I spent my dollar yesterday at red box rental.
I saw the movie as a spiritual question for "everyone". Do you believe that God has a purpose and a plan for your life? Do you know Him and are looking forward to being in Heaven with Him? The movie has many biblical references but the director does a good job of leaving the choice of to the viewer to believe and have hope for eternal life in heaven or to die and be seperated from God forever. Nicholas makes the choice at the end and proclaims it is not the end "I know".

I JUST WATCHED THE MOVIE AND ALTHOUGH THE ENDING WAS BAD B.C THE FATHER AND THE MOTHER OF ABBY DIED IT MADE YOU THINK ABOUT LIFE AND I THINK THE KIDS REPRESENTED ADAM AND EVE AT THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE....BUT WHAT I DONT GET WHY THEY MADE IT SEEM LIKE IT WAS GOING TO BE A HORROR FILM IN THE BEGINNG THEN RANDOMLY MAKE IT SCI-FI THATS JUST DUMN!!!

Final scene with Tree. For me it would be the Oak tree. The trees lives a symbiotic existence that is cooperative, creating balance(harmony).The oak is generous with its gifts representing all that is true, wholesome, stable, and noble. Open the oak door

i really liked how they introduced the idea about aliens were thought to be gods, i also liked the destruction scenes and the ultimate natural destruction (everything burns a mile deep).
i really didnt like the cast at all. the young boy was awful. even cage was better than him (if that is even possible)
nice sci-fi/drama/thriller but it left me unsatisfied. they could have done a better job with this one...

Whilst not without its flaws, Knowing was certainly a graphic and at times disturbing portrayal of the quest for answers to fundamental questions about our existence.

I was hooked at an early stage during the scene in which John (Nicolas Cage) discusses the concepts of determinism and chaos with his class at MIT. As people have already stated, it was refreshing to see a Hollywood movie attempt at least to engage in these topics albeit on a fairly superficial level.

The special effects in the plane crash scene were harrowingly difficult to watch and yet simultaneously compelling. Having seen the trailer and the vision of the plane crashing I still bizarrely enough was not prepared to see it in quite so much detail. Perhaps it was just the cinema I saw the movie in but the sound was also deafeningly realistic. This combined with the slowly panning camera angles that followed John's around the crash site really evoked the feeling of the aftermath of a battle scene, particularly as it mirrored John's own battle to make sense of the numbers and everything going on around him. Its gruesome realism reminded me slightly of the opening battle scene in Saving Private Ryan. Walking around with a purpose in mind (to rescue the survivors) but ultimately having little or no control over it. I found it so overwhelming that I considered walking out.

In any case, I am glad I stayed as although the film seemed to get a little muddled in the middle (one of my major gripes surrounds the numbers themselves which according to the pre-determined conclusion were actually pretty redundant and served little purpose. I may be being particularly pedantic here but the final numbers prediction did not add up in terms of the sequence that had preceded it. The longitude and latitude coordinates located by John on the back of the school door referred to an 'event' that was to signify the location of the end of the world for 'EE' (Everyone Else). For all the previous predictions these coordinates provided the correct location of the event. However, the EE prediction provided the coordinates of where John's son was to be collected by the beings, NOT where the solar flare was to strike. Why? Because it was the last prediction? This wasn't really explained. The solar flare does not appear to strike at the final prediction's location at all. Have I misunderstood this or can anyone help me on this?)

Anyway, these little niggling things aside, I enjoyed the angelic/biblical references as well as the stimulating post-film debates I had with my fiance about it all afterwards. In the end, I suppose that is why I go to the movies. To be stimulated, challenged and consider things from a different perspective. This film is stimulating and provides a refreshing perspective to the run-of-the-mill sci-fi fodder that usually gets churned out of Hollywood. The challenging bit is whether you choose to engage in the topics or as the girl next to us did, constantly check your mobile phone in anticipation of the end.

I actually enjoyed the movie although some of the acting was pretty over the top. The special affects were decent and pretty intense as well. I went to be entertained and I was. I also thought of the aliens originally as angels, but then recounted past movies and shows and decided that they may actually be mothmen since they appeared prior to disasters and were trying to share a bigger message.

