Synopsis:
In 1959, a Lexington, Massachusetts elementary school celebrates its opening with a competition in which students draw what they believe will happen in the future. All the children create visual works except for Lucinda Embry. Guided by whispering voices, Lucinda fills her paper with a series of numbers. Before she can write the final numbers, the allotted time for the task expires, and the teacher collects the students' drawings. The following day, Lucinda engraves the remaining numbers into a closet door with her fingernails. The works are stored in a time capsule and opened 50 years later when the current class distributes the drawings among the students. Lucinda's paper is given to Caleb Koestler, the 9-year-old son of widowed MIT astrophysics professor John Koestler.
John discovers that Lucinda's numbers are dates, death tolls, and geographical coordinates of major disasters over the past 50 years, including the Oklahoma City bombing, September 11 attacks, and Hurricane Katrina, as well as three more yet to happen. In the following days, John witnesses two of the three final events in person: a plane crash and a New York City Subway derailment caused by a faulty siding. John becomes convinced that his family has a significant role in these incidents: his wife died in one of the earlier events, while Caleb was the one to receive Lucinda's message. Meanwhile, Caleb begins hearing the same whispering voices as Lucinda.
John locates Lucinda's daughter Diana and her granddaughter Abby to help prevent the last event. Diana becomes suspicious but eventally goes with John to Lucinda's abandoned mobile home, where they find a copy of Matthäus Merian's engraving of Ezekiel's "chariot vision", in which a great sun is represented. They also discover that the final two digits of Lucinda's message are not numbers but two reversed letter E's, matching the message left by Lucinda under her bed: "Everyone Else," implying an extinction-level event. During the search, Caleb and Abby, who were left asleep in the car, have an encounter with the beings who are the source of the whispers. Diana tells John that her mother had always told her the date she would die. He also visits Lucinda's teacher, who despite showing signs of Alzheimer's disease, tells him of the scratching on the door left by Lucinda.
The next day, Abby colors in the sun on the engraving, which gives John a revelation. He rushes to the MIT observatory and learns that a massive solar flare with the potential to destroy all life will strike the Earth on the last date indicated by the message. As Diana and Abby prepare to take refuge in nearby caves, John goes to the school and finds the door on which Lucinda engraved the final numbers. He identifies them as coordinates of a place where he believes they may find salvation from the solar flare. The skeptical and hysterical Diana loads Caleb and Abby into her car and flees for the caves.
At a gas station, the whispering beings steal Diana's car with Caleb and Abby inside. Diana pursues them but is killed in a crash. The beings take Caleb and Abby to Lucinda's mobile home, where John encounters them shortly thereafter. The beings, acting as extraterrestrial angels, are leading children to safety on interstellar arks. John is told he cannot go with them because he never heard the whispering, so he convinces Caleb to leave with Abby. The two are taken away by the being, and the ark, along with many others, leaves Earth.
The following morning, John decides to be with his family when the flare strikes and drives to his parents' house, where he reconciles with his estranged father. The solar flare then strikes, vaporizing New York City, and then destroying the surface of Earth. Meanwhile, the ark deposits Caleb and Abby on another world resembling an earthly paradise and departs, as do other arks. The two run through a field towards a large white mysterious tree resembling the tree of life.
Cast:
- Nicolas Cage as John Koestler
- Rose Byrne as Diana
- Chandler Canterbury as Caleb Koestler
- Joshua Long as young Caleb
- Ben Mendelsohn as Phil Beckman
- Lara Robinson as Abby / Lucinda
- D.G. Maloney as The Stranger
- Nadia Townsend as Grace
- Alan Hopgood as Reverend Koestler
- Adrienne Pickering as Allison Koestler
- Danielle Carter as Miss Taylor (1959)
- Alethea McGrath as Miss Taylor (2009)
- Tamara Donnellan as Lucinda's mother
- Travis Waite as Lucinda's father
- Liam Hemsworth as Spencer
- Gareth Yuen as Donald
- Ra Chapman as Jessica
- Benita Collings as John's Mother
- Steve Mouzakis as Head paramedic
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