The Wave is a 2015 Norwegian disaster film directed by Roar Uthaug. It was Norway’s official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but was not nominated. The film depicts the collapse of the Γ kerneset fissure in MΓΈre og Romsdal, which triggers an avalanche that leads to an 80-metre (260 ft) tsunami that destroys everything in its path. A sequel titled The Quake (Norwegian: Skjelvet), directed by John Andreas Andersen, was released on 31 August 2018.
Geologist Kristian Eikjord is working his last day in Geiranger before moving to Stavanger with his family, when sensors on the mountain indicate that groundwater has disappeared in Γ kerneset.
While waiting for the ferry with his children, Sondre and Julia, while his wife Idun works a few extra days at the town hotel, Kristian suddenly has a realization and rushes back to the geological center, leaving the children in the car. He and his colleague Jacob investigate the fissure and discover that the sensor wires have been broken due to movement inside the mountain. Kristian’s former boss Arvid agrees to move to a higher alert status, but does not issue an evacuation alert because it is the middle of the tourist season.
Kristian returns to the car a few hours later, only to find that the children have already arrived at the hotel. Julia wants to say goodbye to their home, so Kristian drives with her to stay there for one last night. Sondre checks into the hotel and goes down to the basement with his headphones and skis. Arvid and Jacob find the readings to be accurate and head down to the fissure to investigate. Kristian looks at the records of previous avalanches and finds that the readings indicate an impending avalanche. He calls the police and orders them to sound the tsunami alarm for the residents of Geiranger. The avalanche occurs, and Arvid is killed when Jacob’s leg gets stuck. The alarm goes off just before the boulder falls into the fjord, creating a massive tsunami that hits Geiranger.
With just ten minutes to go before the tsunami hits Geiranger, Kristian and Julia, stuck in traffic, realize their altitude is low. They abandon their car and run uphill, shouting for others to follow. Their neighbor Anna’s leg is stuck in the car, and Kristian takes Julia up the mountain with Anna’s husband Thomas and daughter Teresa. When the tsunami hits, Kristian realizes that he and Anna will not make it. He frees Anna and puts himself and Anna in a truck before the tsunami sinks the truck. Meanwhile, Idun and her colleague Vibeke have evacuated the hotel by bus, but Sondre is nowhere to be seen. Idun refuses to leave without him, and fellow travelers Maria and Philip help her search. They find Sondre, but when they return to the lobby, they find the bus gone and the tsunami has reached Geiranger. They rush to the bomb shelter while being chased by the water. Maria is swept away, but the others survive. Kristian survives but finds Anna lying dead next to him, impaled by debris. He heads to Γrnevingen and finds Julia alive, leaving her with Thomas and Teresa while he returns to Geiranger to find Idun and Sondre. In the now devastated town, Kristian quickly finds the destroyed evacuation bus filled with dead passengers, including Vibeke but without Idun and Sondre, and begins to move towards the hotel. In the bomb shelter, the water level rises and they are unable to open the door and swim out because the debris in the hallway is blocking their path. Philip, struggling to breathe, pushes Sondre into the water, but Idun drowns him to save her son.
