MovieChat Forums > Bølgen (2015) Discussion > The hotel was higher and a place to surv...

The hotel was higher and a place to survive, or not.


Another thing that bothers me, was the hotel that the water was only in the basement and I have 2 questions.. Why the guests of the hotel had to move far from it when the water was stabilized by the basement? Maybe you will say that it wouldn' t be safe to stay in the rooms because when the wave comes it is really strong and they could all die (they die anyway)! Then I have the 2nd question, if the water was not suppose to stabilize so high why they didn' t have the surviving room (shelter or what ever) upstairs between the flours well hided? Usually in the tsunami you don' t run to hide downstairs in a basement, but higher, as higher you can! The water after the wave was so law that maybe they could save their selves even if they were hided in the closets of their rooms!!!

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Totally agree. Everywhere seemed to be so well lit after the tsunami, everything is on fire, except the inside of the hotel. When our hero looked from afar, the whole thing is on fire, but once he landed himself there, it's all cool! When the siren went, some of the folks seem to know there's 10 min to run, or is it? The wife and the hotel lady wondered about it for quite a while, even the good lady at the station seemed so hesitant to push the darn red button after losing her boss. The government should hire pros to man these stations after this movie. And they better start serious disaster prep for the locals. Like, why the hotel staff insisted herding everybody into the bus knowing their elevation is so low and it's been so long since the siren went off already? Seems like a suicidal trip to me. Guess I expected more from a Norwegian than a Hollywood B movie. But I did enjoy the scenery when the camera was aiming at those gorges. They are divinely gorgeous!

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I think when the time comes they will be prepared and they will do it better than the movie without any dead people...they all know that will happen for sure many years before so they are ready, all the town's buildings and infrastructure are based on this fact. This movie maybe is for showing them to avoid some mistakes...

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This was an 80 meter high wave. It has aot of power to move and crush things. The best thing would be to move up. However the hotel is not high enough to stand against an 80 meter tall wave. They could have moved up into the hills, but I guess they felt they did'nt have the time. Some hid in the basement of the hotell behind what I presume was a water tight door ( water tight for a period of time anyway ). Anyway, the hotel and village was flooded by this wave and fade dout as it continued down the fjord.

One last thing is that, when such incidents happen, people have a tendency to do srange things that are not neceserely the best option. One can prepare as much as possible, but when the thing actaully happens, you can get cought up into a shock and freeze.

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I' m not talking about the react of people but the buildings and the places to hide!! Particularly the basement in the hotel!! Of the wave was much bigger and higher but this would last few seconds when it happens.. AFTER the building is there as it was before the wave so in a tsunami it's nit good idea to hide in basement because you have high chances to drow!!! So it would be better if it was a safe place with strong walls around to hide inside in case you don' t have the time to go to the hill!! We saw that the road to the hill was blocked with cars and is something that can happens in reality so it could be good to have second or multiply choices to hide from the tsunami and survive because the strong part is when it comes..the buildings are fine after tsunamis unless your home is from wood like in Thailand!

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[deleted]

You think so? Maybe... But Am i not right? In the basement the place to protect yourself from "tsunami"? I think in the higher place you go and if you are in a building you go in the higher floor!!

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*spoilers ahead*

I also thought that, i mean, the wave has to pass by right?

How much time would it keep me underwater in the top floor of that building?
Seconds? 1 minute?
If its more than 1 minute than the probabilities of survival are very slim for a casual person(30/40 seconds holding breath)

But yeah my mind was really thinking about the top floor of the hotel all the time, and NEVER the basement!
Unless that basement was built to withstand a tsunami and have air conducts and doors keeping the water out(which it clearly didn't).

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The human race is doomed judging by the genius responses in this thread.

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[deleted]

The hotel was less than two meters above sea level. The wave passed over it but then receded.....maybe not as quickly as in the movie. Most likely there would have been nothing left in n the wave's wake. Not even debris.

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The wave was so high, it went right over the hotel. The hotel simply wasn't tall enough.

Not only that the wave is carrying loads of other debris, cars, trees, boats, construction etc. Then we have broken hotel glass and furniture added to it all being carried and churned with a force unimaginable to us.

Anyone hiding in the hotel's upper story would be submerged for many minutes, being churned with loads of debris plus being banged against the hotel walls.

I don't think odds would be with most people in those conditions.

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It was an old bomb shelter. They were already down there because the son was skateboarding on that level. Otherwise they would have taken the bus to higher ground.

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For many decades after the Second World War, all new buildings over a certain size constructed in Scandinavia were required by law to have a bomb shelter. In Finland this Cold War law is still valid. I do not know about Norway. The basement in the film is clearly not a Tsunami shelter (which would have had to be watertight) but a bomb shelter, which explains the kind of door it had (a blast door) and the fact that it had ventilation (which is a liability in a tsunami scenario). Frankly, I am not aware of any tsunami shelters below ground. All the tsunami shelters I have seen, like in Japan, are in high places (on top of buildings or hills).

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That' s excatly what I mean!!!! I hope in real life they have shelters in high metres of the tallest buildings because they say it is sure will happen some day!!

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