Knowing

PG-13 for disaster sequences, disturbing images and brief strong language.

reviewed by Christopher Lyon

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The Story

John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) and his young son Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) are grief-stricken after the accidental death of their wife and mother in a hotel fire. As a professor of astrophysics at MIT, John has rejected the Christian beliefs of his pastor-father and a sister named Grace, giving up hope that there is any meaning in life beyond random chance.

His lack of faith is challenged when a 50-year-old piece of paper containing the dates of key disasters—and the resulting number of deaths in each—is unearthed with the opening of a time capsule at his son’s elementary school. When John witnesses the first of three remaining disasters listed on the paper, he realizes he must find the girl who wrote the numbers and try to save himself and his son from the coming catastrophes.

Content Issues

For a film with serious and catastrophic violence, including brutal and disturbing plane crash sequence, “Knowing” shows a lot of restraint within it’s PG-13 rating. Aside from several uses of the s-word, harsh language is minimal and there’s no sexual content.

Worldview Talking Points

The most interesting thing about “Knowing” is it’s apocalyptic worldview and the ideas and potential discussion it generates. For parents looking to talk about ends-time issues with their students, the film provides ample opportunity to break down exactly what your family believes God’s Word to teach about humanity, sin, judgement, and eternal life.

Warning: We’re about to give away the end of the film to arm parents with enough details to talk about these issues with their kids. Don’t keep reading if you don’t want to know!

Until the last act, “Knowing” feels like a somewhat standard spooky, sci-fi story in which the hero races to figure out the secret in time to save himself, his family, and possibly the world. Only it doesn’t turn out that way.

Instead, we eventually learn that the strange men whispering into the minds of John’s son Caleb and another little girl are either aliens or angels warning of a coming global disaster that will wipe out life on Earth. The beings are there to take select (elect?) children off of the planet in their Ezekiel’s-wheel-style spaceships and deliver them to a kind of “heaven” or “Eden” planet complete with a prominent tree-of-life looking tree in the middle of it.

John, who is not allowed to go, urges his son Caleb to “choose” to go with the aliens by himself, promising that they will still end up being together forever. It’s a heart-wrenching and emotionally manipulative scene for parents.

John, with his apparently Christian faith fully restored, drives to his parents’ house where he is reunited with them and his sister Grace just in time for a contented embrace and the CGI-realistic fiery destruction of all life on the planet.

Do the screenwriters and director Alex Proyas intend to provide a Christian-style end-times narrative? Are they just hoping to make their story resonate with people of many different faiths? Are they echoing the teaching of Scientology or Mormonism, as some have suggested? Or are they providing an alternate alien theology to replace traditional Judeo-Christian religious teachings?

Who knows? No matter what they’re up to, the film might provide a teachable moment for you to talk about your understanding of the Bible’s teaching about future judgement and redemption, God’s grace and forgiveness, heaven and hell, and eternal life in heaven.

A few of these questions might help:

• Did the ending of “Knowing” surprise you? Did it make the movie better or worse for you?
• In the film, John was convinced of the reality of “something out there” by witnessing prophesies coming true first hand. Do you think fulfilled prophesy would be enough to convince most people that God is real and active?
• How many prophesies about the Messiah can you think of (if any) that came true in the life and death of Jesus? [Parent: Maybe have some on hand to bring up.] Do you think that’s good evidence that Jesus is really the Son of God?
• Did you catch the verse sprayed in a graffiti on a car toward the very end of the film? It was from John 14:6: “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ “
• Do you think John’s parents and sister were Christians? Do you think they believed everyone would be “saved” after death—or only those who believe in Jesus?
• Do you think the beings that took the kids away were aliens or angels? Why?
• How were the events in the movie similar or different to what you believe God will do on Earth in the future? [Be prepared to share what you believe the Bible to teach.]
• John talked about two ways of believing about life in the universe. One was that everything exists by the randomness of evolutionary processes. Another is the all of life is pre-determined and following the plan or pattern of some kind of intelligent being. Which idea do you think the movie described?
• Do you think those two big ideas are the only two choices? Why or why not?
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• ow does our belief in a God who created and controls the universe fit with teaching about evolution and human free will? [Again, you’ll need to be prepared to share what you believe to be true from God’s Word.]
• Did you expect a Nicolas Cage sci-fi movie to open up all these questions about God, the universe, and the end of the world?

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