the quake movie review

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The first dread-inducing tremor we see in the Norwegian thriller sequel “The Quake” is not geologic, but psychosomatic. It is a close-up of the trembling finger of the still-traumatized scientist who survived the tsunami in “ The Wave ,” and who is about to be dismissed and patronized when he tries to warn everyone that another quake is coming. Geologist Kristian Eikjord ( Kristoffer Joner ) is still so devastated by the experience that he cannot even talk to his young daughter Julia ( Edith Haagenrud-Sande ) when she comes to visit him. He has neglected to buy any food for her and absent-mindedly asks if she has a love interest. Although she is patient and understanding, he abruptly sends her back to her mother, telling her, “I can’t have visitors now.”

On the anniversary of the tsunami that killed 248 people, Kristian appears on a television show, with a pretty newscaster promising “powerful stories of courage and compassion.” The government expert ( Stig R. Amdam as Johannes Løberg) is reassuring that there are no indicators of a recurrence. “We can’t live in fear,” he says. But Kristian knows that is not true, and he is not willing to reframe what happened as a feel-good story.

The death of another scientist leads him to clues that a major earthquake may be about to strike Oslo. He goes to the scientist’s home, where the man’s daughter Marit ( Kathrine Thorborg Johansen ) is getting ready to throw all of his papers away.

Like Kristian, the scientist has one of those rooms with charts and clippings all over the wall and a map on the floor, which anyone who’s ever seen a disaster movie knows this means that he was right, and the professionals staring at rows of computer screens, explaining that “our instruments have never been more precise” and dismissing “alternative theories” must be wrong. And when our hero decides it is time to shave that raggedy beard, we must be getting close to the good stuff.

It takes nearly two-thirds of the film’s running time before the title disaster arrives, which gives us time to reconnect with Kristian’s estranged but sympathetic wife Indun ( Ane Dahl Torp ) and his college student son ( Jonas Hoff Oftebro ). It all sets up what is to come—a lot of high-end special effects, some impressive stunts, and of course family reconciliation.

And this “Quake” delivers with skill. The build-up to the disaster nicely intensifies with a feeling of dread, and some of the subtlest early effects are the most powerful. “What I’m going to tell you is going to sound completely insane,” Kristian says to Indun. “I don’t want to scare you ...” And then the lights quietly just go off in the building, as they later will throughout the city just as Julia is performing in a dance recital.

Knowing something is about to happen, Kristian leaves Marit in the car with Julia as he goes to find Indun, who is at her office on the 34th floor of a skyscraper. Julia runs out of the car, and Marit goes after her. So all four of them end up in the building as the quake hits, Kristian and Indun in an elevator and Marit and Julia in an office that is suddenly near-perpendicular.

The sound design in this film is exceptional, as important as the striking visuals in conveying the sense of collapse. Director John Andreas Andersen understands that the ping of a snapped cable or the crackle of a windowpane starting to split can be as terrifying as a deafening blast. Andersen also displays a strong grasp of visual storytelling with various striking images: the dot of brightness from a flashlight in a tunnel, the red tones of an elevator shaft, a grand piano (in an office for some reason) sliding down the suddenly-sharply angled floor. There are fewer special effects shots than we’d see in a Hollywood version, but they are shrewdly deployed and suitably unsettling.

Like too many other disaster movies, this one suggests that the primary purpose of catastrophe is family reconciliation with a side order of “I told you so.” An enormous, literally earth-shaking catastrophe comes down to whether a father can overcome PTSD to save his little girl. That makes it difficult to enjoy the film as pure special-effects entertainment or appreciate it as a cautionary tale. That pretty newscaster was right—we want stories of chaos and carnage framed with “courage and compassion.” If that does not extend beyond the hero’s own family, however, even the most skillful effects are just pictures.

Nell Minow is the Contributing Editor at RogerEbert.com.

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Film Credits

The Quake (2018)

106 minutes

Kristoffer Joner as Kristian Eikjord

Ane Dahl Torp as Idun Karlsen

Jonas Hoff Oftebro as Sondre

Edith Haagenrud-Sande as Julia

Kathrine Thorborg Johansen as Marit

John Andreas Andersen
Harald Rosenløw-Eeg
John Kåre Raake
Christian Siebenherz
Johannes Ringen
Johan Söderqvist

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The Quake Reviews

...an often excessively deliberate drama...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 26, 2020

It's tense and thrilling, epic and terrifying, and delivers spectacle level action and deeply personal stakes.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jun 30, 2020

The makers of The Quake have to contend with the clichés of natural-disaster movies. They largely succeed, in an emotionally complex drama that should resonate with Californians reeling from months of fires and floods.

Full Review | Jun 1, 2020

It works so well because of this focus and its willingness to set the events within confined parameters.

Full Review | May 15, 2019

A safe sequel to the acclaimed The Wave.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Mar 31, 2019

Skjelvet is not a completely original or surprising film but, by focusing on characters rather than CGI, it manages to create interesting suspense and compelling action with a very limited budget. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 23, 2019

The Quake is a magnificent example of how to make a sequel not only to exploit the success of the first, but with the ambition that their characters evolve without losing their essence. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 22, 2019

The story creates realistic obstacles that pay off when we see the characters survive (or not) throughout the disaster. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Mar 22, 2019

As a disaster movie, The Quake does everything you need and expect with considerably less fuss than many of its genre stablemates.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 11, 2019

Following up the blockbuster hit that was The Wave, The Quake repeats a lot of the same beats assuming it'll be another sure-fire success but ultimately suffers from a mild case of sequelitis.

Full Review | Feb 3, 2019

The reason to watch the film is the excellent cinematography and awe-inspiring effects.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 9, 2019

An enjoyable film that constructs a hero with cunning and that makes even the most impactful scenes have a fallible and human anchor. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jan 2, 2019

A natural disaster with an attractive Nordic landscape guarantees a great film. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 27, 2018

The visual and sound effects are impressive. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Dec 27, 2018

The Quake doesn't work as well as The Wave but it has some impressive effects to entertain us.

Full Review | Dec 20, 2018

There's fun to be had with this movie. While meant to be melodramatic, it still never feels overly serious. It's not silly either, so the fun is in seeing this done so well.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 19, 2018

Should be required viewing for all of today's Hollywood franchise jockeys. It shows you how to make one of these things without sacrificing your characters' souls (or your own, for that matter).

Full Review | Dec 17, 2018

It's a shame his film surrendered to its own impatience to get to the "good stuff." It feels like whole chunks of the movie are missing. We never even get resolutions to the corrupt construction company and possibly-murdered ex-colleague subplots!

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Dec 17, 2018

[S]omewhat expectedly, this film doesn't measure up to its predecessor, but still passes for a popcorn action blockbuster.

For the more open-minded, The Quake offers visceral thrills.

Full Review | Dec 15, 2018

Screen Rant

The quake review: the wave gets a worthy sequel, the quake doesn't break the mold for natural disaster thrillers but, like the wave, its humanist approach to the genre is refreshing and engaging..

The Quake is the sequel to The Wave , a Norwegian natural disaster thriller that earned strong reviews and eventually became the country's highest-grossing film in 2015. Director Roar Uthaug would go on to helm the Tomb Raider movie reboot in the wake of its success, and The Wave itself has since becomes something of the gold standard for its genre, thanks to its emphasis on grounded human drama over mindless CGI-fueled spectacle. For the most part, fortunately, The Quake lives up to the standard established by its predecessor. The Quake doesn't break the mold for natural disaster thrillers but, like The Wave , its humanist approach to the genre is refreshing and engaging.

The film picks up in real-time after the events of The Wave . Geologist Kristian Elkjord (Kristoffer Joner), who predicted the Åkerneset crevasse would collapse and ultimately create a giant tsunami wave in the first place, is still haunted by what he went through and cannot stop thinking about all the people who died because he wasn't able to warn them in time. As a result, Kristian is now estranged from his family - including, his wife Idun (Ane Dahl Torp), daughter Julia (Edith Haagenrud-Sande), and son Sondre (Jonas Hoff Oftebro) - and lives by himself, far away from their home in Oslo.

However, when an old colleague is killed in (seemingly) a freak accident while investigating a tunnel near Oslo, Kristian begins to fear that a massive earthquake is about to hit the Norwegian capital. While his fellow geologist, Johannes Løberg (Stig R. Amdam), initially assures Kristian that his fears are unfounded, the latter soon finds proof to support his hypothesis... though, not before "The Quake" itself gets underway. Hence, it falls to Kristian and his former colleague's daughter, Marit (Kathrine Thorborg Johansen), to reach and rescue his loved ones before it's too late.

The Wave writing duo John Kåre Raake and Harald Rosenløw-Eeg returned to write the sequel, with longtime cinematographer John Andreas Andersen stepping in to call the shots in Uthaug's absence. As a result, The Quake 's script takes the same character-driven approach to its genre as The Wave , and spends much of its first act exploring the emotional fallout of the previous film (specifically, its effect on Kristian psychologically). The narrative settles into more of a familiar pattern from there and hits most of the expected plot beats - from Kristian gradually putting the clues together to his warnings of imminent danger being ignored by the authorities - before getting to the actual (earth)quake in its final third. Still, while The Quake struggles to offer much in the way of surprises or unexpected twists on the way to its final destination, its does a fine job of executing these tropes and building up to its climactic set piece(s).

