“Knowing” (2009) Directed by Alex Proyas
Prophecy in the 21st century has become the center of many End-of-the-World theories and movies made for entertainment rather than to warn humanity. In 1959, a disturbed girl name Lucinda places a white sheet of paper filled with numbers on a time capsule, 50 years later, Caleb is handed an envelope with that mysterious paper. His father, John, a professor at MIT becomes intrigued by the what the numbers could possibly mean, and discovers that the numbers are a series of dates, casualties, and locations of mass disasters in the planet, including the death of his wife. The last date does not include casualties or a location and this missing information leads to Lucinda’s daughter, Diana, and granddaughter Abby. With their help, John figures out that the last date is not another disaster, but rather the apocalypse. A picture of Ezekiel receiving a book from a hand reaching from the sky with the sun shining over him clues in John that the end of the world will come as a result of an explosion in the Sun. This reference to Ezekiel was the first implication of the elements of the apocalypse we discussed in class and have read about in Kirsch’s book. In the mist of finding Lucinda’s message, Caleb is being followed by creepy pale guys resembling death, and so is Abby. The two children are the only one’s that can hear these characters speak.
On the day of the end of the World, as the Sun’s rays begin to get closer to Earth, the skies are filled with black and burning thundering skies, that seem to come straight out of the book of Revelation. John and Diana try to do everything to save the children and themselves, but in the end, the creepy men are the salvation of the children. Only the strange men can save humans, but only those who have heard the call, a euphemism for the chosen ones. At this point, all of the references to the book of Revelation and Genesis appear like water flowing from a broken damn. John embraces the idea that the only way for the children to survive is if they go with the strangers, who turn out to be aliens. As the aliens enter the vicinity of the ship, their human bodies disintegrate and it appears as if only their nervous system is left, which includes a pair of wings. The aliens become angels that take the children up into the universe to a world that much resembles an Eden, which included a big tree in the middle of this new paradise. The children are pure and therefore they heard the call that the adults could not. Genesis is brought alive through Adam and Eve in the characters of Caleb and Abby. These two children are the possibility of a new beginning in a new planet, or perhaps a New Jerusalem.
Had I never taken this class, I would have never been able to make such connections. The Adam and Eve connection with the Tree of Life would have been the only obvious thing I would have been able to piece together, but the other events connected to the apocalyptic theories, specially related to the book of revelation would not have been.
This was a fascinating analysis of a film I regret not having seen, and the connections to Revelation are clearly manifested in the images you’ve described. What fascinates me most though is this connection to Genesis you mentioned at the end of your post – that these children could represent a new Adam and Eve, as it were, in the new Eden, or, New Jerusalem. Also, though it may be a stretch, there’s a connection to be found between Revelation and the main character – John the revelator is the only one to newly interpret a cryptic scroll! 🙂
I think i must watch this film again now that i know about the Book of Revelations. Truly a good choice, especially considering the ending! I LOVED this movie!!!!!!!!!!
I really need to see this. I remember hearing some pretty scathing reviews when it came out that seemed to reference its near-literal (but Hollywoodized) version of Revelation, but I’d be interested in seeing it myself.
This is another new one to me—one of the benefits of this assignment! Your post combines a good description of the film and a clear analysis of it based on its references to both Genesis and Revelation. The purity of the children makes them a new Adam and Eve in a new paradise/New Jerusalem. Here the beginning, middle, and end of the Revelation story come into completion.
I have a few questions that your post brings up but doesn’t address, so I will pose them here as a way of pointing out where you might take this kind of analysis in the future.
How would you clarify for a reader the importance of the coded message (given the numerical strains of Revelation and earlier apocalyptic texts)?
What do you make of the space ship/aliens dimension of the film? Does this necessarily shift it away from religious meaning? Might it be an attempt to draw in both religious and secular audiences (and does it work)?
Is the line between entertainment and more serious message mutually exclusive in such films?
I completely forgot to mention the connection of John being the revelator of the film, how dumb of me. That connection is completely obvious and very intentional.
As far as the numeric coded embedded in the film, I did think that it was very peculiar that the warning for the end of time was manifested in numbers. The difference between the code in the movie and the numerous use of numbers in Revelation is that in the movie the numbers are concrete in meaning; each series of numbers represent something- a date, casualties, and global location. In Revelation, the references made by John as open to interpretation and as Kirsch writes in his book, there are a lot of theories as to what each number could mean.
The alien ships were a weird twist in the film for me. The strange men were meant to be angels, but since the children were saved in mind, body, and soul, a vehicle was needed to transport them to a new save world. In a religious context the souls of the people would be saved rather than their bodies, so it would be a different situation. If the ships were there to make the film more secular, it did not work, because at this point the identity of the strange guys is revealed, the wings are visible and it was pretty clear they were indeed angels.
I think that most apocalyptic films are made because they offer an opportunity to create huge explosions and massive disasters and put it on film. These types of films make excellent blockbusters and people enjoy going to them to see destruction in epic proportions. One of the foretold events is a subway accident in New York City. The scene is strictly reminiscent of images from 9/11, which I did not appreciate at all, and this sentiment was probably magnified by the fact that I watched the movie on September 11th. Using such scenes for movies that I think to be for entertainment bothers me. I am used to directors enjoying to destroy New York City, but this was one thing I found disturbing.