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MFF Data: A Totally Unnecessary Look at How Much Damage King Orm’s Tidal Waves Caused in Aquaman

April 8, 2020

Quick note: This obsessive data analysis about a throwaway scene in Aquaman that is quickly forgotten, is not meant as a knock on Aquaman. I love that a scene involving trillions of dollars of property damage and billions of pounds of trash being dumped back on the world’s shores is like the 45th craziest thing in the movie.

Any movie featuring Dolph doing this is cool with me.

Aquaman is an insane film that features Dolph Lundgren riding a seahorse, casual destruction of wine shops, anti-climatic final fights, and a gigantic creature killing the absolute ever-living sh*t out of unsuspecting crab monsters. It’s a bombastic spectacle that made enough money to sink a boat ($1.1 billion) and has a respectable 65% Tomatometer score.

It’s almost been two years since I watched Aquaman for the first time, and I still can’t shake how I felt during a three-minute scene in which the villainous King Orm (Patrick Wilson) sends land-dwellers a warning shot by unleashing massive waves that send billions of pounds of trash, hundreds (or thousands) of the earth’s warships, and countless thousands of boats back onto the shores. It’s a doozy of a warning shot (and a great trailer moment) that undoubtedly killed thousands, destroyed hundreds of miles of natural habits (how many turtle eggs were destroyed?), and did far more damage than anything that happens in Man of Steel (fun podcast episode about the final fight here), or The Avengers. Also, I’m pretty sure it made Dwayne Johnson jealous that San Andreas only caused around $10 trillion in damage.

Why has it been on my mind for so long? I think it’s because nobody on the planet seemed to care or remember the insane moment of destruction. Which makes sense, considering that like 10 minutes after the killer waves we see a gigantic octopus playing gigantic drums.

So cool.

Take a look at the clip below, and you’ll understand just how much decimation is caused by Orm’s wave.

So much damage.

In the film, the news reports say that the ENTIRE Atlantic coast is hit by gigantic waves. Here’s a map for reference.

Here’s a collage of the aftermath of the wave. Since these waves happened in North America, South America and Europe, I’m assuming no area of the coast was safe from the waves and floods.

I’ll never be able to correctly guess the amount of damage (I wish I could), however, it’s safe to assume the waves caused trillions of dollars of damage. The following data backs up my assumption and proves that a scene that nobody remembers was incredibly deadly (and somehow totally forgettable) .

  • I’m assuming all the waves are similar to what hit Aquaman and his dad.
  • I don’t think the waves are sophisticated enough to pick and choose which boats got wrecked. That would be bonkers……or, it would be really on brand for Aquaman.
  • I found a visualization of all the ships (tankers, cruises, shipping boats, fishing boats) in the ocean right now. I think many of the ships became collateral damage which would add a lot to the destruction total considering cruise ships can cost $555 million.
Many of the boats in the Atlantic would be destroyed.

Conclusion – I’m hoping that all of this research showcases just how much damage was done after the insanely damaging warning shot. All of it is totally unnecessary, however, I learned a lot while researching this data, so I’ll take it as a win. In the end, Aquaman is an insane movie that can inflict trillions of dollars in property damage, and then quickly forget about it, that makes me happy.

If you like this random data, make sure to check out my other data posts! Also, check out the Movies, Films and Flix podcast, we just started a new series called Final Fights, it’s about epic final fights in movies. Listen wherever you listen to podcasts.

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5 Comments leave one →
  1. April 9, 2020 4:06 am

    Great “unnecessary look” that had me laughing just at the sheer detail you go in at! I like Aquaman and its ability to take some crazy source material and just roll with it! However, I definitely feel like it was a throwaway movie, which I only gave extra credit for it not completely sucking! DC have failed time and time again to transcend the genre, something that Marvel has done consistently. I have my fingers crossed for the upcoming The Batman, but I need to see something more than generic plots, over the top destruction and one dimensional characters…

    • April 9, 2020 7:17 am

      I’m really happy it gave you a good laugh! I made sure to add way too much research to add to the absurdity of it. I had a good time pulling all the data.

  2. April 9, 2020 11:58 am

    That is awesome! I was sitting there watching that movie wondering how much damage it was doing, trying to tally it up in my head. Well, I wasn’t really doing that, but this is still awesome information to have, just in case anyone ask me.


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