Andersen and his team do a similarly nice job of bringing those set pieces to life, despite having a significantly smaller budget to draw from than that for the average Hollywood disaster tentpole. The Quake makes limited, but efficient use of CGI to portray the titular earthquake, in combination with practical effects and smart filmmaking choices that effectively disguise the project's budgetary limitations. It helps that the film is sharply photographed in general, and no doubt benefits from Andersen's experience as a cinematographer, in combination with The Wave DP John Christian Rosenlund's clever shot choices and framing techniques this time around. Oslo itself is a big part of what sets The Quake 's action and suspense-fueled sequences apart from those in related U.S. genre movies. The city's unique architecture and layout naturally lends themselves to set pieces that couldn't be staged the same way in your average American city.

As mentioned earlier, however, The Quake is as much a drama about Kristian being traumatized by the events of The Wave as it is a thrill ride - more so, in many ways. This allows Joner to really flex his acting muscles and dig deep into his character's damaged mental state, as well as his struggle with survivor's remorse and inability to let go of the guilt he feels. If there's a downside to this approach, though, it's that the rest of Kristian's family are relegated to the background and The Quake ends up spending little to no time reflecting on their own survivor's guilt and related problems. Still, the movie spends enough time developing Kristian's relationships with Idum and Julia to get viewers invested in what happens to them, and even provides Marit with an arc of her own - allowing her to evolve from a grieving daughter to one of the film's heroes.

While The Quake obviously requires some suspension of disbelief when it comes to the fact that Kristian has now foreseen two "unforeseeable" disasters, it still makes for a worthy continuation of The Wave franchise. Sequels in general aren't exactly known for devoting much, if any, time to exploring how their protagonists have been traumatized by events in a previous film or films (with exceptions like, say, Iron Man 3 ), but that's part of what makes this one such an unusual addition to the pile. The Quake is less groundbreaking than its predecessor in other respects - namely, the plot trajectory and, to a lesser degree, some of the technical elements - but it's a notable franchise movie for that reason alone.

All in all, The Quake is a sequel that's deserving of some attention, especially if you were a fan of The Wave in the first place. Of course, those who've seen that movie ahead of time will have a deeper understanding of Kristian's backstory going in, but its sequel still (mostly) works as a standalone adventure, for those who missed its protagonist's battle with a giant tsunami wave the first time around. The Quake will be playing in select theaters, but will be simultaneously available to watch at home - making it easily accessible for anyone who's game to stay in and watch a foreign-language film this winter holiday season.

The Quake is now playing in select U.S. theaters and is available On Demand. It is 106 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of peril and destruction, injury images, and brief strong language.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

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The Quake Is a Little Too Good

John Andreas Andersen’s The Quake , a sequel to the excellent 2015 Norwegian disaster film The Wave , should be required viewing for all of today’s Hollywood franchise jockeys. It shows you how to make one of these things without sacrificing your characters’ souls (or your own, for that matter).

In the earlier movie, the entire side of a mountain spectacularly collapsed into a fjord, setting off a massive, 250-foot tsunami that consumed the small picturesque town of Geiranger. When The Quake starts, the geologist who tried to warn everybody at the time, Kristian Eikjord (Kristoffer Joner), is now being hailed as a national hero — but even before he opens his mouth, we know that he’s still traumatized by the event, and by all the lives he couldn’t save. As we watch him prepare for a TV interview, our view is obstructed by a giant screen showing images of the devastation; he regularly seems dwarfed by everything around him, as if he might be losing his sense of self.

He is certainly losing his family, whom he tried so hard to save in the first picture. He’s separated from his wife Ilbe (Ane Dahl Torp), who has moved to Oslo with the kids, and Kristian can’t even seem to spend a few days alone just being a dad to his young daughter Julia. Back at home, he has a room filled with photographs of the missing and the dead. What could have been a minor character note in a studio film becomes a defining force here, a kind of paralyzing obsession. To put it another way: Kristian feels like a real person, responding to real things.

His unsettled psyche drives the narrative in other ways, too. When he discovers that a geologist colleague has died while investigating a mysterious incident in a highway tunnel outside Oslo, he begins to suspect that something’s imminent. But nobody wants to believe him — not the government scientists monitoring seismic activity around the country with their newfangled machines, not even his family. Kristian might be the hero who saved thousands of lives, but he’s also the poor loser who can’t let go of his trauma and is therefore suspect.

By the time the earthquake hits Oslo — and it is a truly impressive one, laying waste to everything in its path, taking out entire skyscrapers like they were discarded paper lanterns — Kristian has taken matters into his own hands, attempting to save his family, who are scattered all around town. This was pretty much the template for The Wave , too. As was the fact that, despite Kristian’s actions, things went spiraling out of control in all sorts of new, unforeseen ways. It’s both agonizing and invigorating to watch, a spectacle that is awesome and awful in equal measure.

For all the sensitivity with which its characters have been drawn, The Quake has been conceived (by screenwriters John Kåre Raake and Harald Rosenløw-Eeg, who also wrote The Wave ) with all the delirious, what-if imagination of an intricate engineering experiment. Much of the action in the film’s second half takes place in the topmost section of a Radisson Blu which has been left teetering precariously after another falling building took out much of what’s below. And each tilt, each crack, each secondary collapse feels like it has been thought through in all its geometric and physical implications — which just makes everything that much more nerve-racking. (In its broad strokes, this setpiece recalls a key one from Transformers: Dark of the Moon , and even though that’s one of the better Transformers entries, The Quake ’s variation feels so much more honest, detailed, and, yes, exciting.)

If anything, The Quake might be a little too good. The Wave had a certain far-fetched romanticism that reminded us in its final act that we were, after all, watching a movie, with all the unlikely but welcome developments that come with such a thing: families reunited, remnants of communities restored, and so on. The destruction in The Quake is more total, more hopeless, and more convincing. And without giving too much away, let’s just say that by the time it fades out, we’re not at all convinced that things will ever be okay again. I can’t wait for the sequel.

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Film Review: ‘The Quake’

Oslo is the epicenter of this first-rate — and bigger budget — sequel to '70s disaster-movie revival "The Wave."

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

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Roar Uthaug’s 2015 “The Wave” revived the pleasures of the 1970s disaster-movie cycle in a form that seemed purer than the never-quite-dead genre’s recent Stateside incarnations — most of which seem to involve Dwayne Johnson in a generic pileup of CGI perils. “The Wave” wasn’t high art, but it was entertainment that delivered some standard satisfactions without treating the viewer like an easy mark.

“ The Quake ,” written by the same duo of John Kare Raake and Harald Rosenlow Eeg, is a “more of the same” sequel that’s just as good as the original, in nearly identical ways. Yes, there’s a tolerably talky buildup to wade through first, but once again it pays off in heightened human involvement when the mass destruction hits the fan. With Uthaug having defected to Hollywood and the “Tomb Raider” remake, this entry is helmed by veteran cinematographer John Andreas Andersen (“Headhunters,” “King of Devil’s Island”), whose second directorial feature feels like a seamless extension of “The Wave” rather than a rote retread or cash-in.

We’re reintroduced to geologist Kristian Elkjord ( Kristoffer Joner ) two years after the events of the first film. Things have not gone well for him since. Though he did manage to save his family from the tsunami, he’s plagued by guilt over the many deaths he theoretically could have averted — no matter that he did everything he could to warn authorities, who ignored him until it was too late. As a result, he’s now living as a recluse, separated from wife Idun (Ane Dahl Torp), collegiate son Sondre (Jonas Hoff Oftebro) and grade-school daughter Julia (Edith Haagenrud-Sande). Little Julia particularly wants him back, but Kristian is so PTSD-afflicted that he cuts short even her plaintive weekend visit.

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Nonetheless, he’s forced out of the house upon realizing that a colleague’s accidental death in the Oslofjord tunnel might have been caused by an early indication of imminent major seismic activity — which would strike at the center of populous Oslo. Yet again, he runs around trying to warn the authorities. And again, they brush him off as a paranoid hysteric. Naturally, he’s proven right.

This time aided by Marit (Kathrine Thorborg Johansen), the initially skeptical daughter of his dead colleague, Kristian must race once more to rescue his family members. When the quake hits, they’re scattered in different locations: Julia is rehearsing a performance in an old theater; Sondre sits in a university lecture hall; Idun is having a business meeting high in a skyscraper. Of course these all turn out to be highly hazardous places to be once things start shaking, crumbling and falling.

Like “The Wave,” this sequel builds assuredly toward fine cliffhanger setpieces, relying heavily on the Everyman appeal of the less-than-dashing hero as he tries not to sound like the raving lunatic that everyone hears anyway. A bigger budget translates into an urban setting (rather than the original’s small seaside town), with judicious use of ripping CGI effects. The onset of the quake itself is surely among the year’s best action-suspense sequences.

Some subsequent collapsing-skyscraper action may duly recall the standout sequence in “Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon” in which characters similarly slide toward the edge of a tipping building’s periphery. Nonetheless, there’s a sense that here the undeniable spectacle is ballasted by characters who are more involving. We would actually mind if these folks plunged to their deaths, and indeed the writers don’t cheat; this is not a film willing to completely ignore the laws of probability in order to orchestrate a pat happy ending.

