Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV News
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily Entertainment GuideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsPride MonthAmerican Black Film FestivalSummer Watch GuideSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
8 suggestions available
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

The Last Wave

  • 1977
  • PG
  • 1h 46m
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
12K
YOUR RATING
Richard Chamberlain in The Last Wave (1977)
A Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal Persons in a ritualized taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing things about himself and premonitions.
Play trailer2:39
1 Video
92 Photos
Dark FantasyLegal DramaDramaFantasyMysteryThriller

A Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal Persons in a ritualized taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing things about himself and premonitions.A Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal Persons in a ritualized taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing things about himself and premonitions.A Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal Persons in a ritualized taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing things about himself and premonitions.

  • Director
    • Peter Weir
  • Writers
    • Peter Weir
    • Tony Morphett
    • Petru Popescu
  • Stars
    • Richard Chamberlain
    • Olivia Hamnett
    • David Gulpilil
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.9/10
    12K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Peter Weir
    • Writers
      • Peter Weir
      • Tony Morphett
      • Petru Popescu
    • Stars
      • Richard Chamberlain
      • Olivia Hamnett
      • David Gulpilil
    • 75User reviews
    • 82Critic reviews
    • 85Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 4 wins & 8 nominations total

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 2:39
    Trailer

    Photos92

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 84
    View Poster

    Top cast29

    Edit
    Richard Chamberlain
    Richard Chamberlain
    • David Burton
    Olivia Hamnett
    • Annie Burton
    David Gulpilil
    David Gulpilil
    • Chris Lee
    • (as Gulpilil)
    Frederick Parslow
    • Rev. Burton
    Vivean Gray
    • Dr. Whitburn
    Nandjiwarra Amagula
    • Charlie
    • (as Nandjiwarra Amagula M.B.E.)
    Walter Amagula
    • Gerry Lee
    Roy Bara
    • Larry
    Cedrick Lalara
    • Lindsey
    Morris Lalara
    • Jacko
    Peter Carroll
    Peter Carroll
    • Michael Zeadler
    Athol Compton
    • Billy Corman
    Hedley Cullen
    Hedley Cullen
    • Judge
    Michael Duffield
    • Andrew Potter
    Wallas Eaton
    • Morgue Doctor
    Jo England
    • Babysitter
    John Frawley
    • Policeman
    Jennifer De Greenlaw
    • Zeadler's Secretary
    • (as Jennifer de Greenlaw)
    • Director
      • Peter Weir
    • Writers
      • Peter Weir
      • Tony Morphett
      • Petru Popescu
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews75

    6.911.8K
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    7ctomvelu-1

    Chamberlain at his finest

    THE LAST WAVE is never going to win over the mainstream audience. It is a slow-moving but fascinating film for those who are willing to go along with it. An Australian properties lawyer is asked to take on the case of five aborigines accused in the murder of one of their own. All sorts of portents and omens soon pop up, as the man's death involves a tribal issue that was not meant for white man's court, and pretty soon the lawyer is having trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy. It looks like the end of the world may be at hand, and he and the aborigines may know this but no one else does. Richard Chamberlain as the lawyer is at his peak here. David Guptil, a familiar face from several other Australian flicks and a decent actor, is one of the five aborigines on trial. THE LAST WAVE is simply not for everyone, anymore than is MAGNOLIA (both happen to have strange things falling from the sky). Check it out on a slow Saturday night.
    8Muldwych

    Stands the test of time.

    'The Last Wave' is far more than the sum of its parts. It's not merely a disaster film, not simply an exploration into Australian Aboriginal spirituality, and certainly more than a simple court drama. Writer/Director Peter Weir manages to take these elements to the next level to produce a truly effective and thought-provoking film with the same eerie atmosphere he gave to 'Picnic At Hanging Rock' two years earlier, that you will continue to remember years later.

    When lawyer David Burton (Chamberlain) is called to defend Chris Lee (Gulpilil) over the death of an Aboriginal for which he may or may not be directly responsible, he finds himself not merely struggling to get the truth from Lee, but making sense of what he hears when it does come. As with the Aboriginal belief that there are two worlds - the everyday and the Dreamtime, the truth exists on two completely different levels, with ramifications more disastrous than Burton could ever have imagined.

    No doubt the reason why 'Picnic At Hanging Rock' is better remembered is because of its enduring mystery. We are led along the same path but forced to find answers for ourselves. In 'The Last Wave', we can piece everything together by the end of the film. However, even with all the information, we have to choose how much of it we want to believe, because the film takes us beyond the borders of our normal realities.

    On the production side, Weir uses his budget to great effect, progressively building a sense of doom in everything from soft lighting, to heavy rain, to good use of sound. The incidental music is unobtrusive, never trying to be grandiose. Richard Chamberlain manages to convey the bafflement the audience would doubtless feel as he tries to unravel the mystery. David Gulpilil excellently portrays a man trapped between two worlds, wanting to do the right thing, but afraid because he already knows the ending.

    Put all these things together, and you have a perfect example of why David Weir is a familiar name in cinema thirty years on. Strongly recommended.
    8lee_eisenberg

    part of a wave of really good movies

    "The Last Wave" is one of those movies that relies heavily on the mind. The title refers to the Aboriginal doomsday theory: there will be one last wave that wipes out everything.

