The Happening

{{Film}}{{title-italics}}
'''''The Happening''''' is a film by [[United States|American]] director M. Night Shyamalan, released [[13#Friday the 13th|Friday, June 13]], 2008, about an epidemic of [[suicide]]s.

==Plot==
The movie centers on Philadelphia high-school biology teacher Elliot Moore, whose favorite pedagogical technique is to encourage his students to explain a phenomenon by attributing it to "[[Intelligent Design|mysterious natural processes]]".

Moore and his family flee for their lives after mass suicides start plaguing the Northeastern United States. The movie explains these mysterious suicides as being driven by the "spontaneous evolution" of a "[[toxin]]" in plants. Moore gets his poignant on-screen moment of dismissing those so-called scientists' ability to explain anything, since it is all [[theory|just a theory]]:

{{cquote|Science will come up with a reason to put in the books but in the end it's [[Scientific_theory#.22Just.22_a_theory|just a theory]]. We fail to acknowledge forces at work beyond our understanding.|||
[[Deepak Chopra]]
}}

Luckily, everything comes out all right in the end, because "events like this can just end suddenly". (And since there's no point in science trying to find a cause and solution for events like this, it'll probably happen again and maybe wipe out civilization next time.) The finale is a monologue about the limits of [[rational]] thought delivered by a [[Denialism|supposed scientist]].

==Reactions==
''The Happening'' was thrust into the forefront of the [[culture war]]s after its release, when some reviewers commented on what they perceived as [[anti-science]] and [[intelligent design]] themes.<ref name=review>[http://io9.com/5016361/the-happening-is-the-biggest-intelligent-design-movie "''The Happening'' Is the Biggest Intelligent Design Movie of the Year."]</ref> (You think?)

Pro-ID forces have also endorsed it as such, crowing about it as proof that "[[Darwinism|Darwinists]]" are losing the culture war on multiple fronts.<ref>[http://www.uncommondescent.com/culture/another-pro-id-movie-opens-on-2986-theater-screens/ "Another pro-ID movie opens on 2,986 theater screens."]</ref>

In an interview about the film's release, Shyamalan harped on how he was motivated by "[[Albert Einstein]]'s [[Urban_legend|religious conversion]]" — an utter myth, something the good Shamalamadingdong could've found out immediately using Google<ref>{{wpa|Religious and philosophical views of Albert Einstein}}</ref> — fueled by "[[Argument from ignorance|the unknowable universe]]".<ref>[http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/6473-exclusive-m-night-shyamalan-goes-green "Exclusive: M. Night Shyamalan Goes Green."]</ref>

The film has also been criticized for [[Sexism|sexist]] themes, intentional or not, as women are depicted as being primarily baby factories who need to learn their place.<ref name=review />

Plus, the movie is effing terrible.<ref>[http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10007985-happening/ ''Rotten Tomatoes'' approval rating of 18 percent.]</ref><ref>[http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-happening Metacritic weighted average score of 34 out of 100.]</ref><ref group=note>Shyamalan had just come off making ''The Village'' and ''Lady in the Water'', not ''The Sixth Sense'' and ''Unbreakable''.</ref>
==External links==
*[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0949731 ''The Happening'' on IMDb]
*[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/TheHappening ''The Happening''] on [[TV Tropes]]
==Notes==
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==References==
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[[category:Culture wars]]
[[category:Films]]

Categories: Culture wars, Films