Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Knowing'

Written by Scott Edwards

One of the theories of the universe I have always believed in is that numbers are the key to its secrets. No matter what you look at or try to explain, there is always a number behind it. You count the stars, numbers, you read the reports, numbers, even check out a constellation, numbers. There is no getting away from it, yet there are some people that would like to have you believe that none of this means a thing and while they are entitled to their own beliefs, they cannot prove it otherwise.

John Koestler and his son Caleb are having a hard time getting through a very tough time. Losing his mother at such a young age, Caleb wants nothing more than to be with her again and while his father does not believe in the great beyond, Caleb wants to believe it and there is no stopping him. While John is trying to cope in his own way, he will not allow his son to get away with anything and makes sure that the boy’s focus is on the right things, especially school. While they both are trying to cope in their own way, they are in the fight together and need each other to survive.

At school, Caleb is excited to see what will happen when an old time capsule from 1959 is opened, since this was a big deal for the school to do fifty years ago. With the teacher behind the project being present to hand out all of the drawings that her class made so many years ago, Caleb gets something very strange. Instead of a drawing of what the future might look like, he gets a page filled with numbers that do make any sense to him, but being inquisitive, he wants to know what it really means. Taking the letter home to the dismay to his father, Caleb thinks that there could be a message hidden in the lines, but after he goes to bed, John mistakenly is able to find out the secrets behind the numbers. 

Setting his over flowing drink on the paper, John sees a series of numbers that looks familiar and when putting it on his board, he sees the 9/11 disaster being highlighted, complete with the number of people killed on that day. Transferring all of the numbers to his board, John decides to go to work and finds out that all of the series of numbers have some sort of meaning to them; in that they are a  specific date and body count of events that happened in history. Taking the numbers to his friend in the science department, John seems to be off of his rocker, but how could someone from fifty years ago know all of this information before it happened. With another event coming up in a couple days, John takes the day off and watches the news for any events that cause a loss of life, but nothing is reported. Being late for his carpool day for his son, John waits in traffic while the unthinkable happens as an airplane falls from the sky and barely misses him. Seeing the report on the news later that evening with the body count matching what the letter said, John knows that he is in possession of something special that just might be able to save lives, but he is only scratching the surface when it comes to the document's secrets.

This is an interesting premise when all is said and done and I like how the back story was told as it came and went quickly, so you knew that it would be revisited. John’s determination to find out the secrets of the letter and try to keep his son safe from the impending doom that is about to take place on the planet is something that you would hope any parent would do. With his search leading to making a new friend for himself and his son, it shows how lonely the two have become after being shut down by his wife’s death. The story really showed how powerful the father and son dynamic is and how neither of them are able to survive on their own, even when the world is about to end. 

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