9 / 10
The Impossible is the best disaster film of the twenty-first century. J.A. Bayona directed it. Naomi Watts plays Maria Bennett, a doctor on Christmas vacation in Thailand with her husband and three sons when the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami hits their resort. Ewan McGregor plays Henry. Tom Holland makes his film debut as the eldest son Lucas. The story is real. The Maria character is based on Maria Belón, a Spanish doctor whose family survived the actual event. The film is hers, told through the family’s eyes.
What separates The Impossible from other disaster films is that the disaster is mostly over by the end of the first act. The tsunami hits at the eight-minute mark. The rest of the film is about survival, separation, and the slow work of finding each other again in a country whose infrastructure has been destroyed.
The Tsunami Sequence
The wave itself is shot in a single continuous sequence that runs roughly six minutes. Bayona used a combination of practical water tanks and CGI, but the practical work is dominant. Naomi Watts performed most of the scene herself in a water tank. The wave comes from behind her. She turns. The shot does not cut away. She is pulled under. The camera goes with her.
The sequence is one of the most physically punishing depictions of natural disaster in cinema. The film does not romanticize the violence. The water carries debris. The debris hits the body. Maria is impaled at one point by a tree branch. Lucas is bruised, cut, and exhausted. They surface in a flooded landscape that does not look like a movie set. It looks like a flooded landscape.
For Writers
A disaster sequence works when the audience experiences the disaster instead of watching it. The Impossible’s tsunami is unbroken from the protagonist’s point of view. The reader is in the water with her. No cuts to other characters. No reaction shots from a safe distance. The lesson is that immersion in a disaster scene depends on staying inside the experience of one person. Reaction shots from outside the danger break the audience out of the danger. Stay inside.
The Hospital
Maria and Lucas reach a regional hospital that is itself barely functioning. The scenes inside the hospital are some of the most uncomfortable in the film. Maria is dying from sepsis. Lucas is twelve and has been thrust into the role of his mother’s caretaker. The supporting cast of injured strangers and overwhelmed Thai staff is treated with respect. Bayona does not romanticize Thai culture and does not condescend to it. The hospital staff are working professionals doing impossible work with the resources available.
The decision to focus on Spanish tourists, rather than on Thai survivors, has been criticized. The criticism has merit. Maria Belón’s real family was Spanish, and the film tells her story, but the framing means that the film centers tourists in a tragedy that killed roughly two hundred and thirty thousand people, most of them locals.
For Writers
A story told from the perspective of outsiders to a disaster has different responsibilities than a story told from the perspective of locals. The Impossible centers a Spanish family in a Thai catastrophe. The choice is defensible because the writer is telling the story of a specific family, but the choice has cost. The lesson is to know who is centered in your story and what is not centered as a result. Both decisions are choices. Both have consequences.
The Family
The eventual reunion of the family is intercut so that the audience does not know who is alive and who is dead until the camera arrives. The script withholds information ruthlessly. The viewer goes through the entire second act believing the worst because the characters believe the worst. When the family is finally reunited, the film does not score the moment with strings. It just lets it happen, in a hospital courtyard, with people who do not yet know they are about to be alright.
Tom Holland’s performance is remarkable for a fourteen-year-old. He carries the long middle stretch of the film while Watts is in surgery. The scenes where Lucas runs around the hospital trying to reunite other families with their loved ones is the kind of role that established him as a real actor before Marvel turned him into a brand.
For Writers
Withholding emotional resolution increases its power when it finally arrives. The Impossible could have intercut so the audience knew the family would survive. Instead, the film treats the audience the way the characters experience the situation. The lesson is that knowledge withheld from the protagonist should be withheld from the reader. Dramatic irony has its uses, but for emotional climax, parallel ignorance with the character is usually stronger.
Craft Note
J.A. Bayona directed. Sergio G. Sánchez wrote. Naomi Watts as Maria Bennett. Ewan McGregor as Henry Bennett. Tom Holland (film debut) as Lucas. Samuel Joslin and Oaklee Pendergast as the younger sons. Geraldine Chaplin in a small role. Based on the real experience of Maria Belón and her family during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Filmed in Spain and Thailand. Released October 2012 in Spain. Approximately forty-five million dollar budget. One hundred and eighty million worldwide gross. Naomi Watts nominated for Best Actress Oscar.
The Verdict
9/10. The disaster sequence is one of the most physically demanding pieces of filmmaking of the 2010s. The performances are excellent. The film’s choice to center a Spanish family in a Thai disaster is defensible and also a real limitation. Watch it. Be prepared for the wave.
FAQ
Is it based on a true story?
Yes. The Belón family was on holiday in Khao Lak, Thailand when the tsunami hit on December 26, 2004. All five family members survived. Maria Belón was a consultant on the film.
Why is the family Spanish in real life but British in the film?
Casting and financing decisions. The producers wanted English-language casting for international distribution. Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor were attached. The family’s nationality was changed to match.
Is the tsunami CGI?
A combination of practical effects and CGI, with the practical work dominating the scenes featuring the cast. Naomi Watts spent significant time in water tanks. The damage shown after the wave was largely practical set construction.
Is Tom Holland really making his film debut?
Yes. He had a stage background, including playing Billy in Billy Elliot on the West End. The Impossible was his first film role.
How accurate is it to the real event?
The family’s experience is depicted with reasonable accuracy, with some compression and dramatization. The conditions in Thai hospitals after the disaster are accurately portrayed.
How does it compare to other disaster films?
Better than almost all of them. The Towering Inferno is the only other disaster film at this level. Most modern disaster films focus on spectacle. The Impossible focuses on survival.
Should I watch this?
Yes, but only when you are emotionally ready for it.