The Wave (2015 film)

The Wave

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Roar Uthaug
Produced by Are Heidenstorm
Written by
  • John Kåre Raake
  • Harald Rosenløw-Eeg
Starring Kristoffer Joner
Music by Magnus Beite
Cinematography John Christian Rosenlund
Edited by Christian Siebenherz
Production
company
Distributed by Nordisk Filmdistribusjon
Release dates
  • 14 September 2015 (2015-09-14) (TIFF)
  • 28 August 2015 (2015-08-28) (Norway)
Running time
 105 minutes[1]
Country Norway
Language Norwegian
Budget US$6–6.5 million[2][3]
Box office US$11.6 million[4]

The Wave (Norwegian: Bølgen) is a 2015 Norwegian catastrophe drama film[5] directed by Roar Uthaug. It was Norway's official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but it was not nominated.[6][7][8]

Plot

Multiple mountains in Norway are unstable, and tectonic shifts can eventually cause large pieces to shear off and displace a massive amount of water in nearby rivers/lakes, creating tidal waves akin to an underwater volcanic eruption. The movie presents a futuristic event in Møre og Romsdal for the Åkerneset crevasse of this exact nature ending in disaster; an avalanche creating an 80 meter tall tsunami that will destroy any nearby towns and attraction spots to sufficiently above sea level.

Kristian Eikjord (Kristoffer Joner), an experienced geologist is working at his final day in Geiranger; a tourist destination in Geirangerfjord, with his family scheduled to move to Stavanger. After having a small farewell party with his colleagues in the Åkerneset monitoring station, Kristian and his children head off to catch the ferry to Stavanger, while his wife Idun (Ane Dahl Torp) remains behind as she is still working at the local hotel for a few more days. Kristian had earlier expressed concerns about some sensors shutting down and how such a shutdown could be the signal of an imminent avalanche, but had been assured by his former co-workers that their readings show the crevasse was stable.

While waiting for the ferry, Kristian has an epiphany after observing surrounding events, and turns around and drives back to the geology center he has just left, leaving his son Sondre (Jonas Hoff Oftebro) and youngest child Julia in the car. He explains his realization: earlier readings had shown various groundwater deposits 'disappearing'. Since the water cannot just vanish, it means it is moving through the mountain plates of water, reducing friction. This could allow slippage that would not only weaken and damage the wires connecting instruments within the crevasse to their monitors, but increase the chance of causing the 'stacked' rock plates to be shifted too far, causing a sudden collapse and avalanche. To ensure the safety of the town, he and his partner Jacob head to the crevasse by helicopter, where they find that the wires connecting to their instruments have snapped.

Back at the geology center, Kristian's fears are semi-dismissed; his former boss Arvid (Fridtjov Såheim) agrees to go to a higher state of alert, but does not wish to sound an evacuation alarm based on the current evidence; it could be nothing, and sounding an alert prematurely would ruin the tourist season and risk making people think he and his colleagues are 'crying wolf'. Having done what he can, Kristian returns to his car, but his children are gone; a note on the windscreen tells Kristian they got bored of waiting for him and went to the hotel where their mother works. Kristian heads to the hotel and apologises for leaving his children behind for hours. Idun gives the children a chance to sleep at the hotel before heading to Stavanger the next day, but Julia wants to say goodbye to their house. Kristian drives home with Julia to stay there one last time, fishing a mattress and chair out of their garbage container to sleep on. Meanwhile, Sondre becomes bored in his hotel room and heads down to the basement to skateboard in the corridors there, putting on headphones to listen to music as he does.

Readings from instruments show contraction occurring in the mountain, so Arvid and Jacob head to the crevasse to check the "C-pumps" which measure conditions. They discover that the measurements are accurate and, while in the crevasse, further contraction occurs. Meanwhile, Kristian rereads his old notes and discovers that the contractions are also a sign of an upcoming avalanche, due to how they can shift water pressure within the mountain. Kristian calls the station to explain and orders his colleagues to get Arvid and Jacob up from the crevasse instantly and sound the alarm to alert the inhabitants of Geiranger that they are in danger from the imminent tsunami. Minutes later, the avalanche begins; Jacob's foot is trapped in the initial downfall, and Arvid ultimately sacrifices himself to link Jacob to their zipline brace. The brace can't hold two, and lacking a rope connection, Arvid is dragged down with the avalanche. The rockslide, as feared, creates a giant 80 meter tsunami that barrels towards Geiranger and all the other homes located along the fjord coast.

