Knowing (2009)

Plot synopsis of Knowing (2009)

In 1959, Lucinda Embry stares off to the sky as she hears incoherent whispers. Ms. Taylor signals for class time and calls Lucinda, who remains unresponsive as the whispers intensify. During class, Ms. Taylor announces that they'll be burying a time capsule for the school's anniversary ceremony, so she tells the children to draw what they believe the future will look like.

When she gathers the papers and approaches  Lucinda, she mildly reprimands the girl for writing numbers instead of drawing. Ms. Taylor snatches the paper before Lucinda can finish. As the principal opens the ceremony the day after, Ms. Taylor spots Lucinda watching from afar. She looks ahead to witness the time capsule's being buried, then, when she glances back, Lucinda is nowhere in sight.

That night, a search party for Lucinda roams the school. Ms. Taylor locates Lucinda behind a door with her bleeding fingers. Ms. Taylor notices the numbers she scratched on the door as Lucinda pleads to silence the voices. Fifty years later, John Koestler invites his son,  Caleb, to look at Saturn through their telescope. When John prattles on about his usual answer that they're the only living beings in the universe, Caleb loses interest and retreats to watch  T.V.

Later, John orders Caleb to sleep for class tomorrow, but Caleb reminds him that it's the school's 50th-anniversary celebration. John explains to Caleb that when he said they're the only living beings, he was talking about space, not heaven, where he wants Caleb to believe his mother is. John tucks him to sleep after making the sign language for "together forever." In the morning, John gives a lecture at M.I.T.

students about the theory of randomness.  His colleague, Phil, walks in as John elaborates that every event is a coincidence, and human existence is a byproduct of chemical accidents. When he trails off in thought, his student asks him what he believes. John answers that sometimes things happen for the wrong reasons.

As John and Phil walk outside, Phil tries to arrange a date for John and his sister-in-law. Before deciding, John recalls Caleb's school anniversary and dashes away. John arrives at the school just in time to see Caleb with the choir. A now older Ms. Taylor is introduced to lead the time capsule's retrieval and later hands envelopes to the excited children. Caleb pushes through the crowd, and his hearing aid emits a terrible buzz as Ms. Taylor hands him Lucinda's envelope.

He walks away and lifts the number-filled paper curiously. When he lowers it, a man watches him from afar. Caleb gets distracted,  and when he glances back, the man is gone. That evening, John notices Lucinda's paper from  Caleb's bag and tells him to return it tomorrow since it belongs to the school. John places it on the countertop and directs Caleb to sleep. After checking up on Caleb, John heads to the living room and pours himself a drink.

The glass overflows as he's lost in thought, so he goes to the kitchen to clean up, accidentally placing the glass onto Lucinda's paper. As  John dries the stain, he curiously inspects the numbers then writes them on his whiteboard,  slashing through them to create a combination that'll make sense. He comes up with a familiar date with the remaining four digits as 2,996.

Intrigued, he searches online and finds an article on the Twin Tower tragedy with 2,996 casualties. Doubting the coincidence, John copies all the numbers and encircles combinations where the online search reveals tragedies and death tolls. When a specific sequence captures John's attention, he drops his glass in shock.

In the morning at M.I.T. Observatory, John eagerly explains to Phil that the numbers are dates and death tolls of global disasters of the last 50 years, except for three dates that will soon occur. One of them is tomorrow, with 81 casualties. John tells him the death of his wife, Allison, is included in the prediction. However, Phil remains doubtful and points out the uncircled numbers, to which John has no idea yet.

Phil honestly tells John that he's been irrational ever since Allison's death. Later, John visits Ms. Taylor, who narrates about the day when she found Lucinda at the gym, scratching out numbers on the door with her fingers. John asks Labout ucinda's whereabouts, but Ms. Taylor reveals that Lucinda died years ago. John returns home and calls the school for information.

He looks outside and spots Caleb standing beside an unknown car. John dashes out and finds that Caleb was given a smooth black stone. John reprimands him for entertaining strangers, then orders him to do his homework. John later searches for Lucinda's death but gets interrupted when his sister, Grace, startles him. 

Grace offers John to look after Caleb if he wants to mingle, but John dismisses her offer. Grace advises John to let go of his animosity towards their father, who's a pastor, because Allison would've wanted Caleb to have his grandfather. That night, John keeps vigil in front of the television as the clock strikes midnight. He scrolls through channels until the early morning,  but no reports match Lucinda's prediction.

John wakes up to Caleb's call late in the afternoon, reminding him it's his turn to carpool. John drives through the storm but gets stuck in the traffic. Just as he leaves a message on Phil's voicemail, he notices the G.P.S.  coordinates on his car. He realizes that the uncircled numbers are location coordinates, and today's tragedy will happen at his exact location.

