6:20
Enter Mark Wahlberg as Elliot, a New York science teacher. “He certainly looks like a teacher with his tank top,” says Lloyd Valentine. “I buy him more as a teacher more than I buy his pupils,” says Lloyd’s fellow science teacher Simon Halpin. “Yeah,” Paul Parsons, the author of The Science of Doctor Who, agrees, “They are not knifing him or anything.”

6:45
Elliot and his class discuss the unexplained disappearance of honey bees, a loss that Einstein thought could wipe out humanity. “That’s a real phenomenon,” Paul confirms. “They call it colony collapse disorder. If bees completely disappear, there’s nothing to pollinate plants, plants die out, then animals go, and Man’s at the top of the food chain.”

10:30
Motivated by some mysterious force, people are committing suicide all over Pennsylvania. In an effort to explain the deaths, Elliot reverts to scientific essentials: observation, measurement, interpretation. “They’re the fundamentals of research,” Simon confirms. “But I doubt even science teachers would fall back on them when they’re faced with people killing themselves.”

30:01
Fleeing from “The Happening”, Elliot and his companions briefly take refuge in a greenhouse. “Maybe it’s an airborne virus,” Lloyd wonders. “In which case, they should probably stay in the greenhouse.”

40:43
Someone suggests that a poisonous gas is being released by plants, which are communicating with each other. “There is communication between different types of plants,” nods Paul. “But for toxic gas to be given off in this way . . . Maybe climate change could be responsible: the properties of the plants change as temperature increases.”

51:35
Elliot wonders whether ancient bacteria could be responsible. “Primordial bacteria were dredged up from one of the frozen Antarctic lakes,” Paul confirms. “As the ice caps melt, you could have ancient poisonous bacteria released into the ocean.”

73:18
Another victim stands frozen before killing herself. “I can imagine some kind of gas that blocks nerve synapse impulses, but the following link to depression and then suicide isn’t completely logical,” Simon laughs.

VERDICT

A cautious welcome. “It’s always nice to see a science teacher playing a role in Hollywood,” said Simon, who added: “It’s difficult to make science fiction accurate but a lot of the stuff was plausible and you forgive the stuff that’s not.” Paul agreed: “Some of the best sci-fi uses stuff from the fringes of science and takes it in an imaginary direction. But I don’t think this is going to happen.”

The Happening is out to buy and rent on DVD and Blu-ray

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