The Wave [2015] review - a great catastrophe movie from Norway

Today I will take a little break from the Dwayne Johnson movies, and I will rather write about a movie that I mentioned in yesterday's movie review that was about the catastrophe movie San Andreas.

But, I will not write about a big Hollywood production. Instead, I would like to share my thoughts about the first catastrophe movie ever from Norway named Bølgen (The Wave). It was created in 2015, and it received fantastic critics in Norway, and it has also had a good reception abroad. It can now be streamed in quite a lot of Netflix regions, so it shouldn't be too hard to find it online if you look hard enough!

What is The Wave about?

In The Wave, we meet the geologist Kristian Eikjord who is about to leave his job in Geiranger to continue his job somewhere else. He doesn't have the best relationship with his family anymore, and especially his relationship with the wife is in a bad condition. The wife works at a hotel in Geiranger as a receptionist.

During a last visit to the monitoring station, he sees a warning come up telling that groundwater has disappeared. The team doesn't take the threat seriously, but Kristian doesn't relax. He thinks about it, and after a while, he convinces his boss to visit the actual site to see what has taken place. As they climb down into the mountain they can see that wires have been cut off? How come? What has happened? The others don't take it as a serious threat, even though Kristian tells them to evacuate the village of Geiranger.

Guess what happens next? The mountain starts to move, and when it collapses into the fjord, a major wave will come which will destroy all of Geiranger. What will happen to the people in Geiranger? What will happen to Kristian's family?

How did I like The Wave

It might not have had the highest budget, at least not compared to catastrophe movies from Hollywood like San Andreas, but I had a much better time watching this movie. It is something special about watching the beautiful nature of Norway, the amazing fjords, and also knowing that this is an actual problem and something that could happen.

The actors all do a fantastic job, and Kristoffer Joner who plays the role as Kristian is awesome. They manage to keep the attention of viewers throughout the entire movie, and even though it might be predictable, there is still a lot of extra spice added to the story that makes it surprising and great to watch.

I have actually seen the movie twice, and that says a lot because I cannot stand watching movies twice (unless I like them a lot). In other words, if you want to watch a catastrophe movie tonight, this is one I can recommend! You can currently find The Wave on Netflix in the USA, in the Netherlands, in Australia, and in quite some other regions!

If you want even more...

I haven't had the chance to see it myself yet, but on August 31st in 2018 a follow-up movie was released named The Quake. This deals with the story of a giant earthquake taking place in Oslo. Again Kristian is the crazy geologist who warns everyone, but again, nobody listens... I haven't seen it yet, but I would love to see it sometime soon!

Have you seen The Wave (Bølgen)? Did you like it? I would love to hear your thoughts about the movie!