Tag[]
- "In this episode we continue to chronicle the mysterious twists in Nicolas Cage's acting career. We discuss Knowing."
Official Show Notes[]
- "Combine the number-based thrills of The Number 23 with the Nicholas-Cage-sees-the-future thrills of Next and what do you get? We discuss Knowing. Meanwhile Dean reveals his competing film "Number Quest," Stuart reveals his knowledge of afterlife mythologies, and Elliott reveals the Egypt-born, Australian-raised Alex Proyas' surprisingly French accent."
Movie Summary[]
Premise[]
M.I.T. professor John Koestler links a mysterious list of numbers from a time capsule to past and future disasters and sets out to prevent the ultimate catastrophe.
Story[]
Fifty years after it was buried in a time capsule, a schoolgirl's cryptic document falls into the hands of Caleb Koestler, the son of professor John Koestler. John figures out that the encoded message accurately lists every major disaster from the past five decades, and predicts three future calamities–one a global cataclysm. When his warnings fall on deaf ears, John enlists the help of the prophetic author's daughter and granddaughter to try to avert the ultimate disaster.
- Knowing posits that the biggest risk from plane crashes isn't the crash, but is being set on fire by jet fuel afterwards. This is directly refuted by NTSB statistics (see chart).
Final Judgments[]
- Bad-Bad Movie (Stuart) @34:00
- Bad-Bad Movie (Elliott) @34:20
- Bad-Bad Movie (Dan) @35:20
Episode Highlights[]
Tangents[]
- Stuart starts by asking other movies that they've seen with Nic Cage in it, then begins to ask about other Nic Cage movies that they haven't seen, then asks about non-Nic Cage movies about similar subjects to movies he's seen, then concludes by asking if Sean Hayes was in Dracula: The Gay Blade.
- Stuart thinks Elliott said Rose Byrne was an "attainable Salma Hayek." It may be that Stuart said that himself. Also Dan's wife saw her on the subway once.
- If Stuart hadn't spent so much time studying for his religious studies degree, he maybe would have noticed all those experimenting ladies at his college, and disapproved.
- Elliott does a French-accented Alex Proyas and an Italian M. Night Shyamalan.
- Elliott facetiously suggests jumping in the air just as a crashing plane hits the ground. When he reveals it doesn't work, Stuart considers that he shouldn't listen to flight attendants that say that. Elliott just doesn't want Flophouse listeners, in their final moments before death (and whatever afterlife beliefs they do or don't have) to be thinking the podcast lied to them.
Movie Pitches[]
- Elliott and Stuart envision a new poster for this movie, which they rename "Number Quest" and put Steven Spielberg in charge. Elliott includes a secret society of psychics that has tried to avert disasters throughout history. Poster art by Drew Struzan.
- An M. Night Shyamalan-directed ending for Knowing involving a population sign reading: "New Earth–Population You!"
Quotes[]
- “Wait, what did we watch?”
—Stuart, immediately after being told what they just watched
Listener Mail[]
Mailbag Song[]
- @Time
Letters[]
- "Mail Title" from Listener Lastnamewithheld @Time
- "Mail Title" from Listener Lastnamewithheld @Time
- "Mail Title" from Listener Lastnamewithheld @Time
Recommendations[]
- Deep Rising (1998) by Stephen Sommers (Stuart) @Time
- Stuart recommends: Deep Rising, a movie that features Treat Williams riding some sort of endangered bird known as a "Ski-Doo" and Wes Studi (not to be confused with Wes Bently).
- Love and Death (1975) by Woody Allen (Elliott) @Time
- Elliott recommends: Love and Death. There's a long discussion of movies of Woody Allen, and, as in the intro, movies that sound like the movies of Woody Allen, and then movies that are about things that movies that sound like the movies of Woody Allen are about.
- Love Me Tonight (1932) by Rouben Mamoulian by Elliott @Time
- The Towering Inferno (1974) by John Guillermin (Dan) @Time
- Dan recommends: The Towering Inferno, despite it being an hour too long