The Impossible vs The 2004 Tsunami

The very idea of a Tsunami coming and destroying an everything in its path is scary enough, so seeing the images of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and Tsunami is quite painful. The Tsunami hit on December 26th, 2004. It remotely triggered earthquakes as far away as Alaska and resulted in the death of 230,000 people. A 9.1 magnitude earthquake was what sparked the Tsunami.

In 2012, J.A. Bayona directed the film The Impossible. The film stars Naomi Watts, Tom Holland, and Ewan McGregor. The film is about one family in particular who was on holiday in Thailand when the Tsunami struck. The family was María Belón, her husband Enrique Alvárez, and her three sons Lucas, Simón and Tomás. The family managed to survive the Tsunami but were split up in the process. The film shows them before the Tsunami strikes, when it strikes, and the aftermath when they are trying to find each other.

Due to the impact of the Tsunami on many individuals, the importance of accuracy was clear. The director and the actors worked extremely hard to accurately portray this tragedy, and their attention to detail paid off. From the wave hitting the resort, to the reunion in the hospital, the attention to detail was incredible. They managed to shoot in some of the actual locations that the disaster hit. Enrique was impressed by Ewan McGregor’s incredibly accurate portrayal despite never having met him. Naomi Watts was also given praise by Maria for her very real portrayal of the emotions that Maria went through while trying to keep herself and her son Lucas alive.

Despite this there were still details that were incorrect in the film. The true family was Spanish, while the actors in the film are all British. While this gravely upset viewers due to the inaccuracy and the erasure of the actual poc who were affected, Maria Belón has said that it did not bother her. It was not about them being Spanish, it was about them surviving something traumatic. The detail that the film got incorrect that did upset Maria was the color of the ball. Lucas goes to pick up a ball right before the wave hits, and in the film the ball is red. During the actual Tsunami, the ball is yellow. While this little detail may have seemed minor, to a mother who watched her son get swept away by an enormous wave it was memorable.

The Impossible is a good example of a film based on a true story that cared about the details and did not embellish for dramatic affect, they stuck to the raw, gritty, heartfelt, and tragic details of the true story. That effort is evident in the film and in the real life families praise of the accurate portrayal of their story.