Knowing (2009)

Nicolas Cage stars in this thriller from director Alex Proyas (I, Robot) that serves up a heady mix of allegory and melodrama in a modern twist on the paranoia of vintage sci-fi movies. When his son gets a document from a time capsule buried at his school 50 years earlier, widowed scientist John Koestler (Cage) discovers the listed numbers predicted every major global disaster - with more prophesied to come. Aided by the daughter (Rose Byrne) of the list's author, Koestler sets about trying to warn of an impending global disaster. But will anyone listen to him? Proyas's skill at maintaining Hitchcock levels of suspense (helped by Marco Beltrami's Bernard Herrmann-inspired score) while keeping ridicule at bay is undeniable. Po-faced and absurdly portentous it may be, yet the propulsive narrative blends politically anxious ideas and new-age spirituality together with superb special effects in a gleefully eccentric catastrophe thriller.