“The Happening” deals with the idea of nature fighting back and attempting to take earth back from humans. This time the revenge does not come from volcanoes, oceans or tornadoes, instead earth’s plant life teams up against human civilization. In order to take the planet back and destroy their enemies, plants begin to communicate with each other and produce a hormone that make humans kill themselves. Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan brings his signature style of suspense, horror and cleaver storyline to create his version of nature’s offensive reaction to humans’ destruction.
Considering how nature in general reacts to danger, it is safe to say that the key to survival always has been the survival of the fittest, in other words, those creatures which can developed a skill or a new feature will survival over those who are unable to adopt and defend themselves from danger. Plants, of course, cannot move, therefore their defense have to be a chemical reaction. Shyamalan uses this theory to create "The Happening” and to send the message to humans: stop destroying our environment or be ready to suffer the consequences.
Even thought Shyamalan’s application of the survival of the fittest is a little Hollywoodized as he makes all of the plants and trees communicate which each other, suggesting that all plants are capable of the same change at the same time, his message is clearly understood. Even though in reality it would take many years for plants to alter their chemical signals, and certainly not all plants would go through this major change at the same time, those viewers who take the time to think about the message of the movie will realize the importance of taking better care of our only known living space, earth.
Further, Shyamalan does a good job exploring the idea of plants striking back; however, he does not conclude his movie with an equally strong ending. The director leaves the viewer in uncertainty when he does not explain why certain people die and why others do not. There seems to be a suggestion that anger triggers the plant’s killer reaction and love saves certain ones, however, Shyamalan does not offer a conclusive explanation to all this in the end.
Overall, the Shyamalan’s idea for the plants to fight back for their habitat using the only weapons they have, hormones, is a viable theory and the writer/editor does a good job exploring an idea that Hollywood did not deal with in the past, however, the conclusion of the movie fails to satisfy those who wanted to understand exactly what happened in “The Happening.”
Trunkos Judit - Judit Trunkos is originally from Hungary and moved to the Unites States to obtain her undergraduate and graduate degrees in liberal arts. ...
