The Happening (2008 film)

Not to be confused with The Happening (1967 film).

The Happening
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	M. Night Shyamalan
Produced by	Barry Mendel Sam Mercer M. Night Shyamalan
Written by	M. Night Shyamalan
Narrated by	Andrew Rhodes
Starring	Mark Wahlberg Zooey Deschanel John Leguizamo Betty Buckley
Music by	James Newton Howard
Cinematography	Tak Fujimoto
Editing by	Conrad Buff
Studio	Spyglass Entertainment UTV Motion Pictures Blinding Edge Pictures
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	June 11, 2008 (2008-06-11) (France) June 13, 2008 (2008-06-13) (United States)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Box office	$163,403,799

The Happening is a 2008 science fiction thriller film written, co-produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan that follows a man, his wife, his best friend, and his friend's daughter as they try to escape from an inexplicable natural disaster. The plot revolves around a cryptic neurotoxin that causes anyone exposed to it to commit suicide. The protagonist, a science teacher named Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), attempts to escape from the mystery substance with his friends as hysteria grips the East Coast of the United States. It was advertised as being M. Night Shyamalan's first R-rated (or 15 Certificate in the United Kingdom) film and received mostly negative reviews from film critics.

Plot

In Central Park, New York City people begin committing mass suicide. After showing disorientation, they kill themselves in a variety of convenient ways. Initially believed to be a bioterrorist attack using an airborne neurotoxin, the behavior quickly spreads across the northeastern United States, moving from large population centers to smaller areas.

Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), a high school science teacher in Philadelphia, hears about the attacks and decides to go to Harrisburg by train with his wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel). They are accompanied by his friend Julian (John Leguizamo) and Julian's eight-year-old daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). Julian's wife is stuck in Philadelphia but is expected to meet them in Harrisburg. The train loses all radio contact en route and stops at a small town to let off the passengers.

They receive word that Philadelphia has been attacked and Julian's wife was not able to get on the train to Harrisburg. She hitched a ride to Princeton, New Jersey instead. Julian decides to go look for her by hitching a ride, leaving his daughter with the Moores. Upon arrival to Princeton, they discover that the town has already been hit by the toxin. They succumb and the driver rams the car into a tree. Julian survives and exits the vehicle. He immediately sits on the ground and begins to cut himself with the car's broken glass.

Elliot, Alma and Jess manage to hitch a ride with a nursery owner (Frank Collison) and his wife (Victoria Clark). The nurseryman believes that plants are responsible, as he mentions that they can release chemicals to defend themselves from threats. After driving for some time, they find themselves at a desolate crossroads surrounded by infected towns. They are joined by groups from every direction. One lady hears from her daughter in Princeton, who confirms everyone is dead, and proceeds to commit suicide herself. A U.S. Army private suggests that they move on foot away from major urban areas to avoid being infected.

The survivors split into two groups, with Elliot, Alma, and Jess in the smaller group. When the larger group is affected by the toxin, Elliot realizes that the nurseryman was right, and figures out the plants are targeting only large groups of people. Elliot splits their group into smaller pockets, isolating himself, Alma, and Jess, as well as two teenage boys, Josh (Spencer Breslin) and Jared (Robert Bailey, Jr.).

The group comes to an abandoned home and searches for food, only to discover that it is a builder's model home. They leave and watch two other groups making their way onto the property, triggering a neurotoxin attack. Everyone freezes in place, then a man turns on a lawn mower and lies down in its path. The next house they come upon is sealed up, its residents trying to protect themselves from the toxin. Elliot's attempts to reason with them fall on deaf ears, and the teens are killed during their break-in attempts.

Elliot, Alma, and Jess continue to walk cross-country. They stumble upon the isolated house of Mrs. Jones (Betty Buckley), an elderly eccentric who has no outside contacts and is unaware of the current disaster. Although she permits the trio to stay the night, she is a paranoid host who accuses them of trying to rob or murder her.

The following morning while standing in her garden, Mrs. Jones becomes affected. Realizing that the plants are now targeting individuals, Elliot locks himself in the basement to protect himself. He is separated from Alma and Jess, who are playing in the neighboring spring house. They are able to communicate, however, through an old talking tube, with which Elliot warns them of the threat and has them shut the windows and doors. Conversing with his wife, Elliot expresses his love for her before deciding that if he is to die he would prefer to spend his remaining time with her. The three leave the safety of their buildings and embrace in the yard, surprised to find themselves unaffected by the neurotoxin. The outbreak seems to have abated as quickly as it began.