Given the sort of enterprise “The Quake” is, VFX supervisor Lars Erik Hansen and production designer Jorgen Stangebye Larsen assume stellar status among the collaborators. But every contribution here is nicely turned, from John Christian Rosenlund’s handsome widescreen imagery to editor Christian Siebenherz’s gradual screw-turning, as well as a variably warm, eerie and alarmist score by Johan Soderqvist and Johannes Ringen. The performances are, again, very solid, mining the mid-level psychological depth supplied, but not belabored, by the scenarists.

There’s nothing terribly profound or innovative about what “The Quake” achieves. But like “The Wave” before it, it’s just intelligent and serious enough to give you your escapist cake — deluxe popcorn perils in all their big-screen glory — without making you eat the familiar guilt of empty-calorie overload.

Reviewed online, San Francisco, Dec. 10, 2018. MPAA rating: PG-13. Running time: 108 MIN. (Original title: “Skjelvet.”)

Production: (Norway) A Magnet Releasing release (U.S.) of a Magnolia Pictures and Fantefilm presentation in association with Storyline Studios, Film i Vast, Piggy Baenk and Gimpville. Producer: Martin Sundland. Executive producer: Are Heidenstrom.
Crew: Director: John Andreas Andersen. Screenplay: Harald Rosenlow Eeg, John Kare Raake. Camera (color, widescreen, HD): John Christian Rosenlund. Editor: Christian Siebenherz. Music: Johan Soderqvist, Johannes Ringen.
With: Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, Edith Haagenrud-Sande, Kathrine Thorborg Johansen, Jonas Hoff Oftebro, Stig Amdam.

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‘the quake’: film review.

The heroic geologist at the center of 2015's 'The Wave' returns to predict another calamity in John Andres Andersen's disaster movie sequel 'The Quake.'

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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The hero of John Andreas Andersen’s new movie just can’t catch a break. In the director’s 2015 Norwegian film The Wave , the intrepid geologist Kristian (Kristoffer Joner) predicted an earthquake that led to a massive tsunami in the Norwegian town of Geiranger. In the follow-up The Quake , he frantically attempts to alert the authorities that a massive seismic event is about to strike the capital city of Oslo, only to find his warnings go unheeded.

More cerebral and less CGI-effects laden than most similar efforts, this sequel demonstrates that Hollywood has nothing on the Scandinavians when it comes to making exciting disaster pics. It probably won’t reach many filmgoers on these shores because they don’t associate disaster movies with subtitles and because Dwayne Johnson isn’t swooping in to save the day, but for the more open-minded, The Quake offers visceral thrills.

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THE QUAKE Review

December 13, 2018
Ken Bakely
Reviews

Film Pulse Score

It’s abundantly clear that The Quake aspires to a frankness that sets it apart from the disaster films which it otherwise borrows heavily. A sequel to 2015’s The Wave – which also prioritized the unflinching probing of the real consequences of human death and destruction after natural disasters – the movie shares similar strengths and weaknesses to its predecessor.

Its bracing images and non-fatalistic plot developments are weakened by a propensity for Hollywood endings that don’t work when juxtaposed against characters that are otherwise more lifelike and vulnerable than the protagonists of American blockbusters. There’s something difficult about this conflict that keeps it from ever working altogether, as though the very idea that there’s a second event affecting these same characters suggests a major concession to the forces of bland, commercial retreading.

The first event, as dramatized in The Wave , is summarized in a brief prologue: geologist Kristian (Kristoffer Joner), stationed at a lakeside tourist town in Norway, heroically tries to warn the community of an impending rockslide in the water that will cause a destructive tsunami to destroy the town. Though the wave still causes immense devastation, his family – consisting of his wife, Idun (Ane Dahl Torp); teen son, Sondre (Jonas Hoff Oftebro); and tween daughter, Julia (Edith Haagenrud-Sande) – survives, and his recovery efforts are widely praised.

Three years later, the trauma of that day has caused him to go into isolation, drifting away from his work and his family until encountering evidence that leads him to believe that a major earthquake is about to hit Oslo for the first time in over a century. He tries to alert the authorities and contact his loved ones to get them to safety, but it proves too little, too late. After the earthquake hits, Kristian once again must survive the aftermath of a major catastrophe and track down his family.

To do that, he has to navigate a decimated cityscape, with Idun and Julia stuck in a skyscraper that is at imminent risk of collapse. The stakes are always high, as the unsentimental death of a supporting character in the immediate fallout of the tragedy reminds us that nobody is particularly safe.

Joner, with his haunted gaze and bursts of frantic energy, is a capable leading man. He takes both Kristian’s early emotional vacancy and post-tremor heroism and combines them into a consistently good performance. But The Quake often reduces the impact of his peril by treating its climactic rescue sequences as isolated setpieces.

The titular earthquake comes quite late in the runtime; the first two acts are largely dedicated to a slow buildup of dread in anticipation. As Kristian’s inklings of danger grow into certainty, we nervously anticipate when the event itself will occur. However, once it happens, it’s as if a switch has been flipped, and the movie takes a turn for the generic.

Though the special effects are exemplary, considering the film’s budget, there’s nothing all that innovative happening around them, and the dramatic potency of the setup is reduced from the peaks we’ve already witnessed. (As an added sign of how rough things can get, Sondre is essentially a minor character here, rarely seen or invoked after the film’s midway point.)

It gets to the point where The Quake walks back its own ambitions. It refuses to follow through in making a film as intense and dramatically comprehensive as it demonstrates it could be.. To be sure, there are a few events in the third act that are unexpected and emotionally effective, and Andersen delivers them with potency. It’s another sign that, though the movie is capable, it’s missing the extra push to keep it away from using to the familiar tropes it wants to avoid.

Shunning the glib, cardboard-character dynamics of its genre, The Quake gets very close to establishing the idea that these are real people in its world. If they survive, they aren’t going to walk away from this the same as they were before. Yet, by the end, it’s reverted to formula.

Identical like its predecessor, it closes with an ominous series of title cards (noting that experts believe that the disaster depicted in the film could soon happen in the location in which it is set), conveying the feeling that, though the characters emerge changed, their circumstances and surroundings haven’t. They could just as well go through this a third time, and it would play about the same.

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> The Quake (2018) Film Review

Reviewed by: Jennie Kermode

In 1904, the city of Oslo was severely impacted by an earthquake, causing widespread panic and destroying a church. Today, Norway's Department of Earthquake Risk Centre says that it expects a major quake to affect the region at some point, though it has no idea when - the threat just hangs there like it does in San Francisco and most people have far too many other things going on to worry about it. After all, unless you're a geologist, you're not likely to detect the warning signs - and most geologists put their trust in automatic monitoring rather than worrying all the time.

Kristian (Kristoffer Joner) is an exception. If you saw him in The Wave , you'll understand why. Strangely, having been traumatised by a tsunami, he continues to live beside the same fjord, but he is at least above the peak tideline. His wife Idun (Ane Dahl Torp) has moved to Oslo where she lives with their daughter Julia (Edith Haagenrud-Sande, whose acting talent has developed considerably since the first film and who makes quite an impression). Son Sondre (Jonas Hoff Oftebro) is now studying at the city's university and has a serious girlfriend. Everybody has moved on with life except Kristian, who remains so deeply traumatised that his hands shake continually and he's been forced to leave his job. Although they're not unsympathetic, everybody's patience with him has worn thin.

The story kicks off when Kristian uncovers new data hinting at seismic instability around Oslo. Naturally he warns his family and his old friends in relevant professions, and naturally they pass it off as further paranoia on his part. The story develops as it always does on such occasions. By the time anybody is ready to take him seriously, it's too late, and all he can do is try to save the ones he loves.

With nothing in the way of narrative surprise (except perhaps the willingness with which a former colleague's daughter agrees to assist him) the film relies on action and character-based drama. The fact that much of the latter draws heavily on The Wave means this film won't be as effective for people who haven't seen it. The writing here is weaker throughout and despite hard work from most of the actors it doesn't have the impact that it should. That said, it's better than many disaster movies in that at least there are some characters we can care about, and Haagenrud-Sande's contribution means we hope she survives as a person, not just because she's a token child in peril.

The action sequences vary quite a bit in quality. Like its predecessor, the film does an impressive amount with an obviously limited budget. People familiar with the city will doubtless enjoy seeing its iconic buildings crumble in the best movie tradition. The CGI isn't seamless. Some scenes take too long to play out and one, in particular, really needs to be followed by an intertitle saying 'missing reel' because of the way it elides the tricky task of getting our heroes out of their predicament. It succeeds in being scary, however, and you shouldn't go into it assuming that the family dynamic means everybody will be okay at the end.

Whilst some of the action sequences may be a bit silly (not something that disaster movie viewers tend to mind), the actual premise of the film is well developed, with realistic depictions of how scientific work is carried out. There's plenty of intelligence in this film and a fair amount of entertainment - it just may not make the earth move for you.

