‘The Quake’ Is A Worthy Sequel To ‘The Wave’ & Will Leave You Shook [Review]

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 examination of the characters and the fallout from the first film…before putting them all right back in the shit. And while the first installment, “The Wave,” is a tighter, more balanced film, “The Quake” does about as well as any sequel can considering the quality of action and the development of its leads.

It’s been three years since the Geiranger rockslide in “The Wave,” with expository dialogue establishing that the fatal natural disaster and ensuing tsunami from the first film claimed 248 lives. Fans of “The Wave” will remember that it was geologist Kristian Elkjord (Kristoffer Joner) who crunched the numbers and predicted the rockslide that caused all the carnage that time around, and three years later in “The Quake,” he seems to be a broken man. Separated from the wife and kids he saved, and racked with guilt over those he couldn’t, Kristian is smack dab in the middle of a nervous breakdown when the movie catches up with him.

Right off the bat, “The Quake” sets itself apart from other action sequels, for it has the audacity to presume that death and destruction on a Biblical scale is not something easily shaken off. “The Wave” succeeded largely because it took the time to establish its characters and the world they inhabited, which added stakes to the action and drama that followed. “The Quake” is no different in this regard, allowing the audience a full hour with Kristian and family, sans disaster, to explore the very believable ways the first film’s tragedy has shaped their existence.

For his part, Kristian can’t help but to see a natural disaster hiding behind every corner, leading to his alienation from friends, colleagues, and family. His wife, Idun (Ane Dahl Torp), is doing the best she can raising their two kids, Julia (Edith Haagenrud-Sande) and Sondre (Jonas Hoff Oftebro), yet things are only made worse when Kristian comes back into their lives as paranoid as ever. Idun is living with the children and working a new job in Oslo when Kristian arrives to warn them about troubling earthquake data: this time in Norway’s capital. And as interesting as “The Quake” is when examining the human cost of balls-to-the-wall tsunami action set-pieces, fans of the first movie (or those that have seen the trailer) know what’s on-deck.

Again, though, “The Quake” bucks expectations, and rather than aping all the best beats from “The Wave” to recapture proven magic, this installment goes for broke with its earthquake mayhem. Indeed, if the first movie was all about the danger of water, “The Quake” makes a point to limit the aquatic destruction to little more than a damp sock. Although director Roar Uthaug departed the franchise, writers John Kåre Raake and Harald Rodenløw-Eeg have returned to rattle audiences out of their complacent sequel headspace and seem to have had fun playing with everyone’s assumptions.

Kristian isn’t the same man that he was when disaster hit last time, avoiding the action sequel tradition of making the hero increasingly more indestructible during each subsequent pass. In the back of our hero’s head, the consequences of what’s at stake haunt Kristian, and this has a very real effect on how events transpire. Indeed, there are real stakes at play in “The Quake,” and as was the case in the first installment, not everyone has a happy ending. This willingness to put established characters in real danger ratchets up the tension and turns this sequel into more than just a rote exercise in disaster replay.

Sure, there’s a sub-plot about the daughter of a fellow geologist that doesn’t quite fit into the narrative except to give Kristian a sidekick (why didn’t Sondre slide into this role?), but most everything else does work. The return of the four principle cast members from “The Wave” provides for some nice emotional continuity, and the special effects, while not mind-blowing, are effective at establishing the size and scale of the eponymous quake’s destructive powers.

With well-staged action, good character work, and believable progressions from the previous installment, “The Quake” is the sequel that fans of “The Wave” deserve. Right up there with classic disaster flicks like “The Day After Tomorrow” or “Twister,” this Norwegian entry into the “nature’s a bitch” canon stands tall alongside anything Hollywood has offered up in years past. Stocked with crisp action and fully-fleshed out characters that only further develop and grow in this sequel, “The Quake” will leave audiences shook.  [B+]