Three months later, Elliot and Alma have adjusted to their new life with Jess as their adopted daughter. On television an expert, comparing the event to a red tide, warns that the epidemic may have only been a warning, like "the first spot of a rash". He states that humans have become a threat to the planet and that is why the plants have responded aggressively by releasing the toxins. The television host says that the public would probably believe his theory if another location was impacted by this happening, and not only the northeast. Meanwhile, Elliot takes Jess to the bus stop for her first day of school and Alma stays at home timing a pregnancy test, which turns out positive. When he returns, Alma embraces him with the news in front of their apartment.

In the Tuileries Gardens at the Louvre Palace in Paris, France, a scream is heard and everyone freezes in place as the wind rustles through the trees.

Cast

• Mark Wahlberg as Elliot Moore, a high school science teacher from the city of Philadelphia, who is married to Alma.
• Zooey Deschanel as Alma Moore, Elliot's wife
• John Leguizamo as Julian, a high school math teacher and Elliot's best friend
• Ashlyn Sanchez as Jess, Julian's daughter
• Betty Buckley as Mrs. Jones, a woman who lives alone in an isolated house in rural Pennsylvania.
• Spencer Breslin as Josh, a teenage boy who, with his friend Jared, joins up with Elliot, Alma, and Jess.
• Robert Bailey, Jr. as Jared, Josh's friend.
• Frank Collison as The Nursery Owner, who believed that plants were causing the events.
• Victoria Clark as Nursery Owner's Wife, the wife of the nursery owner.
• Jeremy Strong as Private Auster, a Private First Class in the United States Army Military Police Corps who fled from his base after finding all of the soldiers there have killed themselves using barbed wire.
• Brian O'Halloran as Jeep Driver
• Alan Ruck as Principal
• M. Night Shyamalan as Joey, a man whom Alma secretly meets¹
• Reggie Kania as Reggie, Jared's friend
• Yonathan Parra as Zito, Josh's friend
• Don Castro as Philadelphia Police Officer, a traffic cop in Rittenhouse Square Park

¹ Shyamalan's character isn't seen, but his voice is briefly heard on Alma's mobile phone.

Soundtrack

Main article: The Happening (2008 soundtrack)

The Happening: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by James Newton Howard
Released	June 3, 2008
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	50:07
Label	Varèse Sarabande
Professional reviews
The reviews parameter has been deprecated. Please move reviews into the “Reception” section of the article. See Moving reviews into article space. SoundtrackNet Link

The Happening: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was composed by James Newton Howard. It was released on June 3, 2008.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Main Titles"	2:18
2.	"Evacuating Philadelphia"	2:21
3.	"Vice Principal"	1:56
4.	"Central Park"	2:58
5.	"We Lost Contact"	0:59
6.	"You Can't Just Leave Us Here"	1:43
7.	"Rittenhouse Square"	1:59
8.	"Five Miles Back"	1:13
9.	"Princeton"	3:06
10.	"Jess Comforts Elliot"	2:31
11.	"My Firearm is My Friend"	2:59
12.	"Abandoned House"	1:32
13.	"Shotgun"	4:27
14.	"You Eyein' My Lemon Drink?"	4:28
15.	"Mrs. Jones"	1:44
16.	"Voices"	1:36
17.	"Be With You"	3:41
18.	"End Title Suite"	8:36
Total length:		50:07

Production

In January 2007, Shyamalan submitted a spec script entitled The Green Effect to various studios, but none expressed interest enough to purchase it. The director collected ideas and notes from meetings, returning home to Philadelphia to "rewrite" it, and finally 20th Century Fox greenlit the project. Now titled The Happening, the film was produced by Shyamalan and Barry Mendel and is the former's first R-rated project.

On March 15, 2007, Shyamalan describes the film as "a paranoia movie from the 1960s on the lines of The Birds (1963) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)."

Later in March, Wahlberg, with whom Shyamalan had been negotiating at the same time as his deal with Fox, was cast into the lead role of the $57 million project. Shyamalan had previously cast Wahlberg's brother Donnie in The Sixth Sense. An India-based company, UTV, co-financed fifty percent of the film's budget and distributed it in India, while Fox took care of other territories. Production began in August in Philadelphia, with filming on Walnut Street, in Rittenhouse Square Park, in Masterman High School, and on South Smedley Street. The release date was June 13, 2008, intentionally set for Friday the 13th to suit the thriller.

