The Last Wave

The film opens with a montage of daily life across Australia in the 1970s: a rural desert school, a dusty outback main street, and a crowded city street. Unusual weather patterns begin to intrude on these scenes, abruptly breaking the normal rhythm of life. The sequence sets a mood of impending disruption, suggesting forces larger than ordinary people understand.

As storms intensify, heavy rainfall soaks towns and cities, while large hail shards crash through windows and injure students. Frogs and other anomalies accompany the weather, underscoring the sense that something unnatural is happening. The chaos signals nature responding to unknown forces that will drive the plot.

Among the turmoil, local Aboriginal communities alone seem to sense the cosmological meaning behind the events. They speak of Dreamtime, spirits, and sacred signs that hint at a larger order behind the disturbances. Their perspective contrasts with the broader public concerns and foreshadows a cultural clash to come.

During a freak rainstorm in Sydney, an altercation among Aboriginal people in a pub ends in a mysterious drowning. The death triggers a coroner's inquiry and the start of a homicide investigation. Burton is drawn into the case as a defense lawyer, despite his initial reluctance.

At the inquest, the death is ruled a homicide and four Aboriginal men are charged. The political and cultural tensions surrounding the case complicate the defense strategy. Burton is enlisted to help navigate the legal labyrinth through the Australian Legal Aid system.

David Burton, a corporate taxation lawyer, is reluctantly recruited to defend the accused. He takes on the challenge, intrigued by its complexities as a way to test his skills. As the investigation unfolds, his professional life begins to unravel alongside his personal life.

Burton starts having bizarre dreams of running water and drowned corpses. The dreams intensify and blur with waking life, deepening his obsession with the case. They hint at a supernatural link between the murder, the weather, and his own fate.

In a dream, Burton is visited at home by Chris Lee, one of the accused he has never met. When Burton later meets the four men, he recognizes Lee and feels an uncanny, otherworldly bond with him. The experience convinces him there is more at stake than a standard legal dispute.

After meeting Lee and learning about Aboriginal practices, Burton believes his dreams and the heavy rain portend an apocalypse. He dives into Dreamtime concepts and tribal prophecies, feeling drawn toward a larger, cosmic narrative. This belief reframes the murder case as a gateway to prophecy rather than a simple crime.

As danger rises, Burton persuades his wife to leave the city with their children to escape the flood and the looming apocalypse he believes is coming. The decision strains his marriage and finances while the storm worsens around them. The personal stakes rise alongside the professional ones.

A torrential storm floods the city, and Lee escapes from prison to seek Burton. The two traverse subterranean tunnels beneath the urban landscape toward a sacred Aboriginal site. The journey marks a turning point as Burton confronts the ritual world behind the crime.

In an underground chamber, Burton discovers a ceiling painting depicting the arrival of European explorers and a calendrical prophecy of disaster. He finds relics—a decayed corpse in medieval Western garments and a stone mask—that seem linked to his own fate. The imagery deepens the sense that history and prophecy are fused in this story.

The sacred site becomes the stage for a violent confrontation with the tribe's shaman. Burton fights and kills the shaman with a stone relic, sealing his immersion in the ritual world and further entangling himself with the crime.

Burton tries to find his way back to the surface but loses the relics along the way. He finally emerges through a drain, exhausted, and collapses on a desolate beach. The image of the horizon hints at the larger questions the film leaves unresolved.

On the horizon, a surreal towering ocean wave dominates the frame. The film leaves it unclear whether this is a true catastrophe or Burton's apocalyptic premonition, inviting ambiguous interpretation. The revelation lingers as the screen fades.