History Film / TheImpossible

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: '''Severely''' averted with Maria, who gets as banged up, filthy, and horribly disheveled as you would expect from someone who's been hit by a tsunami. Complete with a scene where she accidentally swallows a fishing line covered in trash and [[NauseaFuel pukes it up at the hospital!]]

** Literally outrun in the case of the [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment guy waving a towel]], but it doesn't work.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: The movie is BasedOnATrueStory [[spoiler:and everyone in the family both survived and were reunited the way it's shown in the film.]] According to María Belón "the biggest lie in the movie" is that the real ball was yellow, not red.

* RaceLift: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], only the family's nationality is changed from [[http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/12/24/article-2252664-16A374C3000005DC-746_634x415.jpg Spanish]] to British (unstated, but the actors speak in British accents and have English name versions of their RealLife counterparts: Enrique is renamed Henry, Tomás is Thomas, etc). This is because Maria Belon wanted Naomi Watts to play her after seeing her in Film/TwentyOneGrams. It sure helped get the movie a larger release and an Academy Award nomination in the big categories (Watts as Main Actress).

* RaceLift: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], only the family's nationality is changed from [[http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/12/24/article-2252664-16A374C3000005DC-746_634x415.jpg Spanish]] to British (unstated, but the actors speak in British accents and have English name versions of their RealLife counterparts: Enrique is renamed Henry, Tomás is Thomas, etc). This is because Maria Belon wanted Naomi Watts to play her after seeing her in Film/TwentyOneGrams. It sure helped get the movie a larger release and an oscar nomination in the big categories (Watts as Main Actress).

* SayMyName: Understandably, the [[AdultFear older members of the family]] spend half their air time yelling the names of their relatives, as do many other survivors. Lucas is also tasked at one point to look for and reunite other survivors with their families.

* AdultFear:
** Maria desperately reaching for Lucas, as he is dragged out to sea, and both parents contemplating the other children's fate.
** Henry telling Thomas and Simon that the scariest part for him was surfacing alone but seeing them both in a tree lessened his fear.
** Henry telling Maria's father that he doesn't know what's happened to her or Lucas.

** Literally outrun in the case of the [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment guy waving a towel]], but [[RealityEnsues it doesn't work]].

* FaceDeathWithDignity: Before going in for her second surgery, Maria softly tells Henry that she is ready to die.[[spoiler:Ultimately subverted, she survives the surgery.]]

* FanDisservice: There's a quick shot of Maria's gashed, exposed breast. You can... "appreciate" her mammary gland inside the cut.

* OscarBait: Creator/NaomiWatts was nominated to the Oscar for best actress. She lost to Creator/JenniferLawrence for ''Film/SilverLiningsPlaybook''.

* Foreshadoing: We see Maria [[IncurableCoughOfDeath coughing]] in a scene shortly after the disaster. Later we learn that she swallowed a fishing line which she throws up at the hospital.

* BodyHorror: At one point Maria starts coughing up a bloody, matted fishing line.

* EmpathyDollShot: The red ball.

* InformedSelfDiagnosis: Downplayed. Maria is a doctor herself so she asks Lucas to look for anti-biotics in the hospital room.

* HeadphonesEqualIsolation: A blink-and-miss scene shows an unaware tourist in his chair with headphones on being swept away by the tsunami wave.

* DesolationShot: The film has several fly-up/zoom-out shots showing the devastated area left behind by the tsunami waves.

* AspectRatioSwitch: The Aspect Ration shifts from cinematic 2.31:1 to 16:9 for the footage captured by the family's video camera on the morning of Boxing Day.

* BloodIsSquickerInWater: Maria's wounds.

* NightmareSequence: Maria has one while [[spoiler: in surgery, re-imagining herself during the tsunami.]]

* OutrunTheFireball: Out-swim the tidal wave.

* TheUnreveal: The family's nationality is not stated (just that they live in Japan because of the father's job, and as the hotel worker notes, they "don't look Japanese") and there is no explanation of what caused the tsunami (or even a mention that it is a tsunami).

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: A PG-13 rated film gets a brief but nevertheless full-on shot of Naomi Watts' breast, managing to sneak past because the content of the scene (see above trope) is not [[FanDisservice the slightest bit erotic.]]

* AdultFear: Maria desperately reaching for Lucas, as he is dragged out to sea, and both parents contemplating the other children's fate.

* CommonTongue: Most of the survivors speak English. According to real life survivors, [[TruthInTelevision Truth in Television]]. Despite varied nationalities, English was apparently the language most of them had a basic understanding of.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: Maria floating to the surface of the water.

* ManlyTears: A particularly hard-hitting example. Henry holds up well until he is with a group of survivors and gets to call his father-in-law for the first time. He can barely say a few words on the phone before he becomes totally unintelligible due to a crying fit, and has to hang up. Also a case of InelegantBlubbering.

* NothingIsScarier: After seeing the tsunami headed towards her, Maria braces for the impact, and it cuts to black. [[spoiler:However, we do get to see what happened to her in a later scene.]]

* NightmareSequence: Maria has one while [[spoiler: in surgery, re-imagining herself during the tsumani.]]

* NippleAndDimed: There's a blink-and-you-miss-it shot of Maria's breast and nipple when her shirt gets torn after the tsunami hits. The movie dodges an R rating because her chest is [[FanDisservice badly bruised, filthy, and gashed up]].

* ChekhovsGun: A soda can is briefly shown before the disaster, as Lucas asked his mom to drink and she, an ex-doctor worried about healthy nutrition, suggests not to. [[spoiler:Few moments after, a similar can is floating in the water and it happens to be the only supply the agonizing mom, Lucas and Daniel have.]]

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Henry sends off his younger sons , Thomas and Simon, to "safety" with a relative stranger so that he can look for his wife and older son, Lucas. He doesn't think about how he's going to find Thomas and Simon again, given that the older of them is only 7-years old and neither of them have any identification on them.

* SayMyName: Understandably, the [[AdultFear older members of the family]] spend half their air time yelling the names of their relatives. Lucas is also tasked at one point to look for and reunite other survivors with their families.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The family are reunited and survived, but then again, 250,000 lives were lost at the tsunami. It's strongly implied that the family of the German man who'd been helping Henry search are among them.]]

* FanDisservice: There's a quick shot of Maria's bloody, exposed breast. You can... "appreciate" her mammary gland inside the cut.

* VomitIndiscretionShot: A woman is seen puking up blood and debris in the hospital, and Maria does the same afterwards.