History Film / TheWave

* [[Film/TheWave2015 A 2015 disaster movie]]

** [[Film/DieWelle Its 2008 remake]]

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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 of which Jones hadn't told his students to do, as such incidents were completely unexpected developments.

Realizing that he was losing control of the Third Wave, Jones 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.

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 starring Creator/BruceDavison as the teacher, which 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'', with Jürgen Vogel as the teacher, 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]].

Not to be confused with the Norwegian DisasterMovie [[Film/TheWave2015 from 2015]].
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!! Tropes in the TV movie or the book ''The Wave'':
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* 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... and shows a picture of Hitler.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Laurie gets a lot of flak for opposing the Wave after it starts. David actually hits her for it at one point, causing him to have a HeelRealization.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: As Mr. Ross gives his students a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. [[spoiler:He notes that they could have walked away at any time from The Wave. So why didn't they do it?]]
* BasedOnATrueStory: As detailed above, the "Third Wave" experiment actually happened. However, a few elements are changed from the real thing, including names.
* DayOfTheJackboot: Downplayed, since it was only a few classrooms. But the "Third Wave" mentality spreads over those classrooms to other places in the school.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: A gang of ideologically-motivated but otherwise ordinary youths take over a school and start threatening those who aren't part of their movement? Nah, that can't happen here.
* DownerEnding: Mr. Ross shows who the leader of The Wave is at the school assembly: UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. [[spoiler: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]].
* FactionMotto: The Wave adopts the slogan "Strength Through Discipline! Strength Through Community! Strength Through Action!".[[note]]The original experiment also had a fourth slogan, "Strength Through Pride", but it was omitted in the film and novel adaptations.[[/note]]
* FascistButInefficient: DoubleSubverted. 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.
* ForeignRemake: ''Film/DieWelle'', by the Germans.
* GoneHorriblyRight: Mr. Ross wanted to create a social experiment to prove how "it can't happen here" is a naïve idea. He succeeded better than he could have ever imagined. However, he did it by traumatizing everyone at the school (albeit entirely by accident).
* 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 come about.
* HitlerAteSugar: Unity and discipline are, apparently, just steps on the road to fascism. Admittedly, Ross was trying to invoke this, but it went [[GoneHorriblyRight way further than he'd hoped for]].
* HolierThanThou: The Wave's expansion resulted in its members believing that they were superior to those who aren't a part of the organization, to the point that they bully non-Wave members into joining.
* InternalReveal: The idea that Hitler is the leader of the Third Wave. The audience has been told that the whole thing is an experiment by Mr. Ross; the students remain blissfully unaware until the assembly.
* {{Irony}}: The Wave's emphasizes community and equality, but the results of its philosophy end up having the opposite effect.
** The movement changes Robert Billings and allows him to move out of the shadow of his older brother and become his own person. The Wave's disbandment upsets him, as his newfound status social means nothing without the movement to uphold it.
** The Gordon High football team (which David is a part of) loses to Clarkstown as the former's sense of community fails to make up for a lack of real training and preparation.
* JerkJock: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. The football players are all so obsessed with making themselves look good (often at their teammates' expense) that they barely function together, and have gone through several losing seasons. Even when they adopt the unity and purpose of the Wave, [[FascistButInefficient they continue to struggle]], as they had never really trained as a team before then.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** David is shocked by his own actions after he hits Laurie for opposing the Wave, and quickly consoles her.
** Mr. Ross also has this when he realizes that the experiment is beginning to spiral out of control and that people are starting to get hurt as a result of his actions.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The Wave, of course. It was modeled after Nazi Germany and its "effeciency", with students regularly falling in like with it. The entire thing was started as an experiment by Mr. Ross to show how fascism could spread easily, with Adolf Hitler being the "true" leader of the Third Wave.
* OnlySaneMan: David and Laurie are the only ones willing to stand up to The Wave. This also happened in real life as several students refused to join (or left) the movement. Some of them also created banners against the Third Wave or tried directly to convince other students to leave.
* PunnyHeadlines: In the film, Laurie's article denouncing the Wave has the headline, "The Wave Drowns Gordon High."
* PoliticallyMotivatedTeacher: Obviously, or else this couldn't have even happened in the first place.
* PuttingOnTheReich: The Wave salute is fairly obviously (and [[EnforcedTrope deliberately]]) modeled after the Nazi one, and armbands are used as a sign of membership. Even the original name for it, the Third Wave, is deliberately evocative of the Third Reich.
* 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 speech for everyone, and [[RageQuit they don't take it too well]].
-->''"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 [[HolierThanThou 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?"''
* SchoolNewspaperNewshound: Laurie is focused more on getting the truth out than being concerned with high school popularity. This eventually makes her one of the few dissenting voices against the Third Wave in school as she reports on what's happening. Laurie's boyfriend David and her friend Amy accuse her of being responsible for much of the competitive atmosphere at school because of her reporting.
* 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 character, and becomes upset after the Wave disbands, without it to uphold his social status.
* WhamLine: The scene where Mr. Ross reveals that UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler was the "leader" of the Wave -- if not for the readers and viewers (who should know what's coming), then for the students.
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* RealityEnsues:
** The Wave was conceived as a community in which everyone is an equal... on paper. As the group expanded, it became clear that The Wave was no longer about community, due to the oppressive tactics used by Wave members to recruit people into their group.
** Even if you come together as a community, the motivation you gain from that alone means nothing if you don't train and prepare proper. The Gordon High football team learns this the hard way after they lose to Clarkstown.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_wave.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:English cover of the third adaptation.]]

-->''"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?"''

* RealityEnsues: Even if you come together as a community where everyone is treated equally, the motivation you gain from that alone means nothing if you don't train and prepare proper. The Gordon High football team learns this the hard way after they lose to Clarkstown.

** 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. The Wave's disbandment upsets him, as his newfound status social means nothing without the movement to uphold it.

* 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]].