The first disaster movie made in Norway and Scandinavia.
Such a disaster has in fact happened in Tafjorden, another side arm of Storfjorden, north of Geirangerfjord. On April 7, 1934 a huge chunk of mountain broke off, fell 700m into the fjord and created a 62m high tsunami which swept away two villages, killing dozens.
Norway has about 5 mill. inhabitants and Bølgen (2015) sold 832,649 admissions, therefore about every 6th Norwegian saw it in a cinema.
Sold over 141.000 tickets in Norway on the first weekend of release, the 3rd best result ever for a Norwegian film.[2015]
The film's basic premise is not fictional. The mountain is in constant motion and will fall, sooner or later. Director Roar Uthaug: "This will actually happen there one day. There is this crack in the mountainside out in the fjord, and it keeps expanding each year and at some point it will cause a huge rockslide into the fjord and they will have 10 minutes before the wave reaches Geiranger. So we wanted to stay true to the facts - to what geologists think will be the facts one day." [2016]