Knowing Your Religious Overtones

So, I went saw a moving last night. What movie? Knowing was the title of it. If you don't want massive spoilers (probably already too late due to the title of this post), then I wouldn't suggest reading onward.

Anyway, the movie opens up in 1959 to the grand opening of an elementary school. A young girl had suggested a time capsule for the class and to open it fifty years later. In a rather disturbing turn of events, the child, Lucinda, begins jotting down numbers after the class had been told to draw pictures to be placed in envelopes that would in turn be placed in the time capsule. Well, before Lucinda can even finish this long string of numbers, the paper is taken from her and placed in the time capsule. She then disappears and is later found in a closet under the gym of the school with bloody fingers after having scratched another bunch of numbers into the door. Very disturbing start to the movie, but it does set it up for what will happen later.

Fast forward fifty years and you find the main protagonist, John, as played by Nicolas Cage. He is a widower after his wife died in a fire in a hotal she was staying at in Phoenix and the father of an only son. As it so happens, John's son also attends the school that Lucinda had, and on the fiftieth anniversary of the school being opened, they open the time capsule and hand out the sealed envelopes to all the children of Calib's (John's son) class. In a very "random" turn of events, Calib obtains the letter full of numbers as done up by Lucinda. I'll fast forward a bit more, but turns out these numbers all depict the dates, number of people, latitude and longitude of a number of disasters that killed numerous people.

Crazy. Little girl predicts tons of deaths at a young age. Certainly brings up a point as argued in the movie about two theories: determinism (which states that everything was already predetermined and happens for a reason) or randomism (in which shit just happens). Well, the movie strikes out to say everything is already predetermined. In fact, there's a point later in the movie where those religious overtones come into play. Lucinda had died, tragic, I know, but in her rickety, old trailer home out in butt-fuck no-where, there is a picture of God descending to earth out of the clouds with heralds coming before him next to spinning orbs. Well, this plays into the end of the movie.

Now, there are a bunch of weird guys, kinda pale, like albinos, following Calib about. Kinda makes the movie seem suspenseful, if not a tad weird and disturbing. Now, I'm just going to jump to the end (mind you I'm omitting enough parts as is). Those strange stalkers? Yeah, they're heralds. Actually they're aliens here to save people. The world is going to end, and a number of people, all children, are chosen to be saved. ET phoned home, and he's bringing friends. Nevermind that John is the son of a paster. At this point the religious overtones start really picking up. The children are whisked away off planet in these glowing objects that resemble spear heads. The children are deposited on a world that has grass that looks like seaweed, and standing in the middle of a plain is a big, sparkling tree. Wow!

Tree of life, chosen taken away at the end of the world. Sound much like the Bible to you? It does me. Aliens as angels, taking the chosen away to a safe place that resembles an idea of what heaven could be straight down to a rendition of the tree of life. Crazy! The movie on the overall was good, I just was not expecting the kind of religious overtones that were in the movie. I can't wait to see what kind of response this movie gets, especially from the heavily religious crowd. The complaints should be real, real good.

Your thoughts?