's Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
-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
In 1959, Lucinda Embry stands in her school's playground staring at the sun, hearing whispers. The school makes a time capsuleTime capsule
A time capsule is an historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians...
to be opened fifty years later. Lucinda writes a page of seemingly random numbers. She is later found in a closet, scratching numbers into the door.
Fifty years later, the time capsule is opened. Caleb Koestler, son of Jonathan Koestler, a widower and professor of astrophysics
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
at MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, receives Lucinda's page of numbers. He sees a mysterious stranger in the nearby trees and hears whispers. Jonathan sees the numbers, notices the sequence 911012996 and realizes it is a reference to the date and number of deaths from the September 11th attacks (9/11/01/2996). Jonathan finds similar information based on other numbers on Caleb's sheet. The last three dates on the page are in the near future. There are numbers between the dates that he cannot reconcile.
While researching, Jonathan learns that Lucinda died from a drug overdose, and Caleb receives more visits from mysterious strangers who give him a small smooth stone, and show him visions of the world on fire. On his way to pick up Caleb from school, Jonathan witnesses a major airplane crash. It is the date that the numbers predicted for the next disaster; the unexplained numbers are the locations of the events.
Jonathan then goes after Lucinda's daughter, Diana, and her daughter Abby, but scares them away when he reveals his interest in Lucinda's predictions. Jonathan pinpoints the next disaster to Worth Street
Worth Street (Manhattan)
Worth Street is a two-way street in the Manhattan borough of New York City. It runs from Hudson Street, TriBeCa, in the west to Chatham Square in the east. Past Chatham Square, the roadway continues as Oliver Street, which runs one-way north- and westbound. Between West Broadway and Church Street,...
in lower Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. With news of terror-threats, Jonathan suspects the next cataclysm will be a terror attack. He pursues a man into a subway station suspecting him to be a terrorist, but he is only a shoplifter. At that same moment an approaching train derails, smashing into the station and destroying much of Jonathan's train.
Shocked to see the train fit the predictions, Diana decides to help Jonathan. She says that her mother used to hear voices, and that the next date, October 19, is the day said she would die. The two search Lucinda's mobile home in the woods, where they find pictures of the disasters she predicted, a copy of Matthäus Merian
Matthäus Merian
Matthäus Merian der Ältere was a Swiss-born engraver who worked in Frankfurt for most of his career, where he also ran a publishing house.-Early life and marriage:...
's engraving of Ezekiel's "chariot vision"
Merkabah
Merkabah is the throne-chariot of God, the four-wheeled vehicle driven by four "chayot" , each of which has four wings and the four faces of a man, lion, ox, and eagle...
, and a pile of small smooth stones near Lucinda's bed. As Diana thinks the last number is not "33" but "EE" written backwards, John flips the bed over to find the underside covered with the words, "Everyone Else", representing a cataclysm that no one will escape. Outside, the Strangers appear around the car carrying the children. John drives them away only to hear from Abby that the "whisper people" want her and Caleb to go with them.
The next day, Abby colors the "Likeness of a Man" in the engraving and says it is the sun. John has a sudden revelation and rushes them to the MIT observatory
Haystack Observatory
Haystack Observatory is a group of astronomical observatories owned and operated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is located in Westford, Massachusetts . It is the home of the Millstone Hill Observatory....
, where he discovers that a massive solar flare
Solar flare
A solar flare is a sudden brightening observed over the Sun surface or the solar limb, which is interpreted as a large energy release of up to 6 × 1025 joules of energy . The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms through the corona into space. These clouds typically reach Earth a day...
will soon reach Earth, incinerating the ozone layer
Ozone layer
The ozone layer is a layer in Earth's atmosphere which contains relatively high concentrations of ozone . This layer absorbs 97–99% of the Sun's high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to the life forms on Earth...
.
Diana wants to hide in some caves - and despite knowing it would not save them, John agrees. After seeing Caleb writing numbers, John decides to return to Lucinda's school and uncover the numbers on the old door. But before he manages to find them - which he thinks are coordinates of a safe place, at Lucinda's mobile home - Diana takes the children and heads for the caves. When Diana stops for gas, the Strangers drive off with Caleb and Abby. Diana pursues them but is broadsided
Side collision
Side collisions are vehicle crashes where the side of one or more vehicles is impacted. These crashes often occur at intersections, in parking lots, when two vehicles pass on a multi-lane roadway, or when a vehicle hits a fixed object....
by a truck.
John arrives just as Diana dies, finding the small stone in Diana's hand. He continues to Lucinda's mobile home, finding the children and the Strangers in a dry river bed covered with the stones. A vessel similar to the wheels in the engraving descends from the sky. As John is refused entry because "only the chosen must go", he decides to let his son leave, as the Strangers dissolve into translucent figures resembling aliens. The vessel departs with the children and a pair of rabbits, and a distant shot shows many similar vessels leaving earth. John collapses in grief, waking the next morning to find the sky full of smoke and heat. John makes it to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, finding the streets full of rioters. He arrives at his father's home to spend his last moments with his family. They embrace as the solar flare burns away the atmosphere and incinerates the Earth.
