Survive: A Pole Reversal Disaster

California would say this is a heck of a time for a disaster movie about a lack of water, but here it is. Technically, the water did not disappear. It just shifted to where all the land used to be, when the Earth’s poles reversed. Perhaps it is not as bad for a French family enjoying a sailing holiday as it is for those living in coastal lowlands—but it is still pretty bad. The next piece of good news-bad news is the anticipated reversion of the poles back to normal, which means they need to find a safe shelter for the coming deluge in Frederic Jardin’s Survive, which releases tomorrow on VOD.

Tom is German and Julia is French, but somehow, they met, married, and started raising a family in America. Even the kids are enjoying their Caribbean cruise. For teenaged Cassie, still regularly video-chatting with her boyfriend helps considerably. She is online with him when she noticed a bizarre electrical storm in the background—and then all heck breaks loose.

When everyone comes to, the boat is perched on the now dry ocean floor, which stretches out around them like the surface of the Moon (apart from some puddles remaining here and there). Eventually, they make contact with Nao, a Japanese oceanographer, who weathered the disaster in his submersible diving craft. He rather neighborly warns the parents his readings show the catastrophic event will soon reverse itself. Since his partner did not survive, he has room for two additional bodies. Of course, the couple are willing to sacrifice themselves to save their children. However, they must first contend with a vicious survivor out to plunder their food and supplies.

The post-pole-switch landscape is definitely the most impressive aspect of the film. It truly looks like an alien world. Jardin and screenwriters Alexandre Coquelle and Mathieu Oullion also devise plenty of credible challenges in traversing the rises and crevices of the formerly undersea terrain. Unfortunately, they under-deliver when it comes to the promised rabid marine creatures that only appear in the last twenty minutes or so.

There is no camp here, so do not assume anything like Land of the Lost. As the title suggests, this is all about the struggle to survive under extreme and unprecedented circumstances. However, the writing and characterization does not do justice to stunning backdrop. It is also bleakly nihilistic in the ways it depicts other survivors, which grows increasingly depressing. As a further frustration, both children often act out in irresponsible ways that are difficult to believe. True, kids are annoying, but they are usually keenly attuned to the people around them, so they should have picked up on the crisis vibes. Instead, they keep making poor decisions for the sake of advancing the plot.

By far, Emillie Dequenne is the class of the small ensemble portraying Julia. Her grief and her protective motherly instincts might be the most credible aspects of the film. At least Lisa Delamar also shows some fierceness as Cassie, whereas Andreas Pietschmann and Lucas Ebel must play two extraordinarily unintuitive characters—so maybe it makes sense that they are related.

Perhaps Jardin and company would argue humanity has a duty to eat more crab for the sake of our survival, which would be a worthy takeaway. The film looks amazing, but the writing leaves much to be desired. Worth watching later on ad-sponsored streaming platforms, but mostly for the impressive post-apocalyptic visuals, Survive releases today (1/10) on VOD.