The Quake (film)

A year after the rockslide 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 Sondre and Julia. Kristian is living in seclusion in the mostly rebuilt Geiranger, while his family moves to Oslo. Idun has a new job as a hotel worker at the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel.

Julia comes to visit Kristian for a weekend in Geiranger. Disappointed by how little he tends to her, she requests to 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 distractive. Sometime later, he hears on the news of the death of a colleague, Konrad Lindblom, in the Oslofjord Tunnel. Then, along with some research Kondrad had sent him, Kristian is prompted to travel to Oslo to investigate the circumstances of Konrad's death.

Upon arriving in Oslo, Kristian meets with Konrad's supervisor, Johannes Løberg. Johannes tries to ensure Kristian that there was nothing to worry about, due to a new up-to-date monitoring system, which showed that much of the seismic activity that Konrad was worried about was only construction being done across the city, and surrounding areas. Kristian leaves, still unsure, but with Johannes' promise to contact him with any updates. Kristian then visits Konrad's home, only to meet with his former colleague's daughter, Marit. There, Kristian discovers Konrad's research, including core samples and a map that has recorded more serious seismic activity than Johannes was claiming. He calls Johannes, who mostly ignores him, but promises to look into it. That night Kristian visits Idun at her apartment, only to run into his son, Sondre. Sondre, although happy to see his father, awkwardly introduces his girlfriend to Kristian, after which they leave for a movie. Idun and Kristian have a tense moment saying hello, Kristian apologizes for sending Julia back home early, and returns Julia's scarf. Idun invites Kristian to Julia's ballet recital the next day, and he accepts. After talking some about their separation, Kristian attempts to tell Idun about his concerns, only to be interrupted by a power outage, being the second one that week, according to Idun. They try to replace the fuse, to no avail, Idun gets scared by some rats, Kristian tries to console her saying he doesn't blame her for leaving him, only for Idun to say that he left them first.

The next day Kristian returns to Konrad's house, and after seeing some more concerning research, convinces Marit to take him to the tunnel where her father died. Arriving there, Kristian discovers that his colleague was killed by a collapse in the tunnel he was studying and a core sample Konrad was attempting to recover, shortly before his death. On Kristian's way back to the city, Idun calls him asking his where he is, and that he was missing Julia's recital. Kristian attempts to assure Idun he's on his way, only to be distracted by very easily snapping the core sample he discovered in half, which shouldn't have been so fragile, given it was made of solid stone. Just then, a massive power outage takes out all the electricity in the city, then disconnects their call. Seconds later a seismic rift destroys the Oslo Opera House, where Julia was doing her recital. Idun safely gets Julia out of the building, finding her daughter underneath a tipped-over table. Kristian arrives at the Opera house, only to find police, ambulances, and people fleeing the scene. He calls Idun to check on her, and she informs him that her and Julia are on their way home. Kristian offers to come over, and Idun accepts. Kristian then confronts Johannes, smashing the fragile core sample on the ground in frustration. Johannes tries to calm Kristian down, telling him the Opera house's support beams were giving way, and that's why it collapsed. Kristian leaves after failing to convince Johannes about the growing seismic activity and defeatedly tells Marit to go home.

That night, Kristian visits Idun and apologizes for missing the recitial. Idun asks him why he's here, and Kristian, breaks down and says he's always looking for the next disaster. They embrace as Kristian cries, and the couple spends the night together. The next morning, both Sondre and Julia wake up, surprised to see their father standing in the kitchen. Sondre leaves for the university, and Julia asks Kristian if he and Idun are getting back together, to which Kristian replies he's unsure. Meanwhile, Marit, while cleaning out her father's office, discovers something on her father's computer, which she records, and rushes over to Idun's apartment to show Kristian. Kristian watches the video, which shows that Konrad was using rats to research his theories, and those rats had died due to exposure to toxic gas. With that, Kristian comes to the conclusion that a major earthquake, up to a 8.5 on the Richter Scale, would hit Oslo that day, and that the collapse that killed his colleague may have been a precursor movement to that.

Kristian rushes out of the apartment with Marit and Julia in tow, and drive very quickly to the Radisson Blu skyscraper hotel, to find Idun and get her out of the building. On the way, Kristian calls Sondre, who is in one of his classes and ignores Kristian's calls and text, telling Sondre to leave the building now. After failing to convince Sondre to leave, Kristian calls in a fake bomb threat to the police, forcing the alarms to go off at the school for a short while. Sondre gets up to leave, only to have his girlfriend convince him to stay after the alarms turn off. Arriving at the hotel, Kristian finds Idun on the 34th floor, convinces her to go downstairs with him and then pulls a fire alarm to get everyone else to evacuate. Julia wanders into the building to find her father, with Marit in pursuit. Getting on an elevator with Idun, 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 shockwave from the quake hits, knocking Marit unconscious. The ceiling of Sondre's lecture hall collapses, killing the professor and several students, with Sondre and his girlfriend remaining unhurt, due to ducking under the tables in front of them. Kristian and Idun's elevator rapidly drops down the shaft, knocking both Kristian and Idun unconscious.

Sometime later, Marit wakes, finding Julia tending to an injured hotel worker. Next to the Radisson Blu, part of the Posthuset building shifts and then collapses directly into the right side of the Radisson Blu, leaving the 34th floor hanging precariously over the wreckage, everything below 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. Julia loses her grip on the railing and slips, almost getting hit by a piano sliding from behind her. Marit successfully grabs Julia, who narrowly misses being hit by the piano, and also saving Julia from the same fate as the hotel worker.

After waking up, Idun and Kristian make their way out of the stuck elevator and climb maintenance ladders to get to the top floor of the elevator shaft. Debris knocked loose by aftershocks fall 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 after the power goes out and the brakes on the elevator fail. A devastated Kristian heads to the place where he last saw Julia and finds her and Marit huddling behind the mounted bar. As they are attempting to leave, a final aftershock causes Julia to lose her grip, 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.

Sometime later, Marit enters her father's 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. The movie ends with the news that there are now signs that indicate that we can expect major future earthquakes in Norway.

• Kristoffer Joner as Kristian Eikjord, a 44-year old experienced geologist[2]
• Ane Dahl Torp as Idun Eikjord, Kristian's wife
• Jonas Hoff Oftebro as Sondre Eikjord, Kristian's 20-year-old son
• Edith Haagenrud-Sande as Julia Eikjord, Kristian's 11-year-old daughter
• Kathrine Thorborg Johansen as Marit Lindblom

• Official website
• Official website (Magnet Releasing)
• The Quake on IMDb 
• The Quake at AllMovie
• The Quake on Rotten Tomatoes