Our best tsunamis scenes in movies

Although water and good hydration are essential for our survival, too much water can be disastrous. This is brilliantly captured by movies which feature a devastating tsunami as a catalyst for the action. What could be more terrifying than a wall of water advancing at several hundred miles an hour? Even the best water management schemes cannot prevent tsunamis, or the impact of the sea reaching and contaminating other valuable sources of water, making them even more deadly. Here are some of the best moments of cinematic tidal wave terror.

The Impossible (2012)

This acclaimed film was based on one of the most destructive tsunamis in living memory, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and the remarkable story of Maria Belón and her family.  It is in fact a Spanish film but follows a British family trying to find each other after disaster strikes. Naomi Watts earned a number of nominations, including one for Best Actress at the Oscars, for her role in the film as mother Maria Bennett.  The blog HeyUGuys features an interview with both Naomi and Maria about the challenges of the film. (http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/the-heyuguys-interview-naomi-watts-and-maria-belon-talk-the-impossible/)  You can see the terrifying impact of the wave here:

Hereafter (2010)

Another film taking inspiration from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami is Clint Eastwood’s supernatural chiller about a group of people who talk to the dead.  French journalist Marie acquires this skill after a near-death experience in the disaster.  The scene was so realistic, it was not released in Japan due to the timing of the Japanese tsunami.

Tidal Wave (2009)

This Korean film features a mega-tsunami hitting Haeundae, (the Korean title of the film), in the coastal city of Busan, and is often credited with being South Korea’s first disaster movie. It had one of the biggest budgets ever seen in Korean cinema and was widely seen around the world before being released on home soil.  In this scene, the enormous wave finally reaches land.

Given the success of The Impossible and our appetite for disaster movies, how long will it be before another tsunami film is released?