Director: John Andreas Andersen

Writer: John Kåre Raake, Harald Rosenløw-Eeg

Starring: Kristoffer Joner, Hang Tran, Ane Dahl Torp, Jonas Hoff Oftebro, Edith Haagenrud-Sande, Kathrine Thorborg Johansen, Ravdeep Singh Bajwa, Kristoffer Joner, Hang Tran, Ane Dahl Torp, Jonas Hoff Oftebro, Edith Haagenrud-Sande, Kathrine Thorborg Johansen, Ravdeep Singh Bajwa

Runtime: 106 minutes

Country: Norway

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In 1904 an earthquake of magnitude 5.4 on the Richter scale shook Oslo, with an epicenter in the "Oslo Graben" which runs under the Norwegian capital. There are now signs that indicate that we can expect a major future earthquake in Oslo.
A year after the rock-slide in Geiranger, geologist Kristian Eikjord is preparing to appear on a talk show, and is hailed as a hero for saving hundreds of lives in the disaster. Three years later. Idun is divorcing him and he is separated from their children, Sondre and Julia. Kristian is living in seclusion in the mostly rebuilt Geiranger, his family is living in Oslo. Idun has a new job as a hotel worker at the Radisson Blu Hotel Plaza. Julia comes to visit Kristian for a weekend in Geiranger. Disappointed by how little he tends to her, Kristian has Julia go back home. That night, she discovers a secret room in Kristian's house dedicated to the 250 fatalities of the tsunami. She confronts Kristian about this, who reveals he feels responsible for their deaths. Despite Julia's admonishment that she now wants to stay the weekend, Kristian still sends her home early, calling her distracting. Some time later, the death of a colleague in the Oslo Tunnel prompts Kristian to travel to Oslo to investigate the circumstances of his death. Upon arriving in Oslo, Kristian finds out that his colleague was killed by a collapse in the tunnel he was studying, and was studying seismic movement across Oslo and the surrounding area. Researching the incident further with the help of his colleague's daughter Marit, Kristian eventually comes to the conclusion that a major earthquake, up to a 8.5 on the Richter Scale, may soon hit Oslo, and that the collapse that killed his colleague may have been a precursor movement to that. His attempts to warn his family are mostly ignored. That night, a massive power outage takes out all the electricity in the city, and a seismic rift destroys the Oslo Opera House, and injures Idun, who had arrived to watch Julia's ballet recital. Believing it to be a coincidence, Idun chooses to stay in Oslo. After an argument, Idun orders Kristian to stay away from her and the kids until he gets help. Kristian's continued attempts to warn his family backfire, leading to his wife ordering him to never speak to her again. Kristian does however convince Sondre to leave college for a week to a safer place in the countryside. Determined to save his family, he picks Julia up from her ballet class early, and heads to the Radisson Blu skyscraper with Julia and Marit to try and convince Idun to flee Oslo with them, and afterwards they will go pick up Sondre. Finding Idun on the 41st story, he pulls a fire alarm to get her and everyone else to evacuate. Julia wanders into the building to find her father, with Marit in pursuit. As the elevator doors close, Kristian sees Julia on the other end of the room. Despite attempting to call out to her, the doors close and the elevator begins to auto-descend. Suddenly, the power goes out. Marit finds Julia on the balcony, looking in the distance. The reflection in the glass door behind Marit reveals a trail of smoke and explosions, caused by an approaching earthquake, heading straight for the hotel. Marit grabs Julia and runs inside as the first shock-wave from the quake hits, knocking Marit unconscious. The ceiling of Sondre's lecture hall collapses, killing the professor and several students, and injuring Sondre's girlfriend. Kristian and Idun's elevator rapidly drops down the shaft, knocking Idun unconscious and injuring Kristian. Some time later, Marit wakes, finding Julia tending to an injured hotel worker. Next to the Radisson Blu, the Posthuset building shifts and then collapses directly into the right side of the Radisson Blu, leaving the 41st story hanging precariously over the wreckage, everything below it destroyed. Following an aftershock, the building begins to tilt. Marit unintentionally lets go of the injured hotel worker's hand, and she slides down the floor and out of the window to her death. Marit loses her grip, and nearly suffers the same fate, but grabs on to the edge of the mounted bar, as Julia hangs on to a railing. In the elevator shaft, Idun and Kristian are climbing maintenance ladders to get to the top floor. Debris knocked loose by aftershocks ricochets down the shaft and mutilates Idun's leg, forcing Kristian to carry her. They arrive at an open elevator door near the 30th story, and attempt to use a severed elevator cord to swing across to the opening. Kristian succeeds, but Idun falls to her death. A devastated Kristian heads to the place where he last saw Julia, and finds her and Marit huddling behind the mounted bar. A final aftershock causes Julia to lose her balance, and she slides down the floor towards the broken window. Kristian jumps after her, and pushes her out of the way, knocking himself unconscious in the process. When he comes to, he finds Julia precariously balancing on a cracking window. Carefully approaching Julia, he manages to grab her before the window breaks, and with Marit's help, pulls her up. Together, they leave the hotel. Some time later, Marit enters her office to find it mostly destroyed, except for a picture of her as a child with her father. A reunited Kristian, Julia, and Sondre arrive at their old home in Geiranger by ferry.

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THE QUAKE (2018) review

written by: John Kåre Raake and Harald Rosenløw-Eeg produced by: Are Heidenstrom and Martin Sundland directed by: John Andreas Andersen rated: PG-13 (for intense sequences of peril and destruction, injury images, and brief strong language) runtime: 106 min. U.S. release date: September 21, 2018 (Fantastic Fest) & December 14, 2018 (limited theaters & avail. on Amazon, YouTube, Vudu and Google Play)

I never would’ve thought that I’d be anticipating disaster movies, but that’s how I felt when I learned that the Norwegians behind 2015’s “ The Wave ” made a sequel. That movie surprised me in how it removed itself from the cliche trappings that similar big-budget American blockbusters often succumb to by focusing on realism and humanistic peril over stereotypical characters running to and from scenes of bombastic destruction. And now the same writers and producers from that stellar avalanche/tsunami thriller brings us “The Quake”, which finds new director John Andreas Andersen overseeing another catastrophe in Norway. The result is yet another legitimate nail-biter, as this thriller recaptures all the uncanny characterization and intense calamity, making it that rare sequel that feels like an equal.

While “The Wave” was based on an actual incidents that occurred in Norway’s past, the movie was set in the near-future, indicating what transpires is something that could occur again. Considering the movie ended with a closing statement that told us the events we witnessed “are likely to occur in the future, but the exact date is a mystery”, it should come as no surprise that we’ve returned. “The Quake” is set three years to the date after the tsunami that killed 248 people in the tourist destination of Geiranger and when we catch up with the family we followed in “The Wave”, we’re reminded that grief and trauma can often fracture whatever way of life survivors attempt to maintain.

Geologist Kristian Eikjord ( Kristoffer Joner ) is now divorced and separated from his wife, Idun ( Ane Dahl Torp ), and their two kids, older son, Sondre ( Jonas Hoff Oftebro ) and younger daughter, Julia ( Edith Haagenrud-Sande ), all of whom live in Oslo, while Kristian has stayed behind in Geiranger. When a former colleague is killed in a traffic tunnel collapse, in what the Norwegian Press calls a traffic accident, Kristian travels to Oslo to investigate, knowing in his gut something isn’t right. It doesn’t take long for Kristian to figure out that the death was caused by seismic movement, something he learns his friend was studying at length, determining the possibility of a massive earthquake striking Oslo.

With the help of his friend’s daughter, Marit ( Kathrine Thorborg Johansen ), Kristian learns that the city is about to be hit with the same size quake that destroyed the city 100 years ago. He desperately tries to warn the proper authorities and emphasize that the citizens must be alerted, but Johannes ( Stig R. Amdam ), a senior official at monitoring station Norsar doesn’t take Kristian’s warnings seriously. After that response, Kristian’s number one priority becomes finding his family, but when the massive earthquake hits the city, he suddenly finds himself in a collapsing skyscraper as tries his best to save them.

One of the reasons “The Wave” and “The Quake”, both standout as something refreshing in this genre is how at no point do the main characters we follow make overly stupid or rash decisions. Sure, some decisions are emotional, but bottom line the motivations behind the character’s action are understandable and justified, even if it finds them placed in situations where it will be impossible to come out alive. But the main these movies work is because screenwriters John Kåre Raake and Harald Rosenløw-Eeg prefer to focus on what’s happening with the humans we get to know, rather than the earth that’s crumbling under their feet. These are decisions that payoff immensely for the audience.

“The Quake” opens with a close look at Kristian, who is a broken man after the harrowing events of “The Wave”. Nervous and paranoid, he remains isolated from his family and friends, traumatized by the life-changing event he survived. Although locals and colleagues acknowledge him as a hero for saving lives, he doesn’t see it. He can’t even handle having his daughter over to stay with him. His place is a mess and he has no food in anticipation of her visit, so he abruptly puts Julia on a ferry back to her mother. This sets up the fragile state of the protagonist, something rarely seen in American disaster movies – just think of the characters in “ San Andreas ” a movie that relied heavily on pure disaster porn instead of relatable characters in realistic situations.

