‘Tsunami: Race Against Time’ Unfolds Like a Thriller Instead of a Documentary

It is a rare feat for a documentary series to educate, shatter emotionally, uplift and terrify all at once, but Tsunami: Race Against Time manages all of the above.

Several documentaries (and a 2012 drama, The Impossible) have attempted to capture the devastation of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that impacted 14 countries and killed more than 225,000 people. But only Race Against Time has done so on a scale befitting the tragedy. Across four episodes, the ambitious National Geographic series conveys the events of Dec. 26, 2004 from every possible angle, using a wealth of archival footage, often playing more like a dramatic thriller than a documentary series.

In each episode, survivors — tourists and locals alike — describe in gripping detail their experiences in Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Heartwarming stories of reunions contrast with devastating recollections of lives lost. There are even love stories of unbreakable bonds, formed by surviving hell on Earth. (“When I found out he saved me,” a woman says at one point, “I knew he was the man I wanted to marry.”)

Race Against Time also honors the children who were forced to fend for themselves in the worst possible circumstances. The filmmakers went to the trouble of tracking down the last survivor found in Banda Aceh, Indonesia — a small boy who had endured, scavenging and alone, for three weeks. When the archival footage of his rescue is juxtaposed with footage of the present day, it is a genuine relief to see him happy and healthy 20 years on.

Acting as an anchor of the piece is seismologist Barry Hirshorn, who was on duty at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii on the day of the calamity. Hirshorn begins by describing the essential science behind the disaster, vividly and in terms everybody can understand.

“An earthquake that occurs under the ocean actually lifts the ocean bottom. Imagine a line of 1,000 kilometers of water being lifted vertically,” Hirshorn says. “When the gravity pulls it down, the wave separates and spreads out in two directions. As you get near a coast, you’re not going to see what we think of as ocean waves. I think of it as more like a steamroller.” In case anyone is left in doubt as to the sheer power he describes, Hirshorn explains that the energy released by the earthquake causing the tsunami was equivalent to 23,000 “Hiroshima-type atomic bombs.”

Hirshorn also agonizingly details how he and his colleagues tried to warn countries in the path of the approaching tsunami. Their efforts were largely unsuccessful, because the endangered locations didn’t have warning systems in place at the time. Hearing Hirshorn relive the experience of knowing carnage was imminent, desperately trying to get thousands of humans out of harm’s way and being foiled by logistics raises the blood pressure again and again.

Race Against Time doesn’t stop there. It also delineates the confusion in the media during the earliest coverage of the disaster. Sri Lanka was first thought to be the country most affected; in reality, Indonesia was hit the hardest (167,000 people died there). That took many hours to fully comprehend because the country’s communications networks had been wiped out. The issue was exacerbated by understaffed, holiday-period newsrooms.

Race Against Time is an often challenging, and harrowing, viewing experience. But there’s just enough hope to get viewers through it. Many of the featured survivors tell of strangers — so many fearless strangers — who, under pressure, transformed into indefatigable heroes who put their own lives at risk to save others.

One young woman’s story of a family trip to an isolated island plays out like a horror movie — until one brave police lieutenant arrives on a Jet Ski. One Sri Lankan bus station security guard returns to violent waters again and again to rescue passengers. A vacationing British doctor springs into improvised action to help the multitude of injured people on an isolated Thai island — even though his girlfriend has been swept away in the disaster and he does not yet know her fate.

All told, Race Against Time is an extraordinarily thorough documentation of the deadliest tsunami in recorded human history. It is a story of nature’s power and humanity’s fragility — and of human endurance. It is a cautionary tale that seeks to educate viewers about recognizing when a tsunami is imminent.

Above all, Race Against Time  is a moving and fitting tribute to mark the 20th anniversary of an almost unfathomable tragedy.

‘Tsunami: Race Against Time’ premieres on Nat Geo on Nov. 24, 2024, and begins streaming the following day on Hulu and Disney+.