Could 'The Happening' actually happen?

By Mohammad Hamdani 

Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan, famous for his science-fiction films, bases his eco-disaster movie, the Happening, on the idea that plants have collectively launched an anti-pollution counteroffensive attack against humankind by releasing airborne toxins that rewire the human brain. Oh, did I forget? SPOILERS INCLUDED.

So what happens?

In the movie, we see that the plants release neurotoxins that trigger a reverse-survival instinct by prompting people to kill themselves. The Happening references a variety of scientific phenomena, including so-called red tide syndrome, which implies that marine plant life in recent years has begun releasing toxins in response to changing environmental conditions.

   People jumping off a building due to toxins

Throughout the course of The Happening, the 'plants' or vegetation gets angry at the mere presence of humans: First, it's the city parks attacking the urban masses, then the prairie fields going after country roads. The deadly pattern, diffusing outwards within 36 hours, leads the nursery owner to come to the conclusion that plants are communicating and then releasing toxins to specific areas. Joe Armstrong, a professor of botany at the University of Illinois says that if you take the meaning of communication in a broad sense,  then sure it could be said that plants actually do communicate with each other as some infected plants have been shown to signal neighbors to 'let their guards up', however, this isn't real communication in the way we think rather a chemical form of communication. Now let's get our thinking hats on and fact checks what happens in the movie.

What went wrong in the movie?

 Plants communicating in an organized way with each other? Does it happen? Only in movies. Plants do communicate, but they do it chemically. Still, it's not a communication like a conversation. Instead, plants sense the presence of other vegetation through photoreceptors and chemical means. They obviously don't have higher brains and cognitive abilities as we are led to believe during the course of the movie. So far as we know, plants are not capable of that sort of conscious communication.  

Elliot Moore realizing the consciousness ability of the plant

Secondly, Plants in The Happening are apparently able to detect and respond to the presence of humans. One character says it's a "known fact" that plants respond to human stimuli. While Scientists agree that plants can respond to certain stimuli--it's a phenomenon called tropism--but speech isn't one of them. Plants may sense the presence of humans such as carnivorous plants who respond to touch, like the venus fly trap. However, most plants do not possess a mechanism for responding to the presence or lack of presence of people.

                         A man setting up his suicide in the park.

Now for the elephant in the room,  Shyamalan seems to suggest that plants might evolve to the point of attack because humans pose a threat to the planet, as seen in the movie the nursery owner comes to the conclusion that plants have begun releasing toxins in response to changing environmental conditions. Scientifically, however, individuals don't evolve--populations do, and this happens by selecting genetic variants that promote survival. How quickly it happens all depends on how fast those plants reproduce. 

Let's test the theory

Now for the killer plants theory to be true, then some plants would have had to come up with the killer genetic variant randomly and over time those plants would have had to have been selected due to them being more fit for survival than other less deadly plants. The problem is, it doesn't make too much sense that killing humans would help these plants evolve, especially in places like parks. Also, according to Jenny Cruse-Sanders, director of research and conservation at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, it's pretty unlikely that from the entire plant kingdom, all these unrelated species would be producing the same deadly compound. It doesn't take a bio-science degree to know that plants have many different types of defense mechanisms and it's far from fact to assume that unrelated species of plants would be releasing the same toxin. 

                             Guess he succeeded.. congratulations? 

Was the movie based on complete fiction..or were somethings right?

Of all the things that were far from scientific reality, there was some scientific fact to be noted in the movie as a scientist character in The Happening describes the plants' airborne toxins as an above-ground version of red tide. Let's put that comparison into context:

In the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast for the last several years there have been outbreaks of a particular type of harmful algal blooms we call HABs and this variety of phytoplankton produce toxins. One of these toxins, Domoic acid, mimics glutamate which is the molecule in our brain that enables electrical transmissions between synapses- Domoic acid basically does the same job as glutamate. If you were to intake a bunch of domoic acid in your diet, from shellfish, for example, it gets into your blood, and then into your brain and then to the hippocampus of the brain from where the acid will fire the synapse connections and continue firing them until nerve function eventually burns out. Moreover, while those nerves are firing, it causes all kinds of neurological damage that can range from nausea and disorientation to loss of short-term memory and seizures. If taken in high amounts, the acid can be fatal.

 As shown in the movie, while the idea that organisms would target the brains of humans is unlikely, however, the notion that the plants could produce substances because of pollution that then have a deleterious effect on brain function is not unreasonable; It's at the borderline of science fiction and science.

Takeaways

While the happening lacks in many areas, namely the chemistry between the lead actors was so bad that we, the audience, could sense the awkwardness just by watching the film. The science is just not true of several key concepts of the movie and at times it can get boring trying to follow the plot. However, if we were to watch the film from a more casual lens it makes for an interesting, apocalyptic film where one could even derive a positive lesson, take care of the environment before it eventually takes care of you; with present-day issues like global warming, damaged ecosystems, and climate change,  taking care of the environment is actually very important and any chance to spread this message to the masses should not only be acknowledged but appreciated. We have seen several movies where AI happens to take over the world, like the matrix, so we could draw parallels that our very own natural artificial Intelligence is the antagonist of the film. 

References:

https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a3365/4268571/

https://blog.sciencefictionbiology.com/2008/06/what-kills-everybody-in-happening.html

https://www.wired.com/2008/06/the-happening-s/