Die Welle is the 2008 German remake of
The Wave, the fictional version of Ron Jones' 'Third Wave' experiment, directed by
Dennis Gansel and relocating the events to a school in present day Germany. The film takes the basic premise and reworks the characters to fit with the German setting and changes the ending to become more dramatic, but remains a disturbingly realistic take on how
History Repeats.
The teacher Rainer Wenger is assigned to hold a class on Autocracy, against his wish to talk about Anarchy. Deciding to do the best about the situation he finds out that most of his students just took the class because Wenger is a popular teacher, not because of the subject. Most of the students think that Germany could never be an autocracy like the Third Reich again. Wenger decides to start an experiment with his class to prove the opposite and things start to
go horribly wrong...The films star {{Jürgen Vogel}}, Frederick Lau, Max Riemelt and Jennifer Ulrich.
Die Welle provides examples of:
- Break the Cutie: This happens to Lisa, Karo's bff, at the end of the film.
- Bomb Throwing Anarchists: Subverted. The anarchist gang lead by Faust are not violent until they are provoced by the Wave-members putting up thier symbol all ober town. It becomes Fridge Brilliance when you realise during their first encounter Faust calls the Wave-members facists. Germans would understandably be offended by such behaviour.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Tim's mental breakdown and subsequent suicide. Particularly jarring because nothing like that happens in the original film and book.
- Darker and Edgier: In both the original film and the book, the conflict is resolved when Mr. Ross reveals the true nature of the experiment to his students, and no violence takes place. In this remake, however, the revelation causes one of the students to snap because he fears he will lonely and bullied as before the experiment and he pulls out a gun and threatens the other students with it and actually shoots one of them, then threatens the teacher before killing himself instead.
- Death by Adaptation: Tim, counterpart of Robert in the original, commits suicide at the end.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Again, Tim's mental breakdown and suicide.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The salute Bomber invents for the Wave(a hand motion that mimicks a wave) that every member including Wenger eagerly adopts is very reminicent of the nazi-salute.
- Downer Ending
- Foreign Remake: Towards the original film and book The Wave.
- Gang Of Bullies: Sinan, Bomber and Kevin. Sinan & Bomber reform thanks to the Wave.
- Gone Horribly Right
- He Who Fights Monsters/Became Their Own Antithesis: Wenger, an anti-facist anarchist, starts the project to teach his students how easy it is to fall to facism, but starts to enjoy the leader a bit much.
- History Repeats: Main point of the film
- Hope Spot: Near the end of the film, when Tim threatens everyone else with his gun during his mental breakdown, for a moment it seems as if Wenger manages to bring him back to his senses ... and then Tim shoots himself.
- Hypocrite: Karo in subverted form; she only turns against The Wave when she chooses to not wear the uniform(white shirt) everyone in The Wave agreed on wearing, because of a comment from her mother, and thus starts see how The Wave treats non-members. It's likely she would not have turned against them if she had worn the uniform.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Marco has one of these after he hits Karo for opposing the Wave.
- In the final moments of the film Wenger is sitting in the police car he is so tormented by guilt over the Wave he can hardly hold back his emotions.
- No Antagonist
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: During the waterpolo game.
- La Résistance: Karo & Mona.
- Loners Are Freaks: Tragically subverted. Tim's behaviour is caused by him being desperate to not be alone any more.
- Only One Name: Most of the characters.
- Principles Zealot: Mona, the socialist.
- Putting on the Reich: Natch.
- Wham Line: Wenger asks the students whether they would kill Marco if he asked them to.
- Your Cheating Heart: Marco cheats on Karo, with her best friend!. And she never gets to know.
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