The Happening is a 2008 American science fiction thriller film written, co-produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and starring Mark Wahlberg. The film follows a man, his wife, his best friend, and his friend's daughter as they try to escape from an inexplicable natural disaster. The plot revolves around a cryptic neurotoxin that causes anyone exposed to it to commit suicide. The protagonist, a science teacher named Elliot Moore, attempts to escape from the mystery substance with his friends as hysteria grips the East Coast of the United States.