I didn't leave the movie disappointed, but entertained.

I love this movie! The ending had a "Dune" feel to it. And was a little unrealistic looking. The symbolism was so good though. There are 1001 different doomsday scenarios that could take place with a solar blast being only one of them. I thought the film did a good job of handling one possible scenario.

I did remember reading a passage in the bible that depicted the circle within circle mechanism and the four winged creatures. This is Ezekial 1, in case anyone cares to read it. The writers of this film depicted that perfectly.

Overall, this was great film. The writing and directing were spectacular and covered many of the films flaws. I was so enthralled with the story that I didn't even notice the bad acting and poor cgi effects (maybe that was because it wasn't all that bad to begin with).

I'm sorry... I think this film did have a savior. The angel/aliens rescued "the called" and took them to a "heaven" like place with the tree of life. Don't you know that the Tree of life is a symbol for Jesus. Those who expected "to see Jesus pop up" and didn't, don't know their symbolism and neither do you really.

I thought overall it was pretty good but the ending kind of ruined it a bit. It seems like they put a lot of thought into a bulk of the movie and then just rushed out a typical "aliens come and save the world" ending.

Thank you, JOEMOVIES19! You hit the nail on the head.

The ending was brilliant. I'm not really religious or anything. But what I loved was the idea that these aliens or higher beings might have once been interpreted to be angels 2000 years ago. And that their appearance and technology would easily suggest deity-like beings. The idea that ancient sightings of angels, God, etc. might actually have been people witnessing alien beings and thus their interpretation was that of divine intervention is fascinating. I think the movie works for both religious people and those who seek evidence through science and who might believe we are not alone. Brilliant movie.

As I mentioned in another thread, about a third of the way into the film, I noticed Marco Beltrami's score channeling Bernard Herrmann's work from some of the classic Hitchcock films. At that point, everything in the film clicked for me. Like Vertigo or North by Northwest, the main character starts to get thrown toward an inevitability. Hitchcock doing science fiction. That is a film worth seeing.

I love original films. If you like the film or not, you have to agree that audiences deserve this type of ambition and effort. It's sad that we only get it every so often.

wow, dan is an idiot.

I want to see a movie where you have albino aliens vs. almond shaped eyes aliens. Not the worst movie in the world but not as good as Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties.

I just got back from seeing the film, and I was left wondering if the final scene represented a new planet or the planet earth "regrown". Was the planet you could see past the tree supposed to be earth? Any opinions?

I guess no one is interested in answering you, Mare. I guess you have to figure it out yourself. Friendly group.

no it couldn't. it's another planet

I enjoyed it. Yeah some bad acting but easy to get over that part. Loved the Third Act.

Needless to say I laughed my ass off when Cage fell to the ground after seeing the first appearance of the alien space ship type thing.

brad bringing up Miracle Mile is a great point. The kaotic atmoshere in the third act really reminded me of that movie. Like Knowing that film featured some silliness but I still really liked it. Overall I enjoyed Knowing depite flaws The plane chrash sequence was scary.I agree Peter the effects seemed a little incomplete but the overall effect was intense. Have to be honest I don't get all the Nic Cage hate. I really like him.

Chuck

I thought this movie was a legitimately good quality sci-fi movie disguised as a bad nic Cage movie. I thought the directing was awesome, the disaster scenes were scary as fuck, but I thought some of the acting was a little uneven. Proyas always seems to have to compromise within the hollywood system to get his movies made. In I, Robot he had to have Will Smith blatantly hawking converse shoes. In Dark City, he had to have unnecessary narration/other dumb intelligence insulting studio bullshit. This movie is no different: for him to make this movie, he had to have a name to put across the poster. I didn't think Cage was terrible, but I did think he contributed to some of the uneven-ness of the movie.

I am also going to say kudos for seeing the directors foreshadowing techniques. But in my opinion the directors was only setting up that Cage was a cosmologist and that the world would be affect by his field of study....hence the determinism vs randomism.

