The Happening
Short description
The Happening is a science fiction thriller about a sudden wave of inexplicable deaths across the northeastern United States. People in cities and towns abruptly lose their sense of self-preservation and take their own lives, and no one can say what causes it, whether an airborne virus, a toxic weapon, or something else entirely. Elliot Moore, a Philadelphia science teacher, flees the city with his wife Alma, his colleague Julian, and Julian's young daughter Jess, hoping to find safety in the Pennsylvania countryside. They soon learn that distance offers no protection. The film was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the sixth of the fifteen features he has directed in chronological order, following Lady in the Water and preceding The Last Airbender. Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel play the couple at the centre of the story, with John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez, Betty Buckley and Spencer Breslin among the credited cast of seventy-one.
Made for a budget of sixty million dollars, the film took in about a hundred and sixty-three million dollars worldwide, a return that outweighs its middling reception. On IMDb it holds a rating of five out of ten from roughly two hundred and twenty-six thousand votes, and on TMDB it stands at 5.4 out of ten from a much smaller body of around four thousand votes. A critics' score of 4.2 out of ten, drawn from a hundred and eighty-five reviews, places professional assessment below even the modest audience figures. The production involved around a hundred credited crew members across companies including Twentieth Century Fox and Spyglass Entertainment, and it runs ninety minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was originally planned to be titled “The Green Effect”.
- According to the director, 85% of the film's action takes place outdoors.
- Filming lasted 44 days and began on August 6, 2007. This is exactly 9 years since the start of production on 'The Sixth Sense' (1999).
- This is the first film by Shyamalan to receive an R rating, meaning children under 17 are only allowed into the cinema when accompanied by an adult. All of his previous films have been rated PG-13.
- The film's scenes were shot in the exact chronological order as they appeared in the script.
- The lead role was written specifically for Mark Wahlberg.
- This is the first film in which we do not see M. Night Shyamalan on screen, but he is invisibly present throughout the film: he is Joey, Alma's colleague who constantly called her.
- The screening of the film was banned in the town of Bridgend, Wales, following a series of suicides in 2007–2008.
- At the end of the film, Jess wears a backpack with the inscription “Avatar” from the cartoon “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (2005-2008), which Shyamalan adapted for the screen after “The Happening” (2008).
- The premise of the film, which posits that plants can communicate with each other and collectively defend themselves against enemies, has some basis in reality. According to an article on the "Elements of Science" website: "A plant grazed by herbivores releases ethylene into the air, which serves as an alarm signal for neighboring plants – they begin to actively produce toxic substances to protect against being eaten."
- At the 13th minute of the film, a girl in a blue blouse and with a light bag on her shoulder enters the bus. When Elliot and Julian are talking in the next scene, the same girl can be seen again, walking towards the bus.
- At the 14th minute of the film, when Alma hears the vibration of an incoming call, she has a black bag hanging on her shoulder, from which she takes her phone. When the woman hears her phone vibrate again at the 16th minute, she takes the phone out of a yellow bag.
- At the 15th minute of the film, a reporter appears on a live news broadcast, supposedly located in New York City near the main Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters. In reality, the CDC's administrative center is located in Atlanta, and the UN headquarters is shown behind the journalist.
- At the 19th minute of the film, the characters board a train, and a diesel locomotive is at the front of the four-car train. When the train is moving through the forest in one of the following scenes, another car is added to the train, and it is now pulled by an electric locomotive. When the train stops, a diesel locomotive is pulling the train again.
- At the 37th minute of the film, as Elliot and the kennel owner get into the car, corpses lying in the distance on the road move.
- At the 61st minute, the homeowner opens the door and shoots Josh with a shotgun loaded with buckshot. In the following scene, as he prepares to shoot Jared, a small-caliber air rifle appears between the shutters instead of the shotgun.
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