ArkaEvren
Knowing

FILM · 2009 · USA

Knowing

27 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

  • Knowing — production image

27 Interesting Facts About Knowing

Interesting Facts (21)

  1. #001

    The school in the film is William Dawes Elementary School. William Dawes, like Paul Revere, was one of the riders who warned the minutemen of the approaching British troops, just as a child at his namesake school tries to warn people about the future.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  2. #002

    (At about 1 hour 50 minutes) The unnatural plants in the grain fields resemble a recently discovered astrophysical phenomenon called solar penumbral filaments.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  3. #003

    (At about 1 hour 21 minutes) After John Koestler realizes the disaster will come in the form of a coronal mass ejection (CME), he states that its effects will be around 100 microtesla. Geomagnetic storms are measured by magnetic disturbances at Earth's equator and expressed in nanotesla. A strong storm would be 100 to 200 nanotesla. Therefore an event of 100 microtesla would be 1000 times stronger than that and would certainly cause disruptions in electronic devices as depicted in the film.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  4. #004

    (At about the 39th minute) The entire plane crash, from the moment we see the plane to the end of the scene, is one continuous shot.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  5. #005

    A similar derailment on New York City Subway line 4 as depicted in the film also happened in real life. On August 28, 1991, the 4 Express train derailed at a railway switch and fell in front of the 14th Street–Union Square station. Due to the severity of the accident, 5 of the 10 cars were destroyed and 1 car was split in two. Five people died and 161 were injured. The accident was caused by the motorman, who was drunk on duty and was speeding as the train passed over the switch. The motorman was sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison for manslaughter and assault. It first aired in April 2002.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  6. #006

    John Koestler never once sleeps in his own bed throughout the film.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  7. #007

    It took Alex Proyas three months to shoot the film, roughly half as long as the shoot of I, Robot (2004). He relies on the use of digital technology to shoot so quickly and efficiently.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  8. #008

    (At about 49 minutes) John reads a newspaper article about Lucinda Embry's death in 1988, written by "Carl Braga, Staff Writer." Carl Braga was the film's on-screen graphic designer.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  9. #009

    WILHELM SCREAM: Heard during the subway crash.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  10. #010

    Shortly before the final destruction, we see people rioting and panicking in the streets. However, not a single child is visible. And the film seems to try to show that there are many different spaceships leaving the world, so it is possible that all the children were taken to the other world.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  11. #011

    Rose Byrne appears as a photo of Lucinda's deceased mother in Lucinda's obituary.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  12. #012

    Connections between Knowing and the film 2012: both begin in 2009, both deal with apocalyptic scenarios, both contain biblical references (Ezekiel / Genesis) and names (Caleb / Noah), both involve numerical prophecies (Mayan / time capsule), both feature a series of tragic events leading to ultimate destruction, in both films the survivors escape on "ships," and in both films the sun is the cause of the greatest catastrophic event.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  13. #013

    After John first discovers Lucinda's sheet of numbers, he watches television news reports about disasters. A fictional news item describes an oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico. One year after the film's release, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf exploded and burned.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  14. #014

    At the beginning of the film, in the first scene of the 1959 class, viewers can immediately see a numerical conversation chart to the right of the blackboard. It is an interesting cinematic "visual hint" at how numerical conversions/calculations will soon play a large part in the rest of the film.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  15. #015

    Lucinda Embry, the young girl who creates the list of numbers, is an anagram of "Badly Numeric."

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  16. #016

    The GPS coordinates that direct John to the plane crash site (42.41 North, 71.20 West) correspond to the Belmont Country Club in Belmont, Massachusetts.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  17. #017

    Two years earlier, Nicolas Cage had played a magician who could see future events in the film Next (2007). In this film, his character deciphers numbers that predict future events.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  18. #018

    Richard Kelly was initially set to write and direct the project.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  19. #019

    CHARACTER ERROR at around the 95th minute, as emergency responders apply the defibrillator incorrectly to revive Diana. Defibrillators must be applied directly to the patient's skin without intervening clothing. These EMTs apply the device over her shirt, presumably to appease censors and the actress's modesty.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  20. #020

    At around 100 minutes, Cage's character drives on the left side of the bridge, reminding viewers that this film was shot in Australia.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  21. #021

    The credits on the first promotional material read: "Story by Ryne Douglas Pearson. Adaptation by Alex Proyas. Screenplay by Ryne Douglas Pearson and Juliet Snowden & Stiles White and Stuart Hazeldine."

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport

Easter Eggs & References (2)

  1. #022

    In the solar flare scene, the lake in Central Park evaporates in under a second. It is an easily missed detail in an extremely intense destruction scene.

    EASTER EGGS & REFERENCES · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  2. #023

    At the beginning of the film, Caleb is introduced while putting his brown pet rabbit into a hutch in the backyard. Oddly, this pet rabbit is never seen or referred to again in the film, and Caleb and Abby ultimately rescue white rabbits.

    EASTER EGGS & REFERENCES · SOURCED

    ShareReport

Deeper Meaning (4)

  1. #024

    At the beginning of the film, while John Koestler is teaching his class at MIT, James C. Maxwell's electromagnetic equations are shown on the blackboard. Earth's magnetosphere is what protects us from harmful solar radiation called the "solar wind" by channeling these particles toward Earth's magnetic poles, causing the phenomenon known as the Aurora or Northern/Southern Lights. When the same solar wind is extreme, it cannot be fully mitigated by Earth's magnetic field and can cause electrical and radio communication problems. Theoretically, a very powerful solar emission like the one that destroys Earth in the film is a very extreme example of the solar wind called a Coronal Mass Ejection. Thus the equations on the blackboard are a subtle and clever hint at what will happen later in the film. In addition, the equations are given unusually in spherical coordinates along with primitive drawings of a circle (possibly representing the Sun) and Earth and its magnetosphere, all of which indicates that this is a deliberate and clever hint.

    DEEPER MEANING · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  2. #025

    At the end of the film, after being left by the entities, Caleb and Abby are seen running through a golden field toward a glowing tree. The two children may represent Adam and Eve with the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. The entities, when they reveal their true form, also resemble how angels are perceived.

    DEEPER MEANING · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  3. #026

    The text on the time capsule plaque reads: "We, the first class of William Dawes Elementary School, in the year 1959 AD, commit our visions of the future to the class of 2009 AD, our successors, as a symbol of hope and friendship."

    DEEPER MEANING · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  4. #027

    The four beings who ascend with Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) and Abby (Lara Robinson) may symbolize the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

    DEEPER MEANING · SOURCED

    ShareReport

Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work