Now I won't judge a film until I see it. I don't like to have the review-collar strapped to my neck and only see movies that are called "amazing" but to be honest, I wasn't too thrilled to see this film. I blame the marketing if anything (And Nicholas Cage's hair) but it just didn't strike me...



That said.....I really do want to see it now for the ending and how it all folds together.

i didn't expect that this movie will be so good. Yes, Cage, overacting, bad dialogues and sometimes cheesy cgi. But afterall i had a felling that i watched something divine, an awe. And it chills through the bones with it's "banned from tv" disaster scenes. Cinematography was great especially near end, production design and sound - outstanding. Directing was good, though i'd like to see more Proyas and less Aronofsky, Emmerich, Cameron, Shyamalan and Spielberg in this movie.
Think this movie shows what a good director could do with a bad actor and bad script (though it's not so bad as it seems cause main character is rather unusual - in sociopathic crazyness kind of way)

Yes, Proyas is a genius. He once again takes tried and true religious allegory that has grown stale in its own right and takes it the level of the truly haunting yet at the end truly mistical and empowering. I am so reminded of Dark City with this film though. I don't know why but maybe I'm mad. This film seemed like a prequel to Dark City. I just kept seeing the angels/aliens as the precursors to the creatures who can manipulate reality and who steal dreams. Strangely, I like that idea a lot. Could the children and the rest of the chosen/raptured are just being fed an illusion to keep their minds occupied why a sinister force prepares them to have their dreams/memories/souls stolen? Didn't Keifer Sutherland's character in Dark City have a hearing aid like Caleb in Knowing?

I really loved the movie and was completely curprised by my responce. It just felt very different, like that of a hard sci-fi book. And wih the very-intense action scenes, and daring ending, I enjoyed how it strayed away form being typical. But of course, the acting was laughable at times but I went to be entertained, and it completely delivered. I wouldnt be surprised if this gained some odd popularity.

touche. never crossed my mind. The Adam Eve shot at the end kind of overpowers the spaceships lifting off, and my brain never thought to turn there.

I am in a love/hate relationship with this film.

Sadly, I can't recommend it to anyone. The ending was just too terrifying for me. The reason being, is that the ending is almost exactly like the nightmares I used to have some months ago, but I stopped having them and stopped thinking about it. Now I'm pretty sure I will be having those nightmares again.

Yes, I'm a wimp. But leave it to Hollywood to masterfully scare the living crap out of you.

Also, Rose Byrne's acting in this film can be compared to the acting of the leading actress role in a 50s sci-fi alien invasion "B" movie. As well, the other endings in the film are just a bit outlandish.

I give the movie 2 out of 4 stars.

Signs + Miracle Mile + Close Encounters = Knowing. Unfortunately it is not as good as the sum of its parts might suggest. I liked it, but I didn't love it. It seems like a movie directly tailored for my exact personality but something was missing. I love everything they tried to touch on but I just didn't feel like the movie went far enough with anything. I know the movie might have been a little too much for some people but I wanted it to go even farther out than it did. It seemed curiously restrained for a movie about the end of the world and "Chariot of the Gods" type Angel / Aliens.

I'll have to watch it again now that I wont be constantly weighing it against my hopes and expectations.

The themes of determinism and the un-randomness of science were just too simple. I definitely didn't buy into the story....a girl from the 50s writes a prophetic string of numbers, and its purpose is solely to rekindle Cage's faith? That's was all the numbers were good for in the end. Caleb didn't need them- he had angels.

congrats Cage! you now know what's going to happen in about 10 hours. by the time you've figured it out, EVERYONE else on earth has too.

the film was just filled with laughable dialogue. "I can see their faces....burning." ...I understand why Cage and son's sign language bit "together forever" was put in there, but it was just too cheesy- especially coming from a know-it-all smartass "I'm not a kid anymore!" son.

that all said, I thought that the subway scene, and the end of the world were truly the highlights of the film. they both looked amazing. if not for those, I would have left the theater fuming. As was, i am content to just tell everyone I know not to waste their money.

