Father's House Blog

         Last week on my day off I went off for arelaxing afternoon to the cinema and watched Nick Cage’s latest film,intriguingly titled Knowing (2009). Knowing is a sci-fi thriller with strongspiritual even Biblical symbolism in it. It tells the story of a professor of astrophysics at MIT called John (acted by Nick Cage) who has lost his wife in atragic hotel fire and in the process lost his faith (note the parallels herewith an excellent movie from the same genre, Signs).

         John has a son called Caleb whom he tries to father in the best way that he can, but both feel the aching hole of the mother’s absence and the relationship is not what it could be. John tries to comfort his son with the thought that they will all some day meet again but Caleb points out, ‘you don’t believe in heaven’.

        All this however is about to change. A time capsule is dug up at a local school. Buried fifty years earlier with messages from the school children of the time,Caleb is handed a letter written by a former school girl containing only numbers. To cut a long story short, John begins to realize that all of the numbers are in fact dates, times and locations in latitude and longitude configuration. These predict the times and places of disasters that have happened in the intervening years (including the one involving his wife’s deathin a hotel fire) and those about to take place. Most alarming of all, they predict apocalyptic and traumatic events to do with the end of the world.

        All this throws John’s view of a random universe into question. His relationship with his own father is affected, even as his relationship with Caleb is. John’s father is a retired pastor and the two have become estranged, no doubt becauseof John’s anger at losing his wife. But as the plot unravels and events accelerate, the denouement brings a moving and very surprising resolution to the troubled relationships between John and his father, and between John and his son.

        Knowing is not a classic but it explores some big themes, not least prophecy (the Book of Ezekiel is quoted, Pentecost is mentioned, as are the spiritual gifts),faith, angels and suffering. But perhaps the most interesting theme of all concerns the father-son relationships. By the end of the movie the hearts of the fathers are beginning to turn towards their sons, and vice versa. As the world nears its end, powerful reconciliations begin to take place.

        Thescript writer for Knowing is Ryne Pearson. In an interview he speaks candidly about being a father himself, and how ‘fatherhood changes everything’. His original script for Knowing was, to use his own words, more‘relational’. It was really all about father-son relationships. However the director made the movie more ‘epic’ and, in the process, made it in his view a better story. That said, the most powerful moment in the film is in the climactic scene, where John embraces his father who says, ‘this is not the end’. And John replies, ‘I know’. Knowing concludes with John knowing what only aspiritual chain of events could have taught him... that the universe is not God-forsaken and that the Father’s hand can be traced in even the most tragic times of trial. All this is confessed as father and son are enfolded in each others’ arms.

        In the final analysis, Knowing is really a cinematic exploration of the prophecy in Malachi 4.5-6 – a prophecy which was partially fulfilled in Jesus’ first coming two thousand years ago, but will only be fulfilled in its entirety before his return at the end of the world. Perhaps there is no better commentary on this movie than Malachi’s own words,which seem more relevant today than at any other time in history:

        "See, I will send you the prophetElijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn thehearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children totheir fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse."

For more, see the remarkable interview with Ryne Pearson, the script writer for Knowing, at