It takes a while for Kristian, once again so excellently portrayed by Kristoffer Joner, to gather himself together and make his way to Oslo to warn officials and track down his family, so any viewer hoping for anything disastrous to occur right away will be disappointed. None of that matters, since Andersen is establishing who people are as he builds to the panic, knowing it’ll be worth the wait once viewers are invested in characters they’ve spent time getting to know.

In disaster movies, the antagonist is never natural catastrophes, but rather those in charge who could’ve either prevented the event from happening or at least done something to ensure less collateral damage. In “The Quake”, Kristian gets zero assistance from Johannes when he is presented with evidence of growing seismic activity in the city , which is why Kristian turns to Marit for help. However, all of this information is quite a shock to her, considering she had no idea her father had tapped into the potential for real disaster in a major metropolitan area. While all of this transpires, it becomes heartbreaking to see Kristian realize all that he’s missed over the years while remaining either obsessed or paralyzed by his geology research work…in his effort to ensure his family will have a future, he totally missed them in their present.

When “The Quake” inevitably unleashes utter chaos, Andersen pulls out all the stops, creating an epic cinematic experience, thankfully without sacrificing characterization. When the earth starts to crack through Oslo and buildings are crumbling, there is no possibly way for Kristian to be everywhere he needs to be in order to gather up his family. Where Dwayne Johnson would commander a helicopter and pick up his estranged wife to go save their daughter, Joner’s Kristian desperately tries to determine what his next best move would be to bring him closer to his family. We see that his son is stuck in a university class, where the teacher thinks the tremors around them are simply a drill, but what becomes most nerve-wracking is the how four characters wind up in the same location, yet unable to help each other. At the top of a high-rise we find Julia and Marit, who wind up trapped as the building begins to fall over and then there’s Kristian and Idun who are in a nearby elevator shaft which becomes increasingly unstable. No amount of super heroics will be able to save everyone we care about, which makes the movie all the more real.

The visual effects that detail the danger and survival challenges that unfold at every turn in the movie’s third act are spot-on, immersing viewers in the absolutely intense mayhem. At no point is Anderson or anyone involved in “The Quake” looking to visualize a city leveled or ratchet up a body count. What matters here are the characters and the seriousness of their dire situations. It ultimately induces sweaty palms for viewers, who are sure to pick up on how the movie refrains from becoming a rehash of what came before it or languish in the type of American disaster movies we’re used to seeing. I don’t know what can come after this, but I’m certainly concerned with the state of Kristian’s psyche – the guy has been put through the ringer.

RATING: ***

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By Bobby LePire | January 8, 2019

In 2015 the disaster epic The Wave (aka Bølgen ) was released. It garnered high critical praise, won a slew of awards, and was the highest grossing film that year in its home country of Norway. It also happens to be a movie I have not seen. Now comes its sequel, The Quake (aka Skjelvet ), taking place three years since the end of the first film.

Geologist Kristian Eikjord (Kristoffer Joner) is suffering from PTSD after almost dying during the tsunami. He also feels intense guilt over failing to save everyone before the wave hit Geiranger. Due to the strain, the tsunami put on their relationship, Kristian and Idun (Ane Dahl Torp) are now divorced. He rarely sees his two children, university-bound Sondre (Jonas Hoff Oftebro) and young Julia (Edith Haagenrud-Sande). However, when a colleague is killed in a tunnel collapse in Olso, Kristian is once again spurred to action.

He enlists the help of Marit (Kathrine Thorborg Johansen), the late co-worker’s daughter, to investigate the cause of the cave in. They figure out that a massive earthquake is soon to cause devastation to Olso and its suburbs. Now, the pair must convince the authorities to evacuate the citizens, as well as get to Kristian’s family before the city is reduced to rubble.

“…must convince the authorities to evacuate the citizens…before the city is reduced to rubble.”

Of course, this being a disaster film, the earthquake does come before the heroes make it out. Once it does, things are genuinely rousing and intense. John Andreas Andersen, taking directing duties over from Roar Uthaug, employs huge, sweeping shots to show off the beauty of Olso. Those same shots also show the tragic disaster that eventually plays out. The special effects are remarkable, putting more recent Hollywood disaster flicks to pure and utter shame. The special effects and stunning cinematography are the highlights of The Quake , and easily overcome some of the more cliched elements of the story.

The writers of The Wave , John Kåre Raake (who penned the amazing adventure flick Ragnarok ) and Harald Rosenløw-Eeg, return for the sequel. As a standalone movie, it mostly holds its own. The prologue, taking place one year after the tsunami, does an excellent job of introducing Kristian and what his accomplishments to the audience. But then seeing his wall of newspaper clippings, missing person reports, and obituaries highlights the guilt he feels over not saving everyone without copious expository dialogue. Watching this broken man once again be thrust into a position of wanting but unable to save the entire city is an arc that keeps the viewer invested in the characters.

On the flipside, certain deaths were not as impactful as they should have been. When a co-worker of Kristian’s dies, it never fully registers. This might mean more for those familiar with the first film, but I am not sure on that. Either way, in this film, this person is in it so little, that swapping him out for a random highway employee would get the same emotional response and get the characters to the same place in the story.

“… thanks to strong characterizations and good acting the plot is still engaging.”

The screenplay also hits the expected cliches- the federal regulatory agencies don’t believe the main character, despite this person’s proven track record. Yeah, I couldn’t wrap my mind around that one either. Moreover, Kristian is such a workaholic he misses an important family date (Julia’s ballet recital). While these were a tad annoying, the primary characters are so well developed that it is only a minor stumbling block.

Kristoffer Joner is magnificent as Kristian. He plays the character as so world-weary and distraught his mental break makes total sense. More importantly, when he is interacting with his family, you can see sparks of life and the man he once was come back. Playing Idun, Ane Dahl Torp is also quite good. She’s never bitter or angry at Kristian; instead, she’s heartbroken and disappointed. In a sequence where they are trying to restore power to the house, it is clear they still love each other, and if Torp played the character as cynical that would kill the emotional arc for both of them. As the kids, Oftebro and Haagenrud-Sande are good and share believable chemistry with their onscreen parents.

The Quake hits a handful of the cliches one expects from a disaster film, as well as having one character’s death not mean as much as it should. However, thanks to strong characterizations and good acting the plot is still engaging. However, the reason to watch the film is the excellent cinematography and awe-inspiring effects.

The Quake (2018) Directed by John Andreas Andersen. Written by John Kåre Raake, Harald Rosenløw-Eeg. Starring Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, Jonas Hoff Oftebro, Edith Haagenrud-Sande, Kathrine Thorborg Johansen.

8 out of 10 Gummi Bears

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2018 ‘Skjelvet’ Directed by John Andreas Andersen

The Wave was only the beginning

A geologist races against time to save his estranged wife and two children when a devastating earthquake strikes Oslo, Norway.

Kristoffer Joner Ane Dahl Torp Jonas Hoff Oftebro Edith Haagenrud-Sande Kathrine Thorborg Johansen Fredrik Skavlan Stig R. Amdam Catrin Sagen Ingvild Haugstad Ravdeep Singh Bajwa Tina Schei Hang Tran Per Frisch Hanna Skogstad Runar Døving Agnes Bryhn Røysamb David Kosek Mads A. Andersen Kyrre Mosleth Emilia Oldani Petter Wold Kraglund Vilde K. Worren

Director Director

John Andreas Andersen

Producers Producers

Are Heidenstrøm Martin Sundland

Writers Writers

John Kåre Raake Harald Rosenløw-Eeg

Editor Editor

Christian Siebenherz

Cinematography Cinematography

John Christian Rosenlund

Production Design Production Design

Jørgen Stangebye Larsen

Art Direction Art Direction

Daniel Vaclavik Hailey Reynolds Hall

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Kaja Raastad Nora Sopková

Composers Composers

Johannes Ringen Johan Söderqvist

Sound Sound

Daniel Angyal Svein-Ketil Bjøntegård Baard H. Ingebretsen Johan Rasmus Pram Tormod Ringnes Morten Solum

Costume Design Costume Design

Anne Pedersen

Makeup Makeup

Dimitra Drakopoulou

Releases by Date

31 aug 2018, 06 sep 2018, 01 nov 2018, 23 nov 2018, 14 dec 2018, 03 jan 2019, 21 feb 2019, 26 apr 2019, 08 aug 2019, 06 feb 2019, 07 jun 2019, 21 jun 2019, 22 nov 2019, 01 nov 2022, releases by country.

Theatrical 14
Theatrical 15
Digital VOD
TV Canal+ Cinéma
Physical 16 Blu-ray, DVD (LEONINE)
Theatrical Κ-15
Physical DVD

Netherlands

Theatrical 12
Physical 12 DVD, Blu ray
Theatrical APTA
Physical 11 DVD & Blu-ray release
Theatrical PG-13

106 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Tony the Terror ★★★★ 2

So I decided to bump The Wave up to 4.5 stars because while these are both truly amazing disaster films, I think I ever so slightly prefer the first one because the subject matter a smidge more original.

Still, goddamn, Norwegians have a better quality of life then we do AND they know how to make an excellent disaster film so much better than we do so basically what I’m saying is that my new dream is to move to Norway...or maybe just visit?

