Goofs for
The Happening (2008) More at IMDbPro »

• Errors in geography: In Philadelphia, the characters board a train to Harrisburg, which is in south central Pennsylvania. It stops in Filbert soon after. Filbert is south of Pittsburgh, far west of Harrisburg.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the movie, the Philly cop carries a Sig Sauer handgun. In reality, Philly uniformed police officers carry Glock handguns.
  
  
• Factual errors: The weapon the Private draws from his holster is not a M9 Beretta 9mm handgun, standard issue for all conventional Army units, including MP's.
  
  

• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: During dinner, Mrs. Jones says she grows her own food. However, sliced bread is on the table. It's potato bread.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The Nursery Owner drives his wife, Alma, Jess and Elliot to his house for supplies. When he stops the car, you can see 2 big chimneys with smoke billowing out, even though the power is out. The "chimneys" are the cooling towers of a nuclear power plant, which would operate even when the power grid is down.
  
  
• Factual errors: After leaving Filbert, when everyone splits off into smaller groups in the field, and Mark Wahlberg's character goes to the truck to see if there's a map, only the passenger door is open, yet the door ajar alarm is dinging. It's a Ford truck so the alarm would only ding if the drivers' side door was open.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Westover Military Base is near Chicopee, MA, over 500 miles from Filbert, PA.
  
  
• Factual errors: Westover Military Base is an Air Force Reserve Base. The Private should be an Airman.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The characters board a train to Harrisburg from Amtrak 30th Street Station. Amtrak's Keystone line does run to Harrisburg, however the train the actors are filmed on is a SEPTA train that does not.
  
  
• Factual errors: All riding lawnmowers are equipped with a safety mechanism that will shut them down if there is nobody in the seat.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After dinner Ms. Jones allows the group and tells them that the guest room is up the stairs and to the left. Given the position of the stairs to the room in the following scene where Elliot talks to Ms. Jones from the top of the stairs then the room would have actually been to the right.
  
  
• Continuity: At the beginning of the movie when all the students and faculty are leaving the building there is a scene where a girl in a blue shirt is entering a bus. A little further into this scene when Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) and Julian (John Leguizamo) are conversing the girl in the blue shirt is seen walking in the background.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the Nursery Owner drives his wife, Alma, Jess and Elliot to his house for supplies, you can see two cooling towers from a nuclear power plant in the background with smoke billowing out of them. The smoke, however, isn't moving at all.
  
  
• Continuity: When the video is shown of a man at the zoo getting mauled, the video is first shown by a women holding a phone. It shows the phone and her fingers, and her fingers are perfectly still. Later, it shows the same women with the phone from a different angle, and she is constantly shaking
  
  
• Factual errors: When Julian is in the Jeep and he gives the woman the mathematical word problem, about the doubling penny, he says that she would have over 10 million dollars at the end of the month. While technically true, she would actually have closer to 5.3 billion dollars, far more that the stated answer.
  
  

• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER: The plants are releasing a neurotoxin that turns the brain's self-preservation mechanism into a self-destruct mechanism. Yet when Mrs. Jones is affected, she rams her head into the windows to let the gas into the house. That could be a more efficient way to self-destruct. Similarly, the driver of the car Julian was in tried to kill himself instead of others inside the car.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: Lions don't rip off the arms of a person standing up; they kill by suffocation first.
  
  
• Plot holes: SPOILER: When the train stops in Filbert, the conductor tells Elliott that they have "lost contact." When Elliott asks who they lost contact with, the conductor replies, "Everyone." However, people get off the train and use cell phones. The stranded passengers watch TV news in the diner, which has power. If cell phones are still functioning, the power grid is still on, and the news is still being broadcast, how did an Amtrak passenger train in the northeastern United States lose contact with everyone?
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: The man in the lion cage was obviously shot on green screen. The lighting between the man and the rest of the scene doesn't match. Also, it's impossible that a lion can rip off a person's arm without biting through the connective tissues.
  
  

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