Norway is quickly becoming the master of the grounded disaster film. In 2015, The Wave received critical acclaim. . . three years later, the same creative team (including producer Are Heidenstorm and writers John Kåre Raake, Harald Rosenløw-Eeg) brought forth a sequel, The Quake, directed this time by John Andreas Andersen.
If there was one complaint about the previous film, it is that there could have been a bit more depth in regard to the characters. Learning from their mistakes, The Quake takes place three years later. . . Kristian Eikjord (Kristoffer Joner) is deemed a hero by the country – though he does not feel one. Bogged down by the countless lives lost after the title wave hit the tourist town Geiranger, the now bearded man is in a fugue-like nervous state.
Unable to truly help himself, his wife Idun (Ane Dahl Torp) and children Sondre (Jonas Hoff Oftebro) – now at University, and Julia (Edith Haagenrud-Sande), have moved to Oslo, leaving him to fester in his own psyche back in Geiranger.
Receiving a package from an old acquaintance and learning that the same man has just passed away in a freak accident, Kristian looks through the documents and believes that he has discovered that a giant earthquake will strike Oslo in the near future. Waking him from his wavering state, Kristian journeys to the big city, reconnecting with past colleagues and continuing his now deceased friend’s work.
Unbelieved by most, he finds aid from the man’s struggling daughter, Marit (Kathrine Thorborg Johansen) – a young woman dealing with her own issues. Together, they begin to follow the breadcrumbs her father left behind. . . his scientific tests that may prove him to be right.
A fascinating double pronged film, for the first two thirds of the story, this is a searing psychological drama – looking at how loss and pain creates fissures not in the ground, but in the mind. Joner portraying the pain of a man with over two hundred deaths on his conscience (even though without him, the toll would have been quite a bit higher), his trauma not only impacts him, but his family. With a wife that never truly wanted to leave him, their reunion is a complex one – filled with love and confusion, while his daughter simply wants some fatherly affection (something he struggles to give). Then there is Johansen’s Marit. . . who has her own troubles – her father’s work seemingly more important to him than she ever was. Finding both solace and some guidance in the man’s sudden appearance, he, in some ways, is a stand-in for her father – another scientist with all of the same tics and drives (the difference – he needs help).
The last third of the film is where the disaster hits. With impressive CGI, it further enhances the emotional build up that has come before. . . Oslo the epicentre of a massive quake. Impressive for its 5 million dollar budget, director Andersen giving us moments both big and small. Ratcheting up the anxiety, it is those simpler lead-up moments (power outages, a rat’s panic, a drill still stuck in the rock from testing, the water rising from the sewers just before impact, a father’s frantic calls to warn his unreachable family members) that pay dividends in the end. . . each one of those moments building the tension and atmosphere for the payoff.
A quality sequel that does not simply go for bigger is better, The Quake focusses on the things that truly matter: the characters, the story, and the plausibility. Like its predecessor, it is rooted in some reality. . . as Oslo was hit by a giant earthquake back in 1904 – meaning that it is likely to happen again someday – in a way, making this film set in the future. It is also worth noting that this is nothing like the disaster epics from the United States. . . and though some might find this feature a bit slow in the beginning, in the end, it is well worth it. So, shake shake shake to see this Norwegian disaster film, it is a quaking good time.
This film is in Norwegian with English subtitles