John gets out and dashes to the traffic enforcers to ask about the situation. Just then, a plane crashes across the road at a horrifying speed. John dashes towards the wreckage and tries to help, but the responders arrive shortly,  leaving him to stare in shock at the tragedy. When John gets home, Grace hugs him in comfort as the T.V. broadcasts the recent tragedy, revealing that the presumed dead are  81, precisely as Lucinda prophesied.

A convinced Phil arrives at John's house a while later and finds John still in shock. John mutters dazedly about the two remaining tragedies and tells Phil that the numbers seem to warn him, but Phil advises him not to do anything rash. When Phil leaves, a man stares at John's home from afar. In his room, Caleb wakes, hearing whispering voices just as the Stranger reveals himself and points towards the windows. 

Caleb looks outside and sees the surroundings engulfed in a massive fire. Downstairs,  John wakes up to Caleb's terrified scream. As John lifts Caleb in comfort, he glances outside and sees the Stranger. John dashes out and demands that the figure leave them alone, but the Stranger is gone. The following morning, John drives with Caleb and tracks down Lucinda's daughter, Diana, and granddaughter, Abby.

John follows them to a museum, where he establishes a rapport with Diana and invites her for a drink. Outside, John reveals his real intention and tells her about Lucinda's predictions. Diana leaves and calls for  Abby, but John catches up to her and tells her that Lucinda's prediction of yesterday's tragedy came true. John adds that 170 people will die in New York City tomorrow, and 33 more in 3 days on  October 19.

However, Diana refuses to listen, so John persistently follows her to her car and pleads for her help because he fears for Caleb's safety. Still, Diana refuses and drives off. That night, John cleans his gun and then watches the news on the government's heightened alert for a possible attack on the city, while a group of mysterious men watches his house from outside.

John discovers that the coordinates for tomorrow's tragedy will happen at an intersection in New York  City, so he calls the F.B.I. to tip them off. John drops Caleb off with Grace the morning after,  then drives to New York City. When he arrives, he finds the area crowded, so he confronts a police officer for disregarding his tip from last night.

As the police officer calms him down, John notices the agents behind him, who have mistaken him for an insurgent. John flees towards the railway station as the authorities give chase. John scans the crowd for anyone suspicious and makes eye contact with a skittish man ahead, who instantly runs away. John chases him, and the authorities run after them until they get inside the train.

John encounters a mother and advises her to get out, but she refuses distrustfully. When the authorities arrive, John points them to the man he's chasing as the culprit, but it turns out he's just a shoplifter.  Just then, the train closes and departs. Ahead of them, the incoming train's conductor detects the defective rail and applies the emergency brakes, causing the train to veer and crash into the walls.

John spots the fast-approaching train and bellows for his co-passengers to move back. The train breaks through the tunnel and plows through the terrified commuters. John runs ahead and tackles the mother with her child to save them from impact as the train continues to plow through the crowd. Later, John emerges along with the traumatized survivors. John goes home to wash away the tragedy.

After picking up Caleb, they find Diana and Abby waiting for them on their patio. Diana reveals that the last of Lucinda's predictions, October 19, is the day her mother predicted she would die. On the way to Lucinda's house, Diana stares at Lucinda's paper and mumbles that it's pointless to know the future because they'll die eventually. John believed the future was unpredictable until he got hold of Lucinda's paper.

John could have saved Allison if he'd gotten his hands on it sooner, and now he must know the future for Caleb's sake. They stop in front of the abandoned house and exit the vehicle, leaving the sleeping children. Suddenly, Diana notices that what they assumed was 33 after October 19's prediction is 'E.E.' written backward. Inside the house, Diana tells John that Lucinda used to tell her she heard voices telling her horrible things.

Lucinda moved into the house to get ready, but Diana never understood what she meant. The two enter a room with news clippings on the wall of every tragedy  Lucinda predicted. As their eyes roam, John notices a copy of Ezekiel's chariot vision, which  Diana claims that Lucinda stared at for hours. Diana takes the paper, and they proceed to  Lucinda's room, where her body was found. Feeling uneasy, Diana calls John to leave.

As John turns, he steps on a stone similar to Caleb's. Outside in the car, Caleb wakes up to the whispers. He wakes Abby as strangers approach them. When John discovers more stones under the bed, he peeks underneath and notices writing. Outside, the men come closer, urging the children to join them. Just then, John lifts the bed and realizes that E.E. means "everyone else,"  as it's scratched on the bed.

In the car, Abby opens the door, so Caleb pushes the horn to alert their parents. John dashes towards Caleb, and when Caleb can't provide coherent answers, Abby declares that the whisper people invited them to come with them.  Just then, John hears snapping twigs and sees the Stranger's retreating figure. He gets his gun and gives chase. When they stop in a clearing, John points his gun at the Stranger's back and demands to know why he's stalking Caleb.

