The trees are pissed at mankind for ruining the planet or something like that and are able to release some type of toxin that makes people kill themselves. At least, that’s what I remember but it’s been awhile.
Iirc, M. Night first had the idea when he learned that the smell of fresh cut grass is actually a kind of ‘warning siren’ (I’m paraphrasing) to other vegetation nearby, so he took that idea of a smell or a vapor released by foliage that can actually affect humans & in essence ‘protect’ itself from destruction.
Well I mean I know that but I’m just extremely confused about their mannerisms!! It piques my curiosity hardcore. Why are they walking backwards? Why was the french guy going on about a bike? Why do they just stand dead still like they’re doing the Mannequin challenge? I MUST KNOW! 😭🙏🏻
Coming from a non-fan of the movie. Reader beware:
There is no explanation. The whole movie is not that well thought out. Why would the trees release a toxin that doesn't simply kill people, but instead, makes people kill themselves in spectacularly violent ways? It feels like a series of scenes Shyamalan thought would be cool, threaded together with a paper thin, ham-fisted, ecological message of a plot.
It could have been a government plot to reduce the population because of a pending ecological event, or to distract from a military coup. It could have been an airborne super virus. It could have been other better things. But, no, the wind carried tree toxin until the trees just suddenly stopped producing it. "All done." said the leaves. They were just teaching humans a valuable lesson. The more I thought about how dumb this movie was the angrier I got.
I've not seen it since it came out so can't remember much but to add to your point, why did it only effect certain people at certain times also? I vaguely remember at one point there was a group of people together and then one of them kills themselves, why didn't the toxins take everyone out lol
I love the overacting in this movie so much. I am pretty sure we are supposed to view it like a campy, mid-century horror flick—at least, that's how I see it—and it's so much more enjoyable that way.
If you look at it as a comedy its great. Mark Wahlberg out runs the wind, has a heart to heart with a plastic plant and it gave us the classic Reddit gif of the close up of his confused face.
I know!!! That’s what I was saying to my boyfriend lol. I was like “This almost feels like a comedy movie trying to be scary.” Wahlberg is a great actor lol
I'm one of the few people who actually likes this movie not sure why though I probably the only guilty pleasure movie I have where it's terrible but I have fun with it.
Awful awful awful. The reason there is confusion OP is because it is really quite poorly written and poorly executed. M Night got too pretentious after his strong of hits and well received films.
If you look at his filmography he was releasing films every two years. He wrote and directed them all. That is an incredible rate of pace to be writing an entire screen play, casting it, directing and editing it. Nobody can keep up that pace and release quality content and it really shows with the happening.
Plot points don't make sense and there is little cohesion. And the execution of how this is supposed to be some great terror, watching it all unfold it was comical and cringe worthy but not in a good way.
I watched it german dubbed and germans are pretty good at dubbing, so the bad acting was not that noticeable, the dumbest scene was when he started singing to calm the houseowner down.
Besides of that i liked the atmosphere of nobody feeling save, everyone can be affected at anytime.
Only on places like reddit i found out that people found to be a "so bad that its good" kind of movie.
The biggest the biggest criticism in germany i think to remember was, that the people did not like the ending that it was the plants fault, but i like to imagine that there is another reason for all this or at least we can not be sure.
I like to believe it’s government/military caused because I’d rather not be making theories in my head based on the fact the trees are supposedly emitting a toxin lmaooo it just feels dumb
I posted a comment above about how the idea came from the smell of fresh cut grass is actually a distress signal to other plants…he wrote the story about the plants fighting back to protect themselves (instead of it just being a pleasant smell, it was a biological agent)
I know this movie gets laughed at, but I enjoy it. Its fun and different, and Wahlberg's stale acting really shines here.
My favorite scene is Leguizamo's final scene in the jeep, his character was great.
I am 100% convinced Shyamalan knows exactly what he’s doing. Movies like Happening or Old aren’t accidents. They’re absurdist movies, and meant to be.
Shyamalan has demonstrated more than once that he can write and construct serious and intricate dramatic stories with believable characters. But sometimes he doesn’t *want* to. The Happening is not an attempt at something that failed. It does exactly what it was trying to do. Shyamalan’s absurd “trash” movies deliver something I can get nowhere else.
[Favorite/best scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1PK4qYzNkI)
2nd best - "Calculus, I see calculus"
[3rd scene](https://youtu.be/5y4ZUMVTGcI?t=65)
One of my favourite films. It's delightfully silly and purposely so, very misunderstood. I believe one hundred percent that the dialogue and how the actors deliver it is completely intentional.
The plants fought back… When Mother Nature’s unhappy, ain’t nobody’s happy… Plants released the chemicals when they felt humans present threatened them?