Seriously though, these Norwegian disaster flicks contain the one ingredient that is always lacking from American versions and that is heart . Like you really care about all of the characters and it makes all the difference in…

Review by Jay ★★½ 1

we watched without english subtitles so i had no idea what was happening but hey i had fun

Review by Truls Schtainswick ★

"Ey guys let's skip the third act, 'cause we used too much money on marketing and the amazing Skjelvet burger lmao"

Review by iana ★★★

1) norway needs to stop doing this man dirty how are all these officials gonna gaslight him AGAIN after the tsunami!!!!!

2) my brain is broken because the only oslo landmarks i recognised were the radisson blu, as seen in skam, and the oslo opera house cloakroom, as seen in thelma

3) so wild that there's a scene that's vaguely similar to tomb raider (2018) and roar uthaug directed bølgen

Review by Brage Marcus ★★★★

THE QUAKE is surprisingly good. A Norwegian disaster movie and special effects extravaganza that actually understands that its characters are far more important than the spectacle of its action and effects. THE QUAKE is by all means an intense nail-biter when it comes to the action - and it is frightening to see Oslo destroyed, but the real drama in THE QUAKE comes from the main character and his struggles with the aftermath of the events that occurred in THE WAVE (yes, this is a sequel) and how that has affected his relationship to his family. It's just damn solid character development and it is at times emotionally devastating.

That THE QUAKE so successfully manages to be an emotionally engaging…

Review by DoctorDrax ★★★½

"Oslo has experienced this before..."

After very much enjoying disaster epic The Wave, I was surprised to discover that it spawned a sequel(not that it needed it on any level). I was genuinely curious to see how the further exploits of geologist Kristian unfolded after the events of The Wave. It seems time hasn't been kind to a dishevelled Kristian, as he attempts to reconnect with family in Oslo. The minor sticking point being Kristian's worry of an impending quake there on the magnitude of the 1904 one. More than a little like Jaws 2, or Die Harder, we see Kristian dealing with lightening striking twice, so he goes full on Chief Brody again, seemingly the only character to be…

Review by Thomas Fjellum ★½ 2

Let me talk a sec about Marit, or whatever her name was. The one main girl who's not family. If my dad had died, and some old colleague of his came to my place, would I seemingly drop everything in my life to help him? Help him break into a tunnel, help him gather his family members rather than escape the collapsing city? Hell no. And if I did, you would probably want to know why. Here, we never find out.

Skjelvet is a big mess of a film, but this was the thing that annoyed me the most

Review by Slig001 ★★★½

The follow up to Norwegian disaster movie The Wave is basically the same thing, except this time with an earthquake. We focus on the same guy from the last film, who once again finds himself at the centre of a major catastrophe. Now I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything, but isn't this a bit suspicious? I mean, what are the odds of this same guy finding himself right in the middle of one of these things again? Maybe in part three we find out he has shares in a disaster rebuilding company and planned the whole thing! Anyway, The Quake basically goes down the usual sequel route of doing the same thing except bigger, and it doesn't disappoint. The…

Review by Christian Høkaas ★½ 3

Structurally odd, no time pressure, flat angles, bleak lighting, laughable child acting, lines no one says in real life, uninspired visual effects (shown from very far away probably because of budget, but when you have the chance to show Norway's capitol getting shred to pieces for the first time in film history and you do it from a bird's eye view. Imagine the White House destruction in Independence Day from an aerial shot). The son is worthless, the country's biggest city is without people (and has only 10 seconds of one black guy), no sirens, no ambulance, no helicopters, none of His Majesty's the King's Guard, the military, the police, no press or reactions from the people in the city. It's the biggest disaster event of Norway which affected nobody.

Review by Andy Fell ★★½ 4

The Quake - Das große Beben ist ein norwegischer Katastrophenfilm aus dem Jahr 2018 und die Fortsetzung von The Wave - Die Todeswelle .

Der Katastrophenfilm ist technisch gesehen gar nicht mal so schlecht und braucht sich vor den amerikanischen Genrevertreter nicht zu verstecken. Gerade was man da am Ende auf die Beine gestellt hat, sah richtig gut aus.

Aber das Problem des Films war ganz klar, dass er irgendwie lieblos inszeniert war. Zu keinem Zeitpunkt konnte man mit irgendeinem Schauspieler Sympathie aufbauen. Im Gegenteil. Das Schicksal war einem mehr oder weniger egal und das ist für einen Katastrophenfilm überhaupt nicht von Vorteil, denn der lebt von der Emotionalität.

So bleibt als Abschlußfazit schließlich nur hängen: Kann man sich mal anschauen, ist aber schnell wieder vergessen.

Andy's-Best-of-Katastrophenfilme-Liste

So als nächstes widme ich mich für eine Woche unserer Challenge Dubfal-Weihnachtsfilme 2021 .

Review by Ragnar ★★ 8

Grade: BELOW AVERAGE

I am always interested in watching blockbuster type movies countries other than the United States to see if these countries will get the formula the US popularized and improve upon it. The Wave , directed by Roar Uthuag, improves on the disaster film formula for the most part, and it was a breath of fresh air.

The Quake , the sequel directed by John Andreas Andersen, falls back hard into the most basic and obvious genre tropes, making this outing just another lame “no one believes the main character until it’s too late” disaster movie. What was the point?

I did enjoy two aspects of the film. The first few minutes of the movie shows the main character still…

Review by MichaelEternity ★★

Apparently they made a sequel to "The Wave", that excellent Norwegian tsunami disaster thriller that more people should see. I had to find this out through a casual reference on a podcast because the information has not spread much at all through this country, dammit. Even though the movie itself is already right there on Hulu for all of us to see. Come on, media. Be a little more comprehensive.

On the other hand, the movie kinda blows, unfortunately. Whereas "The Wave" was visually and narratively compelling during its first act build-up even before the flooding begins, "The Quake" has no such ground to stand on. The same guy who predicted and saved lives in the first movie is back…

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Home » The Quake Movie Review: Norway’s New Disaster Film Barely Registers on the Richter Scale

The Quake Movie Review: Norway’s New Disaster Film Barely Registers on the Richter Scale

In 2015, Roar Uthaug The Wave made waves—pun not intended—as the self-proclaimed first ever Scandinavian disaster movie. Borrowing heavily from the Roland Emmerich playbook, it followed the fate of a single family trapped in the wake of a 260+ foot tidal wave caused by a fjord rockslide near Geiranger, Norway. Thanks to its limited scope—it takes place almost entirely in one city—and small cast of characters, Uthaug was able to stretch his paltry $6 million budget to achieve a film that for all intents and purposes looked the part of a Hollywood blockbuster. But what truly elevated it above the sea of low-budget genre pablum was its ingenious use of two ticking clocks, one figurative, the other literal. The former saw its protagonist, geologist Kristian Eikjork (Kristoffer Joner), struggle to warn Geiranger of a possible tsunami when he discovers an imminent rockslide. The latter, literal clock, in a turn that would make Hitchcock squirm with envy, involved a ten minute tsunami warning after the rockslide, forcing the protagonists to helplessly watch the unprepared city scramble to evacuate as the wall of water inched its way closer.

The film was modest box office hit, making back double its budget and getting chosen as Norway’s official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Clearly hoping to match said success, a sequel was made: John Andreas Andersen’s The Quake . Set three years after The Wave , it returns to Kristian only to find him a guilt-ridden recluse, cut-off from his family in a mountainside cabin where he agonizes over a wall of newspaper clippings of people he couldn’t save in the first film. Eventually a stack of research documents from an ex-colleague plops onto his desk, predicting an earthquake bigger than the magnitude 5.4 event that savaged Oslo in 1904. From there the film shamelessly repeats the first movie: Kristian’s evidence and pleas get ignored by other experts, he struggles to notify his family to evacuate the capital, and they all invariably get trapped in the most dramatically inconvenient places possible when the earthquake actually hits.

Watching The Quake , it’s astonishing to see how little the film seems to care about its plotting once the earthquake comes into focus. There’s an almost complete demarcation between both halves of the movie when an initial warning quake hits exactly 45 minutes in. The first half serves as an elegiac mood piece as it watches Kristian’s feeble attempts to reconnect with his family after so many years of isolation. The opening scenes where his visiting daughter Julia (Edith Haagenrud-Sande) fights to break through his mask of psychological self-flagellation are difficult to watch. (In a move instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with the films of Studio Ghibli, she shows her love by cleaning his house and making him breakfast, both of which he forces himself to ignore.) Furthermore, as the various puzzle pieces of Kristian’s investigation start falling into place, disturbing corporate thriller overtones emerge: he discovers that his ex-colleague mysteriously died in an accident in a tunnel being built by a construction company suspiciously trying to hide evidence that their projects might be disturbing the local geological foundation.

But all this emotional nuance and corporate espionage mystique gets thrown out the window when the quake arrives, throwing the cast into a succession of admittedly effective disaster set-pieces. One sequence where Kristian and his estranged wife Idun (Ane Dahl Torp) struggle to escape a collapsing elevator shaft is vertigo-inducing sublimity. But since these scenes are so patiently disconnected from the rest of the film, they exist in a kind of emotional vacuum, allowing us to appreciate them for their craftsmanship without leaving any kind of genuine impact.