The Stranger turns and opens his mouth, releasing bright lights that blind John for a moment. When John's vision clears, the man is gone. Back at home, John concludes that Lucinda's last prediction date has no coordinates because it's the world's end, and everyone will die. Diana remains in denial, even though the predictions proved accurate so far. Later that night, the parents lay beside their children, fearful of the imminent tragedy.

Caleb confesses to John that he hears the whispering voices just like Abby, then asks if Lucinda heard them too. When John confirms, Caleb asks if he'll die, but  John promises he'll never allow it to happen. The following morning, Abby shows John that she colored the picture they found last night at Lucinda's, revealing the burning sun. John comes to a realization and orders Diana and the kids to come with him.

Arriving at M.I.T. Observatory, John tells Phil that his previous findings of the superflares were accurate, and Lucinda's predictions aren't solely to warn him but everyone else. The superflare will destroy the ozone layer, annihilating every living thing on the planet. As John laments that he can't stop the world's end, Diana gasps in shock and leaves. Outside, Diana desperately asks John if they have a survival chance if they hide underground.

When John affirms, she eagerly suggests hiding in a cave she used to go to. Arriving back home, John orders them to gather supplies, but the whispering voices halt Caleb's steps. John proceeds to the living room to open a box and pulls out a locket with their family picture. Outside, he reaches out to his estranged father, warning him of the impending doom. However, his father refuses to flee and tells John he accepts his death willingly, then asks John if he is too.

The call cuts off as his phone loses signal before John can argue. When John walks into Caleb's room, he sees Caleb writing numbers on paper in a trance. When John pulls the paper and pen from him, Caleb resorts to scratching the numbers with his fingers, so John forcefully grabs him to wake him up.  Seeing the scratches, John remembers Ms. Taylor's story of Lucinda scratching at the door. John drives them to the school, ignoring Diana's confusion.

John runs below the gym, detaches the door, and then drives back to their house. John tells Diana they won't be going to the cave as he scratches at the door's paint. He recounts that Lucinda was interrupted while writing,  so she scratched the coordinates on the door, which may give them a clue where to go.  When Diana sees that John is beyond reason, she drives off with the kids. Just then, John sees the scratched numbers and types them on the navigation app, revealing a location.

When he goes outside and realizes that Diana took off with the kids, he drives off in pursuit. Diana tries to call John during their ride, but the signal is down. Abby tells Diana it's pointless to hide from the whisper people. Diana cries in despair, almost going into a collision when Abby reveals that the beings mentally talk to her. Diana stops at the gasoline station and orders the kids to stay as she goes to the cashier.

Just then, the T.V. displays an emergency bulletin as the government reports the impending solar flare and advises the people to gather supplies and seek underground shelters. While Diana is distracted, Caleb sneaks out to call his dad through the payphone. Just then, Diana walks out and orders Caleb to get back to the car, then grabs the phone to talk to John. Diana discloses their exact location and apologizes for taking off.

John reveals that he'd found the coordinates that point to Lucinda's house, so that's where they should go. Diana stubbornly refuses and declares they'll go to the cave as planned. John angrily declares that Lucinda's house is their survival chance because the caves won't save them against the sun's radiation. Diana notices the smooth black stone atop the payphone as the whisper people drive off with her car and the children.

Diana gets into another car and chases after them, but a truck slams into her car. John arrives at the gasoline station and runs through the hysterical crowd. The cashier helpfully provides him with details, so John drives towards Diana's route and stops at the accident's location. He sees Diana in an ambulance as the rescuers revive her, but at exactly midnight, Diana flatlines.

John approaches her still form, holding her hand in anguish,  before discovering the black stone in her grip. John drives to Lucinda's house and stops alongside  Diana's abandoned car. When he stumbles upon the Stranger, he holds him at gunpoint, but an unharmed Caleb assures him he's okay. The whisper people, it turns out, are guarding them and have arrived to collect them after sending their message through.

Just then, a spacecraft hovers above and drops a spherical vessel as John kneels in disbelief. However, the Stranger reveals that only those who heard their call can go. Realizing their inevitable parting, John calmly pacifies Caleb, advising him to be strong and protect Abby. He hands Caleb the locket with their family picture, declaring that they'll always be together.

Caleb hugs John, then eventually walks toward the vessel while the whisper people reveal their true form. Inside the vessel, Caleb turns and signs that they'll be together forever. The vessel lifts, launching into the galaxy with several identical spacecraft. When the spacecraft vanishes, John drops in despair. He drives to his childhood home in the morning as the sky shows signs of a flare and the streets crowd in chaos.

John arrives and hugs his father in reconciliation. The family holds each other as the solar flare reaches the planet, decimating them into nothing. Somewhere in an Earth-like paradise, Caleb and Abby are dropped off and run through the fields towards a mysterious tree.

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