The Happening (2008)
We've sensed it. We've seen the signs. Now...it's happening.
When a deadly airborne virus threatens to wipe out the northeastern United States, teacher Elliot Moore and his wife Alma flee from contaminated cities into the countryside in a fight to discover the truth. Is it terrorism, the accidental release of some toxic military bio weapon -- or something even more sinister?
The Happening keeps every mind human — it fights its subject at zero distance. The story fights on E8/E7 of the E0–E14 reality ladder.
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Same subject, different rung
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
Tenet (2020)E0/E14 · Science Fiction, Thriller
World War Z (2013)E4/E14 · Science Fiction, Thriller
V for Vendetta (2006)E10/E12 · Science Fiction, Thriller
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)E9/E14 · Science Fiction, Thriller
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)E11/E12/E14 · Science Fiction, Thriller
Serenity (2005)E10/E11 · Science Fiction, ThrillerAlso bends a rule of reality
Other films that change a standing rule of their world — ranked first by those bending it at the same rung.
A Quiet Place (2018)alters at E7 · same rung · rigorous
Moana (2016)alters at E7 · same rung · rigorous
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)alters at E7 · same rung · loose
The Great Wall (2016)alters at E7 · same rung · loose
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)alters at E7 · same rung · rigorous
The Birds (1963)alters at E7 · same rung · loose