The film ends as Caleb and Abby in white linen clothing arrive at an otherworldly valley, then run across a field of golden grass towards a large tree.
Cast
- Nicolas CageNicolas CageNicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
as Professor Jonathan "John" Koestler - Rose ByrneRose ByrneMary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress.Byrne made her screen debut in 1994 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll...
as Diana Wayland / Lucinda Embry-Wayland - Chandler CanterburyChandler CanterburyChandler Canterbury is an American child actor.-Life and career:Canterbury was born in Houston, Texas, to Kristine and Russell Canterbury, and resides in Houston. He starred in Summit Entertainment's thriller Knowing for director Alex Proyas , alongside Nicolas Cage and Rose Byrne...
as Caleb Koestler - Lara RobinsonLara RobinsonLara Robinson is an Australian child actress, works on films, television series, and theaters. She has appeared in a remake of an 1978 Australian thriller Long Weekend starring Claudia Karvan as well as an American science fiction drama, Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage and Rose Byrne...
as Lucinda Embry / Abby Wayland / Young Diana Wayland - Nadia TownsendNadia TownsendNadia Townsend is an Australian dramatic actress. She is best known for her role in the Channel 7 police drama City Homicide, as Detective Senior Constable Allie Kingston...
as Grace Koestler - Ben MendelsohnBen MendelsohnPaul Benjamin "Ben" Mendelsohn is an Australian actor.-Early life:Mendelsohn was born in Melbourne, Australia, the son of Carole Ann and Frederick Mendelsohn. He attended Heidelberg Primary School and Banyule High School. His father is a prominent medical researcher who heads the Howard Florey...
as Professor Phil Beckman - Alan HopgoodAlan HopgoodAlan Hopgood is an Australian actor and writer.He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne. Hopgood's first very successful play was And the Big Men Fly in 1963. It was adapted for TV by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1973...
as Reverend Koestler - Adrienne PickeringAdrienne Pickering-Biography:Pickering stars in one of the female lead roles of the Australian natural drama-thriller film The Reef.-Television career:She also played the recurring role of Detective Christine Taylor in the BBC-commissioned soap opera Out of the Blue. She appears on Home And Away as Natalie Franklin,...
as Allison Koestler - Liam HemsworthLiam HemsworthLiam Hemsworth is an Australian actor. He took the role of Josh Taylor in the soap opera Neighbours and as "Marcus" on the children's television series The Elephant Princess and appeared in the American film The Last Song, released on 31 March 2010...
as Spencer - D.G. Maloney, Joel Bow, Maximillian Paul, and Karen Hadfield as The Strangers
- Danielle CarterDanielle CarterDanielle Carter is an Australian actress. She has acted in a number of popular television shows, films and plays.She graduated from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art, in 1993....
as Miss Taylor in 1959 - Alethea McGrathAlethea McGrathAlethea McGrath is an Australian actress who played the role of Jocasta Nu in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. She is also widely known for her roles on television, playing Dot Farrar in Prisoner and two parts in Neighbours: Mary Crombie from 1989 to 1990 and Lilly Madigan in 1998...
as Miss Taylor in
Production
In 2001, novelist Ryne Douglas PearsonRyne Douglas Pearson
Ryne Douglas Pearson is an American novelist and screenwriter who wrote the concept story and helped write the script for the 2009 film, Knowing. He also wrote Capital Punishment in 1996, Top Ten in 1999 and Simple Simon: A Thriller in 1996 which was filmed as Mercury Rising...
approached producers Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal with his idea for a film, where a time capsule
Time capsule
A time capsule is an historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians...
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. was originally written by Pearson and the project was set up at Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. Both Rod Lurie
Rod Lurie
Rod Lurie is an Israeli-American director, screenwriter and former film critic.-Early life and career:The son of internationally syndicated cartoonist Ranan Lurie, he was born in Israel but moved to the United States at a young age, growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Honolulu,...
and Richard Kelly
Richard Kelly (director)
James Richard Kelly is an American film director and writer, best known for writing and directing the cult classic Donnie Darko in 2001.-Early life:...
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
Alex Proyas
Alexander "Alex" Proyas is a Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for directing such films as The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot and Knowing. He is known for employing a stylish photographic techniques in his films, with dark overtones usually in a post-apocalyptic...
was attached to direct the project in February 2005. 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". Summit Entertainment took on the responsibility to fully finance and distribute the film. Proyas and Stuart Hazeldine
Stuart Hazeldine
Stuart Hazeldine is a British screenwriter, film producer and director. He lives in London.-Biography:...
rewrote the draft for production, which began on 25 March 2008 in Melbourne, Australia. The director hoped to emulate The Exorcist
The Exorcist (film)
The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
in melding "realism with a fantastical premise".
The film is set primarily in the town of Lexington
Lexington, Massachusetts
Lexington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,399 at the 2010 census. This town is famous for being the site of the first shot of the American Revolution, in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775.- History :...
with some scenes set in the nearby cities of Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
and Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. However, it was shot in Australia, where director Proyas resides. Locations included the Geelong Ring Road, the Melbourne Museum
Melbourne Museum
Melbourne Museum is located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia, adjacent the Royal Exhibition Building.It is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere, and is a venue of Museum Victoria, which also operates the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum.The museum has seven main...
