{{{{{{Spoiler Alert}}}}}}

true information

What most people do not know is that "The Happening" was a rare re write for MNS. He was forced to re write The Green Effect after no one would pick up the movie back in 2007. Many people speculated what had happened, because MNS has never had to do this before and also has claimed that he will never rewrite one of his works.

I have gotten my hands on the original work and read it over a time ago; I fell in love with the The Green Effect. This is how it originally was meant to be.

The Green Effect was going to be longer; it had more scenes and also went more in depth into the two main characters. Elliot & Alma. The movie begins with a fight between the two, you see they have fought before and are married. The scene soon ends with her taking off her wedding ring and placing it on the table.

So now you come to Central Park. This is where the Happening begins, most of all the same screen play script is the same as the movie. So with the two women reading a murder book and so on, You hear screams, so and so on. MNS wanted to get across that there were people dying all over New York, with the workers falling off the buildings and so on.

The next scene cuts to Elliot at school teaching. He is not talking about Bees as he did in the movie, but about a slide show of ancient Indian paintings, this was basic foreplay as the Indians paint nature as an entity and he talks about that to the class. This scene was replaced by a more funny and less meaningful pointless move to off topic discussion a normal teacher would never do.

The original screen play has foreplay all in it, but you barely find out whats going on and how until you meet the Nursery man as just in the movie leaves you still puzzled until you hear Elliot begin to think it’s the plants do you actually think it possible. In the screen play the plant man talks about how plants can give off toxins, and how him talking to them made them grow better because they sense his “love”.

Back to the school now in the begging of the movie and the screen play, before the class is dismissed after the teachers are told about what is happening around new York and the world in the screen play, he reminds the class to read about “bio chemistry and how people have energy”, now this just passed my mind until end of the of the screen play, which talks about it more in depth about how energy is important but not the cause.

Now this is basically where the movie an original screen play comes together. You see that MNS has rewrote the beginning an obviously the end. The key pieces you have as a reader or watcher is basically what the news says, in it being true. But there was huge difference with the screen play again and the movie itself. In the original screen play this happened over the entire world, which you soon find out in the movie it is only in the north east. Now after seeing the end of The Happening it makes sense why MNS chose to have just NE USA hit first. As you see France it seems to be hit next.

Basically what the movie was changed to be less detailed, it was made to be simple a basically a cliff hanger and through it all keep you guessing with puzzles of why people have not died yet.

The word trigger was used a lot in the screen play. The people trigger this and that here and there. As you find through the movie and the screen play the plants or the wind has something to do with everything. Now Elliot the teachers begins reading test papers in the original screen play, and MNS has a type of coincidental foreplay as he does in a lot of his films, but chose to take it out of the movie. The coincidental thing is that Elliot begins to remember he taught about the same things a year ago, he gets a test out early in the screen play while he is still at his house and circles words as "outbreak" "many people infected". All throughout the screenplay he is circling new words that seem to reflect what is happening in the current world.

Another big part left out in the movie was the fact of the story, a little story, you will see how it resembles Signs and most likely it was taken out. Elliot tells his wife Alma about how this entire village of ants were wiped out in Africa; how his test was about how the plants released a specifically designed toxin to just kill those ants and nothing else around. Saying there was only .0006 percent of the ants left. In the screen play the entire world was hit, also giving way it was not alien or terrorist, and with these figures you could gather there is a hand full of people left alive.

The screen play narrows down just like the movie does, but the screen play is in more detail, first urban population is a trigger for the plants, than groups of people, towns and then little villages of people, and then the most puzzling part is the when the people in the movie split up, one group with the private and the other with Elliot. Elliot’s group is not hit by the toxin but the other is, you soon find out the other group was bigger. You also find out in the screen play that trying to burn the plants will get you toxinated also. As Jared a josh in the movie try to burn the plants and were never shot

The screen had many more emotional moments in it, and was well more developed a detailed unlike the dissected rewrite.