With less than ten minutes before the tsunami arrives, Kristian races to Geiranger with Julia to pick up Idun and Sondre, but Idun (via phone) orders Kristian to get Julia to safety. Idun and her colleague Vibeke desperately attempt to evacuate the hotel patrons onto a waiting bus, but can't find Sondre anywhere. With time of the essence, Vibeke recalls that she saw Sondre near the basement corridor, and Idun runs back into the hotel, two Danish tourists following her; the wife, Maria Poulson (Mette Agnete Horn), wants to help rescue Sondre, while her husband Phillip (Thomas Bo Larsen) follows mainly to chase after his wife.

Kristian and Julia run into a massive traffic jam clogging the upward road. Realizing they are nowhere near high enough to escape the tsunami, Kristian gets out of his car with Julia and begins running up the road on foot, yelling for everyone else to do likewise. Kristian encounters his friend and former neighbour, Anna, fleeing with her family. Unfortunately, her son Thomas fails to set the car's brake when he gets out, causing the car to roll backwards and trap his mother's leg between his car and the one behind him. Kristian tells Thomas to take his sister and get to higher ground while he helps Anna. He manages to free her. However, realising that they don't have time to get to higher ground, Kristian locks himself and Anna in a van in one last desperate attempt to survive. The tsunami smashes into the car, shattering the windows, trapping the pair in a chaotic underwater maelstrom filled with debris. Meanwhile, Inun locates her son and attempts to run back to the bus with him and the Poulsons, but the bus has already left, and the tsunami is about to strike. Fleeing back into the hotel and attempting to reach a bomb shelter, the wave strikes the hotel violently and causes Maria to be washed away, forcing Idun to close the bomb shelter door before the flooding water drowns them all.

Kristian regains consciousness, realizing that he has miraculously survived the tsunami impact, but Anna is dead, killed by a shaft of debris that impaled her. Freeing himself from the wrecked car, he climbs higher to confirm his daughter's safety, and after doing so and leaving her with Thomas and Thomas's daughter, he heads back down to Geiranger, the entire town having been completely wiped off the map. During his search, he discovers the hotel bus; they failed to escape from the wave and nobody on board survived. After checking the bus and confirming that his wife and son aren't among the passengers, Kristian heads to the remains of the hotel. Down in the bomb shelter, the water filling the basement deforms the door, causing water to begin filling the room to capacity. An attempt to open the door to escape is thwarted by debris having fallen in front of it. The three are forced to retreat to a shaft in the ceiling for air after the bomb shelter completely fills with water. Phillip suddenly panics, pushing Sondre and Idun underwater in a frenzied attempt to stay above water. Unable to calm him down, Idun is forced to hold Phillip under the water with her legs to save herself and her son, killing the man in self-defense.

Kristian enters the hotel, but after locating his son's backpack, he reaches the conclusion the rest of his family is dead and goes into a grief-filled rage, angrily banging some exposed pipes with a metal rod. However, his banging noises are heard by Idun and Sondre, who make their own noises in return against the pipes in their shaft. Kristian follows the sound to the shelter, but as he does so, further damage occurs to the hotel's ruins, causing water to begin flooding the shaft Idun and Sondre are taking refuge in. Kristian reaches the door and removes the debris, Idun meets him at the door; she swims to safety as Kristian goes to get their son. Sondre is also succumbing to panic, and while Kristian manages to convince him to swim for safety, Sondre ends up succumbing to panic halfway there, exhausting his oxygen. Kristian transfers his air to his son via the breath of life technique, which gives Sondre the energy to escape, but Kristian runs out of air and accidentally inhales water. Realizing her husband has not returned with her son, Idun heads back into the submerged hallway to retrieve Kristian, desperately giving him CPR to revive him. While it looks like the Kristian has drowned and Idun accepts his death, Sondre desperately tries one last frantic attempt at revival, which pays off, reviving Kristian at the last moment.

Back where evacuees are gathered, Julia is reunited with her family. The film closes with a title card that says that while the Åkerneset crevasse is monitored constantly, the movement of its tectonic plates indicate that there will eventually be a real-life rockslide similar to the one shown in the film; scientists have agreed it will occur - they simply cannot say just when.