, Mount Macedon
Mount Macedon, Victoria
Mount Macedon is a small town located northwest of Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria. It is situated on the side of the mountain of the same name, known as Geboor by the indigenous Wurundjeri people, which rises to above sea level. At the 2006 census, Mount Macedon had a population...
and Collins Street
Collins Street, Melbourne
Collins Street is a major street in the Melbourne central business district and runs approximately east to west.It is notable as Melbourne's traditional main street and best known street, is often regarded as Australia's premier street, with some of the country's finest Victorian era buildings.The...
. Filming also took place at Camberwell High School
Camberwell High School
Camberwell High School is a government-funded, co-educational high for years 7 to 12 located on Prospect Hill Road in Canterbury, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
, which was converted into the fictional William Dawes Elementary, located in 1959 Lexington. Interior shots took place at the Australian Synchrotron
Australian Synchrotron
The Australian Synchrotron is a 3 GeV synchrotron radiation facility built in Melbourne, Victoria and opened on 31 July 2007.The circular building was designed by Architectus in conjunction with Thiess, while the lattice design was performed substantially by Professor John Boldeman.The Synchrotron...
to represent an observatory. Filming also took place at the Haystack Observatory
Haystack Observatory
Haystack Observatory is a group of astronomical observatories owned and operated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is located in Westford, Massachusetts . It is the home of the Millstone Hill Observatory....
in Westford
Westford, Massachusetts
Westford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 21,951 at the 2010 census.-History:Originally a part of neighboring Chelmsford, West Chelmsford soon grew large enough to sustain its own governance, and was officially incorporated as Westford on September 23,...
, Massachusetts. In addition to practical locations, filming also took place at the Melbourne Central City Studios in Docklands. 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 lead 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.
Proyas used a Red One digital camera, making the film the first time the director used digital cameras. 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."
Soundtrack
The music for the film was written by Marco Beltrami, but also features classical works such as Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven), which is played without any accompanying sound effects in the final Boston disaster scene of the film. Beltrami released the soundtrack as a CD with 22 tracks.Music in the film but not released on the soundtrack
- The Planets: Op. 43: IV Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity - written by Gustav HolstGustav HolstGustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
- News Theme - written and performed by Guy GrossGuy GrossGuy Gross could refer to:* Guy Gross - Australian music composer known for his work on American science fiction series Farscape and the international hit film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert...
- Beethoven Symphony No. 7 In A Major, Op. 92, in (1811-1812)Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven)Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, in 1811, was the seventh of his nine symphonies. He worked on it while staying in the Bohemian spa town of Teplice in the hope of improving his health. It was completed in 1812, and was dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries.At its debut,...
- composed by Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
and performed by Sydney Scoring Orchestra
Reception
Knowing received mixed reviews. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 33% of critics gave the film positive write-ups based upon a sample of 160 critics with an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 4.7 out of 10. At Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalised
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
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. The consensus observed that Knowing had "some interesting ideas and a couple of good scenes" but was hampered "by its absurd plot and over-seriousness".
A. O. Scott
A. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
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 draggy, lurching two hours of Knowing will make you long for the end of the world, even as you worry that there will not be time for all your questions to be answered." In the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, Peter Hartlaub called the film "a disappointment for fans of Proyas" and "a surprisingly messy effort." He thought Nicolas Cage "borders on ridiculous here, in part because of a script that gives him little to do but freak out or act depressed".
Writing for The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, 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 silly and morbidly depressing 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." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
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."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
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 " in the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
. 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." Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw is a British writer and film critic. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he was President of Footlights.Bradshaw is a film critic for The Guardian...
reviewed the film for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and suggested Knowing was saved by its ending, concluding that "the film sticks to its apocalyptic guns with a spectacular and thoroughly unexpected finish." Philip French
Philip French
Philip French is a British film critic and former radio producer.French, the son of an insurance salesman, was educated at the direct grant Bristol Grammar School, read Law at Oxford University. and post graduate study in Journalism at Indiana University, Bloomington on a scholarship.He has been...
's review in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
suggested the premise was "intriguing B-feature apocalypse, determinism
Determinism
Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
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
Armageddon
Armageddon is, according to the Bible, the site of a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location...
is nigh, you'll have a family hug and wake up to be greeted by St Peter at the Pearly Gates
Pearly gates
The pearly gates is an informal name for the gateway to Heaven according to some Christian denominations. It is inspired by the description of the New Jerusalem in Book of...
. On the other hand, Darwinists will be gratified to see Gaia
Gaia
- Mythology :* Gaia , the primal Greek goddess of the Earth* Gaia, the Earth in New Age Gaian spirituality- Science :* Gaea , a crater on Amalthea, a moon of Jupiter* Gaia hypothesis, concerning the stability of Earth's natural systems...
and her stellar opposite numbers sock it to an unconcerned mankind."