Could plants really kill with chemicals?!?

Question

SPOILER FOR THE MOVIE THE HAPPENING!!!

Ok, so I just saw the movie The Happening, and I was wondering if plants could really do it! For those of you who haven't seen it, here's the deal. A toxic chemical starts affecting people, cutting off neurological controls in the brain and pretty much causing humans to kill themselves. At first they think it is terrorists, but towards the middle and end of the movie they think it is the plants. A plant expert says that plants evolve extremely fast to protect themselves. He used an example of a certain type of caterpillar that would eat some types of plants. The plants started releasing a chemical that would attract a certain species of wasp that would only kill the caterpillars. So he says that maybe plants are starting to view humans as threats, and now humans are triggering this chemical release. He also said that it could be all the plants because they have a way of comunicating with eachother and sending signals. He also says its proven

Answer 1

yes

IDK

IDK

yes

Answer 2

yes, its all true

Answer 3

The biggest problem with the theory that plants can evolve a toxin to kill humans is the way they use the word evolve.

Evolution never has a target. Just like humans can't try really hard to grow two heads, plants can't decide to start producing a deadly toxin that only affects humans.

Evolution works kind of as a series of happy accidents. For instance: Giraffes. There are a couple different theories on giraffes, but one idea is that certain animals had necks that were just a little bit longer than the other animals. The ones with longer necks were able to live longer because they were able to reach more food. This meant that they were able to have babies with long necks just like their parents. If this keeps going, the neck could, theoretically, get longer and longer, as the benefit keeps increasing, and so long as baby animals are born with long necks as well. This is a simplified version of a theory as to how the long neck "evolved" in giraffes.

The giraffes didn't decide to grow longer necks, but the ones with shorter necks died out, leaving the longer ones to have babies.

Evolution doesn't have an end goal. Plants can't decide to evolve in malicious ways, even if it would benefit them tremendously.  You can sleep soundly now. ;)

Answer 4

Plants are very smart but not that smart.

They are smart to make fruits, seeds, etc.. specially designed to be attractive and eaten. Some plants kill each other with reason, not just because they do. They have to compete for resources such as sunlight.

So to answer your question...No , plants are not going to kill humans. They need us just like we need them. Of course, nowadays we take great advantage of them.

Plants can changes just as insects and animals do. They can evolve and who knows. Maybe one day they decide to kill humans for lunch....but not just to kill. However, while we remain one of the animals that helps plants move their seeds and so on, they will remain somewhat on friendly terms.

In any case, plants are just like any creature on this planet. Do you see cows gathering together to kill us? Well.....ya never know! Mooooo!!!!!