Cast

Production

Development

Filming took place in Geiranger, a small tourist town just below Åkerneset.[9]

Norway is a rockslide prone area (created by the Caledonian orogeny) and The Wave is based on a rock-slide tsunami incident which destroyed the village of Tafjord on 7 April 1934, killing 40 people.[2] Prior to that in 1905, a similar incident triggered a tsunami killing 60 people, and 31 years later, another 74 lost their lives.[10] Uthaug has always been a fan of Hollywood disaster films such as Twister and Armageddon and had long wanted to make a disaster film in Norway.[2] According to him the challenge was to combine the elements of the American genre film with the reality of the situation in Norway.[2]

All the actors performed their own stunts, something the director said was "utterly nerve-racking." And for a climatic scene, in which Joner tries to rescue his family from a flooded hotel, he trained with free-diving instructors to be able to hold his breath for three minutes underwater.[2]

Release

The Wave had its international premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on 16 September 2015.[11]

Box office

The film sold around 800,000 tickets in Norway,[2] and grossed a total of US$8.2 million at the Norwegian box office becoming the highest grossing film of 2015 in Norway.[12]

Awards and accolades

At the 2016 Amanda Awards, The Wave received the award for Best Norwegian Film in Theatrical Release, as well as the awards for Best Sound Design and Best Visual Effects.[13] In addition, the film was also nominated in the categories of Best Norwegian Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Music.[14]

At the Kanon Awards for 2016, The Wave won for Best Male Actor in a Leading Role (Kristoffer Joner), Best Producer, Best Editing, and Best Production Design (Lina Nordqvist).[15]

Critical reception

The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise aimed at the performances of the cast (mostly the two protagonists), cinematography, score and visual effects.[16][9] Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "an exotic edge-of-seater [that] plays on the beauty and terror of nature" and "a thrilling ride",[3] while chief international film critic Peter Debruge of Variety described it as "an equally impressive tsunami-peril thriller."[16]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 80% "Certified Fresh" score based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's consensus states: "Well-acted and blessed with a refreshingly humanistic focus, The Wave is a disaster film that makes uncommonly smart use of disaster film clichés."[17] Metacritic reports a 68 out of 100 rating based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[18]

The special effects were lauded by critics, receiving favorable comparison with those of Hollywood.[16] Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter called them "convincingly terrifying and involving."[3] Collider.com reviewed, "...a major technical achievement that will hopefully make Hollywood reconsider the tendency to go bigger and bigger to the point of excess."[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Wave (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 15 April 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Scott Roxborough (3 December 2015). "Foreign-Language Oscar Spotlight: Norway's Disaster Epic 'The Wave'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Deborah Young (12 September 2015). "'The Wave': TIFF Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "The Wave (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  5. ↑ "Her kommer monsterbølgen inn mot Geiranger". Dagbladet. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  6. ↑ ""Bølgen" er Norges Oscar-kandidat". NRK. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  7. ↑ "Norway pins Oscar hopes on 'The Wave'". News in English. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  8. ↑ Roxborough, Scott (3 September 2015). "Oscars: Norway Picks 'The Wave' for Foreign-Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 Perri Nemiroff (17 September 2015). "'The Wave' Review: Puts Hollywood Disaster Movies to Shame". Collider.com. (Complex). Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  10. ↑ David Nikel. "The Wave: Norway's First Disaster Movie". Lifeinnorway. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  11. ↑ Nancy Tartaglione (16 September 2015). "Magnolia Rides 'The Wave'; Acquires U.S. On Norway's Smash Disaster Pic – Toronto". Deadline.com. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
  12. ↑ Scott Roxborough (22 December 2015). "International Box Office: The Big Local-Language Hits of 2015". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  13. ↑ "Here Are the 2016 Amanda Winners" (Press release). The Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund. August 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  14. ↑ "The Nominees for Norway's Amanda Awards 2016". Cinema Scandinavia. June 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  15. ↑ "The Wave (Bølgen)". Norwegian Film Institute. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  16. 1 2 3 Peter Debruge (25 September 2015). "Film Review: 'The Wave'". Variety. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  17. ↑ "The Wave (Bolgen) (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  18. ↑ "The Wave reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
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