M. Night Shyamalan is back again with another spine-tingling, World Event thriller that leaves you thinking as the credits roll. The story opens in Central Park in New York, in a park that for all other purposes contains the office suits on their way to work, joggers merrily getting some exercise down a tree-lined path. And then the trouble begins (see above). Some blocks away work men from atop a building plunge down to the ground in jumbled heaps, one by one, while the foreman looks on, horrified.

Then enters Mark Wahlberg (of previous Marky Mark and Dirk Diggler fame) who is a science teacher in Philadelphia named Elliot Moore who has been dismissed from class in the midst of teaching his class about how bee is disappearing off the earth. Elliot is a fun-loving, kids-can-relate-to-him kind of guy and when he learns that there is some kind of terrorist attack in New York, this news only adds to his already traumatic relationship with his wife, Alma Moore (Zooey Deschanel). She, sad to say, is distant.

Elliot's friend and fellow educator, maths teacher Julian (John Leguizamo) is caught in the middle of the relationship struggles and the terrorist attack, and somewhat selfishly advises Elliot to give up hope on Alma. "She wasn't ready to get married and she never will be ready to jump into anything," Julian confides, but Elliot is hoping against hope that she will give up her aloof acts and be 'in this' with him wholeheartedly.

But the world is busy being destroyed by some kind of terrorist attack or natural event that is hitting the northeast of the United States with horrible completeness. Elliot gets home from work and we see Alma, all big eyes and uncertainty, avoiding phone calls from a mysterious man named Joey on her cell phone. Elliot is packed in two minutes and they join the masses (including Julian and his eight-year-old daughter Jess) at the train station. They are making their own mass exodus out of Philadelphia ahead of this airborne toxin in New York. Just a precaution.

But events get worse when their train stops indefinitely in an anonymous, rural town of Filbert, Pennsylvania. From there they must find a way out of this mess. Anyone traveling by rail in England during times of inclement weather can sort of relate to what this situation might be like. Only cell phones don't work, the electricity's gone out all over the place, and all other acceptable forms of transportation (cars) are driving off—without you—into the wild blue yonder.

M. Night Shyamalan is an inventive writer and director (Sixth Sense, Signs, Lady in the Water, The Village) and as a fan of his work I have to say this is one of the best films he has made. As always there is a double entendre and in this case, survival depends on numbers.

Mathematical and scientific equations thread their way throughout this film and the answers always boggle the mind.

Verdict: ****
Fear Factor: ***