History Film / TheWave

* FactionMotto: The Wave adopts the slogan "Strength Through Discipline! Strength Through Community! Strength Through Action!".

* FactionMotto: "Strength Through Discipline! Strength Through Community! Strength Through Action!"

** The movement changes Robert Billings and allows him to become his own person, and as such no longer dwells in the shadow of his older brother.

* {{Irony}}: Despite The Wave's emphasis on community and equality, Robert Billings embraces the movement as it allows him to become his own person rather than dwell in the shadow of his older brother.

** David has one of these after he hits Laurie for opposing the Wave.

* ThisLoserIsYou: Robert Billings is known for being the loser of his class who dwells in the shadow of his older brother, Jeff Billings. After Mr. Ross conducts the Wave experiment, Robert improves himself considerably in academics and character.

-->''"You thought you were so special! Better than everyone outside this room. You traded your freedom for what you said was equality. But you turned your equality into superiority over non-Wave members. You accepted the group's will over your own convictions, no matter who you had to hurt to do it. Oh, some of you thought you were just going along for the ride, that you could walk away at any moment. But did you? Did any of you try it?''"

* ThisLoserIsYou: Robert Billings is known for being the school loser of Cubberley High who dwells in the shadow of his older brother, Jeff Billings. After Mr. Ross conducts the Wave experiment, Robert improves himself considerably in academics and character.

* ThisLoserIsYou: Robert Billings is known for being the school loser of Cubberley High who dwells in the shadow of his older brother. He improves himself considerably in academics and character after Mr. Ross conducts the Wave experiment.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Mr. Ross delivers one to all the members of the Wave once he reveals that the Wave was nothing more than an experiment. It transitions into a {{Heel Realization}} speech for everyone. [[RageQuit The students don't take it too well]].

In April 1967, Ron Jones, a history teacher at Cubberley HighSchool in Palo Alto, UsefulNotes/{{California}}, found himself struggling to explain to his class how the German people could have fallen behind [[ThoseWackyNazis the Nazis]] so easily. So he decided to show them personally, creating a student movement called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave_(experiment) the Third Wave]] (after the common belief that the third in a series of waves is the last and largest). The movement emphasized conformity and the greater good, treating democracy and individualism as [[DemocracyIsBad the downfall]] [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill of civilization]]. Jones started with things like drilling his class in proper seating and posture, before moving on to discipline, salutes (which conspicuously resembled [[PuttingOnTheReich the Nazi salute]]), and the transformation of himself into an authoritative figure. In just two days, Jones had turned his class into a model of efficiency, discipline and community, with a marked improvement in academic achievement and motivation, and the Third Wave began to spread beyond his history class. By the end of day three, over two hundred students had been recruited, membership cards were being given out, banners were flying, and Third Wave members were telling Jones when others were violating the rules -- all completely unexpected developments.

Jones, realizing that he was losing control of the Third Wave, decided to end it. On day four, he announced that the Third Wave was actually part of a nationwide youth movement, and that tomorrow at noon, an assembly would be held in which the movement's national leader and presidential candidate would be revealed on television. At the assembly, the students were met only with an empty channel. Jones revealed a few minutes later that the entire Third Wave was an experiment in how fascism can so easily claim the hearts and minds of the masses (even those who had sworn "it can't happen here"), and played a film about UsefulNotes/NaziGermany.

* BasedOnATrueStory: As detailed above, the "Third Wave" experiment actually happened.

* DownerEnding: Mr. Ross shows who the leader of The Wave is at the school assembly: [[spoiler:UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. Ross also reveals that the entire thing was a social experiment to prove that fascism could rise anywhere, and it was almost absurdly easy to convince the students to join in on such an ideology. The students are left [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone utterly horrified by the thought]] that they went along with Nazi dogma, and the entire school tries to pretend like nothing happened. But it's clear that it's deeply affected everyone]].

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The Wave, of course.

