After M. Night Shyamalan’s first three suspenseful “twisters” (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs), audience expectations have been exceedingly high.  While some were quick to call Shyamalan the next Hitchcock/Spielberg, others saw his potential, but needed further confirmation before making such a bold statement concerning his staying power.  Pronounce the cautious wise.

Most recently, Shyamalan has frustrated fans with The Village and highly disappointed them with Lady in the Water.  Now, with The Happening, Shyamalan steps away from his thrilling “curve ball” conclusion and tries his hand at going green; not only in a sense of conserving his typical closing and recycling his expected suspense, but also in focusing his plot on the retribution of vegetation.  In fact, The Happening was alternately titled Green Planet and The Green Effect.

Central Park – 8:33 am: a breeze blows, a crowd freezes, and a woman stabs herself in the neck with a knitting needle.  8:59 am: a group of construction workers voluntarily plummet from a rooftop.  Something is happening.

As Philadelphia science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) and math teacher Julian (John Leguizamo) get word of the 9/11-like terror in New York, they quickly grab their loved ones and board a train to exit the city.  Elliot’s wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) and Julian’s daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez) accompany the men to Filbert, PA, where their train ride ends. 

Chaos erupts when the passengers learn that Philadelphia, Boston, and other Northeastern cities were also affected.  People begin to flee westward. An “every man for himself” mindset surfaces, and Julian entrusts Jess with Elliot and Alma while he travels to Princeton, New Jersey to find his wife. 

Through it all, the cause of the sudden mass suicides is discussed at length, with possible origins stemming from viruses, pollution, global warming, terrorist attacks, nuclear power, water contamination, botanical toxins, primordial bacteria, and government drug testing.  Yet, the botanical toxin theory quickly rises to the forefront, as gusts of wind, associated with the plant life, seem to produce confused speech, physical disorientation, and an uncontrollable urge to kill oneself.  After all, plants respond to human stimuli and can even send out signals for wasps to kill caterpillars that endanger their survival. 

Shyamalan’s selection of this natural killer is simultaneously weak and thought provoking.  While fear is induced with a simple rustling of leaves or swaying of grass, the concept itself has merit.  Loosely based off of Einstein’s apocalyptic quote concerning honeybees, The Happening is a step into the scientific world of nature and its psychotropic effects.  When the “happening” is clarified as a mysterious airborne chemical toxin that possesses the ability to block human neurotransmitters and flip the innate preservation switch, audiences are seemingly invited into the “mechanism of action” section of a pharmaceutical package insert.