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The Impossible, A Tsunami Massacre

The movie “ The Impossible” is set in 2004 as we are watching a family taking a Christmas vacation in Thailand. As they are enjoying their vacation they are unexpectedly struck by a devastating tsunami. The tsunami is what propels the movie forward by separating the family from one another in the wake of the disaster. The task of finding each other seems almost impossible amidst the mass destruction of all infrastructure. The mother and son Lucas are stranded but eventually picked up by some locals and taken to a nearby hospital to treat her injures where it is filled beyond belief due to the mass destruction. The father and other two sons are hurt but not in dire need of medical attention and attempt to find Lucas and their mother as they are being evacuated but it is so chaotic with so many people frantically trying to find one another that they almost don’t find one another.

 According to National Geographic “ A tsunami is a series of ocean waves that sends surges of water, sometimes reaching heights of over 100 feet (30.5 meters), onto land “. It is important to note and understand that a Tsunami is not simply one large wave that just happens to form it is rather a series of these waves. Now how these waves form can come from a few different sources, them being either an underwater earthquake, volcanic eruption, tectonic plate movement, or even an underwater landslide. These natural phenomenon end up displacing large amounts of water deep in the ocean. This displacement of water creates deep waves and and these waves come closer to the shore the water becomes more and more shallow. As the ocean becomes more shallow the power of the waves increases and the displaced water is forced up in turn making the waves larger and larger. These large waves make contact with the shore causing massive destruction and flooding that stretches far inland. 

Now this movie was based off of a certain Tsunami known as the Indian Ocean Tsunami. According to History this Tsunami was the deadliest tsunami ever recorded killing nearly 230,000 thousand people in a matter of hours. The way that the movie depicts this disaster I have found to be pretty accurate in depicting the tsunami. They show the first large waving coming and hitting the beach without any warning of danger beforehand. This is accurate because in Southeast Asia before this tsunami there really wasn’t any wide spread tsunami tracking or warning system. On the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commision’s website they talk about how formed they formed the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System in response to the deadly disaster that this tsunami had. Within the movie they also show as they are being swept away that at least one more wave hit the shore and brought more destruction and flooding into the village. This is something that many movies may miss to show with the secondary waves hitting the shore. The mass chaos and disorganization during the aftermath is very real and true to what they depict with so many injured, dead and lost families. Over all I think that the movie did a good job of depicting just one families experiences during the tsunami but everyone who watches this movie needs to understand that this is only one families experience and record of what happened to them, there are hundreds of thousands that went through this traumatic and life changing experience. Mother nature is nothing to be messed with and these natural disasters are a real threat. 

Sources:

National Geographic

“Tsunami Facts and Information.” Environment, National Geographic, 10 Feb. 2021, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/tsunamis#:~:text=A%20tsunami%20is%20a%20series,destruction%20when%20they%20crash%20ashore.

History

Roos, Dave. “The 2004 Tsunami Wiped Away Towns With 'Mind-Boggling' Destruction.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2 Oct. 2018, www.history.com/news/deadliest-tsunami-2004-indian-ocean.

Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission

Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System, www.ioc-tsunami.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8&Itemid=58&lang=en.