Knowing

Knowing (2009)

Ending / spoiler

(15 votes)

The Whisper people are actually aliens who sent the numbers as a message. John (Nicolas Cage) figures out that the last number isn't 33, it's "EE" meaning "Everyone Else." As he realises that a huge solar flare is about to destroy the planet, he follows clues left by Diana (Rose Byrne)'s mother to the location of her mobile home, believing the aliens picked it as a place of safety. Meanwhile, the heat wave causes everyone to panic and try to get to shelter. Abby and Caleb are taken by the aliens in Diana's SUV, and Diana ends up in a car crash while trying to chase them. When John arrives, paramedics declare her dead. In her hand he finds one of the black stones. He drives out to the woods behind the mobile home where he finds Caleb and Abby and the aliens, and the aliens explain that they want to save two children to start humanity over. They refuse to let John come with them. John bids a tearful goodbye to his son and watches the alien ship beam them aboard and take off. He collapses to the ground crying. A short time later, he wakes up and drives into Boston, knowing the end is imminent. He makes it to his father's house, and embraces his mother, father and sister Grace before the flare hits and kills them all. We see Boston, then New York and the world (offscreen) incinerated in a matter of seconds, and the flames spread across the planet. Caleb and Abby are put on a new planet in a grassy field with a giant white tree.

matthew

Revealing mistake: When John is stuck in traffic and he walks up to the other man asking if anyone was hurt, the guy looks behind John's shoulder as if the plane is coming right behind him. Then John turns around and looks right behind him as well. But the camera then pans all the way to the side to see the plane coming in before it crashes - they were looking in the wrong place.

Destination

More mistakes in Knowing

Ted Myles: Stay with me. I know how this sounds, but I've mapped these numbers to the dates of every major global disaster from the last 50 years in perfect sequence. Earthquakes, fires, tsunamis... The next number on the chain predicts that tomorrow, somewhere on the planet,81 people are going to die, in some kind of tragedy.
Phil Bergman: Whoa. Just step back. Have another look at it! Systems that find meaning in numbers are a dime in dozen. Why? Because people see what they want to see.

More quotes from Knowing
More trivia for Knowing

Question: Why, near the end of the film, does Caleb start writing numbers which are supposed to be predictions of future events, when the world is going to end?

Answer: Great question. Probably writing predictions for the "new" world.

Paul Van Scott

So did someone decode the list? Just for s* and giggles :).

Answer: I think Caleb started writing the numbers so he could tell his father the coordinates of the location he needed to take the children in a last ditch effort, since the girl whom originally wrote the numbers didn't complete them. He un-"knowing"-ly made the same mistake and interrupted him again.

More questions & answers from Knowing

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.