The Last Wave (1977) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

The four men were charged after a fellow Aboriginal man died during a pub altercation in Sydney during a freak rainstorm. Although they denied responsibility and the death appeared accidental, the coroner ruled it a homicide. Burton suspected the murder might have been a ritual punishment for breaking an Aboriginal taboo, possibly enforced through a curse using a bone, though the accused never admitted this in legal terms.

Foreshadowing: The unusual weather and strange natural events that open the film signal that something beyond ordinary crime is unfolding.

• Aboriginal murder charge
• Sydney pub fight
• ritual punishment
• bone curse

Burton begins experiencing vivid dreams of running water and submerged bodies after taking on the Aboriginal case. These premonitions intensify as the inquiry progresses, suggesting a supernatural connection between the murder, the increasingly severe weather, and his own fate. The visions appear to be the Dreamtime spirits communicating with him through Chris Lee.

Foreshadowing: The opening montage's unusual weather patterns and the Aboriginal communities' recognition of cosmological signs plant the seeds for these prophetic dreams.

• David Burton dreams
• water visions
• drowning premonition
• supernatural connection

Chris Lee is one of the accused Aboriginal men imprisoned for the murder. In a dream visitation, Lee appears at Burton's home before Burton has ever met him in person, creating an uncanny bond. When Burton later meets the four defendants, he immediately recognizes Lee, and Lee urges Burton to trust the hidden meanings in his dreams, suggesting they share a mystical connection through the Dreamtime.

Foreshadowing: The dream visitation establishes early on that this case operates on a level beyond ordinary legal proceedings.

• Chris Lee
• David Burton connection
• dream visitation
• Aboriginal prisoner

Dreamtime is the Aboriginal concept of a parallel world of ancestral spirits that exists alongside the modern world. In the film, Dreamtime represents the older Australia that exists beneath the urban surface, both literally through the subterranean tunnels and metaphorically through the prophetic visions. Burton learns that the disturbances in the physical world are connected to spiritual forces from Dreamtime, and that the murder case may be a gateway to larger prophetic events.

Foreshadowing: The Aboriginal communities' recognition of cosmological meaning behind the strange weather from the very first scenes establishes that Dreamtime forces are already at work.

• Dreamtime
• Aboriginal cosmology
• ancestral spirits
• parallel world

In the hidden Aboriginal ceremonial chamber beneath the city, Burton discovers a ceiling painting that depicts European explorers arriving from a distant land, along with a calendrical prophecy of an oceanic disaster. This artwork suggests that the current apocalyptic events were prophesied long ago, fusing European colonization history with Aboriginal predictions of catastrophe.

Foreshadowing: The unusual weather and flood warnings that have persisted throughout the film find their explanation in this ancient prophetic artwork.

• ceiling painting
• European explorers
• prophecy
• oceanic disaster
• Aboriginal art

Among the relics in the underground chamber, including a decayed corpse wearing medieval Western garments, Burton finds a stone mask bearing a chilling likeness to his own face. This discovery suggests he is connected to the prophetic lineage called Mulkurul, or that his involvement in the case was destined. The image implies his fate is intertwined with the ancient prophecies.

Foreshadowing: Throughout the film, Burton has felt increasingly drawn into a larger narrative beyond the legal case, and this discovery confirms his personal connection to the prophetic events.

• stone mask
• Burton face
• Mulkurul
• ancient relics
• prophecy connection

The flooding appears to be triggered by the intensifying supernatural forces Burton has been sensing throughout the film. As Burton delves deeper into the Aboriginal case and the Dreamtime prophecies, the weather escalates from unusual storms to torrential rain that floods the city. The wave at the end seems to be the oceanic disaster prophesied in the ceiling painting, a catastrophic event that the Dreamtime has been warning about through Burton's visions.

Foreshadowing: The opening montage's intruding weather patterns and the escalating storm sequences throughout the film build toward this apocalyptic culmination.

• apocalyptic wave
• flooding
• storm
• prophecy fulfillment
• Dreamtime warning

The film deliberately leaves this ambiguous. The towering ocean wave that dominates the final frame could be a true catastrophe occurring in the real world, or it could be the final, ultimate vision of the apocalyptic premonition that has been consuming Burton throughout the film. The film resists providing a definitive answer, maintaining the tension between rational legal reality and ancestral prophetic truth.

Foreshadowing: The entire film has been blurring the lines between Burton's dreams and waking reality, making both interpretations equally valid.

• final wave
• reality vs vision
• ambiguous ending
• apocalyptic conclusion

As the flooding worsens and Burton becomes increasingly obsessed with the case and his apocalyptic visions, he convinces his wife that they must evacuate the city to escape the imminent flood and catastrophe he believes is coming. This decision strains their marriage and represents the personal cost of Burton's pursuit into the Aboriginal world, the deeper he goes into the mystery, the more he loses his normal family life.

Foreshadowing: Burton's gradual abandonment of his professional and personal boundaries has been building since he took the case, with his dreams beginning to blur with his waking responsibilities.

• Burton wife
• family evacuation
• marriage strain
• personal cost

Burton confronts the tribe's shaman in the sacred underground chamber during his pursuit of the ritual world behind the crime. A violent confrontation ensues, and Burton kills the shaman using a stone relic as a weapon. This act marks Burton's complete immersion into the ritual world, he has crossed from observer to participant, and the killing seals his entanglement with the forces beyond conventional law.

Foreshadowing: Burton's growing obsession and his journey through the subterranean tunnels toward the ceremonial site have been building toward this violent confrontation with the spiritual world.

• shaman death
• Burton kills
• underground confrontation
• ritual world

Mulkurul is a term Chris Lee uses to describe a lineage connected to distant, sacred origins within Aboriginal cosmology. Lee suggests that Mulkurul might be guiding Burton toward a revelation connected to the case. The concept represents the ancient prophetic lineage that connects past, present, and future events, Burton's discovery of his own face on the mask seems to link him to this Mulkurul lineage.

Foreshadowing: Lee's references to Mulkurul and hidden meanings prepare Burton (and the audience) for the deeper revelations in the underground chamber.

• Mulkurul
• sacred lineage
• Aboriginal prophecy
• Chris Lee teachings

Among the relics in the hidden Aboriginal ceremonial site, Burton finds the decayed body of a man wearing medieval Western garments, anachronistic European clothing that suggests this is someone from a different time period, possibly another outsider who encountered this sacred space long ago. Together with the painting depicting European arrival and the mask resembling Burton, it suggests a pattern of outsiders being drawn into the Aboriginal prophetic narrative throughout history.

Foreshadowing: The painting depicting European explorers arriving sets up the historical context for this ancient corpse.

• European corpse
• ancient relics
• medieval clothing
• outsider prophecy