%%* SchoolNewspaperNewshound: Laurie.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Mr. Ross delivers one to all the members of the Wave once he reveals that the Wave was nothing more than an experiment. It transitions into a [[HeelRealization Heel Realization]] speech for everyone. Needless to say, [[RageQuit the students didn't take it too well]]...

The Third Wave experiment has since been fictionalized three times. The first was ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICng-KRxXJ8 The Wave]]'', a MadeForTVMovie that aired on Creator/{{ABC}} in 1981, and later became part of their ''ABC Series/AfterschoolSpecial'' series. The same year, a YoungAdult {{novelization}} of the movie was written by Todd Strasser under the PenName Morton Rhue. Finally, in 2008, the German movie ''Film/DieWelle'' took the already-uncomfortable premise and brought it into the very country that birthed Nazism, to show that even a place that had experienced the horror of fascism could [[HistoryRepeats see it happen again]].

%%* AllOfTheOtherReindeer

* DownerEnding: Mr. Ross shows who the leader of The Wave is at the school assembly: [[spoiler:UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. Ross also reveals that the entire thing was a socialexperiment to prove that fascism could rise anywhere, and it was almost absurdly easy to convince the students to join in on such an ideology. The students are left [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone utterly horrified by the thought]], and the entire school tries to pretend like nothing happened. But it's clear that it's deeply affected them]].

* HistoryRepeats: Invoked by Mr. Ross, who showed that the idea that the Nazis (or something like them) could never rise again was hopelessly naïve. With the Third Wave, he proved how absurdly easy it was for such an ideology to rise again.
* HitlerAteSugar: Unity and discipline are, apparently, just steps on the road to fascism.

* BasedOnATrueStory: As detailed above.
%%* DayOfTheJackboot

%%* HistoryRepeats

* AbsurdlyDividedSchool: "The Wave" encourages discipline and a definite us/them mentality, which at first produces positive results but quickly degenerates into an elitist environment where people are getting ostracized for not joining the movement. The teacher quickly announces the movement's leader will make a televized broadcast... [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped and shows a picture of Hitler.]]

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* TheManIsStickingItToTheMan: The film is now very popular with teachers to make their classes more interesting. This creates the unfortunate situation where one authority tells you to not listen to another authority. On the other hand, the moral of this film is not so much not to listen to authority as not to take the fact this authority is right for granted.

Not to be confused with the Norwegian DisasterMovie from 2015.

* FascistButInefficient: Subverted. Though there is marked improvement in other areas of school life, even after adopting the ethos of the Wave, the football team continues to lose games. Things go downhill, starting when the Nazi parallel goes too far and a Jewish boy is beaten up by two members of the movement.

* FascistButInefficient: Even after adopting the ethos of the Wave, the football team continues to lose games.

In April 1967, Ron Jones, a history teacher at Cubberley HighSchool in Palo Alto, UsefulNotes/{{California}}, found himself struggling to explain to his class how the German people could have fallen behind [[ThoseWackyNazis the Nazis]] so easily. So he decided to show them personally, creating a student movement called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave the Third Wave]] (after the common belief that the third in a series of waves is the last and largest). The movement emphasized conformity and the greater good, treating democracy and individualism as [[DemocracyIsBad the downfall]] [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill of civilization]]. Jones started with things like drilling his class in proper seating and posture, before moving on to discipline, salutes (which conspicuously resembled [[PuttingOnTheReich the Nazi salute]]), and the transformation of himself into an authoritative figure. In just two days, Jones had turned his class into a model of efficiency, discipline and community, with a marked improvement in academic achievement and motivation, and the Third Wave began to spread beyond his history class. By the end of day three, over two hundred students had been recruited, membership cards were being given out, banners were flying, and Third Wave members were telling Jones when others were violating the rules -- all completely unexpected developments.

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Not to be confused with the norwegian DisasterMovie from 2015.

Not to be confused with the norwegian DisasterFilm from 2015.