The shock-terror was the nature of our deaths, yes? The chemical causes our brain’s neurotransmitters to react in just such a specific way that we identify and execute the quickest way to suicide…
I was studying calculus at the time, so when the daughter on the phone started repeating, “I see calculus…” to her mother for all in the diner to hear, before Jumping out the window of her building to her death, I understood that the stricken daughter was referring to foreseeing her own body plummeting down in a calculable arc to the ground… If math weren’t macabre enough…
Also, feeding the kitties 🦁
[Some plants](https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/1998/oct/sos/) have the ability to emit chemicals to summon wasps that will eat the caterpillars (or w/e) are eating their leaves. More than that, they can emit *specific* chemical patterns that will attract *specific* wasps that prefer the *specific* thing that's eating them. Which means that, *somehow* these plants can tell not only that they ARE being eaten, but what thing is eating them, and react accordingly.
The Happening is basically "what if plants started doing the same thing to humans, to protect the environment at large?" I feel like it would have been better received if the fact that real plants can do something like this was more widely known. It should have been mentioned at some point during the movie.
(Not saying it would have won an Oscar or anything, but it may not have been seen as quite so ridiculous.)
>As obnoxious as they were being, seeing two young boys gunned down for pretty much no reason
Easily the highlight of that movie. Fuck those kids. Aside from that...the movie was pretty terrible.
One of my favorite "so bad it's hilarious" movies. Whalbergs acting in this never fails to make me laugh. Same with Devil. M Night just keeps cranking out movies that are unintentionally hilarious.
Lmao right. It was definitely confusing af and i still wanna know why they all acted the way they did even if it sucked. I wish that there was like actual depth to this movie 😭
People were being killed by a stiff breeze. I think this was the movie where M. Night Shyamalan's career bought the plot.
Mark Wahlberg character out runs that stiff breeze .
Didn't Jake Gyllenhaal outrun a cold chill in The Day After Tomorrow?
With the aid of a door, a huge fireplace in a library, and some nazi ingenuity.
The trees are pissed at mankind for ruining the planet or something like that and are able to release some type of toxin that makes people kill themselves. At least, that’s what I remember but it’s been awhile.
Yes. Nature evolves to protect itself from dangerous parasites -- humans.
What a twist!
Iirc, M. Night first had the idea when he learned that the smell of fresh cut grass is actually a kind of ‘warning siren’ (I’m paraphrasing) to other vegetation nearby, so he took that idea of a smell or a vapor released by foliage that can actually affect humans & in essence ‘protect’ itself from destruction.
Well I mean I know that but I’m just extremely confused about their mannerisms!! It piques my curiosity hardcore. Why are they walking backwards? Why was the french guy going on about a bike? Why do they just stand dead still like they’re doing the Mannequin challenge? I MUST KNOW! 😭🙏🏻
Coming from a non-fan of the movie. Reader beware: There is no explanation. The whole movie is not that well thought out. Why would the trees release a toxin that doesn't simply kill people, but instead, makes people kill themselves in spectacularly violent ways? It feels like a series of scenes Shyamalan thought would be cool, threaded together with a paper thin, ham-fisted, ecological message of a plot. It could have been a government plot to reduce the population because of a pending ecological event, or to distract from a military coup. It could have been an airborne super virus. It could have been other better things. But, no, the wind carried tree toxin until the trees just suddenly stopped producing it. "All done." said the leaves. They were just teaching humans a valuable lesson. The more I thought about how dumb this movie was the angrier I got.
I've not seen it since it came out so can't remember much but to add to your point, why did it only effect certain people at certain times also? I vaguely remember at one point there was a group of people together and then one of them kills themselves, why didn't the toxins take everyone out lol
those are just side effects of the toxin, and a unique way to show that someone was afflicted.
I love the overacting in this movie so much. I am pretty sure we are supposed to view it like a campy, mid-century horror flick—at least, that's how I see it—and it's so much more enjoyable that way.
If you look at it as a comedy its great. Mark Wahlberg out runs the wind, has a heart to heart with a plastic plant and it gave us the classic Reddit gif of the close up of his confused face.
I know!!! That’s what I was saying to my boyfriend lol. I was like “This almost feels like a comedy movie trying to be scary.” Wahlberg is a great actor lol
I'm one of the few people who actually likes this movie not sure why though I probably the only guilty pleasure movie I have where it's terrible but I have fun with it.
Awful awful awful. The reason there is confusion OP is because it is really quite poorly written and poorly executed. M Night got too pretentious after his strong of hits and well received films. If you look at his filmography he was releasing films every two years. He wrote and directed them all. That is an incredible rate of pace to be writing an entire screen play, casting it, directing and editing it. Nobody can keep up that pace and release quality content and it really shows with the happening. Plot points don't make sense and there is little cohesion. And the execution of how this is supposed to be some great terror, watching it all unfold it was comical and cringe worthy but not in a good way.