Critical reception

The Happening was widely panned by most film critics for its dull plot and performances. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 18% gave positive appraisals, based on 168 reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film scored a 34 out of 100, based on 38 reviews.

On June 8, 2008, days before the first few reviews for the film came online, M. Night Shyamalan had this to say to the New York Daily News: "We're making an excellent B movie, that's our goal".

Some critics liked it because of this. In fact, Glenn Whipp said, "Tamping down the self-seriousness in favor of some horrific silliness, M. Night Shyamalan's 'The Happening' plays as a genuinely enjoyable B-movie for anyone inclined (or able) to see it that way".

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter said the film lacked "cinematic intrigue and nail-biting tension" and that "the central menace [...] does not pan out as any kind of Friday night entertainment". Variety’s Justin Chang felt that it "covers territory already over-tilled by countless disaster epics and zombie movies, offering little in the way of suspense, visceral kicks or narrative vitality to warrant the retread". Mick LaSalle at San Francisco Chronicle felt that the film was entertaining but not scary. He commented, too, on Shyamalan's writing, opining that, "instead of letting his idea breathe and develop and see where it might go, he jumps all over it and prematurely shapes it into a story". Time's Richard Corliss saw the film as a "dispiriting indication that writer-director M. Night Shyamalan has lost the touch". Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips thought the film had a workable premise, but found the characters to be "gasbags or forgetful". Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal said that the film was a "woeful clunker of a paranoid thriller" and highlighted its "befuddling infelicities, insistent banalities, shambling pace and pervasive ineptitude".

Stephen King liked the film, stating "Of Fox's two summer creepshows, give the edge to The Happening, partly because M. Night Shyamalan really understands fear, partly because this time he's completely let himself go (hence the R rating), and partly because after Lady in the Water he had something to prove". Critic Roger Ebert, of Chicago Sun-Times, awarding the movie 3 out of 4 stars, found it oddly touching: "It is no doubt too thoughtful for the summer action season, but I appreciate the quietly realistic way Shyamalan finds to tell a story about the possible death of man". The New York Times’s Manohla Dargis praised Wahlberg's lead performance, adding that the film "turns out to be a divertingly goofy thriller with an animistic bent, moments of shivery and twitchy suspense". Philipa Hawker of The Age gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars, commenting on "the mood of the film: a tantalising, sometimes frustrating parable about the menaces that human beings might face from unexpected quarters," drawing especial attention to "the sound of the breeze and the sight of it ruffling the trees or blowing across the grass — an image of tension that calls to mind Antonioni's Blowup". Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times stated "It almost dares you to roll your eyes or laugh at certain scenes that are supposed to be deadly serious. But, you know what, I appreciated this creatively offbeat, daring sci-fi mind-trip".

The Happening has also attracted academic attention. Joseph J. Foy, professor of politics and popular culture, describes Shyamalan's film as an expression of "post-environmentalism" in which traditional paradigmatic politics are replaced with a call for the world to "embrace a revolutionary reevaluation of wealth and prosperity not in terms of monetary net worth or material possessions, but in terms of overall well-being". Foy praises the highly complex narrative in which Shyamalan weaves contemporary environmental challenges with hard science and social theory to create a "nightmarish future that... may advance the type of dialogue that can truly change the cultural conversation".

The film was nominated for four Razzie Awards: Worst Actor, Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay.

Box office performance

On its opening day, The Happening grossed $13 million. Over the weekend, the total gross came in at $30,517,109 in 2,986 theaters in the United States and Canada, averaging to about $10,220 per venue, and ranking #3 at the box office, behind The Incredible Hulk and Kung Fu Panda. Foreign box office gross for opening weekend was an estimated $32.1 million.

Home media

As of December 2009, 1,094,000 DVD units have been sold translating to over $21m in revenue.

See also

• The Happening (2008 soundtrack)

External links

• The Happening Official site
• The Happening at the Internet Movie Database
• The Happening at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Happening at Metacritic
• The Happening at Box Office Mojo
• The Happening at AllRovi
• Script Review of The Green Effect, 01/07/07 draft by LatinoReview.com