Another one of the dvds that had been lying around for a couple of months and which I just watches – Knowing is a sci-fi/drama / thriller that bordered so closely to being something from the makers of The X-Files. Except for the end of the world that we see at the end of the film.

Well, Nicholas Cage stars in the film as John Kostley, as a recently widowed professor of astrophysics at MIT. At the school’s opening up of a time capsule, his son is handed a letter which was written 50 years ago by Lucinda, a girl who heard whispers and wrote a series of seemingly random numbers on the paper. John sees the paper and discovers that the numbers are the dates and geographic coordinates for every major disaster that has happened in the 50 years since Lucinda wrote the letter. Lucinda had accurately predicted each and every one of them.

There are 3 dates that are yet to come but within a few days. A day later a commercial airline crashes near John with many dead or burning to death at the exact coordinates that was in the paper. John tries to contact Lucinda but learns that she is dead and instead meets up with her daughter Diane, who does not believe him at first. After a subway crash that left many dead, Diane is convinced and approaches John. While the two search Lucinda’s home, mysterious strangers in coats come to John’s son Caleb and Diane’s daughter Abby. As John chases them, they disappear in a blinding light. Along with this having noticed that the last date on the paper is not accompanied by coordinates, further clues in Lucinda’s home lead John and Diana to realize that the “33” listed as the death toll for the final disaster is actually “EE” reversed, which Lucinda meant to represent “Everyone Else.” Meaning the end of everyone.

The worldwide catastrophe that will mean the end of life on the planet is soon found out to be a massive solar flare will soon reach Earth. Diane tells John that the four of them can hide out in underground caves with supplies but John finds out the final message left by Lucinda  – coordinates to her home in the woods! By now both Caleb and Abby can hear whispers and start scribbling numbers. A  scared Diane takes both Caleb and Abby with her toward the caves and stops at a gas station. While she is on the phone, the tall strangers drive off with her car and with the kids inside it. Diane gives chase but dies in a car crash. John leaves for the home in the woods where he finds his son & Abby who are paying with two rabbits. Turns out that the strangers are aliens in human form. They know of the destruction of Earth and have come to take chosen ones with them.

The chosen ones are the humans who hear the whispers and can predict the future. John lets his son and Abby go with the aliens in a spaceship. From space we can see that many such vessels are carrying off possible others who have been given the gift. John goes back to meet his parents & sister where they all gather together and embrace as the solar flare burns the ozone layer and incinerates all life on Earth. The children are deposited on another world in a field that features a giant white tree towards which all the kids run. This signifies a new beginning for the human race.

7 outta 10