• 2012'south The Impossible, now on Netflix, is gear up in the aftermath of the deadly tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean in 2004.
  • The picture is based on the true story of a Spanish family vacationing in Thailand when the seismic sea wave struck, who miraculously reunited after being separated.
  • This is where the family from The Impossible is now.

The harrowing 2012 film, The Impossible, which is now streaming on Netflix, follows a family unit of vacationers in the aftermath of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami that struck land on Dec 24, 2004. Based on a true story, information technology stars Naomi Watts, Ewan MacGregor, and a immature Tom Holland.

Considered the deadliest seismic sea wave in recorded history, the 200-human foot wave wiped away entire towns, and the lives of over 200,000 people across 14 countries, per The Telegraph. The seismic sea wave beginning made contact in Indonesia and moved onto Thailand, where The Impossible takes place. The death price in Thailand was nearly 5,400 including 2,000 strange tourists, per History.com.

Miraculously, the family unit whose story is told in The Impossible all survived the disaster. Though the Bennet family in The Impossible is British, the existent family that inspired the moving-picture show is from Spain. María Belón, a dr., and her husband Enrique Álvarez were in Khao Lak, Thailand with their three sons, Lucas, Simón and Tomás when the tsunami struck. Hither'southward a look back at their remarkable story, and where the family is now.

'the impossible' premiere after party by grey goose

Maria Belon and her family at the premiere of The Impossible.

Europa Press Entertainment // Getty Images

The family was on vacation in Thailand when the tsunami struck.

In 2004, the Belón-Álvarez family traveled to Orchid Resort Hotel in Khao Lak, Thailand for the Christmas holidays. At the time, they were living in Nippon for Álvarez'south job—merely like the Bennetts in The Impossible. The tsunami arrived 3 days into their vacation, per the L.A. Times.

Equally in the moving-picture show, the family was gathered around the puddle when it happened. "We were standing in the same positions effectually the aforementioned swimming puddle where the families were standing that day," MacGregor said in an interview in 2012. "It was really real."

Belón's account of the moment the tsunami appeared is virtually as vivid every bit the scene in The Impossible. "We started to hear a very horrible sound. I was looking effectually thinking perchance this is simply in my listen. No 1 recognized the audio. Information technology felt like the Earth was coming apart but everything looked perfect. I was facing the sea and saw a huge blackness wall. I didn't think information technology was the sea. I thought it was a black wall coming to become us," she told The Mirror in 2017.

Afterwards, Belón was swept away and separated from her husband and sons, who were in the swimming puddle. According to her interview, Belón believed it "was the end" for all of them. Doctors told Belón that she was underwater for at least three minutes.

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Maria Belón and her son, Lucas, in 2012.

Stuart C. Wilson // Getty Images

Miraculously, all five family unit members survived.

What happens side by side is what gave The Impossible its championship. Against all odds, the family managed to reunite. "I'm hither considering I was so lucky, but there were many, many others who were non so lucky," Tomas said in 2016 during an interview with the UN on World Tsunami 24-hour interval.

After being swept abroad, Belón managed to locate her son, Lucas, and grab onto a tree torso. "Lucas and I were hugging in this tree, more often than not in silence, but from fourth dimension to fourth dimension, he would say, 'I'm happy, Mommy, that y'all are with me,' and I said, 'I'm happy I'thou with you, Lucas.' It was one of the most cute moments in my life," she told People.

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They were constitute and rescued by a Thai man. "The man wouldn't allow me to dice. He dragged me through the mud for a long time until he was sure I was in good hands," she told The Mirror . Elsewhere, Alvarez had lost the other sons. Clinging onto a tree, he was sure the boys had drowned—but he, too, reunited with them.

The family's reunion took identify 2 days later, in the hospital where Belón was being treated for severe injuries to her thigh and chest, per the BBC. Afterward life-saving surgery in Thailand, she spent 4 months recuperating in a hospital in Singapore.

Years later on, The Impossible would film in that aforementioned hospital. "They were very happy with the idea of the film being made because information technology was a way of showing the world how they had behaved, which was extraordinary," director Juan Antonio Bayona told Gear up Decor.

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Jason Merritt/TERM // Getty Images

Belón rescued a young boy named Daniel in the water.

Belón and her son, Lucas, rescued a young Swedish boy named Daniel while he was pulled out to sea. Daniel reunited with his begetter in the hospital. Co-ordinate to the L.A. Times, Belón and her family lost touch on with the young boy, and don't know his whereabouts.

Later, she wrote a letter of the alphabet to Daniel'due south deceased female parent, published in the 50.A. Times. "It wasn't your fault y'all died nor my fault I survived, it was fate. But fate has a precipitous border, it leaves wounds and buries scars. Fate isn't always fair and that hurts. The pain is hurting, but non guilt....That pain is like an invisible rock in my shoe, making it incommunicable to forget with every pace, I'll never get rid of information technology. The all-time I can practise is to conform to its presence," she wrote.

l to r tom holland and naomi watts star in the impossible

JOSE HARO

Filming The Impossible was cathartic for Belón and her family unit.

The family that inspired The Impossible was involved in the movie from commencement to end. The process began with Belón recounting her story to filmmakers over the form of v hours—in one sitting. "When nosotros outset met, I had ii objectives," Belón told the L.A. Times in 2012. "I was trying to scare them and two was to look in their eyes and run into if they were the ones who actually wanted to swallow this large responsibleness."

Based on their response to the interview, Belón decided to trust the filmmakers. As filming proceeded, Belón wrote letters. "One, 'Delirium,' conveyed her fragile state in the hospital when she was losing pints of claret and facing death,'" the article reads.

Belón as well met with Watts earlier filming, and helped inform the part. "I didn't want to pry besides much. I didn't want to seem too actor-y. Just she had so much to say, so it was perfect," Watts told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "And something that I didn't quite understand at the time was that she said she felt completely certain of her instinct. That cypher got in the mode of it. And she'd never had that feeling before. Which fabricated her incredibly heroic, because every decision she makes seemed to be the right ane.

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Today, the family from The Impossible is devoted to doing good.

The tsunami changed the course of the family's lives. Now living in Barcelona, 54-year-old Belón continues to work as a doctor, and is an advocate for tsunami survivors and a motivational speaker.

Alvárez volunteers with Proactiva Open up Arms, an NGO dedicated to helping refugees get in safely to the Greek island of Lesbos—a notoriously dangerous passage. Per a statistic from October 2019, 19,000 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean since Oct 2013. "Having lived through certain situations in the past doesn't desensitize you. Instead, you empathize more with others. Things feel closer," Álvarez told The Huffington Postal service.

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Michael Tran // Getty Images

All three boys, like their parents, are devoted to philanthropy every bit well. Lucas—played by Tom Kingdom of the netherlands in the film—had a heroic moment of his own this summer while working as a doctor in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The 26-year-old studied at the University Higher in London.

Middle child Tomas chose to study at a academy in Wales, specifically because of their rigorous lifeguard training program, he told the BBC. He, too, continues to raise awareness well-nigh tsunamis through his own experiences. "While it's important to reverberate on the past, it'south every bit important to change the future," he said in an interview with the Un on World Tsunami Twenty-four hours in 2016.

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#TsunamiDay2016: Interview with Tomas Alvarez Belon

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Simon, the youngest who was v during the seismic sea wave, at present studies in the netherlands. He besides volunteers as a lifeguard with his male parent's NGO, per his LinkedIn.

Each year, the family gathers on a beach on December 26, the day the tsunami struck, to call back. "No matter where we all are, this is a delivery we have forever. We need to exist close to the souls [of the dead]," Belón told People.


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