You miss out in the movie more about Elliot and Alma as in the screen play went into great detail and development of characters. You miss out on more why they fight so often why they don’t get along so much, the screen play shows the healing of the relationship through the terror of the world happenings and by working things out in love as they do in the two houses at the end of the movie. At the beginning of the screen play, Elliot grabs Alma before she leaves saying, they still need to talk, but when will they have time? she replies. He says they will; and they finally had time when they were locked inside the two houses alone. Again you see a similar resemblance to Signs with being locked in a house and than going outside to see the sky. MNS tries to take a problem put into where you can talk it out or work it out an show coming out as things get better. He used a lot of resemblance with the screen play, but the movie was in many taken apart an stripped to become a catchy, suspended horror film, that did ok, but not as well that it could have happened.

The ending basically sums itself it up an ends well in the screenplay. The final way the plants would rid all humans was with human energy, they became sensitive to anger, and that’s why the old lady died, she was so angry at the world, she walked outside and died. In the screen play she never snapped at all, you had to figure she was mad yourself, with how she had her Bible open to a verse that talked about God punishing the world, which in the screen play Elliot read out loud.


In it all the ending has cut scenes to all around the world to people in India, Russia, Europe America, of just families, no big groups of people walking outside looking around, it shows basically love prevailing over evil in a shy way.

The screen play shows the reader, life will not always be as you want it, personal problems may arise, but there are always bigger problems in the world, as the toxins show to kill everyone, when you see that life problems are nothing compared to other happening around the world you forget about it and look to basic love. The toxins were released because man was threating Nature and nature was pissed. But in the screen play it was said that something set off the plants, and it all began in Alaska to where somehow the government must of had a leak that triggered the plants to show a world wide anger towards humans to design a toxin that only eradicates the humans, if you see in the movie animals never die, this was developed in the screen play, to show humans were targeted not for food, not for money or for anything special, but to simple be put out of business, the biggest piece of information you might get in the movie is where you see the sign advertising New Homes! 2000 or something of them you see a huge clearing of trees. Yes you can get that humans today do need to back off the earth but that was not only the main point. The screen play highlighted, Love, Good and Evil, Religious aspects of God and Powers that can not be understood.

The screen play I must say was much more intense and truly better, MNS should have never been forced to rewrite the movie, but to the executives in the “Industry” I do not blame them for the mess up of lady in the water. But still MNS was forced into this and lost the true taste, hit and momentum of the screen play. Just like a musician friend of mine said, when you marry the words to a beat you can divorce them, MNS married the story to an idea, and was forced to divorce it chop it up and make it more pleasing to a hand full of people.

In it all the movie leaves out a lot of important details, but replaces them with skeptic scenes so the watcher can be less confused and just disappointed r amused by the twists. The movie sets the wrong mind set of what MNS was trying to say to the world with his original screen play. Again I truly doubt this was a movie to scare people of the environment, he always writes many meanings into a movie to where you can get so much out of it. I would not doubt if he did his best, but I am sure the people who told him to rewrite the movie are "supposed" to regret ever telling him to do so.

I would love to show the Original Screenplay “The Green Effect” but it is against a copyright agreement I have signed. I am only allowed to talk somewhat about “The Green Effect” and how it differs from the “The Happening” in hope to show people who want to know the truth of how MNS tried his best to make a great movie, but was pressured to make it less intensive for “Industry leaders”.

peace

-rags

[edit on 14-6-2008 by ragster]

Well, unlike the majority here on ATS I liked The Happening.

Glad he changed the name though, The Green Effect would kind of given it away.

Problem with the Happening is that at the end it still leaves multiple possibilities for the cause. The plants being the obvious one, but there is a lot of talk of government involvement. Could that be a statement about the Illuminati wanting to thin the population? Possibly. Maybe he just threw that in to confuse us further.

I look forward to his next film


[edit on 14-6-2008 by fooffstarr]

I thought some of you would be wanting some type of source, all though this is not the screenplay itself, its the best I can show you; it is a piece of a now corrupted "latinoreview" internet site page, the latinoreview had the script before hand a good while back in 2007 and did a review somewhat of what you see below.






[edit on 15-6-2008 by ragster]