Is ‘Thrash’ on Netflix based on a true story?
Think a Category 5 hurricane is scary? Try adding a pack of hungry sharks to the mix and forget the usual storm prep because Thrash on Netflix has officially rewritten the survival manual.
The shark-infested thriller, currently trending at number one, takes the anxiety of survival to a terrifying new level, proving that drowning is the least of your problems when you’re just a wave away from becoming a dinner yourself.
While Thrash has certainly intrigued netizens, the movie has simultaneously gripped them with fear about whether it has true roots. Well, for those curious, the survival thriller is not based on a true story.
Firstly, there hasn’t been a real Category 5 hurricane called Hurricane Henry. Secondly, the shark attacks portrayed in Thrash are as fictional as the town of Annieville.
Thrash opens with a text acknowledging, “Since 1980, the intensity, frequency, and duration of Atlantic Hurricanes have increased 250%. While wind and rainfall pose serious dangers, the most deadly threat is posed by the storm surge….” Although there’s some truth to the claim about the spike in these metrics during the mentioned time period, and that the storm surge is especially dangerous, according to Radio Times, there’s no such precise figure to back up the 250% estimate.
Thrash also hints that the storm plaguing the town is so powerful that it must be categorised as a Category 6 hurricane. However, no such classification exists yet, Category 5 being the highest on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.
Having said that, climate scientist Chris Gloninger and National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Merchant served as consultants on Thrash to ensure a degree of accuracy. In a conversation with Tudum, Gloninger said, “The argument has been made that there should be a Category 6 added to that scale because the Category 5 storm is open-ended, and the wind damage relationship… goes up exponentially.”
Producer Adam McKay, on the other hand, wanted the Netflix thriller to be backed up by real-world relevance, particularly hoping it would come across as a disaster movie about the horrifying impacts of climate change. “What seemed like a heightened premise when Tommy (Wirkola) pitched it to us has now become much more of a reality,” he said.
“You saw down in Australia, they had torrential, historic, climate-fuelled floods, and the floods kicked a bunch of dirty water into the ocean. Bull sharks love dirty water to hunt. So they had four shark attacks in a 48-hour period because of the turgid water,” he explained.
Therefore, while Thrash has fictional roots, what we believe to be completely improbable may not be so.