The Happening

The Happening, released in 2008, is a thriller film written by Mark Popp, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and starring Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, and John Leguizamo. The movie follows the lives of Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), a high school science teacher, and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), a child psychologist. The story unfolds with Elliot and Alma attending a conference at a Philadelphia high school. Their day takes a drastic turn as a plant-whispering assistant principal (Betty Buckley), Helen O'Reilly, issues a frantic warning about a mysterious airborne toxin that is causing individuals to spontaneously kill themselves. As the conference attendees attempt to flee the school and Philadelphia, the O'Reilly woman reveals the supposed true nature of the 'happening', explaining that plants are emitting some form of non-lethal toxin into the atmosphere which ultimately forces human neurological behavior to the point of committing mass-suicides. She furthes this unorthodox reasoning and theory to the audience that this 'gas' isn't poisonous to plants themselves, signifying that due to decades of excessive weed killers, and over-cultivation, human beings could potentially become the real poison. While panic and hysteria take over the nation, Elliot and Alma escape to the supposedly safer environment of the countryside. The couple's intent is initially to find a simple solution to return to a normal life, but they soon lose faith in the authorities as the chaos escalates across the continent. Fearing that all populated areas might become areas of high risk, Elliot and Alma join a handful of other unscathed individuals and their newfound group embarks on an unorthodox journey across rural America. Through this perilous adventure, Elliot struggles to convince others that the apparent airborne toxin emanating from 'stressed' plants won't possibly be solely responsible for the spreading chaos. As opposition increases within the group, the growing threat causes other group members to seek the comfort and survival of solitary or even self-destruction instead of opting for joining a cause. Upon their continued search for solutions, the band finds itself caught up in the struggle for self-diservation in order to increase the chances of general personal survival. They initially cross paths with a science expert, Julian (John Leguizamo), who's deeply persuaded by Elliot's logic-driven skepticism regarding the non-laissez-faire approach presented by Helen O'Reilly. This catalyst ignites an overwhelming crescendo within the otherwise hesitant couple, now driving them towards further truth-seeking. Despite the mounting violence across America and Asia, the courageous but often terrified individuals face obstacles they can hardly foresee becoming their reality, even more likely than a deadly plant-emitted toxin. Despite the odds, upon identifying that the chemical producing the potentially lethal gas found within gasps often triggered by crop-dusting, as per logic-driven deductive reasoning, they strongly reject the current chaos-causal explanation circulating the country. As further events play out, it is revealed that the airborne toxin or 'gas' is caused by the stressed reaction emanated from plants upon exposure to pesticides. With their new realization that they've faced a man-made plot all along, the group witnesses the destructive effects they encountered at the beginning, but from a different angle. They come to understand that human irrationalities such as unending need for economic growth led to excessive use of weed killers which ultimately led humans to become 'the real poison.' In the end, Elliot and Alma, along with the rest of their newly formed group, are shown to have survived the airborne 'toxin', which is not a product of nature but a man-made consequence of modern society's irrational behavior, indicating that the initial problem's solution may be far more complex than an isolated environmental cause, or something of the supernatural.