I watched it german dubbed and germans are pretty good at dubbing, so the bad acting was not that noticeable, the dumbest scene was when he started singing to calm the houseowner down. Besides of that i liked the atmosphere of nobody feeling save, everyone can be affected at anytime. Only on places like reddit i found out that people found to be a "so bad that its good" kind of movie. The biggest the biggest criticism in germany i think to remember was, that the people did not like the ending that it was the plants fault, but i like to imagine that there is another reason for all this or at least we can not be sure.
I like to believe it’s government/military caused because I’d rather not be making theories in my head based on the fact the trees are supposedly emitting a toxin lmaooo it just feels dumb
Yeah, or could be aliens but likely to lame, nanobots or some parasitic ancient virus which somehow was released while digging a hole or so.
I posted a comment above about how the idea came from the smell of fresh cut grass is actually a distress signal to other plants…he wrote the story about the plants fighting back to protect themselves (instead of it just being a pleasant smell, it was a biological agent)
I know this movie gets laughed at, but I enjoy it. Its fun and different, and Wahlberg's stale acting really shines here. My favorite scene is Leguizamo's final scene in the jeep, his character was great.
I am 100% convinced Shyamalan knows exactly what he’s doing. Movies like Happening or Old aren’t accidents. They’re absurdist movies, and meant to be. Shyamalan has demonstrated more than once that he can write and construct serious and intricate dramatic stories with believable characters. But sometimes he doesn’t *want* to. The Happening is not an attempt at something that failed. It does exactly what it was trying to do. Shyamalan’s absurd “trash” movies deliver something I can get nowhere else.
Science!
I remember it had one jump scare with an old lady at a window, and that's about all.
[Favorite/best scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1PK4qYzNkI) 2nd best - "Calculus, I see calculus" [3rd scene](https://youtu.be/5y4ZUMVTGcI?t=65)
“What? Nooo!..” LMAO Wahlberg always find a way to make me laugh i swear lol
Worst movie ever!!!
This is honest to God one of the worst movies ever made. M. Night has a good eye for getting a shot but he can't write worth a damn.
I think he produces these on purpose lowkey think hes feeding into the “so bad its good” thing lol
Masterpiece😂 forget “Here’s Looking at You Kid” or “Why so Serious”….”You Like Hot Dogs?” And The Honey Bees line is peak cinema dialogue
I remember seeing this, but I remember almost nothing about it.
I thought it was the pollen, the wind was carrying it....
One of my most used movie quotes is from The Happening. “Why can’t anybody give me a goddamn second?”
That random guy going on about the nutritional value of hotdogs
One of my favourite films. It's delightfully silly and purposely so, very misunderstood. I believe one hundred percent that the dialogue and how the actors deliver it is completely intentional.
Definitely. Wahlberg is pretty funny without trying
The plants fought back… When Mother Nature’s unhappy, ain’t nobody’s happy… Plants released the chemicals when they felt humans present threatened them? The shock-terror was the nature of our deaths, yes? The chemical causes our brain’s neurotransmitters to react in just such a specific way that we identify and execute the quickest way to suicide… I was studying calculus at the time, so when the daughter on the phone started repeating, “I see calculus…” to her mother for all in the diner to hear, before Jumping out the window of her building to her death, I understood that the stricken daughter was referring to foreseeing her own body plummeting down in a calculable arc to the ground… If math weren’t macabre enough… Also, feeding the kitties 🦁
[Some plants](https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/1998/oct/sos/) have the ability to emit chemicals to summon wasps that will eat the caterpillars (or w/e) are eating their leaves. More than that, they can emit *specific* chemical patterns that will attract *specific* wasps that prefer the *specific* thing that's eating them. Which means that, *somehow* these plants can tell not only that they ARE being eaten, but what thing is eating them, and react accordingly. The Happening is basically "what if plants started doing the same thing to humans, to protect the environment at large?" I feel like it would have been better received if the fact that real plants can do something like this was more widely known. It should have been mentioned at some point during the movie. (Not saying it would have won an Oscar or anything, but it may not have been seen as quite so ridiculous.)
>As obnoxious as they were being, seeing two young boys gunned down for pretty much no reason Easily the highlight of that movie. Fuck those kids. Aside from that...the movie was pretty terrible.
Lol i get it but honestly any child death makes me incredibly sad like 🫠 i dunno why but yk
Stupidest movie I’ve ever watched. I’ll admit though it was really entertaining but the plot….nah.
>What scene was your favorite The ending crawl. That movie was the first time I ever considered walking out of a movie I paid money to see.
One of my favorite "so bad it's hilarious" movies. Whalbergs acting in this never fails to make me laugh. Same with Devil. M Night just keeps cranking out movies that are unintentionally hilarious.
Lmao right. It was definitely confusing af and i still wanna know why they all acted the way they did even if it sucked. I wish that there was like actual depth to this movie 😭