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
91 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

    Photos91

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 83
    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

    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.
    8jckruize

    Eerie thriller with unique Aussie slant.

    Peter Weir's first international success, THE LAST WAVE is an effective chiller with a fascinating back story based on Aboriginal myth. Richard Chamberlain is quite good as a defense lawyer whose life becomes increasingly unmoored from reality as he delves into a murder case involving Aboriginal tribal rivalries. David Gulpilil plays one of the suspects, who does his best to guide Chamberlain thru the realm of 'Dreamtime', an alternate reality/timeline central to native Australian history and tribal custom. Heavy on atmosphere, deliberately ambiguous in plotting, the film builds to an unsettling finale which is somewhat diminished by poor effects, probably due to budgetary limitations. Nevertheless an intriguing film whose overall impression of mystery and dread lurking just below the surface of what we perceive as 'reality' will stay with you.
    uds3

    Have lived alone in a cave on high ground, since the film's release!f

    "Pretentious" seems a popular word amongst reviewers of this thought-provoking film. HOW I wonder would "they" have made it, given the opportunity? I am saved from further contemplation along these lines by the fact that Peter Weir made it.....and rather well, I hasten to add.

    A worthy successor to PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK in as much as the viewer is left with his or her own interpretation of what they have just seen. Events occuring in an everyday environment but where the line between fantasy and reality is so blurred, no lens can be found to bring up a sharp focus. It is a disturbing film which highlights and pays homage to the Aboriginal dreamtime.

    Chamberlain, in one of his best roles (made even better when you reminisce about the celluloid embarrassments BELLS, KING SOLOMON'S MINES and NIGHT OF THE HUNTER) plays a hot-shot Australian attorney (complete with DR KILDARE accent) who is called upon to defend a small group of Tribal Aborigines on what appears to be an "open and shut case" murder charge. Initially he finds his clients anything but co-operative and seemingly disinterested by the threat of the white man's legal system. Aspects of the case begin to disturb him and he is drawn into a world of ancient beliefs, symbolic half-lives, a very dimension that causes him to question his own comfortable existence and purpose. Central to his dreams is one of the Defendants (brilliantly played by Australian actor David Gulpilil) who appears existentially, perhaps a disembodied spirit (?), holding out to him a sacred stone with ancient cabalistic markings. He learns that the aboriginal man who was killed was the victim of tribal law and that he must not, cannot, intervene.

    The nightmare spills over into real-time...black rain, (we have already witnessed hailstones crashing into a tiny outback school from cloudless skies!) water prophetically leaking through his roof and cascading down the stairs. Visions of a great flood. He becomes obssessed with seeking the truth, not only of what is going on around him, but who he is? The scene where he confronts the Head Tribal Elder in his inner city squat is totally chilling. The viewer's own close and comfortable existence is challenged and put up for re-evaluation here.

    Eventually and too late of course, he stumbles across the truth. But IS it? Has he been played for a fool? Has the audience? Much was made at the time of the film's release, that the final scenes were a total cop-out. I even thought as much myself at the opening night. Amazing what a almost a quarter of a century's personal development and insight can do for you. Like 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, this film needs to be seen at different stages of your life to appreciate what Peter Weir knew and was trying to say in 1977.
    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.
    9howard.schumann

    The man who saw too much

    Richard Chamberlain is David Burton, a tax lawyer living in Sydney, Australia who is drawn into a murder trial defending five Aboriginal men accused of murdering a fellow native in Peter Weir's apocalyptic 1977 thriller The Last Wave. Taking up where Picnic at Hanging Rock left off, the film goes deeper into exploring the unknown and, in the process, shows the gulf between two cultures who live side by side but lack understanding of each others culture and traditions. Weir shows how white society considers the native beliefs to be primitive superstitions and believes that since they are living in the cities and have been "domesticated", their tribal laws and culture no longer apply.

    From the start, Burton is drawn deeper and deeper into a strange web of visions and symbols where the line between real time and "dream time" evaporates. Water plays an important symbolic role in the film from the opening sequence in which a sudden thunder and hailstorm interrupts a peaceful school recess to Burton's discovery that his bathtub is overflowing and water is pouring down his steps. As violent and unusual weather continue with episodes of black rain and mud falling from the sky, the contrast between the facile scientific explanations of the phenomenon and the intuitive understanding of the natives is made clear. Burton and his wife Annie (Olivia Hamnet) study books about the Aborigines and learn about the role of dreams in the tribal traditions. When he invites one of his clients Chris Lee (David Gulpilil) to his home for dinner, he is disturbed to find that he is the subject of an inquiry by Chris and his friend Charlie (Nadjiwarra Amagula), an enigmatic Aborigine sorcerer involved with the defendants. As Burton's investigation continues, his clients make his work difficult by refusing to disclose the true events surrounding the murder.

    After Chris starts to appear in his dreams, Burton is convinced that the Aborigine was killed in a tribal ritual because "he saw too much", though Chris refuses to acknowledge this in court. Burton, becoming more and more troubled by a mystery he cannot unravel, says to his stepfather priest, "Why didn't you tell me there were mysteries?" This is a legitimate question but, according to the reverend, the Church answers all mysteries. Burton knows now that he must discover the truth for himself and enters the tribal underground caves. Though we do not know for certain what is real and what is a dream, he comes face to face with his deepest fears in a haunting climax that will leave you pondering its meaning into the wee hours of the morning.

    In this period of history in which native Hopi and Mayan prophecies predict the "end of history" and the purification of man leading to the Fifth World, The Last Wave, though 25 years old, is still timely. The Aborigines are portrayed as a vibrant culture, not one completely subjugated by the white man, yet I am troubled by the gnawing feeling that we are looking in but not quite seeing. Weir has opened our eyes to the mystery that lies beyond our consensual view of reality, but he perpetuates the doom-orientation that sees possibility only in terms of fear, showing nature as a dark and uncontrollable power without a hint of the spiritual beauty that lives on both sides of time.

    More like this

    Capital City
    8.2
    Capital City
    The South Bank Show
    7.1
    The South Bank Show
    Walkabout
    7.6
    Walkabout
    The Winds of War
    8.1
    The Winds of War
    The Cars That Ate Paris
    5.6
    The Cars That Ate Paris
    Picnic at Hanging Rock
    7.4
    Picnic at Hanging Rock
    Centennial
    8.3
    Centennial
    The Plumber
    6.5
    The Plumber
    Sweet William
    5.4
    Sweet William
    The Best of Friends
    7.4
    The Best of Friends
    Whatever Happened to Green Valley?
    5.7
    Whatever Happened to Green Valley?
    E:60
    7.2
    E:60

    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
    The Hottest Stars on IMDb
    See the gallery
    Production art
    Photos
    Streaming Stars, Then and Now
    See the gallery
    Production art
    Photos
    LGBTQIA+ Icons and Allies
    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.