A lot of people didn't understand it at all. just like that one guy said up there it just went over the heads of most. everybody that was in there with me walked out at the end saying..."Thats so dumb...why would they make the kids like adam and eve". But they don't think outta the box...its not like your going to die if you think something else is true besides the bible. i loved it. it was one of the best movies i have seen in years!

I enjoyed up the point with the aliens, I just feel that whole alien thing is,sadly, played out. It could of used maybe one more crazy event that Nic Cage needed to stop. Really enjoyed the first half.

If you have ever study any Christian second comings besides Revelations you would know that Jesus will come way before the world ends. In the movie the "angel" people represent the Jesus figure coming to take the few "chosen" people who believe and here the gospel. The two kids represent a new Adam and Eve...Nick Cage = John of Patmos (The writer of Revelations). Over all the point of the film was to make you think about the fragile of Earth., becuase we are the "only" planet that had life.

haven't seen it yet but i somehow know this film is good

I just got back from seeing it. I... am speechless. It was, simply put, amazing. A very strong plot and they leave you guessing the entire time. I got over my hate of Nicolas Cage and saw this and thoroughly enjoyed it. The effects were great. The airplane scene, the subway scene, and the last 10 minute of the film were top notch. Maybe I am overreacting but I absolutely loved this movie and will be going back to the theater tomorrow to see it again.

by the second time you saw the strangers, you surely had to have figured out that they were either A. aliens or B. ghosts.

i don't see how you could have spent the entire time guessing. By the first encounter between them and Cage, where he does his Spotlight breath, you should have seen it coming.

is the sort of movie M. Night Shyamalan wishes he was still making. Marketed as a supernatural sci-fi thriller, Knowing is something else entirely, a gorgeous, spooky, stylized doomsday enigma that utterly eclipses its largely hokey brethren. Entrancing even when it is at its most outlandish, Knowing is a breathtaking metaphysical rumination that, in the final seconds, actually caused me to cry out loud in uninhibited glee.

Nicolas Cage is not an actor. He is a personality black hole, an empty void in the shape of a human body. I went confidently into Knowing solely because of my faith in director Alex Proyas, who, in 1998, made one of my favorite films, the ground-breaking sci-fi Dark City, which pioneered some of the ideas The Matrix later took credit for. Here those ideas find expression in the tug of war between fate and determinism, the belief that our lives and our universe are ruled either by order or by randomness and coincidence. Is there meaning to our existence, or, as Cage’s character suggests, does a certain bodily function “just happen”?

Proyas’ Knowing is simultaneously unnerving and mystifying. It is a work of arresting craftsmanship and nightmarish imagery, complete with scenes of disquieting tragedy. Dark and menacing, Knowing has one foot in horror and the other in science fiction, straddling a gulf running over with metaphysical language. How you walk away from Knowing depends largely on what you believe. Luckily, you don’t have to believe what the film believes or endorse the mythology it appropriates to be blown away by the audaciousness of its vision.

If I have been vague in my assessment of the film thus far, it is intentional. I could and want to say so much more, but to do so would surely ruin the film’s considerable impact.

http://BrandonFibbs.com/2009/03/19/knowing/

Nice. I enjoyed it as well. It's an ambitious film and we get so few original, ambitious films. It would seem that some viewers are more concerned with minutiae.

It was two different movies... The whole numbers aspect of the movie was cool, but I definitely thought the alien aspect of the movie and the sun was more interesting... It's one of those questions screenwriter's are suppose to ask themselves after they finish a draft... "is this the movie I set out to tell?" And for me, I feel like they didn't ask themselves that question...

By far though, the science sun/alien aspect was really quite interesting.... wish they would have told that story...

- R.

Something that I always wondered is when movies are rushed and the special effects are a little sloppily done for the theatrical release. Do they ever go back and fix that stuff up for the DVD release?

the idea for the film in the first place was to end with aliens being the so called "gods". open up your mind or go watch another national treasure movie.

