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Plot Details Revealed on Alex Proyas' Knowing

by Kevin Powers
June 3, 2008
Source: Quiet Earth

I consider myself a sci-fi die hard and naturally have great respect for Alex Proyas given his work on 1998's Dark City as both writer and director. So when I saw his name attached to an upcoming sci-fi thriller called Knowing, I immediately wanted to snoop out more details. Alas, what's behind this tantalizing door isn't as exciting as I hoped, despite further details on the plot being released today via Quiet Earth. Both Nicolas Cage and Rose Byrne were announced as the two leads previously. Take a look at the lengthy new synopsis below and decide for yourself whether this sounds interesting or not.

The biggest let down is that Nic Cage is set to play the lead. That by itself isn't a deal breaker, to be sure. Cage has had a few solid projects in his career, obviously, including one of my faves 8MM. But when you pair his casting with the film's plot, you get a distinct taste of the familiar. We've included the official plot details below, but essentially Knowing surrounds a father (Cage) that discovers a time capsule found at this son's elementary school which contains predictions from half-a-century past that accurately date both historical and future disasters. If you've seen Next, you probably can imagine pretty accurately the wide-eyed worrying that Cage might do here, as he tries to prevent some sort of inevitable destruction.

In 1958, as part of the dedication ceremony for a new elementary school, a group of students is asked to draw pictures to be stored in a time capsule. But one of the students, a mysterious girl who seems to hear whispered voices, fills her sheet of paper with rows of apparently random numbers instead.

Fast forward 50 years to the present: A new generation of students examines the contents of the time capsule and the girl's cryptic message ends up in the hands of young Caleb Myles. But it is Caleb's father, professor Ted Myles (Nicolas Cage), who makes the startling discovery that the encoded message predicts with pinpoint accuracy the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major disaster of the past 50 years. As Ted further unravels the document's secrets, he realizes it foretells three additional events—the last of which hints at destruction on a global scale and seems to somehow involve Ted and his son.

When Ted's attempts to alert the authorities fall on deaf ears, he takes it upon himself to try to prevent more destruction from taking place.

This gripping supernatural thriller charts one man's faltering steps towards belief in the ultimate order of the universe even as he finds himself surrounded by mounting chaos. With the reluctant help of Diana Whelan (Rose Byrne) and Abby, the daughter and granddaughter of the now-deceased author of the cryptic prophecies, Ted's increasingly desperate efforts take him on a heart-pounding race against time until he finds himself facing the ultimate disaster—and the ultimate sacrifice.

The premise for Knowing is definitely solid, but Cage's involvement gives it a completely different feel. I don't imagine we'll be welcomed with an especially dark or tragic film or anything reminiscent of Proyas' work in the late '90s. However, I'd certainly go see it if it promised a conclusion like another on Cage's resume, The Wicker Man. That might not be out of the question given Knowing's plot.

Is Nic Cage a problem for you in a promising project like this?

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