It took only a few moments into this film to realize that there was something a bit famliar with this movie, but I could not place it. A minute or two into it, and suddenly I knew that I had definitely seen this movie before, yet still, I could not quite put my finger on it. Nicolas Cage would be a part of it (would be the main star, in fact), but still, it was not fully making sense.
Finally, a few minutes into it, I more or less remembered the premise, and how it ended. Of course, I was not alone, so I let the movie play on, and essentially relived the movie.
It is a good movie, I think, but it is also certainly a strange one, as well. Not your ordinary, run of the mill movie. For that matter, although it is an end of the world, kind of apocalyptic scenario, it still is a bit different, a bit unique, in that it is a natural phenomenon (however unique the event is suposed to be) that causes the world as we know it to end, and not merely human stupidity (although there is plenty of that shown in the movie, particularly once it is known that the world is, indeed, about to end).
Nicolas Cage plays John Koestler, a professor who's son, Caleb (played by Chandler Canterbury) receives a rather strange letter from his school's time capsule, which has remained buried now for fifty years. It is not a drawing, or some letter or artifact from the time, but rather, a page of numbers that, seemingly, don't make sense.
The numbers on the page seem crazy and meaningless at first glance, until John notices particularly numbers that includes 91101 - for September 11th. He then sees the exact number of victims written right next to it, and of course, this gives him pause for thought. He wants to dismiss it as some kind of elaborate hoax, only he has seen the time capsule, and knows that nobody really could have pulled off a fast one like that. The note seems real enough, and all the numbers are definitely real enough. When he does some further research on the numbers, he finds more such incidents and numbers with direct correlation to accidents and tragedies, and they are accurate right down to the last number.
***Spoiler Alert***
He is skeptical, but then by chance, on a day when the numbers on this piece of paper tell him that there will be some kind of tragedy that will take 81 lives, he sees that the coordinates match where he is right at that moment! Just then, there is plane crash, and he is stunned by the carnage that follows. He is in shock, but seems almost resigned when he hears on the news later that evening that 81 people have died in the crash. Suddenly, he is a believer.
But he does not know what to do or where to go with all of this. He now has a formula, and has things worked out. But not everything is clear or makes sense. Yet, there is one date that he is sure makes sense, and that is in New York City. He is sure that this is a terrorist attack, and is determined to stop it himself. When he goes, he tries to warn the police, but they automatically suspect him. There is a chase, and he manages to make an exit via the subway, only to find that something has gone wrong down here. It is no terrorist attack, but just a tragedy of epic proportions. Once again, he is witness to a tragedy foreseen by the numbers on the paper. He seeks out some answers, and looks to find the little girl who wrote all those numbers out, only to find out that she died years before.
Diana Wayland (played capably by Rose Byrne), and her daughter Abby (played by Lara Robinson) enter the picture, because Diana is the daughter of the strange girl who authored the note of numbers. She is scared initially of John Koestler himself, but once John has mentioned specifics about a tragedy to come, and the exact number dead to follow, she becomes convinced, and they begin to work as a team.
John and Diana manage, finally, to figure it all out. At the end of the paper, after a specific date (October 19, 2009) seemingly, is the number 33. But the numbers look strange, and Diana knows that, sometimes, her mom used to write letters backwards. What "33" really stands for is EE, but now that seems to make even less sense. That is, until they visit her mom's home, and find out that EE actually means "Everyone Else".
It becomes clear that there will be some apocalyptic event on the 19th of October that will, evidently, kill off the remaining human population. John has been examining some strange solar activities recently, which coincides with an unusually warm, if not hot, pattern of weather just recently. Finally, this allows him to see the truth, that there will be a huge solar flare that will wipe out the Earth, and all of life on it, on the 19th.
The 19th of October in 2009 means something else to Diana, as well. it is the date that her own mother has told her, repeatedly, that she (Diana) will die. So, this really gets her attention.
John's son, Caleb, and Diana's daughter, Abby, in the meantime, have been having some strange experiences of their own. John keeps getting visited by people he calls "whisperers", as does, eventually, Abby. they have strange dreams, where they see the coming apocalypse. The whisperers urge them to come with them and save themselves.
John, in the meantime, wonders why he was able to decipher the code, when all of the signs seemed to suggest that he was meant to decode it, yet he is unable to intervene or prevent it. or even, really, do anything meaningful about it.
Diana kind of panics, and tries to find some caves, which she hopes will save her and the kids. But John is determined to find the last, missing numbers, knowing full well that it was the numbers that have been so accurate and told so much in the first place. He is right, of course. He finds the coordinates, and they are the address of Lucinda, the little girl who wrote the numbers note in the first place, and the mother of Diana. This is, apparently, the one safe haven. He does not know how or why this could possibly be safe, but he knows that he must be there.
Diana's panic is full-fledged, and she gets careless. She leaves the kids in the car at a gas station, and when the whisperers come into the car and start driving away, she just jumps in another car and peels after them, eventually getting in a car accident. At exactly midnight on the 19th, she died, just as her mother predicted.
John, in the meantime, pursues the kid. He knows where they are likely going - to Lucinda's cabin. There, he finds tons of these weird, mysterious black rocks that he has found so many different places, which symbolize upcoming deaths, evidently.
The kids are with the whisperers, who turn out to be, in fact, aliens from another planet. Far from threatening the kids, as he has initially feared, they are trying to save them, and set up life for humans (those who can hear the whispers of the "whisperers"), and this excludes John. John, realizing that the only hope is with his son, and others, on another planet, finally accepts, and lets go. He is torn apart internally, and falls asleep.
When he awakes, he does the only thing that he can, driving through the city (where there is all sorts of violence and pillaging), to his family home, where he meets with them. They give one giant, group hug, before the flames from the solar flare come in to destroy their lives.
But Abby and Caleb are safe, and human life continues on another planet.
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