Really? Three minutes in, which is all footage of the 1959 classroom, you knew it was going to end with alien/angels removing Nic Cage's son and a girl from Earth to start over on another planet? That's pretty amazing, dude. Kudos!

Yes, Shane and Sammy, if you are musically inclined at all, the elementary school band is playing a Suite from a piece called The Planets. They are playing the part of Jupiter. That was my first inclination and when I said my thoughts to the party I was with. Then once the movie was moved into the present. One of the first things we see in the frame with Nic Cage as he is teaching is the solar system diorama. Directors do things and place things in frame visible to the viewer on purpose.

The only thing that could have saved this movie was more hilarious/scientific dialogue... "She has ph.Double D's" or "My scientific mind tells me..." or "I may be a scientist but..." It was just generic and predictable... and ultimately makes no sense when you think to yourself "If these aliens have the foresight to see the end of the world 50 years before it happens, then why don't they mount a rescue mission for all the humans and white rabbits?" Apparently their spaceships' maximum occupancy is a a few aliens, 2 kids, and 2 bunnies. Oh, and also... the point of all those disasters? There is no point, ultimately the only one that matters is the final one. And the only significance the rocks had was the floating thing they did in the end when the ship flew off.

If you research Jewish rituals and customs there were two types of stones used when seeking an answer from God. Black meant yes and White meant no (or vice versa). They cast lots to see what the answer would be. I think the symbolism of the stones were that they were given to the chosen ones. The ones that heard the call. Also the point was not to save all humans, but start over and possibly do it better this time around.
The point of the disasters is 1) to prove that the numbers were right 2) to give the film some kicka** action sequences 3) to make you believe that Mr. Cage was going to end up saving the world like all the other disaster movies.

I think there was a lot of meaning in choosing to only save the 2 kids.

It made sense to me, even if i didn't like the film. But you got it right with those rocks......absolutely no point to them. Come to think of it, when Caleb sees the burning forest, the fire isn't even advancing....but the solar flare BLAZES across earth with terrifying speed. So many parts of this movie just didn't add up well.

the worst part had to be the numbers meaning next to nothing in the end. it made no difference at all, save to give Cage a little Jesus shove.

Why does everyone assume that they saved just 2 kids. I remember a lot of spaceships leaving earth and touching down on the new work. Sure, they might contain earth animals, but as much as I love the Adam and Eve analogy, I find it more likely that other humans were brought to the new planet.

i agree, more people or even animals were collected to start over again. But i thought it would have been better if they actually showed these other people at the end, along with caleb running around the field. Otherwise, it just looks like caleb and abby were the only ones left alive.

I'm kind of an annoying fucker and had no intention of ever taking Knowing seriously at all. I went into the theater yesterday ready to laugh, convinced the movie would be a solid addition to the amazing world of unintentional comedy. (In my defense, it DOES have Nic Cage and I had already seen that wondrous at the gas station where everyone's yelling. ) I was extremely disappointed that, other than the gas station scene, the moose on fire and the scene where Nicolas Cage is disoriented and holding a gun, there wasn't much to laugh at.

Later in the day, I was like Well maybe it's good? So I went out and saw it again and tried to appreciate it as a legit disaster thriller. I just couldn't hang. It's boring and doesn't have much energy or originality. I just felt like I was watching a mash up of The Happening, Signs, Backdraft (bc of all the fire, you know?) and The Last Mimzy. Oh and Indiana Jones 4. This movie totally pulls some Indiana Jones 4 shit at the end.

That's how I went in as well... I was wanting more Nicolas Cage hitting a bat against a tree yelling "HEY!" you know, him getting super pissed and intense... but alas, those moments were few. There was some pretty awesome dialogue though, and when he was driving with his gun on the wheel, sweet. Oh, and the super helpful gas station attendant that knew exactly what happened as if he were the one that filmed it... "Oh yeah, a couple aliens took your kid and that one ladies kid, she went that way in somebodies jeep, better hurry she's been in an accident and being loaded into an ambulance as we speak!"

I really enjoyed how he was just calling the panicked crown all idiots. Y2K round 2.