Movie Review: The Impossible (2012) Part 2:

Warning: Naughty language, kids.

Notes: Sorry this is so late!

Previously: This movie tore your heart out a little bit, tsunamis are scary, and I never thought a can of soda would give me so much emotion.

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Music is still 7/10 waves.

Henry tells Thomas that he hasn’t found his Mom or brother yet.  He also tells Thomas to look after Simon because he is sending them to a shelter in the mountains. Henry is going to stay behind to continue his search for Maria and Lucas. No, Henry. Don’t separate the family even more. This movie just loves to make me pull out my hair.

It’s dark as Thomas and Lucas are loaded into the back of a truck. Henry asks to use a phone but the person is a jackass. Even in disaster, assholes will be assholes. He asks the group in the truck to take care of his boys.  A woman tries to get him to go with them but he is determined to find the rest of his family.

Henry keeps stumbling about, searching, until his flashlight goes out. He falls down a hole and when he gets out he goes to the road. People find him and give him a ride to a shelter. He sits with a group of strangers. Awkward. A man is telling the group about how he lost his family. He woke up and found a note from his wife that she and the kids went to the beach. Seriously movie, break my heart every five minutes. Henry is asked about his family, so he tells them about how he found his youngest boys, and how he is still looking for Maria and Lucas.

The man who told about his family, Karl, lets Henry use his phone to call home. He gets ahold of some family and starts crying when he tries to tell them about Maria and Lucas. I cried at this part. Tears streaming down my face as I hugged my blanket. He hangs up because he can’t even talk. Once he calms down, Karl tells him to call his family again because he can’t leave it like that. He promises his family that he will find them no matter what. Karl asks to go with him.

Meanwhile, Thomas is trying to help Simon sleep. An older lady asks to sit by them and Thomas nods. They chat about the stars and how some are dead but their light still shines and how it’s impossible to tell which start are alive and which ones are dead. The older lady cried as she talked with Thomas. It was a symbolic conversation. The scene was short, but I liked it a lot.

Back with Lucas, some nurses ask him to take a look at a few items. It’s a watch and some jewelry and he can’t recognize any of it. The nurses look at one another oddly and ask Lucas to come with them. The music swells as they closer to a bed. A nurse pulls back the curtain and there is Maria. It was a mistake in the records, saying that she was someone else. She went into surgery for her chest but wasn’t strong enough for her leg, they have to wait until she recovers. It doesn’t look like the surgery helped, Maria looks deathly.

Henry and Karl are on their mission to find their loved ones. They look through shelters and hospitals and rows of bodies trying to find familiar faces.  At one shelter, he sees the group from the truck he put his kids on, but not Simon and Thomas. It turns out they were taken away with other kids without parents. Fucking great, a reunion coupled with another separation.

At the hospital, Mara is looking worse (I didn’t even know that was possible). Lucas watches as the lady that was next to his mom earlier is taken away. As he watches her be wheeled out of the room, he sees Daniel. Remember cute little Daniel? Lucas follows Daniel as he runs off and watches as Daniel runs up to his father. It was so awesome to see that. Lucas tries to tell his mom but she asks about the color of her leg. Lucas checks and lies about it, saying it’s red. As she rests he goes to get help. The nurse says they are doing the best they can. Do better, nurse. Do better.

Henry and Karl arrive at the hospital where his family and wants to check it out. But the other people in the truck they are riding in want to skip this one. Henry manages to get five minutes to look, while Karl writes down the names of his family and give the paper to Henry. He doesn’t want to slow Henry down.

 At the same time, Lucas goes to get water for his mom. Thus begins the frustrating game of: “one goes one way and the other goes the other way”. Henry walks up the stairs away from the lobby just as Lucas runs into the lobby. Henry walks past Maria’s room but doesn’t see her because her curtain is closed. Yet, Maria opens her eyes as he walks past.

 Just as I begun to lose hope, Lucas sees his dad’s shorts from the floor above him. He runs after him, yelling. This was so scary. We want Henry to hear his son, but it’s too crowded and noisy. Lucas loses his dad in the refugee camp outside the building. Despair starts to set in.

Then for better or worse, I wasn’t sure at the time, the truck with Simon and Thomas stops outside the same camp. Simon hops off to pee and Thomas follows, telling him to hurry. Lucas is hurriedly looking throughout the camp, but can’t find his dad. At the same time, Henry is back in the truck, ready to leave, but the vehicle is having trouble starting. Thomas and Simon run back to their own ride and I was yelling at the screen.

 Lucas gets frustrated and yells for his dad as loud as he can. This is how Thomas and Simon find him. They run at each other, yelling each other’s name and they collide, hugging the shit out of one another. This part made me cry the hardest. Dammit, I’m crying as I type this. The emotions are so overwhelming.

The boys are crying too.  And just when your heart is about to burst, Henry finds them. There is more running and hugging and crying and I was a blubbering bubble of tears, not coherent at all. Karl tells the truck driver that they can go now.  The music crescendos and adds to the emotion. It’s so beautiful. But the music stops when Lucas tells them that Maria is there as well.

It’s a much quieter reunion this time but Maria’s face when she sees her family is so sad. She asks if she is dead. She never thought she would see her family again. Finally everyone is together again; but maybe not for long. Maria tells Henry she can rest now because Lucas won’t be alone if she dies. The doctor and nurses come to take her to surgery.

A little while later, the boys are in a makeshift waiting room, worrying about Maria. Lucas tells his dad that he never told Maria something that she needs to know. But we don’t know what that I just yet. The movie cuts to Maria in a room with other patients for scheduled for surgery. Next to her is the lady from earlier, but now she is more coherent. She says she has a family too. They look at each other and reach out to hold hands but the lady is wheeled away and even though she was in the movie for like a minute total, it’s very unsatisfying.

Maria is finally taken into surgery and is scared to go to sleep. The nurse calms her down and anesthetizes her. She dreams about the tsunami and we see what happened to her between the time the tsunami hit and where we joined her again as she held onto the tree. It’s hard to watch. It’s loud, her leg gets cut, and she screams.

The next morning, Lucas wakes up startled. His dad is there, telling him that they are going home. The family gets taken to the airport, including Maria, who is wheeled onto the plane.  They are all on board and ready to take off shortly. Lucas gets up and goes to Maria and tells her what he never got the chance to earlier. He tells her that Daniel found his family. They hug until a stewardess asks him to take his seat.

Lucas realizes his still has his sticker from the tent on and peels it off. Henry looks at the list of names Karl gave him and turns the paper over, reading “we are at the beach.”  Of course, one more strike at the heart just as the movie is about to end. The plane takes off, carrying the family far away from their nightmare.  Maria looks out of her window and cries as they fly over the destroyed island.  The final shot is of the plan flying over the open ocean.

The End.