Knowing (2009)

The American science fiction thriller film, Knowing (2009), was directed and co-produced by Alex Proyas and starred Nicolas Cage. In 1959, a Lexington, Massachusetts elementary school held a competition for students to envision the future through drawings. One student, Lucinda Embry, ignored the task and instead listened to whispering voices that guided her to write out a series of numbers. The teacher collected all the drawings before Lucinda could finish writing the final numbers. The next day, she etched the remaining numbers into a closet door with her fingernails. These works were then placed in a time capsule and opened 50 years later. A current student named Caleb Koestler received Lucinda’s drawing as part of the distribution process. Caleb is the 9-year-old son of John Koestler, a widowed astrophysics professor at MIT.

While exploring Lucinda’s information, John uncovers a startling pattern. The numbers she provided represent dates, death tolls, and geographical coordinates of major disasters over the past five decades. These include the Oklahoma City bombing, September 11 attacks, and Hurricane Katrina, as well as three yet-to-occur events. In the days that follow, John finds himself witnessing two of those final events firsthand: a plane crash and a New York City Subway derailment caused by faulty siding. As a result, he becomes convinced that his family plays a crucial role in these occurrences – his late wife was a victim of one of the earlier incidents and it was Caleb who received Lucinda’s message. Meanwhile, Caleb starts to hear the same faint voices that plagued Lucinda before her passing.