The Quake tries to mix popcorn disaster movie fun with introspective family drama, rich with observations about guilt and self-forgiveness before losing interest in them and falling back on predictable genre fluff. The first film never really attempted to be anything more than a Scandinavian adaptation of beloved Hollywood imports, but Andersen clearly wanted more. It’s a shame his film surrendered to its own impatience to get to the “good stuff.” It feels like whole chunks of the movie are missing. We never even get resolutions to the corrupt construction company and possibly-murdered ex-colleague subplots!

Nathanael Hood

Nathanael Hood is a 27 year old film critic currently based out of Manhattan with a passion for all things cinematic. He graduated from New York University - Tisch with a degree in Film Studies. He is currently a writer for TheYoungFolks.com, TheRetroSet.com, AudiencesEverywhere.net, and MovieMezzanine.com.

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Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – The Quake (2019)

April 13, 2019 by Olly Krizan

The Quake , 2019.

Directed by John Andreas Andersen. Starring Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, and Kathrine Thorborg Johansen.

A geologist races against time to save his estranged wife and two children when a devastating earthquake strikes Oslo, Norway.

Now I’m the first to admit, that having read this brief blurb on Google prior to viewing I was far from excited at the prospect of what I fully expected to be yet another balls to the wall actioner, and this one not even in that one language I know (yawn).

But boy was I wrong.

This synopsis does not do the film any justice whatsoever. It is in fact more a commentary on the films third act and not the entirety of the piece.

Our journey starts with Kristian (Kristoffer Joner) and Julia (Edith Haagenrud-Sande), a charming and off piste father-daughter-duo in the midst of a seemingly strained relationship due to what appears to have been a sticky divorce. These two are the life and soul of the film with excellent and understated performances throughout.

As is fairly common with Scandinavian cinema The Quake operates on rather a less is more attitude where dialogue is concerned and this leaves little room for exposition (yay).

The story is slowly simmered on a low but increasing heat and allowed to unfold organically with the cinematography enveloping us in the brooding, moody intelligence of this world and its occupants. If ever the drama is starting to boil over, we are transported into a Volvo advert via the sweeping, majestic establishing shots of the Norwegian countryside and all is peaceful once more.

We are allowed to understand the nuances of this family dynamic in real time through the introduction of Kristian’s charming and gentle ex-wife Idun (Ane Dahl Torp) and the tragedy of previous earthquakes and the potential devastation of future ones becomes more apparent and a lot closer to home.

The Quake is directed in a relatively classic hollywood style, largely in-keeping with recent dramas coming from this part of the world. However some shot choices become much more interesting as we head into the more stress-inducing adrenaline-flavoured scenes later on. Employing a handheld camera to illustrate the panic and gravity of the quickly declining situation.

The music creeps along nicely parallel to the ever growing drama, employing low pedal notes in brass and strings to hint at a sense of impending dread. These hints really plate up a delicious serving of doom and disaster as the films climax comes with a massive earthquake (who’d have thought it)!

The effects are excellent and no less than you’d expect from The Day After The Day After Tomorrow or The Fastest and most Furiousest providing a rather unsuspecting audience with a suitable amount of suspense and I don’t mind admitting my stomach was in knots on more than one occasion.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed and would wholeheartedly recommend this picture. Equal parts art film and blockbuster movie with a pinch of wonderfully nuanced performances and a score to keep you on the edge of your seat throughout.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Olly Krizan

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Video Games

‘quake’-inspired dark fantasy fps ‘wrath: aeon of ruin’ arrives on consoles on april 25.

Coming out of Early Access back in February on Steam and the Epic Game Store , KillPixel’s Quake -inspired dark fantasy horror FPS WRATH: Aeon of Ruin will finally be coming to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on April 25 .

The story for WRATH: Aeon of Ruin sees players awaken as the Outlander among the ruins of what was once The Old World. Following the guidance of a mysterious being known as the Shepherd of Wayward Souls, players begin the bloody mission of hunting down the remaining Guardians of the Old World. Mow down hordes of enemies with nine distinct weapons.

Powered by the legendary Quake Engine, WRATH: Aeon of Ruin embraces the timeless elements of classic titles such as the aforementioned Quake , as well as Doom , Duke Nukem 3D , Blood , Unreal , and HEXEN .

Equipped with weapons of exceptional power and an inventory of equally-exceptional artifacts, players must traverse ancient crypts, sunken ruins, corrupted temples and howling forests to bring death to your enemies. You have at your disposal old-school favourites like the double-barreled shotgun, as well as new tools of destruction such as the Retcher, a bioweapon that transforms disgusting cysts into deadly projectiles.

WRATH’s old-school experience is wrapped up with an exceptional music score from the mind of Andrew Hulshult ( Quake Champions , Rise of the Triad , DUSK , and Amid Evil ).

Currently, you can snag WRATH: Aeon of Ruin on Steam for a 25% discount until April 18th.

Writer/Artist/Gamer from the Great White North. I try not to be boring.

Horror FPS ‘Hellbreach: Vegas’ Finishes Phase One of Development With “Love’s Last Stand” Update [Trailer]

Ahead of Steam FPS Fest kicking off later today, Infinity Ape Studios has announced the Love’s Last Stand update for their Early Access title Hellbreach: Vegas . The update introduces a new map, a new weapon and new cosmetics, along with several other fixes and tweaks as it prepares to enter what Infinity Ape refers to as phase 2 of development.

Phase 1 finishes off with Love’s Last Stand, which includes several fixes for Hellbreach , along with the new map in the Vegas Chapel, a new crossbow weapon , updated character models, new character and weapon cosmetics, as well as “plenty of other small changes.” You can check out the patch notes here . Phase 2 will also include a new map and character cosmetics, as well as a new game mode and new perk for your character.

The story for Hellbreach: Vegas sees portals spawning across Las Vegas, and hordes of demons have poured out, wreaking havoc on the strip. It’s you and up to three of your fellow human survivors to battle against a demon army, determined to invade a post-apocalyptic Earth. You’ll have to blast through waves of demons, earning experience to upgrade your guns, ammo, and unlock other bonuses along the way.

Currently, Hellbreach: Vegas will remain in Early Access in order to polish the game to players’ tastes, finalize maps, and implement community feedback.

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Review: In ‘Sasquatch Sunset,’ actors go wild as shaggy beasts with a lifestyle of their own

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In the wilds of Humboldt County, Riley Keough slouches into view. You won’t recognize the movie star. This is the brothers David Zellner and Nathan Zellner ’s wordless marvel “Sasquatch Sunset,” a combination nature doc, silent comedy, survivalist tragedy and, to its four Bigfoot leads, an alien encounter horror show — and she’s playing one of the beasts.

Inside crepey wrinkles and wiry fur, heavy brows and grubby nails, plodding feet and soft, pale bellies are Keough and her three co-stars, Nathan Zellner as the alpha, Jesse Eisenberg as the beta and Christophe Zajac-Denek as the child who occasionally suckles at Keough’s breasts. The only part of the actors you can see under the prosthetics is their pupils. As they mate and fight and groom and sniff and fling poop and feed on whatever they can forage, orange globs of fresh-squeezed salmon roe dribbling down their beards without a whiff of vanity, you’re first wondering how the performers feel to be so visible and yet not. Pure freedom, perhaps? Once adjusted to the film’s unusual rhythms, your attention refocuses on the actual primate characters, especially Keough, the sole female, who occasionally slumps against a tree and stares off into the distance. What is she thinking?

The movie is divided into four seasons. The first and longest is spring, which takes its time revealing the group’s dynamics. The sasquatch do speak, but only in unsubtitled Sasquatchian. “Ooough — aah!” appears to mean something like, “Ready — go!”; the gibbon-esque “whoooo-ooop” seems more emotionally complex. Mostly, we learn them by studying their actions. The alpha is selfish and sex-obsessed. (Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis treats us to at least a half-dozen glimpses of the limp carrot-thing at his crotch, plus, from the alpha’s own POV, an arousing rump shot that’s just a Brazilian wax away from being in a ’90s frathouse sex farce.) The beta is frustrated by his limits: He can’t count higher than four. The child talks to his hand as though he stumbled across a drive-in playing “The Shining,” and the hand talks back, a mystical touch that grates against the lovely naturalism. And the female stares. What is she thinking?

The score tells us what the animals can’t articulate. When they’re content, the music is the kind of airy flutes you’d hear at a day spa. As the mood shifts, a noodling electric guitar kicks in and the gang unconsciously assembles into poses that could be on a grunge album cover. When they’re stoned on mushrooms, we hear spacey, wobbly clanks. (Thankfully, we’re spared the overdone comic relief of going inside their trip; instead, we just appreciate how Zellner’s hungover alpha looks even more hungover than Charles Bukowski at his bottom.) At their most nervous — any time they discover evidence of mankind, even though actual people remain unseen — the sound spirals out into jittery, squealing, inorganic jazz.

