6 Cinematic Tsunamis in Honor of the New Disaster Movie 'The Wave'

The new thriller The Wave proves that the tradition of classic Hollywood disaster movies is alive and well…in Norway. Directed by Roar Uthaug, the film — which will be in theaters and on demand on March 4 — pits the residents of a small Norwegian town against an enormous tsunami generated by a collapsing mountain. It’s a life-and-death scenario that the film takes absolutely seriously, unlike some of the campier entries in the disaster movie canon. (For reference, it’s closer to the original Airport rather than the ridiculous The Concorde: Airport ‘79.)

When the giant wave finally sweeps through town, the destruction is appropriately apocalyptic, with Uthaug choreographing an impressive amount of disaster for his reportedly $6 million budget. (He’ll almost certainly have more money to play with on his next feature, a reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise.) We went back and located some of the other memorable tidal waves in cinema history, and ranked them in order of least to most destructive. Faced with these giant walls of water, we’re all gonna need bigger boats.

6. Back to the Beach (1987)