End of the world is the end of all the splendour, advancement, beauty, love and even the evil of all living beings who have stepped foot on the 197,000,000 square mile total surface of the earth. Among the infinite number of the souls who have been able to do so, “Knowing” focuses on a father William (Nicholas Cage), an astrophysics professor who learned about a prophetic code leading to what everybody won’t wish to ever occur—the end of the world.
After finding out that the numbers on a weird student Lucinda’s drawing 50 years ago from the school where his son Caleb is now studying has an astonishing correspondence to the dates, number of casualty, and location of the world’s major terrifying disasters, he is set to at least do something. But though proven that a man couldn’t alter a prophecy unless you are Jesus Christ; he has seen a plane crash and witnessed in his disposal the literally burning and pleading for desperate help passengers; and also, he is one of those who have survived a dreadful railway accident killing hundred of lives after being unsuccessful keeping the prophecy latent. But the final one of these prophetical code is much worse, a tragedy that is apocalyptic, a solar flare so tremendous that it will engulf the planet with the sun’s overwhelming power of fire, thus wiping away the face of the earth. William though has learned that Lucinda was trying to communicate a safe place before the final catastrophe happens.
They say that things come in threes, and that comes here in the movie: two calamities at first with increasing intensity and number of casualty and then finally the ultimate blow that will make everybody helpless. Alex Proyas, the director has provided us with a fake and a differential which has been a unique part of the film all throughout, and is a very fine technique of twisting a thriller plotted movie. The place crash scene has quite a generic look and feel for a suspense film—the rains, the dark clouds, running people, despicable plane debris, and the haunting hum of dying people, but the introduction of the scene from the part where William is still on the car worried about the traffic, minding the numbers on Lucinda’s paper, and seeing them at the navigator of his car, then he steps out of car where he can see police officers attending or guarding something that is not really known. That point of uncertainty swallows up our nerves to an abyss of terror and then a plane came from nowhere swooshing right in front of the troubled William and all of the deposited anxiety at what we thought has already happened scuttles with the crashing plane and found ourselves in a painting of sorrow, disappointment, fear, and danger. There is also a fake and differential scheme in the second one—the train accident. William has called the police and informs them that something wrong might happen in a particular corner of the busy city of Manhattan
While William is moving heavens and earth just to solve a worldwide concern, his son has been hearing whispers since they learned about the prophetical codes. With the whispers come a group of vampire looking people, pale-skinned, blonde, and whimsy. These people or entities pretending to be human beings are annoying and kills the film’s very pop culture subject matter. Probably, with the popularity of freaking vampires out of the overrated Twilight series, they thought that vampires or at least vampire-looking anthropometric figures could adjoin sleek elements to an already promising movie. A petty and pitiful surmise though it has proven because it made the film pathetic and desperate for inter-textual congeniality. The worse is, the rest of the film is great less that part. But the worst of them all, the function of these vampire scamps is so ambitiously gorgeous. They are actually extra-terrestrial life form aiming to send a couple of human beings to another planet where everything could be started anew, and in which case Caleb will serve like the earth’s Adam. I find it a serious problem that these “aliens” don’t appear as cinematic as they are supposed to be considering the grandeur of their matrix. The whispers the kids are hearing adds a great coherence to the genre especially with the darkness-in-the-forest visual template the cinematographer creates. The inclusion of this side-thrill gives an interesting intonation that cleverly supports the major structural narrative thread of “Knowing”. That scaffolding even though noticeable, but since it is annoying prevents me from having a serious read of it and yet at the end redeems itself for the very well, astute manipulation of the audience’s reactions.
The cinematography at times is breathtaking, especially the two last major scenes at the end of it: first, the scene where the young supposed Adam and Eve running at the eternity of the new beginning, where everything is just perfect, the visual tone, the rhythmic pace, the musical accompaniment, the costume design, and total outlandish atmosphere; second, which I have mentioned above, is the scene where William and his family calmly wait for their last second, the everyday yellowish tone of a simple American home and an example of a usual grown-up family (old parents, middle-aged son, and young adolescent daughter) holding each other tight consolidate with the beauty of the sadness that will soon evolve to an adulterated form of beauty.
“Knowing” is quite similar with “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, both refer to the end of the planet in the presence of extra-terrestrial (though not as physically close with the late 90’s stereotype of ETs: big red eyes, huge heads, green-skinned, and others). The two have humanity/familial love at its emotional core, the basic difference between the two though is that “Knowing” is a hundred mile better than “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Speaking of what a more realistic scenario is not quite the matter between the two, but to how much authentic extent the approach to the over-all atmosphere of these two films have been. Aside from the superiority of the special effects of “Knowing”, that actually makes the other film looks like having a special effect scarcity, the internal urgency of human change is so forced in “The Day the Earth Stood Still” like Helen (Jennifer Connelly) has been repeating the same line more than twice pleading to Klaatu (Keannu Reeves) that we can change. Two things I hate about that is that first it is desperate and second it is extremely desperate. That on the other hand is the exact reason why I love “Knowing”, the hearty component of it comes and flows as natural as it should be. Particularly in the part where William, together with his father, mother, and younger sister hug each other as they welcome (not just helplessly accept) the end of things, and the fires of the powerful sun eat up the once everlasting days of the earth. The scene is very sentimental, it is not scary, at most, I know the director together with the great help from its cinematographer and musical scorer wants it to be like that. A film that will capture love amidst the most feared catastrophe, a premise that M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Signs” awfully and frantically tries to be, this movie is a post-thrill strategized piece resorting to a peaceful and sentimental solemn and ultimate moments.
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