    David Burton (Richard Chamberlain) is a Sydney lawyer hired to defend some Aborigines accused of murder. Around this time, there has been unusually heavy rainfall in Australia. While defending the Aborigines, David learns the last wave theory, and begins to wonder whether it's just mythology.

    The movie's last sequence is a metaphor for descending into the depths of one's mind. Peter Weir created a perplexing, but thought-provoking, movie. Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil (whom you may have seen in "Walkabout", "Crocodile Dundee" and "Rabbit-Proof Fence") provides an interesting supporting role as one of the defendants.

    If you get a chance, watch the "making of" feature on the DVD. Peter Weir explains some of the film's undertones, some of which relate to Richard Chamberlain's background.
    8thinker1691

    " We step into the world of darkness, through the Dream door "

    Across the great divide which we call understanding, there is still much we do not know about that which was explained by the early tribal Elders. In every instance, there is much concerning the dangers of knowing too much. Conversely, there are those who warn us of not preparing for what they warn is the 'End Time.' In this movie called " The Last Wave " an aboriginal native is murdered for no apparent reason. When those responsible are arrested, they remain silent less they disturb the order of things. David Burton (Richard Chamberlain) plays the Defense Attorney assigned to defend the accused. Although haunted by prophetic images from his own childhood and warned by modern signs given to him by an sympathetic Aboriginal named Chris Lee (David Gulpilil), Burton proceeds to defend the infraction as Tribal Law and therefore not subject to standard justice. The movie is fraught with puzzling, dark foreboding images of apocalyptic end world disasters and warns of a future island tsunami and doom. Black drama and deep rituals are what gives this film it's frightening allure and therefore is not for the faint-hearted, in fact the simplest haunting apparitions can last for years in the nightmares of innocent movie goers. Good silent drama. ****
    7Coventry

    One...Two...Mulkurul is coming for you!

    It doesn't happen too often that a film has such a powerful and promising opening sequence as here in "The Last Wave". Playtime at a little countryside school in central Australia, during a sunny & cloudless November day, gets brutally interrupted when a ferocious hailstorm breaks loose and practically destroys the classroom. What an amazing start, especially if - like me - you have a fondness for cataclysmic situations and ecologic horror!

    The plot then moves to big-city Sydney, but also there is heavily and non-stop raining the entire time, through which writer/director Peter Weir creates a foreboding and genuinely unsettling atmosphere. In Sydney another crucial theme of the film comes to the surface, namely an extreme clash in cultures. In one of the greatest roles of his career, Richard Chamberlain depicts lawyer David Burton, defending five aboriginals accused of murdering one of their own. Whilst getting more and more persuaded they are forming a traditional tribe within the city, Burton sees one of the aboriginal in his dreams and suffers from increasingly apocalyptic premonitions. It's almost as if our white liberal lawyer is spiritually connected to the aboriginal deity Mulkurul; - but the rebirth of Mulkurul goes hand in hand with the Armageddon!

    "The Last Wave" doesn't necessarily has the most plausible script, and is quite honestly a hodgepodge of loose ideas, but Peter Weir is such a fantastic storyteller, and he makes such excellent use of locations, set-pieces, music and the rich Australian culture/history. Notably the extended sequences guided by constant didgeridoo tunes are sending shivers down the spine, and some of Burton's visions are also very depressing. The final, say, 10-15 minutes are a bit disappointing in my humble opinion, but nevertheless a recommendable Aussie cult film.

    More like this

    Capital City
    8.3
    Capital City
    The South Bank Show
    7.1
    The South Bank Show
    The Plumber
    6.5
    The Plumber
    The Winds of War
    8.1
    The Winds of War
    Picnic at Hanging Rock
    7.4
    Picnic at Hanging Rock
    Walkabout
    7.6
    Walkabout
    Centennial
    8.3
    Centennial
    Sweet William
    5.4
    Sweet William
    The Cars That Ate Paris
    5.6
    The Cars That Ate Paris
    The Best of Friends
    7.4
    The Best of Friends
    The Last Wave
    The Last Wave
    Heart, Head and Hand
    5.3
    Heart, Head and Hand

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Director Peter Weir asked tribal Aboriginal actors David Gulpilil and Nandjiwarra Amagula about the script and incorporated their reactions to the finished dialogue.
    • Goofs
      When Chamberlin's character leaves his office and drives in the rain the windshield wipers are moving at a fast rate. When the shot changes to inside the car the wipers are suddenly moving at a slower rate.
    • Quotes

      Chris Lee: Dream is a shadow ... of something real.

    • Connections
      Featured in Sneak Previews: The North Avenue Irregulars/The Last Wave/Agatha/Norma Rae/Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1979)

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ18

    • How long is The Last Wave?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 18, 1979 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • Australia
    • Official site
      • Criterion Collection
    • Languages
      • English
      • Italian
      • Aboriginal
    • Also known as
      • La última ola
    • Filming locations
      • Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
    • Production companies
      • McElroy & McElroy
      • The South Australian Film Corporation
      • The Australian Film Commission
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • A$810,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $957
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $495
      • Dec 2, 2001
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,662
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 46 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Richard Chamberlain in The Last Wave (1977)
    Top Gap
    What is the Brazilian Portuguese language plot outline for The Last Wave (1977)?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Production art
    Photos
    These Stars Are on the Rise
    See the gallery
    Production art
    List
    Theatrical Releases You Can Watch at Home
    See the list
    Production art
    Photos
    LGBTQIA+ Stars to Watch
    See the gallery

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.