KNOWING...

FATE IS THE HUNTER

Fate Is the Hunter published in 1961 by aviator Ernest K. Gann is an autobiographical adventure novel describing the author's years working as a pilot at American Airlines when civilian air transportation was in its infancy, a lifetime of chapter-stories woven into a career of flight.

 The 1964 motion picture nominally based on Gann's bestselling novel concerns the crash of an airliner and the subsequent investigation. The plot, which bares no relation to the book, centers upon the pilot suspected of drinking and causing an airliner to crash; a stewardess is the sole survivor, and the pilot is suspect because no one believes his radio transmissions of a landing gear problem. Investigation by an airline executive is joined by the sole survivor in re-creating the actual flight, during which the stewardess brings a cup of coffee to the flight deck, which she now remembers one of the pilots spilling on the console. By recreating this, they witness the identical indication of a landing gear failure, thus proving the premise of an accident flight and the title, Fate Is the Hunter.

Reporting for the entertainment trade paper Variety, film critic Todd McCarthy wrote:

 

Although made mostly of spare parts, “Knowing” is a not-bad supernatural-tinged sci-fier that has more on its mind than the run-of-the-mill effects-driven extravaganza. Absorbing and able to be taken seriously most of the way...generally somber look at a small group of people tipped off about the imminence of doomsday...."

 

KNOWING (directed by Alex Proyas) stars Nicolas Cage was released in the United States on March 20, 2009 and featured a horrific collision between two subway trains.

At its central core, the narrative is the stuff of science-fiction. According to the plot, in 1959 students of an elementary school bury a time capsule to be opened in 2009; among the student drawings, the cylinder contains a series of seemingly random numbers. Fifty years on, the capsule is opened when an astrophysicist inadvertently discovers that the numbers written five decades ago predicts the dates and death tolls of every major disaster along with their locations during the past half-century.

By simply "knowing" of some impending doom ...could that be enough to stop it?

In the movie, there are three disasters (in the United States, of course) yet to occur. The first, a commercial airliner that crashes killing all aboard. The second, the collision between two trains on the New York City subway system, killing people aboard both trains.

The third is the end of the world.  

February 13, 2009 Continental Express Flight 3407 crash-landed in New York state as it

approached the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. All passengers were killed. Early reports by the National Transportation Safety Board attributed the airline disaster to "significant icing" of the airbus along the wings' leading edge.

  On Wednesday, June 24, 2009 the Washington Post reported that the Metro subway system in Washington D.C. failed to stop six cars from colliding resulting in the death of nine commuters. Transportation investigators' examination of the subway collision discovered "anomalies" in an essential control circuit of a track.

While there were underlying factors related to pilot error and fitness of the crew in the Buffalo, New York airbus catastrophe, the NTSB recommended in 2006 that Washington's Metro transit authority replace or retrofit all of its Series 1000 trains in order to bring them up to current safety standards. Metro transit responded that because it was constrained by tax-advantage leases, it intended to keep the 1000 Series until the end of 2014. (The NTSB has no regulatory powers so couldn't force implementation.)

Generally, it's agreed that our actions today will have an affect upon some infinite time yet to come, although many believe the future is predetermined. Nevertheless, by admitting that all future events are inevitable, tomorrow becomes fixed by our present attention to details (or lack thereof) and not merely resulting from some as yet undetermined cause and effect.

And what of that prophecy in KNOWING with respect to doomsday?

Edgar Casey, renowned 20th Century psychic, foretold December 21, 2012 would see the end of the world. What can we do now to influence such a future? Or is that future already pre-determined? Perhaps, if Casey is right, we'll find out in a couple years.

 Frederick Louis Richardson

© Copyright 2009 DreaMerchant® All Rights Reserved