Humans are, of course, the aliens, a point the Zellners underscore when the apes gawk at a logger’s spray-painted tree as if it’s the monolith from “2001.” (That movie cliché is also overdone, but I’ll forgive it because it’s so apropos.) But otherwise, the Zellners commendably refuse to saddle these Sasquatch with easy, lazy, obvious ideas of how they behave. What do you think the Sasquatch will do when they come across their first paved road? I’m pretty sure that’s not the response you’ll find here.

But if Keough stays on her current trajectory and, decades from now, wins a lifetime achievement Oscar, I hope the Academy remembers to include a clip of that scene in her reel. Later, there’s an absolutely wrenching moment at an abandoned human campsite that I don’t want to spoil at all, except to say there’s something resonant in her reaction, in a simple, still close-up that shows us how feeling overwhelmed and confused can, in an instant, turn into rage.

David & Nathan Zellner, Riley Keough, and Christophe Zajac-Denek

Entertainment & Arts

Riley Keough tells us what the Sasquatch can teach us | 2024 Sundance Film Festival

Jan. 20, 2024

Are we looking for the human in the Sasquatch? Or for the Sasquatch in us? The movie works either way, but in its refusal to hew to a familiar plot trajectory, it holds up a mirror to our own narcissism. Our species is used to telling stories: culture-clash fables that turn these independent beings into pets or pals or protectors or spiritual gurus. Because our movies tend to follow an arc of learning and growth, we’re expecting that these animals will share our own exhausting determination to master their surroundings — that at some point, in some way, they’ll evolve. There are moments when you’re absolutely convinced that the Sasquatch are going to discover something — fire, the wheel — that will put them on a path toward becoming more like us. They don’t. They’re not us. And the movie asks us to let go of the snobbery that not being us means they’re dumb.

“Sasquatch Sunset” is a stubborn but playful film that leaves a big footprint on the soul. Especially when we catch on that we’ve been too dumb to grasp their inventions too. One of the first things we see in the opening is all four Sasquatch knocking on tree trunks in unison. We’re clueless. Are they hunting or something? By the end, we’ve grasped that this knocking — and, more important, the listening that follows — is their form of long-distance communication. Maybe they’re looking for a friend they’ve lost. Maybe they’re just looking for anyone who understands.

'Sasquatch Sunset'

Rating: R, for some sexual content, full nudity and bloody images Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes Playing: Now in limited release

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COMMENTS

The Quake movie review & film summary (2018)
The Quake. The first dread-inducing tremor we see in the Norwegian thriller sequel "The Quake" is not geologic, but psychosomatic. It is a close-up of the trembling finger of the still-traumatized scientist who survived the tsunami in " The Wave ," and who is about to be dismissed and patronized when he tries to warn everyone that ...
The Quake
A geologist races against time to save his estranged wife and two children when a devastating earthquake strikes Oslo, Norway. Show Less. Show More. Rating: PG-13 (Destruction|Brief Strong ...
The Quake
Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 23, 2019. Javier Perez Cine Premiere. The Quake is a magnificent example of how to make a sequel not only to exploit the success of the first, but with the ...
The Quake (2018) Movie Review
The Quake is less groundbreaking than its predecessor in other respects - namely, the plot trajectory and, to a lesser degree, some of the technical elements - but it's a notable franchise movie for that reason alone. All in all, The Quake is a sequel that's deserving of some attention, especially if you were a fan of The Wave in the first place.
The Quake Review
The destruction in The Quake is more total, more hopeless, and more convincing than that of its predecessor, The Wave. ... movie review Dec. 17, 2018. The Quake Is a Little Too Good.
'The Quake' Review: Thrills With a Brain
Film Review: 'The Quake'. Reviewed online, San Francisco, Dec. 10, 2018. MPAA rating: PG-13. Running time: 108 MIN. (Original title: "Skjelvet.") Production: (Norway) A Magnet Releasing ...
The Quake (2018)
The Quake: Directed by John Andreas Andersen. With Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, Edith Haagenrud-Sande, Kathrine Thorborg Johansen. In 1904 an earthquake of magnitude 5.4 on the Richter scale shook Oslo, with an epicenter in the "Oslo Graben" which runs under the Norwegian capital. There are now signs that indicate that we can expect a major future earthquake in Oslo.
The Quake (film)
The Quake (Norwegian: Skjelvet) is a 2018 Norwegian disaster film directed by John Andreas Andersen. ... On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ...
'The Quake' Review
'The Quake': Film Review. The heroic geologist at the center of 2015's 'The Wave' returns to predict another calamity in John Andres Andersen's disaster movie sequel 'The Quake.'
The Quake (2018)
The Norwegian "Skjelvet", a.k.a. "The Quake", is an overrated disaster movie. The special effects are indeed stunning and worthwhile watching, but the predictable storyline and characters are disappointing. Kristian Eikjord is unpleasant and strange and most of the characters have stupid attitudes.
THE QUAKE Review
MPAA RATING: PG-13. RUN TIME: 109 minutes. It's abundantly clear that The Quake aspires to a frankness that sets it apart from the disaster films which it otherwise borrows heavily. A sequel to 2015's The Wave - which also prioritized the unflinching probing of the real consequences of human death and destruction after natural disasters ...
The Quake (2018) Movie Review from Eye for Film
In 1904, the city of Oslo was severely impacted by an earthquake, causing widespread panic and destroying a church. Today, Norway's Department of Earthquake Risk Centre says that it expects a major quake to affect the region at some point, though it has no idea when - the threat just hangs there like it does in San Francisco and most people have far too many other things going on to worry ...
The Quake
The Quake hits a handful of the cliches one expects from a disaster film, as well as having one character's death not mean as much as it should. However, thanks to strong characterizations and good acting the plot is still engaging. However, the reason to watch the film is the excellent cinematography and awe-inspiring effects.
The Quake (Movie Review)
The Quake (Movie Review) Luke's rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ Director: John Andreas Andersen | Release Date: 2018. By Luke on May 10th, 2019. Perhaps it is time for the US to hand over any and all disaster movie scripts currently in production to Norwegian filmmakers. In 2015 Roar Uthaug delivered the dramatic and patient tsunami flick The Wave ...
The Quake (2018)
A year after the rock-slide in Geiranger, geologist Kristian Eikjord is preparing to appear on a talk show, and is hailed as a hero for saving hundreds of lives in the disaster. Three years later. Idun is divorcing him and he is separated from their children, Sondre and Julia. Kristian is living in seclusion in the mostly rebuilt Geiranger, his ...
'The Quake' Is A Worthy Sequel To 'The Wave' & Will Leave You Shook
A thoughtful, deliberate thriller that manages to build on (rather than recycle) the success of its predecessor, "The Quake" succeeds where so many action sequels fail.Rather than just foisting the hero back into a similar hard-luck scenario to hit all the same beats again, a la "Die Hard 2," "London Has Fallen," or "Mission: Impossible 2," "The Quake" invests in an ...
THE QUAKE (2018) review
THE QUAKE (2018) review. December 20, 2018. tags: ... That movie surprised me in how it removed itself from the cliche trappings that similar big-budget American blockbusters often succumb to by focusing on realism and humanistic peril over stereotypical characters running to and from scenes of bombastic destruction. And now the same writers ...
The Quake Featured, Reviews Film Threat
The Quake (2018) Directed by John Andreas Andersen. Written by John Kåre Raake, Harald Rosenløw-Eeg. Starring Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, Jonas Hoff Oftebro, Edith Haagenrud-Sande, Kathrine Thorborg Johansen. 8 out of 10 Gummi Bears. In 2015 the disaster epic The Wave (aka Bølgen) was released. It garnered high critical praise, won a ...
[Review] 'The Quake' is a Disaster Film With Character Work, and an
Movies [Review] 'The Quake' is a Disaster Film With Character Work, and an Unnecessary Earthquake. Published. 6 years ago. on. August 29, 2018. By. Rafael Motamayor.
‎The Quake (2018) directed by John Andreas Andersen • Reviews, film
Review by Brage Marcus ★★★★ THE QUAKE is surprisingly good. A Norwegian disaster movie and special effects extravaganza that actually understands that its characters are far more important than the spectacle of its action and effects. THE QUAKE is by all means an intense nail-biter when it comes to the action - and it is frightening to ...
Watch The Quake
Still coping with the aftermath of a deadly tsunami, a geologist must sound the alarm — and save his family — when the ground under Oslo starts to shake. Watch trailers & learn more.
The Quake Movie Review: Norway's New Disaster Film Barely Registers on
The Quake tries to mix popcorn disaster movie fun with introspective family drama, rich with observations about guilt and self-forgiveness before losing interest in them and falling back on ...
Movie Review
The Quake, 2019. Directed by John Andreas Andersen. Starring Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, and Kathrine Thorborg Johansen. SYNOPSIS: A geologist races against time to save his estranged wife ...
'Quake'-Inspired Dark Fantasy FPS 'WRATH: Aeon of Ruin' Arrives on
Coming out of Early Access back in February on Steam and the Epic Game Store, KillPixel's Quake-inspired dark fantasy horror FPS WRATH: Aeon of Ruin will finally be coming to the PlayStation 5 ...
'Sasquatch Sunset' review: Unrecognizable stars play beasts
In the wilds of Humboldt County, Riley Keough slouches into view. You won't recognize the movie star. This is the brothers David Zellner and Nathan Zellner's wordless marvel "Sasquatch ...